Dark green watch strap with black lining

[Danne]

Sorry for bad photos, I don't have appropriate light. I tried to show the color on the last photo (where it's attached to a watch)

Exterior leather: Italian chrome/mineral tanned, textured calf

Lining leather: Semi-aniline vegetable tanned calf.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Northmount
Uploaded photos from 3rd party host so photos will always be available on LW.

[Northmount]

7 hours ago, Danne said:

I tried to show the color on the last photo (where it's attached to a watch)

Try taking photos outside in the shade.  Often helps when you don't have a light box or such.

Photos and strap look very nice.

Please post photos on this site.  Using 3rd party hosting sites often results in the photos disappearing due to changes in the host permissions or the owner moving or deleting the photo.  Then the thread becomes useless in the future when users want to peruse or study it.  There are some helps here for posting on this site and resizing photo files to fit the size requirements here.  More options for resizing can be found on the web.

[TomE]

Beautiful work!  I'd need new spectacles for this realm.  What is the tool used for creasing? 

[Danne]

11 hours ago, Northmount said:

Try taking photos outside in the shade.  Often helps when you don't have a light box or such.

Photos and strap look very nice.

Please post photos on this site.  Using 3rd party hosting sites often results in the photos disappearing due to changes in the host permissions or the owner moving or deleting the photo.  Then the thread becomes useless in the future when users want to peruse or study it.  There are some helps here for posting on this site and resizing photo files to fit the size requirements here.  More options for resizing can be found on the web.

Just a simple light box would be perfect, 

Thank you.

Yes, it's true. Often when I look at some older posts on a forum, links to photos are broken. 

[Danne]

7 hours ago, TomE said:

Beautiful work!  I'd need new spectacles for this realm.  What is the tool used for creasing? 

Thank you,

I use an electric creaser from Regad, the iron I used in this case is Dupin G1.0 though. (Ps, I see you live in US, I have seen resellers of Dupin machines in US, but they have their own brand name on the machine, like Summit from Rocky Mountain leather supply.)

I bought my G1.0 iron from https://crimsonhides.com/products/heat-creaser-tips

Edited December 12, 2022 by Danne

[NDphung]

Very nice. Your stitching is very tight and regular. I would go with a contrasting thread or at least a subtle difference in color.

 

[Danne]

25 minutes ago, NDphung said:

Very nice. Your stitching is very tight and regular. I would go with a contrasting thread or at least a subtle difference in color.

 

Thank you

[Klara]

Amazing Work! How did you get these edges (and how long did it take)?

[Danne]

4 minutes ago, Klara said:

Amazing Work! How did you get these edges (and how long did it take)?

Thank you,

It's quite time consuming, I can't remember if I used Fenice or Uniters on this strap, I think it was Fenice. But the method is the same. I wrote a tutorial a couple of years ago, and it's basically how I still do it.

 

[Klara]

Thanks for the link!

[Northmount]

On 12/12/2022 at 2:40 AM, Danne said:

Yes, it's true. Often when I look at some older posts on a forum, links to photos are broken. 

Uploaded your photos and removed 3rd party links.

[Danne]

15 minutes ago, Northmount said:

Uploaded your photos and removed 3rd party links.

Ohh, really nice of you. Sorry I will try to think of this in the future. It's quick and easy to batch resize in photoshop when I do my best to correct light and such.

[Schick]

Hi. I am a beginner, and very interested in doing watch straps. I appreciate your post very much. I really like the stitching and the edge work.

 

I hope you don't mind, but as a beginner, I have a few questions I hope you might answer.

-What is the leather weight/thickness you used for the top and lining? I find skiving thin leather a bit of a challenge so far. :-)

-What chisel size did you use for the stitching holes? I have a set of 2mm and 3mm punches.

-Do you use a stencil? I bought a few acrylic stencils, but have yet to try them. Not sure how, frankly.

-Did you teach yourself how to do this? I have watched a few videos, but find some conflicting techniques. I have yet to find a book.

 

You are inspiring. Thanks for the post and images. I really want to make straps. :-)

[Danne]

6 hours ago, Schick said:

Hi. I am a beginner, and very interested in doing watch straps. I appreciate your post very much. I really like the stitching and the edge work.

 

I hope you don't mind, but as a beginner, I have a few questions I hope you might answer.

-What is the leather weight/thickness you used for the top and lining? I find skiving thin leather a bit of a challenge so far. :-)

-What chisel size did you use for the stitching holes? I have a set of 2mm and 3mm punches.

-Do you use a stencil? I bought a few acrylic stencils, but have yet to try them. Not sure how, frankly.

-Did you teach yourself how to do this? I have watched a few videos, but find some conflicting techniques. I have yet to find a book.

 

You are inspiring. Thanks for the post and images. I really want to make straps. :-)

Thank you,

This watch have quite tight clearance between spring bars and case, so I had to take that into consideration when making this strap.

Leather weights - Top layer: 0.9mm + 0.2mm velodon (dimensionally stable reinforcement material) lining: 1mm

Stitching - 3mm/9spi and 0.3mm synthetic thread (Meisi Xiange twist #35) I have irons in 2.7/10spi and 2.45/11spi, and most people would probably see them as more suitable for this thread weight, but I like this look.

Templates - I make my own templates, print them and glue to thicker card paper. I used the same template as I use for straps with thicker padding, and it's a construction where I assemble the strap oversized and flush cut it to size, which have a quite steep learning curve, especially if not using acrylic templates. (See my photo, it's the same template I used for this strap) I did actually upload some templates yesterday. 125-75mm and 18-22, with and without taper. I guess you use letter size in Canada? I haven't tried printing it in letter size since I'm from europe. But please try and update me, it should fit, it does when I show it in letter size preview in printer settings, but not sure if the dimensions will be correct. 

When you have skived the edges and folded and glued them in place, you cut an oversized lining and skive the ends (two ends on the short strap, and one end on the longer, glue in place and trim excess from the top. It can be easy to "stab" your way around with a skiving knife, and then if you are going to paint your edges, you will have to sand it so it's slightly under the final dimensions in width, how much will depend on the viscosity of your edge paint, and how many layers and such. I usually sand to around -0.2/0.3mm when using Fenice or Uniters (multiple coats with heat and sanding in between) this will probably not be the same if you use a higher viscosity edge paint with primer.

How I learned this - A lot of trial and error, and prototypes, and also analyzing other peoples work when people have shared photos on Instagram.

 

 

[Schick]

How incredibly kind and generous to provide all this information.

[CalgaryJim]

Thank you for this level of detail! And I see the most important supply item of all, coffee

[MarshalWill]

It's nice to see how they go together. Thanks for that.

58 minutes ago, CalgaryJim said:

... And I see the most important supply item of all, coffee