Spyros

I don't know what Hermes actually uses, and it probably varies from product to product. But I know a couple of guys who go for that Hermes look in their bags and they use 0.4 to 0.5mm linen thread, typically fil au chinois. That is 138 to 207 in machine thread size.

Today that's just another aesthetic, people simply take it, or leave it. It's definitely still alive in anything that tries to look like Hermes, but there's many other mainstream styles out there, especially in everyday casual items.

To be honest with you instead of dealing with measurements and worrying which thing fits what, I found it much easier (and cheaper) to grab an off-brand hand press from Etsy and a big bag with every single die they had available. I think it came from Turkey, very nice guys. They are not the best quality, the machining is not super accurate or super smooth, but honestly man, it doesn't need to be. So now I have about 40 top and 40 bottom dies, and when I get some new hardware it's just a question of searching which one fits. It always fits something. And when I find it I just drop it in the container with the specific hardware it fits so I don't have to search again. Keep in mind, benchtop hand presses sound like a much better idea than they actually are, for the simple reason that half the projects you'll want to use it with will simply not fit in under it, especially when you're making bags. To solve this, I still use the dies but not the hand press so much, and whichever press you end up buying you might want to consider doing the same: what I did is I made a shallow hole on my bench with a forstner bit that is exactly the diameter of the bottom die, and I drop the bottom die in there instead of on the press. Now for the top dies, those are supposed to be screwed on on the press. So I made a thread with a tap at the end of a small steel rod, and I screw the top dies in there, and when I want to set some hardware I simply hit it from the other end with a mallet. It's like having 40 different steel setters. And that way I can set a snap right in the middle of whole hide if I need to. Now it's true that some hardware tends to set better with pressure rather than hitting them, and that's really the only times that I use the actual hand press. But most of the time I just use the dies on the bench instead of the press.

Thanks mate How is ordering from Rocky Mountain? Shipping times and cost wise? I order from Buckleguy regularly, and I'd like to try other ones but not if the shipping experience is terrible.

Ιf you make it again it might benefit from a bit of reinforcement to give the main panel some stiffness, but I love the colour combination, very elegant. Is the goat leather locally sourced or imported? I don't really have an opinion on paints, in my mind trying to balance a liquid on the edge of leather is an exercise for circus seals, robots, masochists, neurosurgeons and other people with much better dexterity and patience than me LOL Having said that, a guy I know who makes Hermes style bags with exotic leathers and generally great results swears by the Uniters brand.

Why wouldn't they? The vast majority of hand stitched items out there are done with the equivalent of 277/346/415 thread, and I've never heard anyone complaining that it looks too thick. Things do come apart at the seams, if I can use a stronger thread I don't see why I wouldn't. We've kind of accepted that it's visually not ok to have a fatter seam on a bag for example, but it is visually ok to have 2 thinner seams side by side for extra strength, which is kind of absurd to me.

Which is why I make and use handmade wallets I don't just accept whatever "top quality" companies do. They have their own reasons for making things the way they do, and maybe the longevity and durability of their product is not necessarily in their goals. They're trying to sell.

It is indeed beautiful! And apart from all the obvious impressive things about, I'm also impressed with how pristine and clean the lining came out. Whenever I dare line anything with natural leather, in the end there will always be at least one smudge from something, somewhere.

I put it down hard enough to leave a slight impression, then lift it to see if the impression looks right, then put it down again exactly on the impression and make small positioning adjustments if needs be. I find the thing that throws my aim is directional light and resulting shadows, so I make sure to punch on my other bench that has even, diffused light.

Sure, but the breakage in real life doesn't really happen from pulling, nobody pulls a bag apart, it happens from friction with external objects usually around the bottom. That's where thickness makes a difference. Besides those fashion bags are not trying to be tough, they're about other things.

