Would Like Some Advice

[Umekichi]

Hi Everybody,

I want to get started in Leatherworking as I have an interest in traditional crafts and would like to get involved.

I have decided my first project, which is a key fob. I wish to use the tutorial on the Kingsmere Crafts site.

I was hoping for advice on tools for this project.

I'm guessing that I need a:

• Scratch Awl
• A cutting tool
• Leather Stampers
• A dye resist
• Leather Dye
• Split ring
• Adhesive
• Revolving hole punch
• double cap rivet
• Tandy Hi-Liter
• 1/8" lacing
• Wooden mallet
• Leather Finish

Is there anything I have forgotten? Is there anything which is not necessary?
Could you guys recommend a suitable knife for cutting the leather? I was thinking a shoemaker's knife but how does it handle curves?

Tandy Hi-Liter isn't sold anymore(I'm guessing they don't make it anymore). Can you guys recommend an alternative?
Since I might be using stamps with with features on the letters, i'll be looking for stuff that I can brush on with a fine paintbrush rather than use a cloth/sponge.

Also from what I have read Tandy tools aren't great, are there alternative brands that ye can recommend? Any european stores ye can reccomend?

Thanks!

[billybopp]

Hmmm .. Where to start!

Being from the left edge of the Atlantic pond, I can't help so much with where to find things, but I'll try to recommend some relatively inexpensive items that will do the job well, and hopefully be useful for other uses as well.

Knife: For a small project like this, a hobby knife (x-acto) will probably do nicely and is useful after you go to sturdier tools for leather and other things as well. They come in three sizes (1, 3, and 5) and should be readily available there if you don't already have them. #1 might be a little flimsy for this, but #3 or 5 will work well. Craft stores, fabric stores, department stores are all likely to have x-acto knives.

Cutting surface: A self-healing cutting mat will save your work surfaces. These can also be found at craft stores and fabric stores.

Letter stamps: They come in several sizes, with 3/4" being most common, and about right for this project .. And useful for most others as well. The only retail source I'm familiar with for these is Tandy, although I'm sure there are others. The Tandy stamps, as well as others, are frequently available here on e-bay, and probably there as well.

Hole punch: You can't go wrong with a rotary punch, particularly to start with.

Rivets: You can often find rivets sold in a package with the setting tools, so that's a good starting point. Double-cap rivets are the way to go for this project. Tandy sells these, but you can sometimes find them on e-bay as well.

Mallet: What you're seeing on the tutorial site is a rawhide mallet, rather than wood. That's one possible way to go, and good enough for a start. But you might also look at poly mallets that will serve as well. Many people prefer a round maul over a mallet, but they are generally more expensive. You certainly want to have a mallet around for many tasks, even if you get a maul. For letter stamping, I find that regular mallets / mauls can bounce and give you a double-stamp image. For that purpose, a dead-blow mallet is a nice thing to have. You can probably find all but the mauls at a department store with a good tool section, or auto parts store, or a hardware / home improvement store. None of the above with exception of a good maul will cost much.

Lacing: Save yourself some headaches and buy the best that you can from the start. Calf lace is very good stuff. Be sure to get a couple of needles to use with the lace too. I use Tandy's 2-prong lacing needles.

Split ring: If you can't find them at a craft or department store, buy a cheap plastic key fob and take it off of that.

Adhesive: Tons of options. Tandy's eco-weld, Fiebings leathercraft adhesive or contact cement being the most useful and common. Contact cement is pretty widely available. I'd avoid rubber cement for this project.

Finish / Resist: For water-based dyes, Tandy Super Sheen or Fiebings Resolene will work. Tandy also makes a block-out dye resist that will work, but don't use it with your good brushes! Super Sheen and Resolene have the advantage of doubling for your final finish after all the other dying is done.

Dye: Again, tons of options. For a first project, Tandy's gel antique might be nice, it sort of takes the place of hi-lite. You'll find a tutorial video for how to use it on youtube. Note that the gel dyes will leave a little bit of color even to resisted areas, but it usually looks pretty nice. Otherwise, I prefer Fiebings dyes, and Fiebings professional dyes, but these don't always play well with resist. Fiebings antique is nice for it's use, but doesn't really do double-duty the way that Tandy gel does.

