Mablung

I like it. Mainly used for detail cutting in small-ish areas, trimming, or other purposes?

Re: applying and buffing, I also use a rag. I just have to let it dry for a minute first. I have read on here that sheepskin is the bee’s knees for antique, but I haven’t tried it personally. Did you have one of the wooden mallets? Definitely need something better. I would drop the coin on a rawhide mallet, if I were you. I spent a little less and got a Tandy Bakelite mallet—then I used a Tandy rawhide mallet in a carving class recently and wished I had bought one already.

Good suggestions from chuck123wapati. Hit a large stamp like that quite hard to get a good impression. Depending on how heavy your mallet/maul is, you'll need to give it some oomph, more than you'll think you do. I nearly never hit my stamps or punches hard enough the first time. The Tandy shoulders---which are mostly what I use, personally---can be hit or miss. The double shoulder I have currently has a far better grain and much smoother grain-side surface than the previous shoulder I purchased and used. That makes a pretty big difference. The sort of surface you use and minimizing bounce is more important when trying to prevent double impressions from the stamp bouncing. It doesn't look like you have that problem, so I wouldn't worry too much about that at this juncture. The biggest things, it seems, are ensuring you hit the stamp hard enough and making sure the leather has the right moisture content. I'm going to steal chuck's suggestion about wetting a scrap piece from the same portion so that I have something to use to check my moisture content on my main working piece.

+1 for the Stohlman case-making book. The sheath-making instructions are great. From there it’s easy to learn how to make welted fold-over sheaths, and then layered welted sheaths. Ton of fun, too, for something that can be as simple or as involved as you like. I started out making simple sheaths for one of my hunting knives. Great starter projects.

It’s not necessary, but I tend to soak my leather and stick it in a plastic bag to let the water work its way into the fibers thoroughly. Wetting it as much as I do requires leaving it out for a few hours to dry before trying to work with it, but it guarantees a consistent case. Play around with the amount of water you use, as long as you give it enough time to soak in evenly and consistently. That’s the most important thing. You might try getting a 9 oz craft panel to practice with. I find that additional thickness easier to work with. Also, any idea what part of the hide you’re using? Back, shoulder, belly? That will also affect how well it stamps and the method and degree to which it needs to be cased.

Ah, okay. The matting tool or whatever other thing you used probably made it look that way. You may have needed to dampen it further to get deeper stamp impressions, possibly.

The moderator will tell you to post the pics here, because photos on third-party hosts have a tendency to vanish and because most people (I among them) don’t want to click on some random link to see a pic of something like this. As to the substantive issue, I’d think re-dyeing and finishing would help, but maybe you’re trying to blend the other weathered parts with the part that needs to be refinished.

It looks like the leather may have been too wet when you stamped it. Also, did you stamp the flesh (fuzzy) side? It looks that way. That can be done, but the definition is usually less clear. I may be misinterpreting the pictures, though. Did you allow the Resolene to dry fully? It doesn’t take long to dry, but it does need some time before it will act as a resist well. How did you apply it?

I skived the toe counter from a thicker piece, down to I think 2 oz or so. Part of the problem is that I cut it from a fairly firm 6/7 oz shoulder, so I made a boo-boo with the choice of leather. I’ve got a 2/3 shoulder that would likely work better because it’s a softer temper and pre-split. Calfskin would be preferable, though, and I can get it at my local Tandy. I wondered to myself if the counter would work better with a last, and I think you’re right that that’s where I lost my length. Thanks for the tip on the pattern sizing—I think that’s about the margin I had allowed, but I don’t recall off the top of my head. I think for the next pair, I’ll do a full mockup with craft foam to make sure my adjustments all work together properly. Otherwise, I’ll screw around with too many variables and not put them together properly. Thanks for the pointers! This is really helpful. I kinda want a pair of loafers as well, so I’ll do some moccasin-type shoes soon as well. That and I plan to use some old slippers to make a new lined pair because the soles have fallen apart. I’ll post those, too. I never thought I’d get into making even simple shoes, when I started doing leatherwork.

Well, a lot of things are right about these things, but the soles are a little too small (really not sure how I managed that, when I traced right from the completed shoe) and the veg tan toe counter in each is (a) too hard and (b) lacks sufficient toe volume. Wetting won’t do it, unfortunately. The leather is also thicker and firmer in temper than the previous stuff I used, so I need to adjust for that. Will need to adjust the pattern and then rebuild. Here’s a pic of one completed shoe. I think I’m going to either make a taller boot or lower the upper height just a bit as well; this height tended to cut into my ankle just a bit.

