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Very nice Goldwing, Ive often thought of using snake inlay, one of the shops has some. Any problems sewing or working with it? cheers Mark

HI , All, I posted part of this in the archery section but now its complete Ill post it here. This is a culmination of many hours. I have learnt so much along the way and thanks to those on here who have posted various tutorials and posts which have helped. I was making this for two friends. The idea was to have semi matching armguards. I had better luck with the colouring and shading on the closed mouth one. The aggressive open mouthed one was a kinda trial for various techniques b4 I did the second. Closed mouth armguard. I wanted the shading to give a "camouflaged in the forest" look. I also wanted the shading to darken as it rolled around the arm thus highlighting the dragon itself and throwing the "shadow lizards" into the doom n gloom of the "dark side" of the arm The edge on photo is my favourite, it shows up the depth and tooling nicely (and mistakes . Un fortunately the button was crooked. It self aligns when its worn, via the elastic. I forgot to prop it when taking this shot. I also did not notice the slight kink in the lower horn tip until this very moment, the image really stands it out.. now I will always see it Its amazing how we are blind to some things during the making. The stitching idea sorta worked? I wanted it to look like part of the boarder. I tooled a celtic knot boarder(not a great stamp I must admit) and used its centres to mark the stitching holes. I used green and red thread so that every other hole/stitch was almost invisable. Ie only the red showed. The upper part of the "mane" back of the head under the horns was an attempt at feathers. I wanted a hairy dragon (its brother is scales) with a feather topped main.. didnt quite work out but I think it looks ok. The tribal (black markings) was intended to make the dragon a little unique and match its brother armguard. I was happy with the depth I achieved on these. The other shots were not sharp.. I have a lot of trouble getting focus on this old camera but hopefully you get the gist. The aggressive one: More a classic scale type dragon this one was a little more aggressive and the test of various techniques. I am not happy with the colouring I have a lot to learn about dyeing leather Hopefully you will notice that this one has a much more noticeable "hallo" . The second one is better in this respect. I tooled right up to the bevel and got rid of most of that beginners hallo error. The shadow lizards are not indented in this one. Im still not sure which way I like best. Unfortunately Id already cut and stamped both b4 I realised that the buttons were going to sit right on top of some of the runes lettering. Now thats a mistake even I shouldnt have made I had a lot of trouble tooling the mouth, I just could not get the tongue to look right. All in all Im happy with this attempt but humbled by its poor level compared to some of the magestic things on this site. But I guess ya gotta start somewhere and each peice I do I can always see improvements. So much more to learn so little time to spend on it...back to my day job appreciate any thougths

Very nice indeed. I always have trouble with the straps. Tricky t get them to sit just right. Working on a couple of quivers now myself, in amongst other things. Thanks for your inspiration.

HI , All, This is a culmination of many hours. I have learnt so much along the way and thanks to those on here who have posted various tutorials and posts which have helped. I was making this for a friend, its one of two semi matching armguards. I had better luck with the colouring and shading on this one but I will finish off the second and post it here as well, later. I wanted the shading to give a "camouflaged in the forest" look. I also wanted the shading to darken as it rolled around the arm thus highlighting the dragon itself and throwing the "shadow lizards" into the doom n gloom of the "dark side" of the arm The edge on photo is my favourite, it shows up the depth and tooling nicely (and mistakes . Un fortunately the button was crooked. It self aligns when its worn, via the elastic. I forgot to prop it when taking this shot. I also did not notice the slight kink in the lower horn tip until this very moment, the image really stands it out.. now I will always see it Its amazing how we are blind to some things during the making. The stitching idea sorta worked? I wanted it to look like part of the boarder. I tooled a celtic knot boarder(not a great stamp I must admit) and used its centres to mark the stitching holes. I used green and red thread so that every other hole/stitch was almost invisable. Ie only the red showed. The upper part of the "mane" back of the head under the horns was an attempt at feathers. I wanted a hairy dragon (its brother is scales) with a feather topped main.. didnt quite work out but I think it looks ok. The tribal (black markings) was intended to make the dragon a little unique and match its brother armguard. I was happy with the depth I achieved on these. The other shots were not sharp.. I have a lot of trouble getting focus on this old camera but hopefully you get the gist. Im about to post it off to its new home, hopefully it portrays the depth of brotherly love and affection the gift is intended for. So much more to learn so little time to spend on it...back to my day job