Brushes: Go sort of middle of the road. Cheap brushes aren't worth the wood they waste, but expensive brushes aren't really necessary for this sort of thing and can be hard to clean of dyes, so you will not want to re-use them for restoring that Rembrandt in your living room. It's a good idea, also, to mark your brushes with colored tape, or a paint band, or whatever so that you will always use the same brush with similar colored dyes. Pigment can stay in them and carry over to other dye jobs.

That should get you on your way. You'll find many other items that you will want along the way, but this is a good start.

Hope that helps!

Bill

[DoubleC]

You didn't mention antique paste or gel so I'm wondering what you want to resist? Resolene as mentioned above will work for both but unless you are planning on antiquing it you would just apply it at the end of the project. Also although there are tons of uses for it I don't know why on this project you need glue. Are you putting a lining on the key fob? I'm just trying to save you some money to start. And you may want figural stamps instead of an alphabet. Depending on how you want the project to be. The alphabet stamps are expensive. I'd recommend the basic 6 plus a swivel knife to get you through your first several projects and future projects. A camo, veiner, etc. If you ask where you get your stamps they'll know what you mean. Cheryl

[Umekichi]

You didn't mention antique paste or gel so I'm wondering what you want to resist? Resolene as mentioned above will work for both but unless you are planning on antiquing it you would just apply it at the end of the project. Also although there are tons of uses for it I don't know why on this project you need glue. Are you putting a lining on the key fob? I'm just trying to save you some money to start. And you may want figural stamps instead of an alphabet. Depending on how you want the project to be. The alphabet stamps are expensive. I'd recommend the basic 6 plus a swivel knife to get you through your first several projects and future projects. A camo, veiner, etc. If you ask where you get your stamps they'll know what you mean. Cheryl

I'm following this tutorial: http://www.kingsmerecrafts.com/page74.html

In the tutorial, it uses resist on the stamped letter and then later on in the tutorial it requires Hi-liter on the letter.

So the letter has the natural leather look but with the details on the particular letter picked out with the Hi-Liter and the rest of the keychain is dyed brown.

I also don't get where it needs glue, considering the fact that there's lacing and a rivet holding the fob closed, but I'd rather follow the tutorial to the letter then deviate from it.

I have contact cement at home anyway so I can use that.

I might try the figural stamps and then if I like leatherworking, branch out into alphabet stamps.

What stamps are in the basic six?

Thanks for your advice.

Hmmm .. Where to start!

Being from the left edge of the Atlantic pond, I can't help so much with where to find things, but I'll try to recommend some relatively inexpensive items that will do the job well, and hopefully be useful for other uses as well.

Knife: For a small project like this, a hobby knife (x-acto) will probably do nicely and is useful after you go to sturdier tools for leather and other things as well. They come in three sizes (1, 3, and 5) and should be readily available there if you don't already have them. #1 might be a little flimsy for this, but #3 or 5 will work well. Craft stores, fabric stores, department stores are all likely to have x-acto knives.

Cutting surface: A self-healing cutting mat will save your work surfaces. These can also be found at craft stores and fabric stores.

Letter stamps: They come in several sizes, with 3/4" being most common, and about right for this project .. And useful for most others as well. The only retail source I'm familiar with for these is Tandy, although I'm sure there are others. The Tandy stamps, as well as others, are frequently available here on e-bay, and probably there as well.

Hole punch: You can't go wrong with a rotary punch, particularly to start with.

Rivets: You can often find rivets sold in a package with the setting tools, so that's a good starting point. Double-cap rivets are the way to go for this project. Tandy sells these, but you can sometimes find them on e-bay as well.

