Mablung

Then there’s that? I nearly took the tip of one finger off, or would have if my first head knife weren’t so dull.

Happy to, Aven. And that summary above is a great “quick start guide” on the subject. Personally, I do my cutting and most skiving with my round knife, but I have a particular affinity for this rather large CS Osborne I got on eBay for a steal and resharpened. (Sharpening and honing is a critically important skill, to echo Aven’s remark.) Aven’s comments on using awls also introduces the fact one can use an awl to make holes instead of a set of chisels. I’m making myself and my nephew some moccasins and plan to mark my holes with a set of wing dividers, then punch with an awl, because I don’t want to use a round drive punch or try to find a set of irons with the right spacing.

Nah, post away. If I posted pictures of the first pair I made after a bit of wear, they would look hideous. I’m still refining the pattern, as a matter of fact. I got some good help by posting the ugly pictures, too. I must admit at this juncture that I’m not widely experienced with a variety of chisels. Personally, if I want small/narrow holes, I like the Tandy Pro fine chisels. If I’m not concerned about narrow holes, I use the regular Tandy ones with the fatter tines. If I want it to be particularly tight, I use my Tandy Pro M Pricking Irons and narrow awl blade. There’s a sticky in the Sewing forum with Nigel Armitage’s reviews of an impressive array of irons and chisels that will provide you far more information than I can. For your uses, stitch length can follow tine/tooth size, as hole size will be the most important factor within the range of SPI you’re talking about.

The tool use really isn’t going to differ between 4 ounce and 5 ounce. The big thing will just be making sure that the size of your chisel tine matches the size of hole that you want to make for the size of thread that you choose. And fair enough on wanting to color the leather yourself and use something a little more natural. Can’t really argue with that. if I were you, I would go and look at some of the other threads in the shoe making forum about how to condition shoes made with vegetable tanned leather. There are some good leather conditioner recipes in there, and some people talking about their experience conditioning and waxing boots in particular that are made of veg tan. Some good resources that will likely be helpful as you are trying to use that leather to make shoes. Something that another member posted a while back was a short version of his process of warm, stuffing tan sandal, mid soles with a conditioner blend in order to achieve some degree of resistance to the elements. I have not tried it personally, but he seemed to get decent results out of it. Forgot to add, be sure to post photos of your work as you go, especially the end product. I, for one, will be interested to see it, especially since I have not worked with veg tan for shoes specifically.

@Aven is a wealth of knowledge on making things like this. Are you looking to make lasted shoes or unlasted moccasins and stitchdown shoes? I’ve made a thread talking about the stitchdown chukkas I’ve made. I did those with 5mm irons, but that’s really close stitching; for the soles, my next pair will probably have half as many stitches, per Aven’s suggestion. The stitching gets really tedious. Fielder’s choice on how to stitch the uppers. I’ll probably stick with my 5mm chisels or pricking irons. As far as thread goes, I use 0.8mm Ritza or 1mm Maine Thread Co. stuff. I like both. If you want a finer thread, make sure your chisels have a fine enough tooth to make a smaller hole. I’ll offer that veg-tan probably isn’t a good choice for the uppers. Too stiff, not as impervious to water and other elements, tough break-in. I’ve been using SB Foot chrome tan, and it’s wonderful. A pair of moccasin loafers will be chrome tan/veg-retanned bison, which will handle moisture, etc., better than plain veg tan. Just a thought. On the note of veg tan, my basic Tandy chisels make a fairly wide hole in veg tan, which allows thread to shift more, if the parts aren’t cemented together. I don’t cement the uppers or sole/lower stitching on shoes. If you stick with veg tan, you will need to be especially cognizant of the size of hole made and the extent to which it will or won’t close up. My chrome tan closes up just fine, veg tan not so much.

I’d just write “Wilbur” on all the stickers. And then tell people casually that I’d eaten Wilbur for breakfast that morning.

I downloaded that free moccasin pattern to see what I can do with it, and I may look at the others as well, if one seems better suited to my needs (or I can’t reliably scale the free one). I’ll share my results, too.

Thanks much. I think the second one may get me something to work with. The first are awfully expensive, you are right.

Does anyone have a good pattern for a toddler moccasin, US toddler shoe size 9 or thereabouts? Looking to make a pair for my nephew for his birthday but don’t have access to a tracing of his foot (his mama can’t get him to stand still long enough) and haven’t found a good pattern yet.

There are some more recent threads than this 17-year-old necrothread that may be helpful. Speaking of necrotic things, why the handle “Satanicblood”? That is passing strange, at a minimum.

