Very Newbie Question

[Irish Pipemaker]

hi gmace99,

Scissors were the first port of call a good while ago......I am in the Northwest of Ireland but thanks a million for the contact. Best Martin

[JAZZMAN]

Hey Martin, i really enjoyed your website , you are a real craftsman. Sorry for getting the wrong end of the stick, nothing new for me. I am starting to thinkk maybe along the lines of a clicker press type of idea. You might not need to buy an expensive version, i have heard of people having a die made and then using a cheap hydraulic type of press with it. This way the leather will stay where it is.This way you would just stamp out the piece rather than cutting it.In fact thinking about it, if you were only using it for that thickness of leather you might get away with quite a light duty type of press.I am off now to enjoy some more of that beautiful music on your website.

Edited April 27, 2015 by JAZZMAN

[gmace99]

Just had a thought. It's something I have never tried my self so might be no good. How about sticking some masking tape on to the back of the leather. It will give you a straight line and make the leather stiff enough to cut. It should pull of easy. As I said I have never tried this myself so practice on a spare bit first.

[Red Cent]

http://www.tandyleather.com/en-usd/product/table-top-lace-cutter-3112-00.aspx

[Wicked Welts]

That bench top tool was the first thing that came to mind but how do you think it does on real thin stuff? An earlier post mentioned stretch when using razor blades so I'm wondering about that. The idea of back taping the leather first sounds like it would help anyway.

[Thor]

Hi Thor,

Thanks for the reply. I do not know about leatherwork but have been looking at this for a few weeks now and a strap cutter seems to work fine on belt thick leather but not so good on very thin leather (22 gauge in engineering terms). I have not heard of a draw gauge, van you suggest a link/ many thanks Martin

LOL, sorry I missed the 0. and thought it's a 5 mil. Okay so here's a thought. Since it's only a 50 cm long piece, did you think of a paper cutting machine? Not the ones with the lever type style, but the one with a straight bar.

If it's that thin of a leather, it's probably chrome-tanned and that tends to stretch no matter what you do.

[Nuttish]

When I'm putting the first straight edge on to pull straps, I clamp a 72" machinist rule over the leather onto my bench with some woodworking clamps. Works great.

I don't think you'll get any stretching if you do something like that and cut it with a rotary cutter on something pretty darn flat like a piece of MDF.

[Art]

Hi folks.....I need to cut 12mm wide strips 500mm long in 0.5mm thick leather. Any help and guidance with respect to tools and technique will be very welcome. Many thanks in advance.

For something that thin, a rotary cutter and pad and one of the long quilting rulers will do the trick.

Art

[Dwight]

AND, . . . if you tape the back, . . . you can use a strap cutter, . . . yessir, you can.

You can also make a jig, . . . see the little drawing.

May God bless,

Dwight

pig skin jig.bmp

[Irish Pipemaker]

Brilliant....what a cool little jig. Many thanks for sharing.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Irish Pipemaker