Mallet: What you're seeing on the tutorial site is a rawhide mallet, rather than wood. That's one possible way to go, and good enough for a start. But you might also look at poly mallets that will serve as well. Many people prefer a round maul over a mallet, but they are generally more expensive. You certainly want to have a mallet around for many tasks, even if you get a maul. For letter stamping, I find that regular mallets / mauls can bounce and give you a double-stamp image. For that purpose, a dead-blow mallet is a nice thing to have. You can probably find all but the mauls at a department store with a good tool section, or auto parts store, or a hardware / home improvement store. None of the above with exception of a good maul will cost much.

Lacing: Save yourself some headaches and buy the best that you can from the start. Calf lace is very good stuff. Be sure to get a couple of needles to use with the lace too. I use Tandy's 2-prong lacing needles.

Split ring: If you can't find them at a craft or department store, buy a cheap plastic key fob and take it off of that.

Adhesive: Tons of options. Tandy's eco-weld, Fiebings leathercraft adhesive or contact cement being the most useful and common. Contact cement is pretty widely available. I'd avoid rubber cement for this project.

Finish / Resist: For water-based dyes, Tandy Super Sheen or Fiebings Resolene will work. Tandy also makes a block-out dye resist that will work, but don't use it with your good brushes! Super Sheen and Resolene have the advantage of doubling for your final finish after all the other dying is done.

Dye: Again, tons of options. For a first project, Tandy's gel antique might be nice, it sort of takes the place of hi-lite. You'll find a tutorial video for how to use it on youtube. Note that the gel dyes will leave a little bit of color even to resisted areas, but it usually looks pretty nice. Otherwise, I prefer Fiebings dyes, and Fiebings professional dyes, but these don't always play well with resist. Fiebings antique is nice for it's use, but doesn't really do double-duty the way that Tandy gel does.

Brushes: Go sort of middle of the road. Cheap brushes aren't worth the wood they waste, but expensive brushes aren't really necessary for this sort of thing and can be hard to clean of dyes, so you will not want to re-use them for restoring that Rembrandt in your living room. It's a good idea, also, to mark your brushes with colored tape, or a paint band, or whatever so that you will always use the same brush with similar colored dyes. Pigment can stay in them and carry over to other dye jobs.

That should get you on your way. You'll find many other items that you will want along the way, but this is a good start.

Hope that helps!

Bill

Thanks very much for your advice. I was wondering what number blades would you recommend for the X-acto knife?

I'll have to buy one online, so I'd love to be able to get the correct blades from the get-go!

Thanks again!

[DoubleC]

The 6 if I'm remembering back when I bought mine were a camo, veiner, beveler, thumb print, seeder and backgrounder. Then a swivel knife and you can pretty much do any basic Sheridan design you see, plus a lot more. I bought a book of belt designs and in it they put which tool you use where for when you're first starting. It was $0.99 at Springfield Leather Co. Also my set of 6 that I got on eBay came with designs you could do and what tool to use where. The first tool I replaced was the beveler which was very clunky. And frustrating to use. So someone gave me a smaller, steeper beveler. I still use my other ones for border designs, etc. I don't do Sheridan designs, or the flowery, scrolled designs you might consider leather carving. But that's just one kind. You can buy these sets plus about anything you can think of on eBay. Cheryl

[Umekichi]

I was just thinking that I could rather than dye the piece and stain the letter separately, I could just use Tandy's Eco-Flo Hi-lite stain. Especially if I'm going to use figural stamps instead. There's a video of a demo of the Eco-Flo Hi-lite stain and it looks really nice, especially on the basketweave stampwork. It really picks out the features well!

The 6 if I'm remembering back when I bought mine were a camo, veiner, beveler, thumb print, seeder and backgrounder. Then a swivel knife and you can pretty much do any basic Sheridan design you see, plus a lot more. I bought a book of belt designs and in it they put which tool you use where for when you're first starting. It was $0.99 at Springfield Leather Co. Also my set of 6 that I got on eBay came with designs you could do and what tool to use where. The first tool I replaced was the beveler which was very clunky. And frustrating to use. So someone gave me a smaller, steeper beveler. I still use my other ones for border designs, etc. I don't do Sheridan designs, or the flowery, scrolled designs you might consider leather carving. But that's just one kind. You can buy these sets plus about anything you can think of on eBay. Cheryl

Perfect thank you very much for your help!

