Spyros

what brand is that?

Thanks Mike Geez it sounds like something I'll reserve for something special or if someone specifically requests it. I don't think I have the patience to do it very often.

I'm not talking about leather dye or coloured Tokonole or any other way of coating an edge. I'm talking about edge paint like Giardini, Fenice or similar. The way I understand it, edge paint needs to go on thick, which means multiple coats with drying time in between. And it has to dry completely because you probably need to sand lightly between coats. Edge paint is however fairly thin and runny, so you can't very well do all edges and then put your work it flat on a table and wait for it to dry, the paint will drip over the edge. It seems to me you have to do one edge, let it stand vertical somehow until it's dry, do the next edge, let it dry, until you've finished all edges, then sand, and repeat the whole process for the next coat. That sounds like many hours, maybe more than a day just to finish edge painting. Am I missing something? Is there a faster way? Would a heat gun help dry faster or it would destroy it completely?

One of the main reasons I much prefer leatherworking these days. Woodworking is dangerous, there's just no way around it. And losing fingers is only one of the worries, most health organisations have upgraded the risk of breathing dust particles as one of the top health risks following latest research. If you really look into it, and start measuring the invisible (but breathable) flying dust in your workshop, sooner or later you realise that unless you invest thousands of dollars and a lot of research time and workshop space on industrial type 3HP dust extraction with finetuned piping systems, machine ports and shrouds, you shouldn't really be doing any serious woodworking. People get asthma or lose their sense of smell every day, or worse, and they don't even make the connection in their minds. Especially Australian native timbers are particularly toxic. Never mind the noise, the constant sharpening, the huge space you need for machines, the cost... Screw woodworking LOL There is of course the option of traditional woodworking, just do everything manually, no machines. Nice wood shavings instead of dust. Beautiful, elegant hand tools. Very little noise. It's all so pretty and satisfying, until you realise it takes a month to make a friggin table

These wheels are popular with woodworkers. In my experience as a woodworker and leatherworker there is a difference in sharpening. Working with wood will really blunt a tool quickly, you have to grind down often to get an edge again (before you even start sharpening that edge). We're talking things like chisels you pound on with a mallet and plane irons you push against hardwoods with both hands. These tools need a lot of sharpening very frequently, practically every day or even multiple times a day depending how much they are used. And I am talking about sharpening, ie the whole process with multiple grits, not just stropping. Leather is very soft compared to wood, it takes a lot to blunt a tool. If you strop for a few seconds before every use you might not have to actually sharpen for weeks or months, or even never if you get good with your stropping. Eventually you'll have to really sharpen something but that's pretty infrequent. In my experience a stone is perfectly adequate for that. Sharpening wheels and systems are really for ease of use for people who need to sharpen every day, they just get the job done faster. But for leatherworking (in my opinion) it's probably not worth investing the time, money, and bench space. And that's from someone who owns multiple sharpening systems, when I only do leatherworking I don't even use them. I just strop frequently and then every couple of weeks I finetune my most used knives on the stone.

Only tried this style clamp once, it felt like trying to stitch while wrestling a crocodile LOL Other people love them though so I guess it's one of those things you have to try before you buy (or make).

Very nice! I'm still undecided if I should add a base or not on mine, for the time being I kinda like it that I can tilt it in any direction between my knees, and it stands up on it's own anyway. The timber on mine is literally the cheapest I could find, a $20 "mixed hardwood" sleeper from Bunnings. It's kind of a secret between woodworkers in Australia, if the "mixed hardwood" is cypress it's usually really pretty inside, some guys have built whole decks out of old fence posts and garden sleepers. Tassie oak is about 30 times more expensive, and pretty boring visually. I know I'm taking some chances with the wood, it has a couple of hairline cracks and it's not kiln dried obviously. Long term it might end up developing a twist or a bow as it dries and I may or may not be able to adjust it. But I've been lucky before and it's a quick project anyway, worse case I'll lust make another one.

Also, IMO don't worry about "recommended", there's really no such thing. Make the tool that suits you.

