A Christmas/Birthday Belt

[JMcC]

A belt that I finished up recently. I was pretty pleased how it turned out as this is my first belt that I've done. It was done for my brother at his request. I was a little scared of it not being the right size as he lives in another state and all I had to go by was his pants waist size that he gave me over the phone. Turns out that it was a perfect fit for him! Thanks for looking.

[bikermutt07]

Great job. Love that two tone.

[garypl]

Very nice looking belt and you did a good job on the background.  What kind of leather, dye, finish did you use?

Gary

[alpha2]

Great first belt! You dodged a bullet with that waist size. Lucky lucky.

[JMcC]

4 hours ago, garypl said:

Very nice looking belt and you did a good job on the background.  What kind of leather, dye, finish did you use?

Gary

Thank you garypl. The belt was a blank that I ordered from Tandy's, the background dye was Fiebing's "Light Brown" applied with a small brush and the finish was Fiebings "Leather Sheen" which comes in an aerosol spray can and since discovering it, I use on all my projects. It is easy to apply and gives the work a flexible wax finish.

Edited January 5, 2018 by JMcC

[JMcC]

5 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

Great job. Love that two tone.

 

2 hours ago, alpha2 said:

Great first belt! You dodged a bullet with that waist size. Lucky lucky.

Thanks guys! I had between 30-40 hrs. in that belt. I enjoyed doing it and yes, I did dodge a bullet on that fit for his waist size!

[YinTx]

Those acorns are spot on!  Tell us how you do that!  and some close ups would be cool...

YinTx

[JMcC]

8 hours ago, YinTx said:

Those acorns are spot on!  Tell us how you do that!  and some close ups would be cool...

YinTx

Thanks Yin! Here is a closer view of the acorns. Just traced the pattern onto the leather and then very carefully cut the lines with a swivel knife. After finishing all of the swivel knife work, then started on the shading with the different size bevelers around the outside edges of leaves and acorns being careful to study the acorns to figure out which way the lighting would actually show the shadows  on the acorns and the leaves. Used different shaped pear shaders for the leaves. The lines for the bottom part of the acorns were done using my swivel knife by cutting the lines diagonally, closely spaced and then going back across them in the same fashion. It helps to have a small sharp blade in your swivel knife for doing detail work. Lots of stropping while cutting as well. I bought my swivel knife from Leather Wranglers and it is one of the best investments I have made when it comes to tools. I highly recommend their swivel knives.

[JMcC]

Oh yeah, if you will notice on the second set of acorns from the left, the bottom acorn I screwed up on by beveling it the wrong way and then had to go back and re-bevel it on the correct side near the bottom . You can definitely tell if you know what you are looking for. It is the only one I screwed up on and is what happens when you get in a hurry and don't pay attention

 

[YinTx]

I hadn't thought about "casting shadows" when doing acorns.... might make a big difference on my next set!  I have 4 swivel knives that came with a bunch of stuff I bought at the same time, 2 of them don't really swivel, one is a filigree knife so I haven't used it much, one is a really big knife, and two are cracked ceramic blades, so the big knife is the one that gets the use.  The swivel is ok, it's a Craftool Pro.

Your leaves have a lot of details in them, right down to the leaf liner.  I think I might have a pattern for a belt similar to this, I'll make a belt out of it and try to pay attention to those details, maybe my acorns will come out better.  I've done some leaf work, shown on a separate thread, they are a lot different from yours.  Acorns not so good on mine I think.

Your border bead is absolutely perfect all the way around to.  Admirable work!  Was that simply carved with the knife, or did you run a border tool around it?

YinTx

[JMcC]

12 hours ago, YinTx said:

I hadn't thought about "casting shadows" when doing acorns.... might make a big difference on my next set!  I have 4 swivel knives that came with a bunch of stuff I bought at the same time, 2 of them don't really swivel, one is a filigree knife so I haven't used it much, one is a really big knife, and two are cracked ceramic blades, so the big knife is the one that gets the use.  The swivel is ok, it's a Craftool Pro.

