morjena Report post Posted January 16, 2015 Hi y’all, I’m new to Leatherworker and to leatherworking and I’m seeking some advice on my first major leather project. I’m a cook and I’ve been slowly making a knife bag/roll for myself. Below are pictures to show the design. Pretty rustic, but functional for my needs, I think. It is soft goat leather (that I had tanned from a friend’s goat, by the way) and I have done all the stitching by hand. My technique is to mark even stitch points, punch through them with an awl, and follow with a saddle stitch, through the whole bag from outside in. I am at the point where I am beginning to think about attaching straps, both the main shoulder strap and the cinching buckle straps. There is also a model picture below giving a rough idea of what I have been thinking. I just need help with the minutiae of the execution. Here are the main issues I am looking at: - What do I use for straps and how do I “build” them? Can I use cloth/canvas? I’d like to. - Where on the bag do I attach them? Positioned near the “tail” end of the bag, the outside flap? And then, I had been thinking of doing it in the buffer space between the knife slots, and just going straight through from the outside of the roll. - What should I use to attach them? I had planned on stitching them, but maybe rivets…? - What kind of hardware should I use and where do I get good stuff? Buckles for the “cinching” straps and trigger snaps for the shoulder strap, maybe? - Anything else I have not thought of… Any and all advice would be much appreciated! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tramps Leatherworking Report post Posted January 17, 2015 - What do I use for straps and how do I “build” them? Can I use cloth/canvas? I’d like to. -- Yes, you can use canvas. - Where on the bag do I attach them? Positioned near the “tail” end of the bag, the outside flap? And then, I had been thinking of doing it in the buffer space between the knife slots, and just going straight through from the outside of the roll. I see no problem with that location... - What should I use to attach them? I had planned on stitching them, but maybe rivets…? -- I would stitch then use rivets for added strength and aesthetics... - What kind of hardware should I use and where do I get good stuff? Buckles for the “cinching” straps and trigger snaps for the shoulder strap, maybe? -- You can get hardware at just about any leather supply company, Tandy, Weaver, or ebay... - Anything else I have not thought of… -- That should cover it... Any and all advice would be much appreciated! The model picture is exactly the way I would attach the straps... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
morjena Report post Posted January 20, 2015 Thank you, Tramp. How can I stitch canvas to leather? It seems like it would be hard to penetrate with a needle and maybe fray...? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tramps Leatherworking Report post Posted January 20, 2015 If you do not have access to a machine, then I would probably make the straps from leather --- canvas straps would require quite a bit of sewing --- If you want to go with the canvas, I would make a canvas strap then sandwich the ends between the case and a small piece of leather on top of the canvas, then saddlestitch through the three layers. I hope that makes sense... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
