Leather Key Fobs

[Tophee]

Still new, but these are my latest creations. Still cannot get the cuts all even.

[HandyDave]

Pieces look pretty good specially for just starting. If your planning on doing alot of key fobs and such smaller items I would suggest looking into some cutting dies. Key fob dies and similar small item dies aren't alot of money and will guarantee you a pile of pieces that are all cut perfectly the same. It is hard to get consistent shapes when cutting stuff like this by hand.

[JDFred]

Keep up the practice with your curves.  I don’t know what you use for a knife, but I had a hard time with curves when I used to use a utility knife.  To me the blade flexed too much and the slack between the blade and the handle made curves hard to cut.  I switched to a round knife an it helped me a lot in my cutting.  If you intend to make a bunch of fobs HandyDave is right about a die.  Fobs would be small enough I think you could use those dies with a mallet, if you don’t have a press.

[Hags]

I struggled trying to get even curves for fobs and other items using a knife. Not such a big deal for large curves. I had pretty good luck cutting the bottoms with a set of half round punches off Amazon,  about $20 i believe. Eventually I went with a die cutter (now have 2) for about $60. I use it on a 1 ton arbor press from harbor freight.  Also about $60. Great way to burn through a bunch of scrap.

[chuck123wapati]

i dress my edges up with a belt sander.

[Doc Reaper]

I use a dermal and then a burnisher I got from the leather tool maker

[Tophee]

On 7/7/2024 at 9:35 PM, HandyDave said:

Pieces look pretty good specially for just starting. If your planning on doing alot of key fobs and such smaller items I would suggest looking into some cutting dies. Key fob dies and similar small item dies aren't alot of money and will guarantee you a pile of pieces that are all cut perfectly the same. It is hard to get consistent shapes when cutting stuff like this by hand.

Im looking at a couple of those, but most are for presses I dont have a press I would need one I can use with a hammer.

 

On 7/8/2024 at 1:00 AM, JDFred said:

Keep up the practice with your curves.  I don’t know what you use for a knife, but I had a hard time with curves when I used to use a utility knife.  To me the blade flexed too much and the slack between the blade and the handle made curves hard to cut.  I switched to a round knife an it helped me a lot in my cutting.  If you intend to make a bunch of fobs HandyDave is right about a die.  Fobs would be small enough I think you could use those dies with a mallet, if you don’t have a press.

Yea I use a utility knife atm or a rocksheet knife as I tend to call em. Was looking at a knife off of Tandy thats on sale if I cannot find a a die I can use with a hammer since I dont havea  press.

[Tophee]

On 7/8/2024 at 8:34 AM, Hags said:

I struggled trying to get even curves for fobs and other items using a knife. Not such a big deal for large curves. I had pretty good luck cutting the bottoms with a set of half round punches off Amazon,  about $20 i believe. Eventually I went with a die cutter (now have 2) for about $60. I use it on a 1 ton arbor press from harbor freight.  Also about $60. Great way to burn through a bunch of scrap.

I do intend on picking up some other punches ill have to give it a look. I dont have a place to put a press atm even a small one so any die I get will be mallet use.

On 7/8/2024 at 9:17 AM, chuck123wapati said:

i dress my edges up with a belt sander.

I did try to sand another piece I made that I did not post here. But all it did was fray the leather and burnishing didnt help fix it. Maybe I was using too coarse a paper.

 

21 hours ago, Doc Reaper said:

I use a dermal and then a burnisher I got from the leather tool maker

I do intend to pick up a dremel, they seem to come in handy for all kinds of crafts and things.

[SUP]

The key fob dies can be used by hand. I used one last christmas to make dozens of keychains. about a 100 I should think and it was no trouble at all. 

Instead of sanding, I use a small Plane or planer or whatever it is called- -used by woodworkers. It evens up the edges well. Then for burnishing I use an old piece of denim..

 

[Mablung]

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.