Spyros

If you have access to a lathe and want to make a timepiece, I have two words for you : "Clickspring" and "Youtube" Enjoy

Man you're opening a whole different pandora's box for yourself... a nice one though. When you end up doing Seiko mods, i want one

Oh it adds up, considering I nee Well you need a good collection of punches, you never know what size and shape of hole or belt tip you want to cut next. Some pricking irons and chisels and a couple of good quality awls to prick your fingers with. A Regad kit with a bunch of tips. Some cutting knives and bevellers. A solid revolving punch because it's not worth buying a cheap one. A tabletop splitter and a draw gauge and knife. A saddlers clam, some skiving knives in different sizes and shapes. Some setting tools, maybe an arbor press. A couple of mauls, a hammer, a round knife because it looks cool, a compass, a nice block of wood with holes to put it all in. A solid surface to work on, a small anvil to pound on. A tormek to keep it all sharp (with a Japanese stone please), and a diamond stone for those sensitive items. And all that before you decide you want to try your hand at shoe making/tooling/saddles :D It adds up if you're not careful.

I don't have a problem with people making money, good for them. There's obviously a broader discussion here about environment concerns and working relations etc, but when your other option is to pay $5k in European tools (just because they are European) so you can make a $50 wallet then this is not really a viable option either. I find there is a gap in the leather tool market for mid-range, middle-priced tools, and whenever there is a gap someone will eventually fill it. Thanks for the clarification, creasing iron it is!

Having the oval punch is one thing. Keeping the oval holes in a straight line, evenly spaced and all pointed in the same direction is a whole other kettle of fish LOL

If you can reliably remove a watch hand, and then put it back on, and the watch still works, you are practically a neurosurgeon in my book

Μate I don't think you can actually waterproof leather... you can make it repellent to a degree and for a period of time by applying stuff on it but eventually you will need to repeat the process (which, to be honest, 99% of people don't do unless it's a saddle or something). It's an uphill battle. Like, how many times have you heard someone say "oh, here's the reminder on my phone, it's been 18 months since I bought my belt, time to service it. Now where are those instructions ..." LOL Most water stains will eventually disappear or blend in overtime with the natural darkening of the leather. I wear natural color veg tan watch straps finished with just some carnauba cream, and sometimes I remember to take it off in the shower or when I wash my hands, and sometimes i don't. It gets splashed a lot, and then I take it off and let it dry, and to this day I can't see any visible water stains. But, there are countless different types of leather. If your particular leather stains very visibly and this bothers you, I would simply not use that type of leather again. Ian Atkinson has a comparative of water resistant finishes on youtube (I can't remember the conclusion, I love his videos and I've learned a lot but damn they are loooooooooong*). You can see in the video how water droplet stains disappear over time in most cases. https://youtu.be/zyTg_hfpNUM Edit: don't forget to check out shoe finishes, they keep trying to waterproof shoes (and keep failing ). *highly recommended when hand stitching and you have a couple of hours to kill.

Go for your life then They are fairly cheap so maybe get a couple of different bottles and try them on a scrap, see what works best for you (I liked the waproo shoe polish in spray, I think I got from Leffler's) Just don't expect too much in terms of instructions on the product, it's usually a case of "finish making your thing and then take our thing and put it on your thing, good luck" LOL But usually 2-3 thin layers works best, sponge or airbrush, in one direction and careful with the streaks, at least 15 mins between layers, and then lots of buffing with a cotton cloth.

It's just a rangefinder, 1kg tops including lens, it won't bite into anything. If you want a premium feel get some sedgwick bridle for the straps. Tandy used to have some belt blanks, get one of those and slice it in half with a strap cutter.

Honestly you're better off buying glazed leather straight from the tannery (and since you're in AU austanners has some nice glazed roo in tan and black) You can try and do it yourself, there are a few high gloss lacquers on the market by angelus, eco flo, giardini etc but in my experience they're all kinda streaky and hard to apply evenly. And then to get a proper polish you have to buff. A lot. But that's just my experience.

Heat embossing or screen printing. And for LV specifically it's possibly some proprietary method used only by/for them. The whole point of the LV surface (which is basically a glorified plasticised canvas) is to make is as difficult as possible to copy, so they might have also used the most complex printing method. Anything to be even slightly different and visually distinguishable.

duuuude this is brilliant

Very nice man A lot harder than it looks

What Fred said. Other than creasing, you can also use it (with suitable tips) as a burnisher, wax spatula, polisher, and even thread burner. And probably soldering iron of course

I prefer a nice big comfortable office chair. The reason is, when I'm cutting or punching holes I want to get up anyway and be right on top of my work, but for everything else I'd rather lean back and rest my back. I find stools very uncomfortable after a while.

I can't find any use for gorilla glue, maybe rough carpentry or construction. I did use it on a strop, then I clamped it all night and like you said in the morning it had foamed, expanded and leaked from the edges, and I had to cut the excess with a knife. I cant imagine doing that in a bag or a wallet.

you might get disappointed in terms of next level quality I guess ebay/gumtree/fb are your best bets to find some destroyed ones, but the next best thing is search on youtube bag repair channels. Some of these guys show a lot of detail and talk about it as they pull bags apart to repair them.

Thanks mate Look at the tooling and the stitching detail with the thinner thread... true artisan.