And if you think about it, this is the main reason why hand stitching is stronger. People try to explain to customers with pictures and diagrams why saddle stitching is stronger, because if one thread goes you still have the other one blah blah, when really the elephant in the room is that the average hand stitched item is done with thread that is double the thickness of a similar machine stitched item. People who machine stitch always try to go thinner because they can use smaller and cheaper machines, the bobbin lasts longer, the thread is cheaper per metre, the stitch length is shorter which makes things easier, and so on. And people who hand stitch go thicker because a) they wanna show off their handstitching, and b) because below a certain thickness of thread you can't really see what you're doing.

"Handmade" in peoples' minds is really just a code word for quality, don't take it too literally and try to trace back how many machines were involved. When people see something stamped as "handmade" they expect the care, attention to detail, and ownership of the final product of a single artisan. They want to know him and what his brand or mark stands for, they want to know if something is wrong he wouldn't hesitate to start over until he can sell you something he's proud of. Nobody cares if he used an electric skiver or not. Besides, the leatherworkers definition of "handmade", which means basically no electric machines is wrong anyway. A machine is still a machine even if it's not electric, so technically we shouldn't even use a hand press or a benchtop belt skiver or anything like that. And what's the point of that? Where does it stop being meaningful and starts being pure masochism?

I have the Asian knock off too, it looks almost exactly like the Tandy one except it's white and half the price. It works just fine for me, it's pretty accurate and reliable actually, and it holds the settings very well. It's a pain to sharpen though because it has a secondary bevel and the blade is too big for my sharpening stone, so I have to glue some sandpaper on a flat stone or glass to do it properly. But this is probably the case with all of them.

I've had this for a couple of years now, I use it every day and it just works. https://www.amazon.com/WUTA-Leather-Cutting-Sharping-Skiving/dp/B07T3ZL9JD Only thing wrong about it is the tang got a bit loose overtime coz I'm a bit heavy-handed with it, But I drilled and put a bit of rod through it and fresh epoxy and it's not going anywhere. For woodworkers like the OP and me these are every day operations, it's nothing. This particular knife is high speed steel, same stuff drill bits are made out of, but quality D2 or O1 tool steel is extremely cheap and hardening it is easy, there is no reason a $20 mass produced knife wouldn't have it, and it does have it. Drill bits are designed to stay sharp for a reasonable time after cutting through other steel, I never had any doubt it would be fine cutting through leather. And it is. After that point you're paying for handle decorations like fancy polished timber and brass bolster, and you're paying for the initial sharpening before they ship it to you. I don't care about decorations, this is a working knife for me, and I'm certainly not gonna pay someone to sharpen my knife. Especially not this knife which has such a huge bevel that it's really easy to hold flat against a stone. I have paid someone to sharpen scissors for me though, scissors are a PITB to sharpen properly. If you don't know anything about tool steel and you don't trust yourself to make minor improvements on your tools, for sure go ahead and buy an expensive knife. I'm ok, I'd rather spend my money on quality leather.

I think it's fair for a merchant to try and get rid of a poor leather, as long as they set the price low enough. Someone will buy and put it to good use, because "bad" leather still has its uses. A lady's fashion bag for example or a toiletry bag is typically light as a feather, the strap doesn't need to be great and strong, it just needs to match a design/colour/aesthetic.

My advice is, don't make something and then try to figure out what it cost you and come up with a price. That's a recipe for disaster. Do it the opposite way: Start from finding the price that people are actually paying for something, in a specific market that you can enter. When you find that price, work backwards and see if you can make that thing for significantly less than that price, and only then consider actually making it. Make a prototype, try to guess how much it would cost to make it again and again. And if the numbers still work, make and sell it for the price you found at the start. Maybe a little lower at the start, as you're trying to break into the market, and then gently grow your prices as you're building up your name recognition.