Your leaves have a lot of details in them, right down to the leaf liner.  I think I might have a pattern for a belt similar to this, I'll make a belt out of it and try to pay attention to those details, maybe my acorns will come out better.  I've done some leaf work, shown on a separate thread, they are a lot different from yours.  Acorns not so good on mine I think.

Your border bead is absolutely perfect all the way around to.  Admirable work!  Was that simply carved with the knife, or did you run a border tool around it?

YinTx

Thanks again Yin, If you buy one of those swivel knifes from Leather Wranglers, you will never use anything else again. They cut like butter and make carving a delight. I used an adjustable wing divider to draw the border lines and then used the swivel knife to cut the border lines followed by beveling. I will attach a pic of the swivel knife I used for doing the carving. And, I am not affiliated with them in any way, just love my swivel knife!  

[JMcC]

Yin,

Here is a pic of the swivel knife. It has a 3/16" wide blade and make all the difference in the world for doing detail carving. Makes me wonder how I ever got along without it lol.

[battlemunky]

That is beautiful work man.

[garypl]

10 hours ago, JMcC said:

Thanks again Yin, If you buy one of those swivel knifes from Leather Wranglers, you will never use anything else again. They cut like butter and make carving a delight. I used an adjustable wing divider to draw the border lines and then used the swivel knife to cut the border lines followed by beveling. I will attach a pic of the swivel knife I used for doing the carving. And, I am not affiliated with them in any way, just love my swivel knife!  

I looked at the LW website and the swivel knives look good.  I am using a couple of Tandy knives and seems I am constantly stropping them.  I am struggling with deciding whether or not using a better quality knife will make enough of a difference to justify the cost.  Would be nice to test drive one before committing to the purchase!

[alpha2]

Well, the blade is what is doing the cutting, and needing the stropping. If you make sure to get the right diameter shank, a really fine blade will make the difference. I might try that myself. I think there are two major shank diameters. Just to have to make sure I pick the right one!

[Jbrandon]

Did you only use the background tool around the edge of the leaves and acorns? (It looks that way in the pictures) if so I like it? Heck if not I still like it! I've done many belts and when I see pictures like yours I feel like mine are never as nice. Awesome work. 

[JMcC]

4 hours ago, battlemunky said:

That is beautiful work man.

 

4 hours ago, garypl said:

I looked at the LW website and the swivel knives look good.  I am using a couple of Tandy knives and seems I am constantly stropping them.  I am struggling with deciding whether or not using a better quality knife will make enough of a difference to justify the cost.  Would be nice to test drive one before committing to the purchase!

 

4 hours ago, Jbrandon said:

Did you only use the background tool around the edge of the leaves and acorns? (It looks that way in the pictures) if so I like it? Heck if not I still like it! I've done many belts and when I see pictures like yours I feel like mine are never as nice. Awesome work. 

Thanks battlemunky   Garypl, The steel that Paul uses in his swivel knives is far superior to anything Tandy has or ever will have and I only wish I had discovered LW's swivel knives when I started doing leather carving. Jbrandon, you are correct, I only beveled around the leaves and acorns. I debated about using a background tool but decided it would take up a lot of time and since I was going to dye the background anyway, I decided against it

 

[YinTx]

7 hours ago, garypl said:

 I am struggling with deciding whether or not using a better quality knife will make enough of a difference to justify the cost.  Would be nice to test drive one before committing to the purchase!

I test drove one for about an hour.  It was a smaller one, and yes, it was nice.  I had only been tooling for a month or so before that, so I realized I needed my tooling to actually make money for me before I could justify laying that kind of $$ down for yet another tool, especially when I already had 4 different ones - albeit all Tandy versions, I was able to cut leather and work.  I even did the wallet with tiny tiny tooling with my large 3/8" heavy thickness swivel knife.  On top of that, I think before I lay down a lot of money for a blade and knife combo, I need to understand which diameter shaft and length of shaft best fits my needs.  Seeing that folks have sharpened a screwdriver and gone to work, or use a utility knife instead of a round knife and get to work making things, makes it even harder to spend more $$ on one.  Yeah, I want one.  Might be a few years before I convince myself to get one.  Having a hard enough time convincing myself to buy a 1/4" thin blade for $20 when I have already cut flowers the size of a quarter with the big blade I already have.  I think we all to often get bitten by the "I need this better tool" bug, when we could make a perfectly useable petal lifter with a free screwdriver.  (Which works better than my $40 petal lifter that I had to fix brand new anyhow).