[billybopp]

For blades, I'd recommend #11blades for the #1 knife, and a #2 blades for the 3 and 5 knives. If you can find it, a package like this one on Amazon is probably cheaper than the knives individually, and has a nifty case and extra blades as well.

http://www.amazon.com/X-ACTO-X5285-Blades-Zippered-Storage/dp/B00JWFIKOC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1405105228&sr=8-7&keywords=x-acto+5

I suspect that the tutorial has you gluing the parts just to keep the two halves from wandering around while you punch the holes. You could certainly do it without glue if you wanted.

I took a quick look at Tandy's website and they do still sell hi-lite, at least here in the US. Antique gel and paste accomplish about the same end as hi-lite, but in a somewhat different way. There is a video on Youtube that shows some ways of applying antique and hi-liter if you wish to view it. The technique is different from your tutorial, but still may be helpful to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8MV5oXKak4

Additionally, if you'd like a video about resist techniques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW7wcLik9LY

The Kingsmere tutorial is good, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000.

Note, of course, that the Tandy videos are aimed at selling you Tandy products. The techniques shown are sound, but other maker's products may be better for your purposes.

Cheryl is quite right about the figure stamp ... There are a TON of different ones available. It would be less expensive than an alphabet set by about 1/10th or so. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to suggest that!

The tools Cheryl mentioned are indeed a must if you intend to do anything more complex than this project, but I'd wait on those until you see if you like this project. If you want a look into your potential future as a leather crafter, here are the basic six and swivel knife. http://www.kingsmerecrafts.com/page30.html

Hope that helps

Bill

[Umekichi]

For blades, I'd recommend #11blades for the #1 knife, and a #2 blades for the 3 and 5 knives. If you can find it, a package like this one on Amazon is probably cheaper than the knives individually, and has a nifty case and extra blades as well.

http://www.amazon.com/X-ACTO-X5285-Blades-Zippered-Storage/dp/B00JWFIKOC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1405105228&sr=8-7&keywords=x-acto+5

I suspect that the tutorial has you gluing the parts just to keep the two halves from wandering around while you punch the holes. You could certainly do it without glue if you wanted.

I took a quick look at Tandy's website and they do still sell hi-lite, at least here in the US. Antique gel and paste accomplish about the same end as hi-lite, but in a somewhat different way. There is a video on Youtube that shows some ways of applying antique and hi-liter if you wish to view it. The technique is different from your tutorial, but still may be helpful to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8MV5oXKak4

Additionally, if you'd like a video about resist techniques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW7wcLik9LY

The Kingsmere tutorial is good, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000.

Note, of course, that the Tandy videos are aimed at selling you Tandy products. The techniques shown are sound, but other maker's products may be better for your purposes.

Cheryl is quite right about the figure stamp ... There are a TON of different ones available. It would be less expensive than an alphabet set by about 1/10th or so. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to suggest that!

The tools Cheryl mentioned are indeed a must if you intend to do anything more complex than this project, but I'd wait on those until you see if you like this project. If you want a look into your potential future as a leather crafter, here are the basic six and swivel knife. http://www.kingsmerecrafts.com/page30.html

Hope that helps

Bill

Fantastic! Thank you very much for all your help!

[Northmount]

Don't buy cheap rotary hole punches made of pressed metal. They squash in your hand. You could buy drive punches, just the size you need, or a set. Tandy has sets that have interchangeable tubes. Then you aren't limited to the depth of the jaws when you are trying to punch a hole further from the edge of your project.

Tom

[Umekichi]

Don't buy cheap rotary hole punches made of pressed metal. They squash in your hand. You could buy drive punches, just the size you need, or a set. Tandy has sets that have interchangeable tubes. Then you aren't limited to the depth of the jaws when you are trying to punch a hole further from the edge of your project.

Tom

Okay I'll look for a suitable drive punch so. Thanks for the advice!