Klara

Nice work - I like the double line on the flap! I've never understood the British obsession with creasing, but it does add something... Where did you find the snap button? Looks good!

If the needles are too small sewing won't be comfortable either. In short, thread, needles and hole (in the leather) size must fit together for effortless sewing. My shop has tables on its website, but it's in French. If you still want a look: https://www.decocuir.com/couture-cuir-fil-aiguille-choisir-guide-c1200x67488

Personaly I'm a big fan of the awl, but as you don't want to use them (btw, it sounds as if you were sewing leather while teaching another subject - surely I must have misunderstood?) I won't say any more about it. I recommend diamond chisels for you. Holes made with a round punch and (not really) filled with sewing thread look very unprofessional to me. Just like when the big rectangular holes intended for lacing are used for sewing (not my idea, saw it in a book....) But I can't see a difference between holes made with pricking irons and awl and those punched all the way through with diamond chisels - at least on the front. At the back my seam with punched-through holes looks better (but I've only been at it for a few months). Nigel Armitage (author of many good YouTube videos and a very nice book) mostly works with pre-punched holes. He recommends the new European style pricking irons that are solid enough to punch all the way through thicker leather, but they are very expensive (my "cheap" set of pricking irons is € 40 for 3, and the maximum for punching is 0.8 mm). I'd say, stick with cheap(ish) diamond chisels, possibly hand-polished as recommended by @zuludog. (Mine aren't, but as I said, I normally only mark my stitches. And my awl blades are polished to the best of my ability!)

Pretty sure that's got nothing to do with the EU, because I used to nail my horses thrown shoes back on all the time in Germany and here in France I could buy horse shoes in the feed store if I needed them (my horse is retired and barefoot).

By all means, ask the farrier what he thinks, but my quick and dirty attempt at a solution would be something like the hipposandals used by the Romans, but made from leather. If you have very thick scraps lying around... And I'd bandage first, to eliminate the risk of the leather straps used for tying the soles cutting into the skin. Making a proper boot - they are available - would probably take too much time, as you need something immediately.

When did you last check? All the books I can find today are The Art of Embossing Leather and How to Colour Leather. https://tandyleather.com/blogs/leathercraft-library/tagged/ebooks And lots of Doodle Pages, which you'll get to when you click on the tiny "Filter by: All" in above link under the banner. Tandy are not so stupid as to give away their international bestsellers - I just bought the one on sharpening in my French leather shop.

The books by Al Stohlman are probably still the best there are, even though they are not very recent. I also very highly recommend the one on handsewing leather. And if you can find them cheaply (I wouldn't pay full price) the first two volumes on how to make leather cases. Not for the cases themselves (I'll never need a polaroid camera or gun shell case), but for the information on how to attach straps, strap keepers and D-rings (Vol. 1) and the different types of handles (Vol. 2). (Btw, in case any publishers read this: I'd really, really LOVE a book with just that type of information. Which type of handle/strap/closure/fastener to use when and how to attach them. Nifty ideas for closing leather cases, etc. That info comes in bits and pieces (Stohlman has more than most), often hidden in the project instructions, but I'd like it all in one place, one encyclopedia of ??? )

Wow, I thought it was amazing work when I saw it as "just" a storage box - and then you sow us that it's actually a display case! Brilliant!

The funny thing is that I have not yet seen a UK web site offering lower prices (without VAT) for EU customers, though I understand we'd have to pay VAT (which as far as I know is around 20% for most goods in most countries) when the goods enter the EU. For this reason I've only ordered two books, where I hoped they'd slip through (or Amazon and E-Bay would handle things), which has worked so far. For whereas financing one government is a fact of life I've more or less accepted, I'm not willing to finance two! So no big orders from the UK for me... @William Bloke What exactly are you looking for? Pethardware have a pretty good selection of saddlery hardware. Goods would have to go through customs, but at least you'll be getting them. Provided they have what you need...

My scream of horror (freaking $ 45!!!) just bothered my dog... Still haven't made a better version because I've decided to first transform part of my wool workshop into a proper leather workshop with a decent cutting table. @Bert03241 As the person who opened this thread I'd like to point out that I'm happy about the drift. After all, I asked about the situation in Northern Ireland... I am also very happy that I could inspire people to build better fly swatters - less chemistry, fewer flies is win-win!

I lnow nothing about tooling leather, but out of curiosity: Why do you want to make an exact copy down to the thickness of individual lines? Unless you are trying to start a career in forgery I would have thought some variation desirable...

Really? Northern Ireland is now separated from the rest of the UK AND from the EU? How is smuggling from the Republic going? (Seriously, when laws get too crazy, reasonable people need to disobey them.)

Brexit...

I knew that there are no snakes in Ireland, but I wasn't aware of there not being any biting insects - though maybe that contributed to the success of my bicycle tour 1987 (maybe the best holiday ever). Couldn't you get your hide - and shops their food - from EU countries? I believe you wrote that N.I. economically is still in Europe?

I pre-pierced the second hole after the first started splitting the dowel Doesn't matter, it's something like a proof-of-concept prototype - before I had only my market neighbour's word that leather swatters work. It's only now that I see how very well it works that I think about selling it... I don't have rivets that would work and I believe that screws are better because they allow to change the dowel if it breaks. Or the dog chews it up... Where do you live that there are no flies? Does Nothern Ireland still accept immigrants from the EU? Have they sorted out shipping and mail from England? Living without flies sounds like a dream come true (what about the blood-suckers, though?)