I've made a couple of those smaller ones to be honest in the end they just don't work for me, unless I'm making something really small like a wallet. The problem is the depth of the opening, like if I want to put a bag in there it just doesn't fit. I've also tried a traditional clam design and that doesn't work for me either, I just can't get comfortable with that thing. So last weekend I went ahead and I made this giant clothes peg LOL That works. Fast opening/closing action, very comfortable height (for me anyway), and it fits pretty much anything. And easy to make if you have a decent bandsaw. Definitely keep the one you're making, it will get used, but I think sooner or later you'll also want something bigger.

My whole bench is dressed with half inch HDPE (in white so I can see what I'm doing. Black sounded like a good a idea but black leather disappears in it). Never had any issues with HDPE, KS blades and punches going strong after a couple of years. I did nearly destroy a nice round punch from Kevin Lee because I forgot I was on the anvil I did save it in the end but it took a lot of work turning it on the drill press and reshaping it with files and sandpaper.

Nice Get yourself some original Dremel bits. The ones that come with those cheaper tools will still do the job, but find the ones that you use the most or are most important for what you do and get Dremel branded ones. Bunnies has them.

why don't you just grab an ozito from bunnies?

Half my tools are made in my back yard :D There's a lot of appetite for locally made tools in the market, people would buy them, but no one seems interested to make them. The bottom line is if you're in Australia and want to invest in something there are easier ways to make money. Manufacturing is hard and low margin.

I have a similar one from a brand called "OZITO", which is short for "Aussie tools". The brand started its life as tools made in Australia for the Australian market, then eventually got sold, and they kept the brand name but it's now all cheap tools made in China and imported to Australia, and you can only find them in a big box store. They are pretty much the cheapest electric tools you can buy in Australia. But, they are honest about it, in fact it's the only tools I've seen that have a big red tab hanging from the cable that says "FOR DIY USE ONLY". They're just not built for tradespeople throwing them around and stepping on them in job sites. But you know what? if you use them with care every now and then in a normal workshop environment they get the job done and they last forever and a day. I have OZITO angle grinder , jig saw, heat gun, leaf blower, belt sander, and this little rotary tool that I use for burnishing leather and widening holes, and they've all been working perfectly fine for years and years. I don't see any reason to buy expensive tools for light jobs. The tools that I use heavily every day is a different story.

Υeah it's probably about as Chinese as Milwaukee tools, you can't make all that in the west and sell it for 49 australian dollars. But it's not about where it's made, it's about how it's made. Go to Kevin lee or Kemovan in China and they will make you some high quality tools (and charge you accordingly).

Diggin up this old thread. I ordered a couple of those, sometimes on the sides of bags and gussets it's easier to make the holes as a last step, and I can't easily reach with normal chisels. Also sometimes with multiple layers I struggle to come out the other side completely vertically, I'm thinking this might help as I can check where I am on both sides before going through. The also happen to match the shape and size of some other chisels I have so I can use them only in those areas that they're needed and the overall stitching will look consistent. I got them from leathermob in Hong Kong (Etsy). I looks like prices have gone up lately though.

I think all those videos and instructions should come with a fair warning that this craft is not for everybody because it requires above average dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Making things look easy is great for making popular videos, but it's kind of misleading in my opinion and will inevitably lead to frustration. Sooner or later the person watching the videos will be required to cut something freehand, or make paint stand on a 1mm edge without spilling over, or skive something which is already very thin, or make multiple holes on something very thick while making sure they come out the other end exactly aligned, or sharpen a tiny awl blade without turning the awl into a dart, etc etc. Regardless of machines and tools and jigs and techniques that make those and other tasks easier, I think it's fair to expect from a crafts person to be better with their hands and their eyes than most people. I also think tools cost is nothing compared to labour cost, when you realise what you have to pay to provide a fair hourly salary to the person doing the work (whether it's yourself or someone else). Especially if you're in a western country. In that respect leatherworking is absolutely extremely expensive, because it takes time. We just tend to not value our own time high enough, because deep down we love what we're doing and enjoying every minute of it, and so we think it's kind of cheating to ask to get paid for it the same as someone slaving away in a job they hate. But that doesn't mean that the cost of doing leather working got reduced, it just means we're getting poorer and poorer the more leatherworking we do.

