Sona Report post Posted March 9, 2015 So well, I guess there is no need for two threads, so I´ll reduce it to one I had a work mate some time ago I came along with really nice and who teached me a lot for my daily job. So as we are both craftsmen and therefore like well (hand)made stuff I decided to make him a belt which turned out to be the best I made yet.For those of you who mention the different colour of the edge all along and the edge where the keeper sits (might be hard to see on the pictures... didn´t do a nice job on the pciture stuff this time): I started with the buckle using edge kote. But after that I visited my father who owns one of my belts and recognized, that the edge of hos belt - which I finished with some edge kote, too - was just fuzzy all along.... so I cried a little for help here, got some fingers pointed again on the thread "how to finish edges" and did it (nearly) as descriebed there... finally I got a nice (even nicer!) edge the with edge kote which hopefully should hold up much longer, as the only substance sitting on top is a really thin coat of Tan Kote finished with some parraffin.Thanks for that already guys!Acutally I never saw him since I gave it to him, but he was full of joy, so I assume the hours put into this piece were worth it. The belt itself is some 3,5mm belt croupon lined with some 0,8mm ... neck (I guess... ordered that seperately), hand dyed as always and handstitched with 8 SPI all around. The bucke is made of solid brass and the width is just about 38mm.As this is the second lined belt I made, I tried out some things like skiving the loop where the buckle sits down to the lining plus tapering the tip of the belt for a better sliding into the belt keeper. work worked just fine.The second piece is a sheath for a... "fancy" knife of a customer. He just wanted a simple sheath but made a lot more sturdier than his last one where the knife is hold by friction at least a little as is came out sometime before... The sheath is dyed with a light brown. After that I applied one coat of oil, let it dry and applied some heavy coat of my leatherbalm. The plan was to fit the handle colour of the knife which turned out quite good. I guess those are the moments where it´s good to know how the individual hide darkens when you use your "stuff (the balm) on it!! So always do a sample guys.... really! I guess If I didn´t know and wanted to be it light brown I´d have stuck in this head->table->head->table motion.... XDSo here you see the difference between the old one the ne sheath As the blade got a little curve near the tip, it even cut a little hole into the old sheat... that was made poor and a little tight, so everytime the customer pushed the knif back into the sheath he unwillingly forced the tip into the leather.... poor little thing ^^ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
texback Report post Posted March 9, 2015 Nice work on both the belt and sheath. I've hand sewn only one belt......never again.....lol Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sona Report post Posted March 9, 2015 Thank you! I really appreciate that!I handsew all of my work and with time the SPI went higher and I guess, it will continue that way. I stitched one Belt with 6 SPI (the first one... the one I am wearing) and like 7 with 8 SPI I think. But I gues on belts I wouldn´t go higher than 8...I think it is some kind of taste. I like handstitching a lot, exspecially if it is just stitching long runs rather than start and stop and start and stop and so on.... I am really able to relax while stitching. So there is no punishment in it for me XD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snubbyfan Report post Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) Very nice. There aren't many people that're willing to hand stitch more than one belt. I'm with you, I find hand stitching leather relaxing and I've hand stitched several belts. I do most of my stuff 6 spi. I kinda like the way it looks. Edited March 9, 2015 by snubbyfan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sona Report post Posted March 9, 2015 Haha, well you might be right about that. I think with doing things by hand, you keep yourself a lot of possibilities, you don´t have with a machine. I´d like to mention the butt stitch, the box stitch, stitching 90° angles and stuff. And for that you need practice. Besides that you can take your tools for handstitching wherever you want, a sewing machine... well it might not be that handy *laugh*Well for real, I really like it and most of the reasons above wouldn´t change anything on that if I would, I guess XDBut I prefere 8 SPI right now and I would like to try a 10, or even for nice small stuff some 12 SPI, but maybe not now *laugh* Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
