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A couple years ago I bought an Al Stohlman Tandy round knife. It wasn't even close to the condition he describes in his 'Use and Care of Hand Tools' - type book, and I only made it much worse trying to sharpen it by hand. So I built a "Thing". I work in the aerospace industry for a living, so I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to end up, and knew that I would fall far short of that level working in my garage with hand tools. I used a piece of 2" x 2' x 1/4" angle iron, and put a lot of thought and work into it. I used the Lansky sharpening system idea, basically, working up to their finest stone, and quit (for now) with their leather strop. I originally put this idea up on a 'Facebook' page, and took a lot of flack about it not being perfect, or exactly equal throughout the entire curve of the blade, etc, Some of the people commenting were big names in the sharpening business, and they definitely know what they were talking about. The thing that they didn't get was that I just wanted something that would work for my occasional project, and I leave my pursuit of perfection behind at the company's door when I leave my job in aerospace for the day, and go home to work on stuff. I stole my motto in life from Theodore Roosevelt..."Do what you can, with what you have, where you are". I think it turned out great, because now I can cut caiman tails so fine that when you hold the cut edges together, it's hard to see where you caused the separation. (I haven't been on this site in a long time, so I'm not being rude if I don't respond to questions. I don't have any type of instructions, never made a single drawing, or anything like that. The only important thing that I can tell you is that I did my trigonometry calculations to come up with a 15 degree angle on the blade. Like I said, I have an Al Stohlman knife, but you can customize it to whatever you have. I feel that the key to this device is that it is very repeatable, within a small margin of error. I'm very happy with the results, and figure that I put much less time into making it than I would have spent trying to teach myself the muscle memory necessary to get proficient at sharpening by hand.)

In my neck of the woods, leather tools are expensive and hard to come by. At best, the more available stuff tends to be generic Chinese imports (not always bad) or very expensive commissioned pieces. Of course one can import, but our currency is not strong enough to give me enough reason to go that route. So, I needed a better maul than the heavyweight whacker or the lightweight poly hammer I currently have. And even with the COVID restrictions on movement in place, we can still buy milk in 2 litre HDPE jugs... And although I've attempted to make an HDPE maul before - very un-photogenic but functional - I decided to start from scratch. For this effort, my inspiration was this thread: Below are two mauls made from milk jugs which I melted down using a simple heat gun and two different sizes of moulds. The larger one was "forged" in a slightly tapered crucible that used to be used to melt woodworking glue in a double boiler setup in the era before "white glue" became the standard. I inherited it from father-in-law when he tidied up his workshop before selling his house. The smaller one was forged in a crucible made of a section of 50mm diameter steel pipe. Unfortunately I don't own a lathe, so centering and turning it to perfection was not possible ("my kingdom for a lathe!") - same issue for the handles. However, key to maintaining the roundness of the maul heads were that I maintained a steady pressure by using a stopper piece of the same diameter as the crucible /pipe with a G-clamp and even progressively increased pressure while the HDPE was cooling. My previous experience was that the HDPE distorted as it was cooling. The larger maul weights 586 grams (I believe its a cat's spittle over 16oz), 64mm in diameter and the handle is made of an old broken baseball bat I got somewhere. It's got a hidden cavity of about 20mm deep on the north end filled with four or five (maybe six) steel washers for additional weight, and then the washers and nut that are visible. When I can move around more freely once COVID is hopefully boxed up again, I'll hunt for prettier and a few more heftier weights, maybe a brass weight will look pretty, and a proper nut. The spindle (spine) is an 8mm hardened stainless steel rod I had lying around, which I threaded with M8 thread - darn difficult job - about 20 to 25mm of thread on both ends. The smaller of the two weights in around 356g (12oz give or take), about 48 or 50mm in diameter and does not have any additional weights added (except a stopper washer). It's spine comes from the rod in the gas lift of a hatchback - had to replace the gas lift on one of the children's cars some time ago and kept the old part for some reason. Any case, the rod is also 8mm and similarly threaded with M8 thread. The handle on this one is a bunch of leather washers, cut more or less round and with a 8mm centre hole punched, glued with wood glue, compressed and left to dry/cure on the threaded rod, and then trued and shaped in an electric drill. I'm still contemplating if I should not switch the two handles around... Not the prettiest, but - for now - better than what I used before. It feels good to hold and swing and the test run I gave it with a basket weave stamp was definitely an improvement on performance of my old whacker...

