Cutting A Tapered Strap

[Danne]

I make a template in a cad software (but graph paper work fine of course) then I glue it to thicker card paper and cut it out.

It requires some practice to cut the leather with precision. But two things that help is to start with a very shallow cut, and put a little extra pressure on the end of your template/your cut.

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Danne

[Rahere]

13 hours ago, Danne said:

I make a template in a cad software (but graph paper work fine of course) then I glue it to thicker card paper and cut it out.

It requires some practice to cut the leather with precision. But two things that help is to start with a very shallow cut, and put a little extra pressure on the end of your template/your cut.

 

You might find a silver pen would help transfering the pattern rather than cutting directly from the pattern, it allows you to see what's going on without the paper getting in the way. I also rework my patterns and laminate the cutting version in plastic, if there's any possibility I'll be doing alterations, so process stages are preserved.

[Dwight]

Some simple templates . . . if I envision this correctly . . . it is wider at one end (or both ends) than in the middle . . . those templates are easily made and work wonderfully.

Take a piece of 1/16 inch aluminum bar that is 1 inch wide . . . and at least 3 inches longer than the narrow part of the strap.  Then file or grind down the middle area such as in the little drawing I have included.  

You then clamp it at both ends on the edge of your work bench . . . with the strap underneath it . . . put your thumb on the back side of it in the middle . . . and use a very sharp razor knife to make the cutout.  In this case I believe we were going from 24 mm to 20 mm . . . so the area ground down in the template needs to be 2 mm.  Once you have cut the one side . . . flip it over and do the same for the other side.  

If you take your time and make your aluminum template well . . . it will serve you for the rest of your life . . . barring some unforseen accident.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Danne]

2 hours ago, Rahere said:

You might find a silver pen would help transfering the pattern rather than cutting directly from the pattern, it allows you to see what's going on without the paper getting in the way. I also rework my patterns and laminate the cutting version in plastic, if there's any possibility I'll be doing alterations, so process stages are preserved.

This work quite good for me, but a silver pen is certainly a good idea that I will use for bund straps like this one, if it's a soft or a leather that doesn't work to scribe well. For stiffer veg tan a thin round awl work good. But chevre Sully is a good example. Can't scribe, really hard to cut along a template without anything moving (I have to constantly move my fingers to put pressure on the correct places of the template) And use a fine pen and paint on the flesh side isn't really a good option for me either, because I find it hard to free hand cut from the flesh side, because I can't really make a primary cut and follow it for multiple cuts. Thanks for the tip. A silver pen is on the list.

 

[Danne]

Made a template for people who want to try to glue on card paper and use as templates.

Standard size 115/75. 18-16, 20-18, 22-20 

When you print it and measure to the fold line you will see that it's 1mm too short, the template is made for 1mm leather, and when folded it compensates for the fold. (So not a error in the drawing)

I choose to not use a curve for the taper, because it's such a small taper it will both look curved and be curved when sanded. And it makes it easy to cut out templates after glued to card paper, because you can use a ruler for everything except the "point" (tip: Cut the template point in multiple cuts, and start with a very shallow cut) you can do the same on leather, or scribe along the template, silver pen, or cut along the edges and finish with "stabbing" around the tip with a skiving knife, and sand it into shape. 

 

I haven't tried printing the letter size (since I have an A4-printer) but if something is wrong with dimensions notify me so I can solve it.

Instruction.pdf Templates_A4.pdf Templates_letter.pdf

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Danne