Very Newbie Question

[Irish Pipemaker]

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.

[Thor]

Either a strap cutter or a draw gauge would be the right tool.

[Irish Pipemaker]

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

[thekid77]

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.

cutting leather that thin can tend to stretch if you're using a utility knife/razor blade.....I'd use a rotary cutter with a fresh blade....

for your strips, just measure out the width and lay a straight edge down over the leather on a large flat surface....you can clamp the straight edge down over the leather with a couple of C clamps and make your cuts

[Irish Pipemaker]

Hi the kid77,

Thanks a million for the reply. You spotted the problem right away. I do have a straight edge set at the width and my two kids standing on it but the leather still moves when making the cut with a rotary cutter .....I am also attempting to make the cuts at about 12mm (1/2") at a time but the leather refuses to co-operate....FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!! Any other pointers you have will be very welcome. Best

[thekid77]

Hi the kid77,

Thanks a million for the reply. You spotted the problem right away. I do have a straight edge set at the width and my two kids standing on it but the leather still moves when making the cut with a rotary cutter .....I am also attempting to make the cuts at about 12mm (1/2") at a time but the leather refuses to co-operate....FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!! Any other pointers you have will be very welcome. Best

a while back i had to cut pigskin very precisely....doesn't get much more stretchy than that stuff.....I took some masking tape and backed the pigskin where I was gunna cut it.......you can try fixing some masking tape to the back of the leather then cut it....it wont stretch

[JAZZMAN]

I assume this is for lining something, can you not glue it to the piece first and then trim it to size after, sorry if it is not for lining something.

[Irish Pipemaker]

Hi the kid77,

You are a star....I'd never have thought of that. I am in Ireland about 6 hours ahead of the

States so I'll try that out fist thing am and get back to you. Thanks a million.

[Irish Pipemaker]

Hi Jazzman...no it isn't for lining but for covering tacks around a bellows.....a picture paints a 1000 words as they say and I'll take a few pics when back in the shop tomorrow....in the meantime here is a link to my site so you can see what I do.....www.martinpreshaw.com

[gmace99]

Have you tried scissors? If your near Kilkenny look up porters saddlery. I am sure Simon Porter will show you how to do it is a really nice guy.

Edited April 27, 2015 by gmace99

[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

[TexasLady]

Irish pipemaker,

I'm so glad I clicked on your Thread. I watched the first video on your website. I'm in Texas USA, so when I saw the words 'pipe maker', bagpipes were not the first thing that occurred to me. I don't smoke, and I thought, "Oh, he carves pipes." But I'm mesmerized with (what we usually here call) bagpipes.

My now deceased Uncle on my father's side used to either win or take second every year at a fiddle (violin) contest in San Antonio, Texas. He couldn't read music, but his daughters would play 'reels' for him on the piano until he learned them. My grandmother's maiden name was Stagner (English name?) and we were Irish somewhere up the line. Anyway, I love leatherwork and folk art and crafts from other cultures, especially those that I have a family relationship with. Congratulations on your magnificient work making 'pipes' for musicians to use to make beautiful, inspiring music. Yes, and it's good to leave a legacy one is proud of.

TexasLady

Edited May 9, 2015 by TexasLady

[TexasLady]

...laughing at myself now. I accidentally did a quote of myself here and tried to erase it, but the website software won't let me. It says, "You must enter a post." So this is what you get,...a record of my frustration.

Edited May 9, 2015 by TexasLady

[Irish Pipemaker]

Hi Texas Lady,

Many thanks for the kind words about my work. The Irish bagpipes are very popular all over the world now no doubt because of the impact of Riverdance over the last 20 years. I have a customer in Texas and I do know there is a society of Uilleann (pronounced ill-inn) there.

Thanks a million to all the folk who took time out to lend a helping hand with this little problem. All sorted now.

[TexasLady]

Irish pipemaker,

Thanks for the pronunciation (ill-inn) of Uilleann. I'll do a search for the group. I'm in Meetups, with interests in foreign languages. Possibly I'll find the Uilleann group there under other headings. Yes, Riverdance! That surely popularized the bagpipes. I danced ballet, tap, and jazz as a teenager. By the time Riverdance came out, I was too old to dance (...well, too out of shape), but was still enamoured of the bagpipes. Why would we depend on out little lungs to always supply the air to the 'whistles' when we can pump air with our arm? One of our ancestors must have pondered the air supply issue. BTW, I played an old pump organ (piano) as a child. It belonged to that same Uncle's inlaws. The bellows were deteriorated, so I had to pump really hard to get enough air built up to play it. That was my first experience with bellows. Bellows used to be made exclusively of leather, didn't they?