Working With Stingray/shagreen Hides

[sien]

Hi everybody,

I am really fascinated by the beauty of stingray hides and I would love to start making objects with it. The only problem is that I have no idea how to work with it, I find the material really hard to handle. In particular I would like to know:

1. What is the best way to cut a straight line in the hide so that you get a nice straight edge? What would be the best tool for doing this?

2. What is the best way to stitch stingray leather?

Your advice/input would be really appreciated !! Many thanks in advance.

sien

[Dwight]

Hi everybody,

I am really fascinated by the beauty of stingray hides and I would love to start making objects with it. The only problem is that I have no idea how to work with it, I find the material really hard to handle. In particular I would like to know:

1. What is the best way to cut a straight line in the hide so that you get a nice straight edge? What would be the best tool for doing this?

2. What is the best way to stitch stingray leather?

Your advice/input would be really appreciated !! Many thanks in advance.

sien

If you call the Tandy store in Columbus, Ohio, . . . ask for Scott, . . . he can give you some good advice. I just happened to overhear him and a customer talking about it the other day.

Their phone number is 614-781-1700, . . . he'll laugh when you tell him Dwight gave you the number.

May God bless,

Dwight

[KazariK]

Good Day,

If I may, if you do call the gentleman mentioned, would you post the results of that conversation?

I am in the process of making an ebook cover for my wife and would like to add stingray hide to the back.

I havent tried cutting it yet, figured a good pair of leather shears would work, but now I am curious to know if there is special things I should do..

Best luck to you..

Kaz

[sien]

Thank you so much for that number!!!!

I'll give him a call and will let you know how it went.

A lovely weekend to all.

[hoosier122]

I know I'm the new guy, but would a rotary cutter work?

I love my 60mm Oflay Tungsten Steel Blade cutter.

[sien]

I know I'm the new guy, but would a rotary cutter work?

I love my 60mm Oflay Tungsten Steel Blade cutter.

Mm I don't think so, the stingray is so hard, a rotary cutter wouldn't work. But thanks for the tip!!

I have experimented with a paper guillotine (which works relatively ok) but again, it's not ideal...

Btw I haven't had a chance to ring the States yet (I'm really busy at work at the moment and with the huge time difference...) But I will keep you posted when I've rung them :-)

[Ellen]

In my humble experience, unless this is a skin of baby stingray - thin, with small bumps, getting the even, straight edge at once is impossible, with common tools. It's like splitting hardwood log on each bump. On thick adult skins, my best was skiving the flesh (back side) as much as possible and cut through with either sharp knife or scissors, correct cut as possible than sand and paint the edge with Sharpie marker, let dry and apply finish on that edge. Certainly pain in the neck method.

If somebody can share the name of supplier of fine baby stingray skins, not wholesale, it would help.

[JS22]

Straight edged serrated tin snips. Can be bought at any hardware store. Cuts through like butter.

[knuckles34]

Straight edged serrated tin snips. Can be bought at any hardware store. Cuts through like butter.

Awsome answer !! I agree!! I love my aviater snips. I have used them for cutting rawhide. Just gotta remember to get the straight cutting ones. as to thinning that skin, Ive never worked with it, but... I have used a random orbital palm sander to clean off the rollup on rawhide. used a 20 grit disk. flesh side only for your fish skin. and test out your grits. I only used the 20 because it was membrane rawhide, Hard stuff.

[Nightwolf]

I concur with serrated scissors, Tandy sells a blue handled pair (about a 5" blade) that either are on sale, or were just on sale. Tandy sells 2 pairs, look for the blue coated handled ones with the serrated blade which helps grab the hide to keep it from moving around.

[eyeman]

As to the stitching, I have never seen it look good on singray. The stitching when pulled tight will channel itself around the beads and appear to be poor stitching when it is actually not, but instead simply unavoidable. The only way I have used it on holsters is to cement it over the completed stitched hide or inlet it and carefully finished off the edge by Dremel ginding and then painting. As a word of caution, the beads when cut are very sharp, so be careful to smooth them off on any edges. This is a paddle holster I did for my Kimber.

[jimmy eng]

The stingray holster is brilliant, Eyeman, it looks like a piece of alien technology but incredibly naturally formed.

[8thsinner]

Love that holster too.

I can offer only ideas on working with ray and what I have heard from places on here.

Holes can be drilled with a drill press for stitching, and it's gonna look better if it is inlaid.

Cutting can be done with a very fine toothed ban saw. And sanding it is a must to get clean edges.

I have heard of others scoring the back on a line they want over and over till you are completely through.

Stitching straight on the ray though, I have an idea, if you can accurately set up a diamond cutting blade on a dremel, and I would keep it at a low speed at just the right height cutting through the nodules enough to form a guide line might work but if your doing holsters or something, getting that straight curved line would have to be done by hand and a practiced one at that. Then you would hae to hand sand and polish each cut nodule edge so it doesn't cut the thread, Considering it's price thats a big risk and a hell of a lot of work.

And if possible I would go with baby ray as much as possible as the nodules are smaller and less intrusive if it's big enough for your project that is. Mind you a lot of people judge the quality of ray by the size of the nodules too...

Hope that helps a bit.