HI, I made a swivel knife on a mini lathe I bought a long time ago. It need a better finish but I am happy with how it turned out and works. I have some aluminum lying around I want to try this on, any suggestions? -Matt

When one of my hobbies demand a tool my other hobby skills come to the rescue. Starting out in leatherwork I may not have the money to have fancy equipment but I do have the means to build what I need. Maybe someday I may get into selling more leather creations but for now, I am just preparing in case I do get serious in the future by having fun building cool things now. The die bender is very simple and works well. Using Autodesk Inventor software I worked out a functioning model to build into a tables surface and a handle to push downward to counterforce any table movement that it may cause. I already have an idea to make a different version that will be able to change out the bending points (whatever they are called) and stay out of the way of the bending steel rule on itself by making most of the mechanism under the surface of the table like a few commercial designs out there. The manual clicker press (pictured below) I made after a mini hydraulic press I saw online. Made some improvements by welding the joints solid instead of nuts and bolts (nobody ever takes them apart) for better rigidity and with tighter tolerances on the sliding parts so the press works smooth and solid. Still, need a few tweaking on both machines but overall they were a success for my needs. I would not recommend anyone asking me to make one for them because you can purchase the same class of tools in the open market for the same cost of what I would charge to make plus, the shipping cost. That said, in material cost, the press was estimated 40$-50$ and the die bender was built from scrap I had laying around. I am always open to suggestions and ideas for DIY projects like this that starving artisans like myself can benefit.

I don't always have the $$$ to give away for something I can fabricate from crap laying around the workshop. From left to right, rear row--> large bag punches and wide oblong specialty punch, variable size billet tip 'V' shape, several size 1/2 round billet tips, 90 degree rounders and full cirlcle punches. The very far back is a gear tip cutter for steampunk projects. Front row, left to right--> wood handle is stitching groover/border tool. I have a long cutter that goes out to 6", wire shaped tool is freehand groover. the square root looking tool is another billet tip cutter. The fork is obviously a thonging chisel and the handle from fork is a french skiver. I still use these tools everyday... My cost is just time spent digging around garage looking for pipe scraps and the time to make the tool itself...

I'm looking to replace Fiebings edge dye that I have used for years. I use it for edge dying and touching up holes. They have discontinued it, so I'm having to recreate it. I need a solvent based pigment and de natured alcohol, I guess. Any suggestions? I would like to know what and where I can find the right pigment.

I wasn't sure where to put this. My buddy put this together for me. We call it the Binford 2000. Two ways to mount to the bench and it makes short work of almost any burnishing job....

As the title , how do I make lasts so l can make myself a pair of everyday boots. I have heard ofof plaster casts, feet in jelly and so on -but I want to end up with a pair of wood lastsI can make the boot directly onto. HELP! Best Wishes Claire

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as far as dyeing leather with indigo goes. I love the color it produces, and I am not a huge fan of using oil based dyes. I'd like to dye leather with actual indigo. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Hello, you leather geniuses, you. I am wondering if any of you have discovered any good natural leather adhesives with the same, or similar, holding strength as rubber cement (I currently use weldwood, with the red label). I would prefer something that is store bought, but I am completely open to brewing something up myself. I am sick of the fumes, and I always prefer the more natural route. I've heard that some people use PVA glue for leather on leather bonding, but it takes about 24 hours to set, and time is money. Also, PVA isn't natural. At the moment, the only thing I really use glue for, is to join two pieces of leather together at the edge, so I can set my stitching holes. As always, thank you so much for any advice! Zayne

Help! Quite some time ago i came across and article / topic on the subject of molding a handle from small bits of scrap leather and glue. I can't for the life of me find it now, I have tucked away the reference somewhere and, as to be expected, can't find it anywhere. The idea was to use shavings, scraps, dust and so on and build it up in layers, a bit like a concrete I suppose, till you got the required size and the sand it down to fit. Now I could go and spend a week trying out different glues or whatever and making a right mess getting it all wrong, or I could ask here in the sure knowledge that someone will know what I am babbling on about! Here's Hoping Claire

