Lettering on leather belt

[Pappys Leather]

I am working on my Santa belt that is 4 inches wide. After my border, I need 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 letters. No want makes letter stamps that large and honestly I am not good at lettering. Any suggestions?

[fredk]

Have you got access to a computer and printer?

Write the letters in a Word document. Enlarge the letters to your size. Print out on paper. Rub some olive oil onto paper. Place onto cased leather then go over the outline of the letters with a dead biro pen, pressing the outline into the leather. Then work on those outlines

[doubleh]

Hobby Lobby has stencils. Draw off the letters and embellish if you wish. Dampen with water so the leather doesn't change color and trace them on, carve and shade and there you are. Tandy's used to have  a letter pack just for this purpose but I don't know if they still do.

[Gezzer]

43 minutes ago, fredk said:

Have you got access to a computer and printer?

Write the letters in a Word document. Enlarge the letters to your size. Print out on paper. Rub some olive oil onto paper. Place onto cased leather then go over the outline of the letters with a dead biro pen, pressing the outline into the leather. Then work on those outlines

Like Fredk said but add an indicator between letters to help with lining up . Use clear packing tape on front and back and you will have a set of letters that you can use over and over .

Edited November 21, 2022 by Gezzer

[BlackDragon]

When I made these dog collars I wrote the names in Word, printed them out, traced on to the leather, and I tooled them.

[Gezzer]

@Pappys Leather I just remembered you are having swivel knife trouble , you can try this . Once the letter is traced on .... don't cut just use a bevel and backgrounder if you are wanting the sunken look. It works pretty well and looks good ( you may want to do better than this example ). I haven't tried but I don't see any reason it would not work for the raised letter look as well , just a thought and I know you'll get it figured out !   Merry Christmas

[Dwight]

Hobby Lobby . . . and hardware stores . . . sell stencils . . . and of course . . . there are all sorts of fonts on programs like Word . . . 

As previously mentioned . . . you can produce those letters to the size you want . . . 

Tape them down over your leather belt . . . and use a razor knife to just cut the paper . . . and go about 1/16 of an inch into your leather.

A swivel knife going into that slot will give you a nice valley . . . and you can then get acrylic paints . . . paint it up to the edge of that little valley . . . and you are good to go.

May God bless,

Dwight