How to keep leather/Patterns flat while cutting.

[MikeRock]

Sad irons/flat irons are nice because of the varied shapes, pointy, rounded and straight.  Leather faces keep the iron from discoloring the leather, moist or not.

[chuck123wapati]

there was a guy on here that made these really cool hockey puck looking weights, if you search you may find it. he was from Europe, maybe  Greece i think. here ifound them !!

 

[Littlef]

19 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

there was a guy on here that made these really cool hockey puck looking weights, if you search you may find it. he was from Europe, maybe  Greece i think. here ifound them !!

 

Yea, those are cool.  That's kinda what I envisioned if I have to make a weight on my own... except his leather skills far exceed mine, lol. 

[Fraulein]

I use one of those old fashioned cordless irons from the 40's lol. Picked it up at some auction for less than a buck. Dunno if it's an option for you but thought I'd share lol

~Frau~

 

[Frodo]

Find some old car speakers and salvage the magnet,

I use vinyl as my pattern material 

and magnets. Works great 

or buy a jar of BBs pour into a sock then cover with leather 

[Littlef]

9 minutes ago, Fraulein said:

I use one of those old fashioned cordless irons from the 40's lol. Picked it up at some auction for less than a buck. Dunno if it's an option for you but thought I'd share lol

~Frau~

 

yea, an old cast iron, iron would do the job, if I come across one cheap. Thanks!!

10 minutes ago, Frodo said:

Find some old car speakers and salvage the magnet,

I use vinyl as my pattern material 

and magnets. Works great 

or buy a jar of BBs pour into a sock then cover with leather 

I like the old sock idea for a liner. keeps it simple.  good ideas, thanks!

[Hags]

I have a couple of denim bags filled with BB's I use for carving and tooling. And I found 4 old sad irons at a garage sale for 3 bucks each. I hitthemwith a wire wheel and glued some scrap on bottom for patterns.

[fredk]

I use; glass paper weights, lead blocks of various sizes/weights made of slavaged lead (car wheel balance weights mostly) two 2kg bar-bell weights I was given, a couple of iron /steel bars. Never use iron directly on the leather, theres a chance of staining, my bars are painted

[BlackDragon]

5 hours ago, Tugadude said:

 

These  can be had in sizes from 1.2 lbs up to 4.5 .lbs.  You can find them on Amazon.  Another method is to gather up some lead and melt it down into the size and shape you desire and then encase it in leather.  If you don't know of a cheap source of lead, companies sell ingots of lead that aren't terribly expensive.  

 

This is pretty much what I use. I'm a scuba diver so I have a couple 3lb weights laying around. I put 4 of those litte felt furniture feet on them and they work well.

[Burkhardt]

A really cheap and easy one to get is if you have somewhere near you that does stone countertops and get the cut outs from the holes for faucet and water handles.