Alisdair

First things first: how do you thread your needle? I'm assuming you double back and push the needle twice through the thread, so it doesn't unravel. I leave a couple of inches between the eye of the needle and the knot, rather than putting the knot just behind the eye of the needle: this couple of inches of doubled thread usually picks up all the gunk and leaves the hole clean for the single thread which comes after it. Secondly, I don't like using wax, which picks up more gunk: I use coad (a mixture of pine resin and beeswax).

Punching into endgrain is definitely the best. I have a 80cm-long section of tree trunk that I stand upright between my knees, so I'm punching into the endgrain. Works like a charm.

Perhaps use the loop that's visible on the inside of the corner as a "hole" to double up your cover over the corner.

If you want a ready to use blade, you can't go wrong with a Barry King or Leder Louis. I have both, and they're excellent. I also have the Vergez Blanchard - it's an excellent tool, but you'll have to do your finishing. If you're on a budget, I'd get this one....leaning n how to sharpen, finish and maintain your blades is an essential skill: even the most expensive blades will get blunt at one point.

Lust, lust , lust!

Hi Christina, I order my leather fromhttps://buyleatheronline.com/en/ ...they're in Italy. Their thick veg tan shoulders and butts are good. Their bellies are pretty good value, but you will get the odd piece that isn't perfect. I like their pig skin, too.

...nice! I got them to do a custom very thin 1.4mm awl for some of my finer stitching. It works like a charm, but I'm always afraid to break it, as it starts to get a bit bendy below 1.8 mm.

One material that can be really nice to use is old bicycle inner tubes - those likely to be upset by the use of leather will probably find the recycling/upcycling aspect cool.

He applies what seems to be mink oil initially. Then, at the 12.30 mark, it's a sheepskin (or similar) buffing wheel pad. And then around 13.40, what looks like a felt buffing pad. The fact that the edges are darker is ue to the fact that the mink oil(or whatever it is) seeps in more at the edges (more holes and porosity).

Bienvenue, MaryHann! Je me réjouis de voir ta production. De mon côté, je vis en suisse, et je suis 1/2 français et 1/2 écossais au niveau de mes origines. Il y a plein dinfos utiles à trouver dans ce forum, et beaucoup d'inspiration au niveau des projets... Bon vent à toi (puisque t'es bretonne!).

That's awesome, thanks! Now I "just" need to find the skills to reproduce some of these on leather! Any of you willing to show your work?

Bought the plough gauge from them...works like a charm

There's a little cap on top that can be unscrewed, so as to store different sized tips inside the tool. Quite useful if you have several tips (I have 1 mm and 2 mm) Dunno if the versa groover does that. Apart from that, they're pretty much identical.

I bought a crimson groover...it's an absolute beauty! https://crimsonhides.com/products/crimson-groover

So, I find this key at the bottom of a drawer at work, and my mind gets to work.... At home I ground it down, and I now have a very nifty beveller with excellent control. Behold the magnificent beast:

I've seen people make very nice watch straps out of old leather "bomber" jackets.

I might have to put some neetsfoot on the inside to darken it.

I recently got a request for the green version of the sporran I made here: This is unusual: I'm not sure I've ever sen a green sporran before, but here it is:

A very honourable start...well done!

Great stuff...I need to make one of these!

This is so cool! I've done a few bike seats in my time, too.

As a person who does leatherwork as a hobby and sells a few pieces here and there, here's my take on things. Either you give away your stuff because you love what you do and it's primarily a form of entertainment, or you charge an honest price for it. Anything in between devalues your work and that of other serious leatherworkers. When I have someone asking me to do custom work, I often tell them: "this will take me x hours to do" before even announcing a price. That way, any price named thereafter will be convertible in the mind of the customer into an hourly rate. Of course, we have other overhead (material, equipment, etc.), but it's tactically a good starting point in preparing your customer, from a psychological viewpoint! So, when selling, first things first, you need an estimate of the number of hours that you will need to make it. Then work out what the minimum hourly rate you'd be comfortable with. This, plus the cost of materials is the absolute bare minimum that you shouldn't go below. Sometimes, I have friends who want to pay for something that I'm happy to make for them, but I'm conscious that they just can't afford an honest price. I'd rather gift them the piece than be underpaid for it.

15 bucks here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LeatherStampsTools?ref=notif_nfyfs&order=date_desc ...and I can vouch for their quality.

I have kids and a cat...gotta keep knives out of reach...but yeah, I do also prefer keeping all elements in one place, too.

I recently picked up an old Irish half-penny in the box of coins the kids play with at home. I love this design: it was adapted from the Collectio canonum Hibernensis by the Irish artist Gabriel Hayes. Collectio canonum Hibernensis is thought to have been compiled by two Irish scholars working in the late 7th or 8th century, Cú Chuimne of Iona (died 747) and Ruben of Dairinis (died 725). Anyhow, I liked the design and tooled it into vegetable tanned leather. I'm not sure what I'll do with this...perhaps a notebook cover.