Starting My Leather Journey

[Reccymech]

Currently my 'cottage industry' is sewing webbing, comprising tool rolls, bags, dog collars & leashes etc. I now want to expand into leather dog collars.

See attached rather poor photo of the 'Concept of Ops'. Now, I have a commercial sewing machine (Zoje...Juki knock-off), but I want to probably hand sew the dog collars. So, my question is what array of tooling I would need to accomplish the leather collar, as shown. Also, if I was to attempt it on my sewing machine what needle size and thread size would I need.

[DieselTech]

24 minutes ago, Reccymech said:

Currently my 'cottage industry' is sewing webbing, comprising tool rolls, bags, dog collars & leashes etc. I now want to expand into leather dog collars.

See attached rather poor photo of the 'Concept of Ops'. Now, I have a commercial sewing machine (Zoje...Juki knock-off), but I want to probably hand sew the dog collars. So, my question is what array of tooling I would need to accomplish the leather collar, as shown. Also, if I was to attempt it on my sewing machine what needle size and thread size would I need.

Ok I will give a shot at this. 

Tools I would want.

Leather edger.

Skiving knife.

Stitching groover.

Burnishing tool for burnished edges.

Stitching awl or Stitching chisels. 

Leather knife or razor knife.

Rotating hole punch.

Lmao I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff.

What Juki clone do you got? 

Thanks. 

 

[Reccymech]

On 10/28/2024 at 4:16 AM, DieselTech said:

 

What Juki clone do you got? 

Thanks. 

 

ZJ 9800A-D38

 

 

[Dwight]

It was not a good picture . . . so I could not tell if it was a single layer or double layer collar.  

For a single layer collar . . . a rotating punch . . . mallet . . . razor knife . . . bag of brass rivets . . . and a piece of 1/4 inch steel . . . about 4 inches square . . . and a cork back ruler either 18 or 24 inches long . . . and a rivet stamping tool.

And you can do double layer collars by adding a quart of Weldwood contact cement and a bag of acid brushes from Harbor Freight.

Instead of sewing the layers together . . . brass rivets will put them together in fine fashion . . . but if your sewing machine will sew 5/32 of an inch of leather . . . that is two 5 ounce layers . . . or one 10 ounce layer . . .  which is good for all but the German Shepherd and larger dogs.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Mablung]

1 hour ago, Dwight said:

It was not a good picture . . . so I could not tell if it was a single layer or double layer collar.  

For a single layer collar . . . a rotating punch . . . mallet . . . razor knife . . . bag of brass rivets . . . and a piece of 1/4 inch steel . . . about 4 inches square . . . and a cork back ruler either 18 or 24 inches long . . . and a rivet stamping tool.

And you can do double layer collars by adding a quart of Weldwood contact cement and a bag of acid brushes from Harbor Freight.

Instead of sewing the layers together . . . brass rivets will put them together in fine fashion . . . but if your sewing machine will sew 5/32 of an inch of leather . . . that is two 5 ounce layers . . . or one 10 ounce layer . . .  which is good for all but the German Shepherd and larger dogs.

May God bless,

Dwight

Not to hijack the post, but what would you recommend for a GSD on up? Planning to make a collar for my Husky/GSD mix and haven’t dialed in how heavy it needs to be. 

[DieselTech]

51 minutes ago, Mablung said:

Not to hijack the post, but what would you recommend for a GSD on up? Planning to make a collar for my Husky/GSD mix and haven’t dialed in how heavy it needs to be. 

I have a friend who has a Rottweiler & it is a Big dog. She walks it everyday. 

I made a dog collar for her, out of a single layer of 10-12oz veg-tan. 

Over a years time, that collar stretched a bunch. Like way worse than I thought it would. IDK maybe it was a bad side of leather I got or what. 

I made a new collar for her, out of 2 layers of 8-9oz veg-tan & put velodon no stretch fabric in between the 2 layers & sewn it with 346 thread. 

It has not stretched any in over a year now. 

 

[Mablung]

30 minutes ago, DieselTech said:

I have a friend who has a Rottweiler & it is a Big dog. She walks it everyday. 

I made a dog collar for her, out of a single layer of 10-12oz veg-tan. 

Over a years time, that collar stretched a bunch. Like way worse than I thought it would. IDK maybe it was a bad side of leather I got or what. 

I made a new collar for her, out of 2 layers of 8-9oz veg-tan & put velodon no stretch fabric in between the 2 layers & sewn it with 346 thread. 

It has not stretched any in over a year now. 

 

Thanks.  I walk my dog on head halter (which she hates) rather than the collar, solely because she responds way better to the halter than the collar, so I doubt it would get stretched too much in my use.  I've got a 8/9 oz. strap blank part of which I plan to use, and I'll probably line it with a piece of 3/4.

Back to the OP...

[TomE]

I recommend JH Leather videos on Youtube.  She is trained in saddlery and hand sews dog collars in a variety of styles.  Also, the Stohlman book on hand sewing leather is a good reference.

[TonyV]

7 hours ago, TomE said:

I recommend JH Leather videos on Youtube.  She is trained in saddlery and hand sews dog collars in a variety of styles.  Also, the Stohlman book on hand sewing leather is a good reference.

Great recommendation.  Joan at J.H. Leather sews an impeccable stitch has instructional vids on her traditional sewing technique and has a few great vids on making dog collars and leashes. As always, Stohlman is an authority on leatherwork.

Edited October 30 by TonyV