Hi all, Apologies for blury photos, macro mode wouldnt work. Elastic stops and how to sew buttons help needed. Just wondering if you have any ideas on a neat way to stop elastic from being pulled thru a whole. In the first pic hopefully you will recognise an armguard. This is a simple design but Im having thoughts on how to stop the elastic. You can see it just poke thru the end of the "Leather" tube which helps to strengthen the side. A normal knot is just to bulky (4mm dia elastic cord) I tried folding it on itself and whipping with sewing thread. Better but still a bit bulky. whipping around the cord by itself just comes off because as the cord is stretched it gets thinner. I need a soft non bulky "blob" attached to the end so it fits neatly into the tube but cannot pull out the smaller hole on the side. Problem is the user needs to adjust or replace this elastic so I cant just sew it in place. The adjustment is normally the other end however. You pull the other end and there is enough friction that it holds. Here a knot or bead is not so bad Its further up the arm and out of the way. The second question/ picture is of a button. In this case its a leather button with a plastic tubular spacer. The elastic, from above Q, is caught underneath the button and around the spacer.The spacer protects the thread from teh elastic rubbing and just gives it all a bit more space. I had lots of trouble sewing this button.Even tho I prepunched 4 holes thru the button and armguard I had a terrible time "finding" the path. So if you have any ideas how one sews a button like this please help. Also note that it got pretty bulky underneath. i think I should have sewed the button on first then folded the leather over (the tube) and sewn the tube up thus hiding the under button thread.

Your request is granted. The one thing that really irked me was there was two things that went bad at the end First, when I placed the leather on the metal It was a little tricky I think mainly because of the centre cut out. This lead to the leather being rotated a deg or so out. ie the rivets holding the handle did not line up with the centre of the knot work. then when I applied the last layer of black rub it made the rivet "bumps" stand out even more The second was the final trim. The edges of the metal were folded over forming a lip that the leather would sit against. After the glue had set I trimmed the leather into the edge. I suspect the knife was not sharp enough as it grabbed the leather in a few places. The celtic cross was ground then polished into the dome with a dremel.

I do like the Tudor rose, would go nice with my outfit

Not been on here much but have been very busy with leather. Including the tanning of a large...massive...cow hide I got hold of. Not sure what Im going to do with that Anyway here is a buckler I made up for a parade a month or so back. The design was inspired by the Tandy Celtic Targe project and I modified a few things. The buckler itself is made from a beer keg bottom I also made the knife (butchers blade from op shop and handle. The handle includes an attempt at embedding copper wire into the wood. Anyway for its purpose here the leather carving. I was extremely pleased to get the hairline markings inside the griffins to remain red and highlight after applying the black overall.

Just adding to this post. Based on the above design for inspiration I came up with this. Once finished Ill add some more photos. As you can see I went for the drop belt straps (which you cant see from these pics unless you know what your looking for.Added a 40mm deep gusset. Also included some internal pouches. Sewed the pouches first then the gusset and turned it inside out. This was chromed leather so no emboss work. It was a quick 'let see how this pattern works" trial. the markings on the front if you can see them is poker work which did not come out to well on this sort of leather. thanks for the original post and pattern

Hi all, I have a project on the go with a a piece of leather that well has somehow picked up some marks. One of them is from some sticky tape that got on there and others are just grime. I take it to and from work (work on it during lunch) and it fell out of its protective envelope and flopped around in my backpack Im partway thru the stamping and will be adding some dye later on.. Whats a good thing to clean it with to try and get most of the grunge off.. This sounds worse than it is .. the marks are hardly noticeable and may even cover up by the dye. Thought Id ask first tho.

Finished this off some time back but forgot to post. I ended up with a sqwiggle line(veiner) that all pointed to the tongue. Had some trouble with the metalic paints smudging with the dye. I even tried sealing the metalic paint first but the dye still cut thru the sealer and removed some of the paint. All in all Im happy with my first attempt. As an armguard used for archery it works extremy well.

I play bass, electric, a little keyboard, worked as a roadie some 20 years back so I know my way around a lighting and sound desk. Had a backyard 12 track recording studio b4 the days of "everyone does it on their PC" :lol Still play a little bass for bands every now and then.