This is my understanding on prices (based on 20 years of setting prices for a living): It's a misunderstanding that you set your price. Maybe you think you do, but you don't, your market sets the price and there's nothing you can do to change it, all you're trying to do is guess what it is and put it on the sticker. If you guess wrong and put it too high you lose the sale, if you put it too low you're leaving money on the table. When you're doing your material cost + labour calculations, that calculation is irrelevant, and if you ever get the price right it is merely a coincidence. You are turning a toy plastic wheel on your child's car seat, sometimes the car turns the way you turn, and sometimes it doesn't. What I'm saying is: if you don't like the price the market is setting for your product, there's nothing you can do about it but change the product or the market, you can't change the price. People go to etsy expecting to pay a certain amount, because they're shopping at etsy. If they go to Madison Avenue in NY they expect to pay something else because it's Madison Avenue, it's a different market. If you can't make a profit at etsy prices, don't be the random etsy guy, be the lone artisan who makes a limited number of high quality items for select connoisseurs. I mean I just paid USD$800 to a guy like that for a pair of hand made boots. Is it easy to be that guy? No it's not, it takes years, but it's doable.

I mean any little japanese skiving knife will do the trick, and it doesn't need to be expensive at all. The difference you get in the expensive ones are pretty much just the cocobolo handle (LOL, make your own), some other decorative BS like brass rivets, and the fact that they come pre-sharpened, but as a woodworker you know how to sharpen quickly so it's not an issue at all. Remember leather is soft, you don't have to sharpen anywhere near as often or as deep as you do with woodworking chisels and planes. 9 times out of 10 all your knife will need is a strop (and of course you can now make a very pretty strop for yourself (This is one I made for a chef recently) The angle on a skiving knife edge is only 15 degrees. There is no "right" taper, but sometimes you are trying to divide a 1mm leather into 0.5mm and 0.5mm, so the knife has to have such a sharp angle. Because leather is very soft, you will rarely find secondary bevels in leatherworking tools, they're just all straight up single bevel with a sharp angle. The only exception is probably those benchtop skiving blades, they typically get a bunch of belts put through them and they'd get dull pretty quickly without a secondary bevel. I wouldn't bother trying to make your own KS blade type irons and chisels, it's just too much fuss. Get something cheaper with polished teeth and off you go, better to spend your time doing actual leatherworking

To be honest whenever I step outside the safe haven of Buckleguy, I regret it and come back running LOL It's not just the quality or the variety, it's that most other websites just don't have accurate descriptions so I can understand exactly what I'm buying, you know what I mean? For example that Laederiet website (which looks really nice by the way, nothing against them) it says buckle "size 35", and that leaves me wondering what is 35, is it the width or the length of the buckle? Or is it the width of the leather strap that fits it? and is it actually cm/mm/inches, or just a "size" number and not an actual dimension? Buckleguy always puts a ruler next to the photo so you don't have to sit there scratching your head. Then it's all the other things that you only learn after you buy, like how long it takes them to ship, do they actually have stock or are they waiting for someone to place an order so they can place their order and you end up waiting a month, etc. You probably resolve all those questions after the first time you buy, but I just hate going through the process every time I discover a new website...

Sorry, not to derail the discussion (I agree with Wizcraft's recommendation, if that cyclinder arm looks long enough for your projects) My question was, did you make shoes without machines? Is that possible?