Or maybe people need to accept that being frustrated is part of life sometimes. And that proficiency comes from practice. And that even as an adult you can't expect to be good at new things right from the start. Leatherworkers have the "advantage" that bought patterns and pre-pierced holes make the work a lot easier. For spinners there is no such shortcut. Or for musicians... Money is not everything and millions of people do things for fun that won't ever bring in any money at all... I never felt I was getting poorer when working with wool. It was at the markets, waiting for customers, that I got annoyed. My animals and the making of things enrich my life and I would do it for free. Selling is mostly boring, and I want to get paid for it

May I ask what you are getting for them? As for the holes, both the other guy and I have discovered that they are not necessary... (I thought they were, at first, but no.)

Regarding material, stainless steel is the most solid by far (assuming I can believe the data on the Pethardware website. They are in Europe, so it's probably not worth buying from them if you are in the U.S. but you could get an idea of the available variety. )

Stuff to purchase, yes. "Dues to pay" only if you are still referring to the hundreds of dollars the reader of the book is supposed to invest in top-quality tools before having made the first cut or stitch. Because Armitage promises that there is no need for "apprenticeship" - you do exactly as he says and you make nice things from the start. No need to learn "proper" saddle stitching or how to cut free-hand... And it works! I followed the instructions for the gusset-less bag, pre-pierced all the holes and put my pocket protector for dog treats together. Felt a bit like doing Lego... I much prefer Jo's style (from JH Leather) - she makes it look so easy. But I'm almost sure that Jo formally trained as a saddler, i.e. spent years full-time learning how to cut straps, how to work with an awl, how to care for tools etc. Back to Armitage's book: Imagine a person expresses an interest in leatherwork and gets the book for Christmas. They read the chapter on tools, go to a web shop and learn what all these absolutely essential tools cost in their top-quality version. Will they buy them - or will they think "Wow, leatherworking sure is expensive, now I know why leather things cost so much money." That's what I meant with my comment about reinforcing the misconception. I would like the book much better if the chapter on tools were different. Like listing the tools in the order in which they are needed for the projects (and clearly saying so!) So the reader would only need to buy the things actually necessary for the finger protectors at first, and then add tools as he progresses through the book and the projects. Back to the actual topic: I buy handmade things - even expensive ones - when I like them more than industrially made stuff. Because they work better (like my friend's knives) or because they are prettier (my friend's knives as well, a felted shawl, a sewn scarf), or because I need something right now and the handmade thing is there and reasonably priced (a leather coin bag, various pottery). Basically I agree with whoever wrote this https://www.jlsleather.com/hand-made-well-made/ - well-made is more important than how many machines were involved in the process.

I admit, it wasn't my idea. My neighbour in the Craft Association's Christmas Market had one with a shiny metal handle which he tried to sell me at a ridiculous price (over € 10 - possibly justified for the handle, but much more than I'm willing to pay for a fly squatter). Guy started out making leather shoes with a "hippie" look, now he mostly switched to simple wallets, purses and jewellery. Much less work and much easier to sell... I figured I'd make one or two for the market in September. Emphasising not the genuine handmade aspect, but the functionality and durability. I was impressed when I killed a monster fly with a flick if my wrist yesterday. Try it, you'll be surprised! The leather is relatively floppy, btw, much softer than the plastic ones.

Strangely, yes! She has often lost or taken off her martingale collars, but not once tried to chew them up. Apparently Europe is so infused with environmental concerns that even dogs can't stand to see plastic around...

I wanted to show you this not because I am proud of the work (I'm not that deluded and it took me about 10 minutes) but as a public service: This simple leather flap (3.3 mm veg tan) is a much better tool for killing flies than the usual plastic thingies (which my dog loves to destroy)

Yes, hats off to Mr. Lentz. And to my colleague who does the same thing. Very good leather, turned very quickly into a long-lasting product. But I feel that the commercial success is mostly based on a misconception in the general public that working with leather is horribly difficult and expensive (hmmm, actually, Nigel Armitage's book feeds that image very nicely...) But for me such a very simple design is not "worth more" than one that involved the use of a few more machines, or where the embossing was done with a roller. When I buy something it is because I like it, and I'm not overly fussed about how it's been made. The idea of paying more for a quilt because it is hand-sewn seems ridiculous to me. Now, if one can sew a quilt by hand that can't be done by machine, that's different. And on the selling side I've always felt that I can't charge extra because I insist on doing everything by hand. It's not my customer's problem that my "business" is too small for machinery... Incidentally, last week I showed off my dog collars to friends, and they were impressed with the stitching. Not because it's particularly good - it isn't - but because they didn't know anything about saddle stitching. First they thought I had a really good, expensive sewing machine, then when I explained it's sewn by hand that it must have been very hard, because they didn't know about diamond awls, and then I maybe made a mistake explaining about pricking irons and stitching pony... If you don't know about leatherwork, it seems a black art. I have had for ages a horse harness with some stitching broken, until now I never even thought about repairing it myself...

And what if there's no stitching at all? Just a strap of leather (cut with a strap cutter), a point cut free-hand, the buckle attached with rivets, and that's it? No machine involved since the tannery, but does that make the belt more valuable than a machine-stitched one?

So that is a problem of the leather and not of the edge paint? Because I discovered the same thing yesterday, with some chocolate brown veg tan (not further specified) fom a French shop. I got some edge paint smudges and couldn't get them off