Hi All, Id like some advice on what to do with the background on this archers bracer. My second piece of leatherwork on show here. Various parts are in different stages of completion, because well, Im still learning and deciding on which technique is the best. First thing I found was inadequate tools. I didnt have any small delicate bevlers or shaders to get into the little nooks, using the big ones on edge just made a mess in parts. So this I know. I think Id like to put some more cracks in. As I was playing with cracking the leather I realised it was going to be hard to get it symetrical ..ie like over both the ring dragons. The holes are ventilation for sweat. I should have used a smaller punch for inside the main dragon especially towards the head and tail. This was a learning mistake. My punch would not go thru the 3.3m leather, by the time it did it had made a massive hole cause its tapered isnt it..dulp. I actually ended up drilling them which worked real well. Ill need to burnish the vent holes, might make up a little cone shaped piece of dowl and slick it like an edger. The dragon came out well , I elongated the aspect ratio to compensate for the curve around the arm. This worked, once cuved it doesnt look fat or thin but just right. The scales are not pronounced as much as Id planned. Hopefuly some stain will fix this. Even with a sharp round knife I found it hard to cut the leather shape out especially the corners. Luckily I left some room for sanding back this time:) I need to drill some holes for the lacing down both sides, but Ill do that in the final fitting. The two pointer like designs. Hmm had lots of trouble with these. I wanted them inset like carved into stone. The left hand side I tried a bumpy aggressive look while the right is a little smoother. Im going to fill them with black(die or acrylic paint?) and thought that any texture would have to be aggressive for it to show thru? I may have over done it. I need to clean up the edges once I get a suitable tool. Now the background. You can see on the main dragon I matted some of the inner knotwork. I think I prefer this to the non matted ones, makes the body stand out more. What Im not sure of is whether to matt the entire peices background or just go to the edges of the designs.(like the ring ones) Boarder. not sure to leave that flat as is remembering there will be lacing holes either side or to stamp some boarder in there. I was also thinking of skiving the pointy bit as its much stifer than expected, but then I dont want it to end up floppy and curving outward. Next step is to clean up, then background, case it to fit my arm then dye it. This is not going to be a masterpiece ;lol but if it protects the arm ill be happy.

Thanks for all the replies people. Im probably being too harsh on myself in my leatherwork opening moves and getting down heartened. Ill check out some videos and and get busy sharpening some tools and try again. Ill also have another go at sanding back the edges as this was my original intention. Maybe the dremel is just too fast and thus causing the burning of leather rather than sanding. I also think that starting off making a sheath for a min multitool (70x20mm) was maybe making things a little hard on myself.

ok Il bite, are there any links to tutorials on how to use and or sharpen a round knife?

Thats a neat tip Ill give it a try then look at round heads.. What about trimming it all after? Say ive glued and sewn two pieces together and want to trim the offcuts of leather back and close and parallel to the stitching. I was thinking of using a dremel and sanding drum to finish the edge but it just seamed to burn.Im concerned a knife will slip into the work area. Im so used to scraping or filing or sanding wood to get perfect fits...this leather is a challenge

Hi all, Been playing with various projects and keep stumbling at the cutting time. I work out a design say for a multitool knife sheath, using inkscape or some other pc cad system and print out the shape. Including the fold over retainer and belt holes etc. I dampen the leather and draw over the template thus marking the leathers outer extremities. then I start to cut.. so far straight lines are fine I use a ruler or something to cut against. But hand cutting with a stanely knife or surgeons like craft knife around corners just never looks nice. As in symmetrical with the other side. I also notice I tend to have trouble maintaining a "square cut" thru the leather. Sometimes under cutting the underneath for example. Im working on 3mm (8-9oz). I have tried a light score, followed by further heavier scoring runs until it cuts thru and often get slithers of leather where the blade hasnt perfectly tracked the previous score. I have also tried one single heavy cut all the way thru and thats not always pretty either Do I need a better knife? a better proceduer or just more experience I have had great success with using a bottom layer of 3mm and then moulding a thinner top layer like 1-2mm around the knife. I use a fret saw to cut a mold out of wood that the knife fits into.Case the leather, wrap the knife in cling film, put the leather over the knife and clamp the wood mold over the top. Next day wood off and there is a perfectly formed leather fit around the knife. I then glue n sew that onto the thicker base. But once again the cutting or trimming to finish off the excess top and make it all look symetrical just defeats me. Looks like a 2 year old has been at it with sicsors