Yeah look I'll tell you my opinion again but keep in mind it's just one guy's opinion (and not very popular). About hand tools, I don't think you should pay for expensive ones. First of all you're a woodworker, if you have a bandsaw and even the most basic lathe you can easily make most your tools, and they will probably be better than the expensive "big name" ones. Remember "the internet" gets easily impressed by tools with pretty wood because they are not woodworkers and they don't realise how simple they are. Leatherworking tools are pretty basic as far as woodworking goes, I've made my own stitching ponies, saddler's clam, mawls and more, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. I even put a pattern and instructions on this thread. Now, unless you're also a knife maker, you can't really make your own blades, but here's my unpopular opinion: you don't need leatherworking blades. I can't really think of a common cut you can't make with a combination of utility and X-acto knives, which also give you the benefit of never having to sharpen anything. Those leatherworking knives are great, they absolutely work, and they're pretty, but remember they were invented at a time and place when disposable blades did not exist. If they did exist maybe they wouldn't be invented at all, we don't know. But cutting leather is all personal preferences anyway, try various things and decide for yourself, people regularly cut leather with anything you can imagine. You'll definitely need to buy all sorts of punches and little metal tools like skivers etc. My two favourite shops are Kevin Lee tools and Kemovan craft. They are small businesses in China so you'll have to wait a little to receive, but they are true craftsmen and I recommend them both. About buying from faraway places, remember that craftspeople have been ordering the good stuff from the farthest corners of the planet since Marco Polo was riding the silk road to China and probably long before that, so don't be afraid to honour that ancient tradition. When those ancient merchants were coming back with exotic textiles and materials who do you think was buying them? People like you and me Generally my opinion about hand tools is: keep it simple and cheap, make as many as you can, and save your money for machines. When you get to the point where you're considering a sewing machine or an electric skiver or a clicker press, these things are not cheap, and you really get what you paid for. Maybe spend some extra cash on polished stitching chisels, if they're not polished they really stick in the leather and you can't pull them out easily. But for everything else, just don't get the absolute cheapest and it will likely be just fine. About stitching, I think you will not regret paying some money to one of those online teachers. I paid an English fellow called Phillip Jury and never regretted it, I probably saved that money back just from his tools & consumables buying advice. But keep in mind a couple of things about stitching (again my unpopular opinion) that I've learned the hard way: Real people don't actually care so much. Actual users of whatever it is you're making are not leatherworkers, they just want to see consistency and stitches lined up properly on a straight line, they don't really care if the stitches are slanted or not. This holy grail of achieving a slanted stitch is only really a holy grail among some leatherworkers (not even all of them), but nobody else really cares. In fact when you learn how to do both, show a few random people a slanted stitch and a straight stitch side by side and ask them which one they consider more visually pleasing, and you might be surprised by the result. It's the same thing as dovetails Vs box joints in woodworking, dovetails is really something we do because we like it and we want to, and maybe to impress our woodworking friends, not because the user will necessarily appreciate it. The reason I mention this is because all those stitching videos are always done in perfect conditions with a small piece of leather nicely mounted on a clam. What the videos don't tell you is that in real life when you're trying to stitch in some awkward spot with the holes facing the wrong way or on the gusset or (God forbid) the interior of a massive bag you'll find you really need 3 or 4 hands to do it "properly" LOL In real life you're probably better served by not using a pony or clam at all, which is the video below, and it produces a pretty slanted stitch in the front but a bit boring in the back: The other thing which is probably a misconception, is this opinion that you can only achieve slanted (pretty) stitches if you do it by hand. That's absolutely not true, this is what the stitches from my leather sewing machine look like: Any sewing machine can do that, all it needs is an "LR" type needle, which is what mine came with by default. So like I said, it is worth knowing how to do as many things as you can learn. And then once your bag of tricks is full, you can pick and choose which trick to use as you feel appropriate. Just remember, same as in woodworking, there are many ways to skin a cat. And sometimes actual real world customers might actually prefer their cat not skinned at all

As another woodworker, I would say enjoy the fact that you can make something on your kitchen table without dust, noise, or being permanently alert to the risk of losing a finger to some spinning blade. I found it very refreshing when I started Material cost will go up quickly as you move on from scraps, but you're not wrong that the work you put in will always be worth a lot more than the material. My advice is don't be afraid to buy the absolute best leather you desire for your projects, straight from the start. Just buy a little bit, find a place that sells panels instead of sides. To keep the cost of learning errors down, keep your first projects small instead of keeping the material cheap. Making things like watch straps and key fobs will teach you all the skills you need for making big projects later, they are exactly the same, just bigger. It is important to know what is the leather you bought, because different leathers behave differently and require different designs and different processing methods, so you may as will start learning the ones you will ultimately be using. Just my 2c, when you're done with those scraps, buy a little bit of expensive leather and make small things with it.

It's basically like the plumber, you call him in and if he doesn't like the job and doesn't want to do it he gives you an exorbitant price. These guys don't want to ship overseas, ok we got it, next shop please.

Not sure, I never specifically request insurance, unless it's included by default.

As you can see from the surroundings this is clearly used in middle earth to hunt little Hobbit Elk (great bag btw)