Hoping to get the soles glued tonight before I head out of town and can wear them in a bit. I'll get some pics, too.

Thanks! And yeah, I was thinking of doing the wet-walk-dry treatment to them. I think part of the reason the one felt tight is because I put a veg tan toe counter in the front, but I may need to add a little more "toe puff" to future iterations of the vamp and toe counter. We'll see how they come out after I move around in them a bit. I keep my toenails pretty short, so they shouldn't cause an issue.

These things have taken longer to complete than I anticipated. Got the eyelets set late last night, as well as stitching the midsole to the second upper. Now just need to cut and glue the rubber outsoles, stitch the eyelet reinforcement pieces on the second shoe, and run the laces. I think these will end up being just a little short of toe room, so I'll add that into the midsole pattern modification. I'll wear these for a bit to see if they stretch sufficiently and to figure out what other modifications I need to make, then go from there. Looking forward to finally having these done.

Never actually posted the pictures.

Couple other shots of one in progress. Haven’t stitched the midsole fully or the eyelet reinforcement pieces. The dart and mild curve in the top of the heel piece appear to be doing their job. We’ll know for sure once I finish stitching the midsole and glue on the rubber soles. I realized, in stitching the other one’s midsole the other night, that I erred by failing to adjust the width of the rear of the midsole heel for the material I removed from the upper heel piece. So, it’s a bit puckered at the back. In my test fit, though, it didn’t seem to make a difference and will become even less of an issue after I hammer it down a bit, hammer the stitches, and glue on the rubber.

Agreed with the others that those look pretty darn good. Yeah, clean up your stitch lines (I can’t cast too many stones, considering the state of the stitching on a pair of chukka boots I’m making currently), but overall those look good and substantial. See if you can sell some, as it sounds like you’ve sunk some money into the tools and materials and could use supplementing your income anyway, but also just enjoy those. I like it.

Sounds like a 1000-grit waterstone, or the equivalent in another kind of abrasive, would be a good place to start. 220-grit waterproof sandpaper might work, too, then work up through 320 and 400, followed by a good stropping.

I’ll post some pictures some time soon, although “soon” might mean the end of the week. Hopefully earlier than that.

Thanks for the suggestions. I modified this heel pattern to curve a little bit more, at least at the top. I’m a believer in changing this incrementally, so I’ll probably go ahead and try just with the dart, then make another pair. I could use some low-top shoes as well, so I might as well continue to fiddle. Plus, I have a whole side of SB Foote to work with, so I can make a large number of brown shoes. Good thought on the Kamsnap setter. I’ll take a look. The weird thing is, my 1/4” eyelets set just fine, no problems. I’m going to look at the anvil again and at Tandy to see if part of my setup is defective—I can feel a little burr around the outside of the setting eye in the middle, so I may just need to polish it with a small, fine file.

Look at the tutorials on sharpening head knives in the Leather Tools and Sharpen It! subforums’ sticky threads. The chap who owns Leather Wranglers (can’t think of his name) does a video on which he demonstrates sharpening one of his knives. Probably the best video I’ve seen. Used his advice to get my vintage CS Osborne knife into scary sharp skiving shape. Learn to cut and skive with that single head knife, and you’ll be just fine. Not much you can’t do with a good head or round knife.

Didn’t get everything done, but I at least got the dart right and did the butt joint to make the seam at the back. If I can ever get the 3/16” eyelets to set properly, I’ll be in business. For some reason, they keep coming out crooked and partially smashed. I think my setting anvil may be the wrong size, although the setter itself looks right.

Hoping to get them done today and posted. How to do the dart @Aven described finally clicked in my head, so I tried it last night. I WAY overdid the dart, so I need to redo one upper, but I know now I got the idea basically right. I just need to tinker with the height and width of the dart to get it right. The leather I’m using is 5.5 oz., so I need to make it less dramatic than I thought I would.

I had no idea such a thing existed until I went into the store a few months ago, saw the alum tan, and thought, “What the heck is that?”

To that point, my local Tandy has some straight white alum tan for sale. I’ve seen chrome tan that’s already struck white.

I burn the end of poly thread to keep it from unraveling. That and that helps shrink it back if I can’t trim it close to the surface for some reason. It’s not to keep the stitching from working loose; it still can, even if the end of the thread is melted. Feel free to put glue, if you like. Just about any glue would likely work. The only point anyone pointing out you don’t have to do that, is that you don’t have to do that if you have matched the thread size and hole size.