Also, it's tax time, and I see how much I have already spent in the last year on this craft!

YinTx

[YinTx]

17 hours ago, JMcC said:

If you buy one of those swivel knifes from Leather Wranglers, you will never use anything else again

Your knife is a beautiful work of art as well, by the way.  Kind of the custom leather belt vs. Wally world belt comparison I suppose.. once you try the super nice leather belt I make, you won't want another cheapo Wally world one!

YinTx

[garypl]

2 hours ago, YinTx said:

I test drove one for about an hour.  It was a smaller one, and yes, it was nice.  I had only been tooling for a month or so before that, so I realized I needed my tooling to actually make money for me before I could justify laying that kind of $$ down for yet another tool, especially when I already had 4 different ones - albeit all Tandy versions, I was able to cut leather and work.  I even did the wallet with tiny tiny tooling with my large 3/8" heavy thickness swivel knife.  On top of that, I think before I lay down a lot of money for a blade and knife combo, I need to understand which diameter shaft and length of shaft best fits my needs.  Seeing that folks have sharpened a screwdriver and gone to work, or use a utility knife instead of a round knife and get to work making things, makes it even harder to spend more $$ on one.  Yeah, I want one.  Might be a few years before I convince myself to get one.  Having a hard enough time convincing myself to buy a 1/4" thin blade for $20 when I have already cut flowers the size of a quarter with the big blade I already have.  I think we all to often get bitten by the "I need this better tool" bug, when we could make a perfectly useable petal lifter with a free screwdriver.  (Which works better than my $40 petal lifter that I had to fix brand new anyhow).

Also, it's tax time, and I see how much I have already spent in the last year on this craft!

YinTx

You make some good points Yin.  I don’t do this to make money, it’s just an expensive hobby!  I’m also a tool junkie, so I will probably get one to see what I am missing.

[JMcC]

4 hours ago, YinTx said:

Your knife is a beautiful work of art as well, by the way.  Kind of the custom leather belt vs. Wally world belt comparison I suppose.. once you try the super nice leather belt I make, you won't want another cheapo Wally world one!

YinTx

Lol...It's not about beauty Yin, it's about performance  And don't get me started on high performance cars

[YinTx]

...form follows function...

thus, a thing of beauty.  also, in the eye of the beholder, etc.  

Do tell on the performance cars....

YinTx

[JMcC]

22 hours ago, alpha2 said:

Well, the blade is what is doing the cutting, and needing the stropping. If you make sure to get the right diameter shank, a really fine blade will make the difference. I might try that myself. I think there are two major shank diameters. Just to have to make sure I pick the right one!

Hmm, just a thought Alpha2...I believe that LW makes blades that will fit in a Tandy swivel knife. So, that would be less money spent for a better performing tool. The cost is $55 for a blade that will fit a Tandy barrel according to their website. That would be a considerable savings if budget is a constraint. And I too am a confessed tool junkie lol...probably shouldn't spend the money on a head knife either after hearing Yin's argument for cost effectiveness.

[garypl]

2 hours ago, JMcC said:

Hmm, just a thought Alpha2...I believe that LW makes blades that will fit in a Tandy swivel knife. So, that would be less money spent for a better performing tool. The cost is $55 for a blade that will fit a Tandy barrel according to their website. That would be a considerable savings if budget is a constraint. And I too am a confessed tool junkie lol...probably shouldn't spend the money on a head knife either after hearing Yin's argument for cost effectiveness.

That's a good idea, so I looked at the LW website and then figured if I am paying $55 for a blade, why not get the complete knife for $110?  I ordered the brass body knife and and extra blade - looking forward to testing it out.

Gary

[YinTx]

21 hours ago, garypl said:

 I’m also a tool junkie,

Don't try to follow my logic and understand my pricking iron collection at the same time...

YinTx