Thanks ken, I did learn heaps, constructing and reading the many posts on here. I tend to attack or learn on multiple fronts,,probably too many but it comes good in the end. I must say this piece has grown on me I wasn't happy with it at first but now its all good. I have plenty of other projects to tackle next, including bracers and quivers, knife sheaths and a bible cover. thanks for the note of support Mark

Right done and on the wrist for about a week. info for those interested. 3mm SS cable. Clasp: silver plated ferrules with press fit magnets stolen from those magnetic notice board thingos. Cable araldite glued into ferrule. I unfortunately marked the left sided ferule whilst tooling them:( Inscription: Top line-Cirth-Angerthas Erebor . Bottom line Runes Futhark symbols. What does it say? Im not telling Font tool made with a ground down bolt to from a 2mm blunt chisel head. I did have little twirls on the which stamped in nice but kind of got lost in all the post tooling. The boarder can only just be seen. I did it too close to the edge of the leather shame because once again it looked great when first stamped. Colouring was red with a brown topping. I played at getting a patchy "used" look. Antique was not used, all done by the way I applied the dye. I still have lots to learn. I should have made a smaller font tool to do the shorter runes bits rather than trying to use the tool on edge. The leather edging need more work. I made a wooden burnisher for the dremmel which need more slicking up time. The cable was semi sunk into the leather, this has caused a slight turning up of the edges. Worse at both ends. I might trim these to rounded rather than square. I guestimated the length wrong by about 5 mm. I thought Id taken leather stretch, cable and lacing into account but its not quite loose. Magnetic clasp works well but in hindsight is not necessary, the leather and cable is quite capable of holding the shape. I think I would have used a nicer lacing style but was mindful of it detracting from the runes.

super stuff that. id be very proud to wear that to 3d shoots. what colouring did you use btw?

super, exactly what I was after

Hi, Is there a list on the net somewhere that identifies the "common"? numbers with a visual picture of the tool head?. Or are these numbers not common to all companies.

HI all, Ok just getting things straight in my mind. I have decided my first project to be a wrist bracelet. I have a piece of belt leather that is now 3mm thick,18mm wide and 205mm long. Im going to lace a length of stainless steel cable to its centre (cause I can I have already made this piece up complete with magnetic catch. The idea being that along with a molded? ie shaped to my wrist leather and the springy cable and the catch should be plenty to hold it in place on my wrist. I didnt want press studs and need to get it on and off lots due to work As yet I have not finalised the lace pattern and the stamping ideas. But I wanted to get the proceduer sure in mind b4 proceeding any further. Procedure: Measure n cut leather--done Bevel edges Slicker wheel edges Punch lace slots To groove or not to groove (see Q1) Apply stamps and design work Apply coffee stain using a cup which is about same dia as my wrist. Empty stain and leave to dry curled in cup thus molding it into wrist shape.? Neatsfoot oil. Sealer ?Q2 Lace in SS band. Q1)now Im not sure whether to groove out a slot in the centre for the cable to run down or just let it lie laced to the top. or simple vise press it into the leather to give it a sunken look. Q2) Now what exactly do I use here. Being on my wrist it will get a fair amount of sweat etc so what should I use to seal the leather best. Righto, What have I missed or missunderstood or is it time to pack my bags and go home

Wow Kate thats a loverly piece. I did think about getting my old woodworking poker iron out but I know from previous experience I had trouble on suede. The hairy fibers gobb up the iron..anyway I want the exact same shape so it looks right and I will have to do heaps of em. My daughter wants it like a boarder around her quiver. (She is into Unicorns). So a stamp like action was required. Its a ways off, this was just a trial to see if it was possible (she really really wanted the purple suede with a white standing on hind legs Unicorn (probably stitched on)), Im still thinking thru the whole quiver design in my head.

Hi all, I have searched but maybe using the wrong words. Anyone here play with poker or hot iron/ burning their leather.. Reason I ask was that I have some suede which was obviously not going to take embossing so I recalled my pyrography days and made up a wire "brand" stamp gave it some electrical juice (special wire btw it has inherent resistance its called nichrome) which caused it to heat up and then branded the suede.. looks neat. I want to eventually put some horse tracks across a piece of suede and so was playing how to do that. Trick now is to practice at bending the wire just so, so as to get a neat looking horse hoof. I figure the best bet is to make a pin board in the shape and then wrap the wire around it. Anyway if someone has tried this let me in on some hints and tips BTW that hoof is about 10mm across