Actually, it was almost free, since a saddler buddy of mine donated the rawhide ( after a good chuckle ), so all I was out, was about a foot of rawhide lacing. And the rock, like nearly everything else we know, is made of stardust. I have used a rawhide mallet for 45 years to do leather tooling with no problem. I even have a couple of the plastic mallets, And yes I have a maul. So what was this big following that mauls have developed over the last decade? Do they really improve your tooling? Are they worth the money that they cost? What are the advantages, and disadvantages, to using a maul? One development of my research into this subject, which consisted mainly of watching YouTube videos, was that maul users seemed to consistantly hold the maul in a way that was no differant than you might hold a rock, or a brick, to hit a nail. So.......why not a rock? Living, as I do, in a river valley in Wyoming, I resolved to go down to the river and see what nature could provide. As it turned out, I didn't have to. I noticed a rock in the alleyway at work which looked like it would fit the bill. Since I didn't want to be hitting my tools with a bare rock....nor did I want rock dust on my tooling bench, I made a covering out of rawhide which I wetted, stretched around the rock, and laced together. After the rawhide dried, I tried it out......using it in the manner as shown in the videos. The learning curve was very short as the 99 cent maul had one big advantage over a maul. It had a much larger "sweet spot" than a maul.....which, until you get very used to using them, can result in a miss-strike since the sweet spot on a round tool, be it a bat, billiard cue tip, or maul is relatively small. The 99 cent maul even worked well using it in the ergonomically correct manner as shown by Don King above. Notice that he is not using his maul like a nail driving hammer, but much like the way reccomended for mallets........his elbow on the table and the action supplied by his wrist and forearm. I suspect he started out using a mallet, or striking stick.......and moved to mauls when he began tooing saddles (heavier leather) with his distinctive deep tooling style. LOL And I suspect that is why some folks think mauls are better......just the fact that they got a heavier maul than the mallet they had been using !

Hey guys, Here in South Africa, there is only one place to get any tools ; a third party retailer for the Tandy shop halfway across the country who seldom has stock. As a result, I am always on the lookout for easy tools that I can make myself to do the job. Mallets and mauls are very expensive here and there is only one in stock at any one time! I have been using a hammer handle with an old belt around it for about 5 months now but I am tired of it and wanted to upgrade. I have been coveting an Stolhman Poly Maul and decided that yesterday was the day that I try and make one for my self. No... I didn't really nail it the way I was hoping. It's a bit rough and ready and a lathe would have been a VERY useful tool to have so that I could turn down the handle nicely but, alas, I don't have one. However, I am thrilled with the outcome. and love the new feel of it. Here's a shot of the "raw materials". The threaded bar is a 6mm diameter and I used nyloc nuts to keep it all together. I didn't use any glue at all. It is seriously straight forward to make and so my only advice is to clamp the leather down when you drill the disks out! DO not try and hold it flat on the bench with your hand. I nearly lost a finger nail when the piece I was drilling, bit into the hole saw and wrapped my hand around the drill! It was a painful realisation of just how strong leather is. I have no idea where the center of the weight should be but I recon you could balance it by taking off the end disk, drilling a few small holes in the second disk down, inserting a few lead fishing weights, and clamping the whole thing back together. That way you could add weight to the head if necessary. The center of this one is right at the join between the head and the handle. Can any one tell me where the weight should lie? For the rest of us noobs out there, you don't need a huge budget to get started. Just a bit of patience and some effort, after all, this is a craft and an art so we may as well invest some time into the set up. Cheers Alex

My tool collection started out as an inheritance from my Grandfather. I have added to it here and there since, but that is where most of it came from. Amongst this collection were what you'd typically find in an old collection. Lots of punches, lots of leftover things, and all sorts of similar items, but the thing I wanted to share with you guys was the swivel knives he had made back in the early to mid 50's. I never got much detail from him as to exactly when he made them, but judging from the other things I had seen him make, these must have been pretty early in his career as a machinist. They are far from fancy, but they are functional and the simplicity is what I find most interesting. As far as comfort goes, they have their issues. I feel that sharing them might inspire others to maybe do something similar for themselves. Sometimes the tool you make might not be as nice or a well polished as the expensive variety made commercially, but they seem to carry more sentiment because it was something you made. I think that is one of the biggest reasons behind a lot of us enjoying the work done with leather. I hope you all enjoy the show-and-tell and might consider sharing tools that you, or someone close to you, made for whatever the reason might be. Also, I started this one, because I didn't want to hijack anyone else's thread.