Jesus, thats A LOT of work On the flaps that cover the cartridge cases, that second darker layer under the burgundy top leather, what is that? Some sort of fabric?

Yes I guess there's no reason not to share most parts with a soldering iron,the main thing is to regulate temperature way down for leather.

So I bought this machine on Etsy from a nice guy named Wayne who is probably the most responsive seller in the world. I mean considering the time difference he must have been answering my questions in the most ungodly hours of the night, offering great advice and solutions to all my ignorant questions. Because this is my first creasing machine and although I knew I wanted one, if I'm completely honest I didn't really know exactly why, I just wanted it LOL And when the crucial question came "what tips do you want with it" my response could be pretty much summarised in one word: "Derrrrrrrr......" So Wayne helped me pick five commonly used tips, and next thing he did (probably while packing with the other hand because the package was in the mail almost immediately) was email me the manual. Which of course I didn't read because I am, you know, male. And not very smart. A few days later the DHL dude knocked on my door and then ran and hid behind the fence because COVID, and was very happy to take a wave instead of a signature. At least he waited to make sure someone opened the door, so nice of him. Upon first inspection I can't tell where this thing is made (probably where everything is made these days), but FWIW it shipped out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Maybe Wayne makes them in his shed, I don't know, but it looks and feels well made. All metal outside (looks like aluminium?), I think the feet are silicone, the cable is nice and long and very flexible which is great, and it attaches very firmly to the machine with a screw flange. Woodwork on the handle and holder is pretty basic but well executed, no complaints, the on/off switch an dial are solid, big and clicky and very easy to find and operate single handedly. The whole thing is on the small side and not too heavy, which I don't mind at all because I tend to work mostly on my desk and I'm running out of space. Nice big screen, very easy to read, full of numbers that I don't know what they mean, but the operation is fairly straightforward: Turn it on, and then turn the dial until the tip is hot enough to do what you want it to do to your leather. Simples. Supposedly it has other smart features that went right over my head, but I did notice it goes to sleep if you don't use it for a while because it has some sort of vibration or motion sensor. And then when you pick it up again it turns on automatically. Nice. Wayne doesn't want me to burn my house down. In terms of how well it performs, I don't have anything to compare it to. I can tell you that the creaser definitely creases and the burnisher definitely burnishes, but I haven't tried the spatula or the polisher yet. (In the photo below please appreciate the effort of creasing with one hand while taking a photo with a DSLR with the other, the things I do for my fellow leatherworkers) Any other questions like if the thread accepts tips from other brands or if the tips are welded or soldered or friction fitted, I don't know. if you want I can message Wayne on Etsy at 3am Tennessee time and he will probably respond in 3 minutes LOL All I know is I always wanted to try one of those, but no way I was paying Regad what they're asking just to satisfy my curiosity. Yucraft/Wayne made it possible for me to have a go without too much investment and so far I'm loving it USD$298 incl 5 tips of your choosing, handle, and handle holder. Cheers SP

I must admit I have spent some time browsing your website (and I think at some point it took me to your social media as well). I love your work, well done! The only nit picky thing, and I am yet to solve this problem myself, is it wise to use natural colour liners? I love the look don't get me wrong, and I've tried it too on some of my projects, but I'm yet to find a method or a treatment that will keep this interior leather clean for more than 5 minutes. Yours look clean and fresh on the photos, how did you finish it and seal it?

Here's what I've understood so far and someone can correct me if I'm wrong. It's not just the thickness of the leather, it's also what kind of leather. 1mm kangaroo will probably hold a DSLR with a giant lens just fine, because kangaroo is the strongest leather at this thickness. Also the very top layer of the leather, the skin, is usually the strongest part, so when talking strength it matters if your leather is full grain (ie it includes the skin) or not. 2mm chrome tan is fine if it's full grain. Your problem is that chrome tan usually tends to stretch more than veg tan overtime, and that's annoying because camera harnesses are all about fit. There's a reason they use thicker veg tan or bridle for belts, and it's not just the strength. You could double up your leather on itself but then you'll probably have to stitch it along the edges, and that's A LOT of stitching. Would look great though Also, be careful how you sew on the hardware, because putting holes across the strap means you're creating weakness points, if the leather is going to fail it will be exactly there. For maximum strength attach the hardware like this or like this But not like this Bottom line is the camera is not going anywhere, not because of your leather anyway. But if you want longevity and you want to minimise stretching, use 3-4mm veg tan/bridle/harness leather (You can buy belt blanks from pretty much any leathercraft shop) or double up and stitch your 2mm chrome tan. IMO anyway

What usually happens to me when I have too many things that need sharpening I put some time aside, usually a Sunday morning. I go out in the shed, lay down everything on my bench, stones and strops and irons, then I stand there looking at it all for a minute and then I leave it all out there for another month and keep on using whatever's left that is still somewhat sharp. It's a big pile, it never ends... And I'm anal with it too, if I start sharpening something I don't stop until it cuts hairs. And mind you that is after I am finished being anal about the flatness and cleanliness of my stones. I know exactly what is going to happen with a round knife, I'll be there sitting there tuning it for an hour and the pile is not gonna get any smaller. Like I said, I see disposable blades as an opportunity.

so does a box cutter