@SUP, didn’t you experiment a while back with finishing chrome tan edges? Can’t remember where that thread is.

Agreed that sanding can make a mess of edges. In my admittedly limited experience, it can be avoided if the right grits are used, but not always. Really clean cuts help, of course, but sometimes the whole point is to clean up a less-than-ideal cut. I’ll look into small planes at some point.

Welcome from a fellow Alabamian. I go to the Hoover, AL Tandy store pretty regularly. Good guys in there who are really helpful, nice guys. If you live nearby or are in the area, you should stop in at some point.

I haven’t tried using a plane, rasp, or Dremel, mostly because I’m trying to rein in my spending right now, but I find fine grits of wet/dry sandpaper used for painting to work very nicely. I got a variety pack of 220, 320, and 400 grit and find that gives a much cleaner edge. 220 does a pretty good job of cleaning up slightly frayed edges, and the other grits further clean and smooth the edges.

Sorry to see you go. You do unique, fun work. But, I assume you have your own reasons for wanting to depart altogether, so I wish you the best.

I use mine for very fine cuts and for some trimming work. Different blade styles lend themselves to different uses, so there is some utility there. I don’t use them much, but that’s because I use my large round knife for nearly everything.

Neato! How do you figure out where to place the nails holding the upper in place? I’ve watched plenty of videos of shoe and boot making and am always just certain that the nail holes will be visible after completion. They never are, but why is about as clear to me as black magic. Are they simply hidden under the welt? The videos I have seen don’t show the holes being trimmed off as the upper is trimmed after lasting, so my only guess is that they are hidden.

Depends on how much you want to get into floral tooling. Most of those stamp kits have large stamps that make it difficult to do anything precise. I’d follow elnedro’s advice and start out with some basic tools from Tandy. They’re better than kits you’ll get at other big box hobby stores but are not too expensive, either. If you’re looking for basic floral carving tools, elnedro covered that. As far as tools for construction, I’d start with a 5mm six-prong and two-prong set of stitching chisels, a good mallet, and a groover or creaser from Tandy. That stuff will last you a long time and is decently made. I think I mentioned on another thread that something to mark hole locations and an awl work well, which is true. I do some of my stitching that way. I then thought about the fact that a good set of chisels is easier to use when starting out, IMO. The awl and over stitch wheel or pricking irons are definitely useful, but chisels are easier to start with. I’ll post some links when I have a chance.

The rule of thumb when learning to tool is generally to cut a depth of 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness of the leather. You’ll have to judge whether yours is that deep, but some of the cuts, like the ones around the moons/planets and the astronaut’s head look a little shallow. Curved cuts are tough.

Is this a first or early effort? It looks very good. I’m not much of an artist, so I’ll leave the artistic comments to those with such ability. Your beveling overall looks good, although a bit choppy and inconsistent in depth. I’d bevel a bit more deeply and then use a matting tool to smooth out the edges. How large is your beveler? It looks like you were having trouble traversing some of the tighter curves, which may indicate you need a smaller one (I hate tight curves). Move the beveler 1/3 to 1/2 its width for each strike, and work at striking it with consistent force. Beveling is the heart of tooling. Those constructive (hopefully) criticisms aside, this really does look good. Keep it up! ETA: Idiot here just reread the title, where you say it’s your first practice piece. Great work!

Pick something you want or need, learn how to make it, and go from there. Don’t shoot for the stars on your first project, but also don’t undersell yourself. I started with a fold over knife sheath because I needed one for a knife, and have branched out and learned from there. I’m not naturally good with my hands, so it was tough for me to get into some things, like wallets, that have several components to them. Practice gets you a long way, as does being patient and being willing to accept less-than-perfect pieces as adequate expressions of your then-developed skill. Mulesaw’s tool and supply list will get you going on a lot of projects. You can make nearly anything with those few tools. I’ll add that something to mark stitch hole spacing is beneficial. Even a dinner fork can be used, or a geometry compass/set of wing dividers. Pick something, try it out, and then decide if you want to go all out. I’ve expanded from using a small set of tools like Mulesaw posted to using half my basement for this stuff. Dive in and explore! This group will answer questions readily, as long as they’re reasonably specific.

Looks like the crosshatching is done with U-gouge or a V-gouge. Kinda cool.

An excellent idea. I had forgotten that the OP started with something else—deepest apologies, OP.

Go right ahead with the discussion of the lasting pliers. This is fascinating.

I’ve had good luck with the major rental companies, like Enterprise or Hertz. But those can depend on the quality of each location’s staff, too.