It can be. If you want to follow the English tradition of fine leathercrafting, you have to skive pretty much everything that can be skived, it's basically a competition in thin-ness LOL I've seen guys skiving zippers, no joke. And then edge paint multiple coats on every edge, leaving hours to dry between coats, put a hot crease on anything that can be creased, buff anything that can be buffed, line anything that can be lined, and before you know it you've spent days on a wallet. Which is great, and I absolutely love seeing it, I even love doing it when I'm in the mood, but then good luck finding someone to pay for days of labour in exchange for a wallet. Not a surprise that many of those guys find it makes a lot more sense to teach it rather than do it.

To me this guy is a genius. We can like or dislike his products, that's a personal preference, but from a business perspective he's totally nailed it. He managed to create designs that minimise his labor cost while ensuring his customers still love them, and that's not an easy task at all. Then he justifies the prices based on the quality of the materials, which is fair enough, he's selling the cowboy/nostalgic/local/handcrafted image really well, and then links it very strongly to his product. Even his photography is on point. And he does all that while being perfectly honest about his products and his processes. I mean we know that with a die cutter and a rivet setter you can make a wallet like that in minutes, but the customer doesn't know this, and he doesn't need to, it's irrelevant. What you see is what you actually get, and it is technically hand crafted. And if you like it now you will like it more as it ages because it is good quality veg tan, just like Mr Lentz said. No lies or exaggerations anywhere, everything is as advertised. I tip my hat to this guy, great business model.

I don't think it's the mass production that causes the slow degradation of standards, it's peoples' desire to to pay less and less. We are free to choose anything we want and we invariably choose the cheapest possible. To be honest sometimes this also the smarter thing to do, a lot of household items from a couple of generations ago were ridiculously and unnecessarily over-engineered. You could see heavy as bricks cameras, televisions and kitchen appliances manufactured to last 3 lifetimes, when they were guaranteed to be technologically outdated in few years. Not your curtain runners though, metal is definitely better.

Yep my water based glue seems to work fine. No I don't cut stitching grooves, I let the stitches lay on top and hammer them a bit after. I havent had any problems with any method of edge finishing, but if it drips and I had to rub it off the surface I found the surface very sensitive to that rubbing.

Well yeah it is a problem with any leather, but generally as long as I see it before it dries it cleans nicely with a damp cloth or even just my finger. Might take a little bit of extra rubbing. I just found that Sedgwick bridle is particularly allergic to that extra rubbing, that's all.

I think what people refer to as "bridle" is a significantly different beast from tannery to tannery. I mostly have experience with the Sedgwick variety and as much as I love it it does behave very differently to any leather I've used before, and yes I have discovered new and wonderful ways to destroy it LOL I found that it bevels and burnishes great, it skives ok, but I have not found any way to finish the flesh side with anything I tried (tokonole, tan kote, resolene, oak wood conditioner, carnauba creme) so I just have to line it every time. No liquid or cream seems to stick to the flesh side in any sort of uniform way, plus most of them seem to reveal blotches and stains that were invisible before. The other problem I have is if I get any edge paint or edge kote on the grain side I can't just rub it off with a damp cloth, the more I rub the more it gets weaved into the grain until I have a big smudge and then it's ruined. Same with scratches. And it does seem particularly sensitive to water. It's just a strange and unique leather, and although it's extremely durable as a whole, it does seem to have a thin film on the outside which holds all the colour and sheen, and that film is actually fairly fragile. I'm sorry I don't have any experience with the W&C variety, but like I said bridle from bridle is very different, best you wait to hear from someone who knows your particular bridle very well.

Nothing good comes to mind, I keep thinking of MILF for some reason

I think producing leather items in general is very very much behind other industries in terms of automation. I've seen products where someone stands behind a glass window, presses the start button and the next time a human hand touches the product is at some supermarket on the other side of the planet when they unwrap the pallets. Despite the sewing machines and skiving machines, leatherworking is still very much a manual process. In my professional world, which is mainly manufacturing/industrial, when they say handmade they mean a product where the ratio of manual labour Vs machine/automation is heavily towards the former. And every single leather item that I've seen how it's made meets this definition, in fact it's a prime example. When a bag has 10 hours of pure manual labour in it with tools that are pretty much the same as a couple of centuries ago, you can't tell me it's not handmade because there was also 20 minutes of sewing machine somewhere in between, that's ridiculous. Call it almost entirely handmade or something silly like that if you must. The fact that some leatherworkers are in some sort of competition with each other who will consume the least electricity doesn't mean that the rest of the world also sees things the same way.