Newbie From Africa

[Willem]

Hello Everyone,

As my username shows, my name is Willem and I live in the Great Karoo region of South Africa. I am a knife maker by trade and as such I have to make the odd sheath/slip. As part of a continuous and constant striving to improve my product, I want to make more of the sheaths and slips myself and in order to do that I need to up the quality of my leather work substantially. As far as leatherwork is concerned, I am a babe in the woods but very keen to learn.

I found this site while looking for tutorials and it looks like a very nice community, so I joined. I hope in time to be able to contribute something worth while in turn.

In the meantime, a few pictures of where I live.

[Willem]

A few more:

[King's X]

Welcome to the forum Willem. Thanks for sharing photos of your beautiful country!

[benlilly1]

Welcome Willem! You live in a beautiful area. We'll be waiting for photos of your work.

[David8386]

Willem welcome to the forum, nice pictures thanks for posting them.

David

[Willem]

Thank you all, I am sure I will be here quite often with some really noob questions! :D My leather work is very basic at the moment, so there is nothing really worth while to do pictures of, but I am very keen to learn, so hopefully in a few months time there will be some stuff to show and share.

[Havamal]

Welcome aboard! Look forward to seeing some of your work.

Thanks for posting the pics from your neck of the woods. I have always wanted to travel there, maybe someday I'll make it

[electrathon]

Welcome and pretty area. I am in fovor of you posting pics of your knife work. Also, it looks like you live a few miles from the leather store (or wood store or grocery store). What do you have available for leather? Any exotics available? It may make some awsome looking sheaths.

Aaron

[Willem]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the welcome - you really must try to make it but you need to have some time - it is a wide open country and very diverse - from rain forests to deserts, some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world and plenty of space to travel. And lots of friendly people - especially out in the countryside.

Aaron, thanks for the welcome and the kind words. Yep, we are out of town a ways, so everything has to be shipped in. We are fortunate in that we have some really good tanneries with plenty of variety. Big game hunting is also a major industry, so exotics are available - at a price of course. But not nearly what you guys pay. I have a friend over that side who does leather work for a living and he comes hunting over here every two years or so and according to him the leather, especially the exotics, is much cheaper over here than what you pay over there. I am quite close to a major ostrich farming area, but the industry is having major problems with bird flu, so skins are scarce and expensive at the moment, but once they get going again, that would be one to look out for. Stuff like veg tan, calf skin, upholstery leathers etc are freely available and relatively affordable. My main thing at the moment is to learn how to work it properly and to learn which leather to use for what application.

I'd love to show some of my knives but don't want to break any forum rules or such so I am not too sure which forum to use for that?

[Willem]

I forgot - up to now I have been using a small fixed blade with a sheep's foot type blade as well as a hobby/carpet knife for most of the cutting, so you can see how rudimentary my knowledge is - but I will obviously, and shortly, be making some custom utility, trimming and round knives for myself... :D