Hello from Melbourne, Australia

[Spyros]

Hi all,

My name is Spyro, I do some woodworking just for the pleasure of it, and trying to get into leatherworking for pretty much the same reason 

I thought I'd share my first steps here before I start bombarding people with questions about leather 

First thing I tried to do was complete a set of basic hand tools (buy or make) and then make some sort of tool box to put them in.

I started by making a stitching pony, because I saw some really nice designs on etsy I think, and it looked nice and very important for some reason LOL

 Then I made a few awls and an HDPE maul.  I know I'm really fussy about hammers and mallets, so I ended up drilling a bigger and bigger hole in it and kept adding metal washers until it had exactly the weight and balance that suited my hand

turned out ok in the end, but most importantly it hits well.

I made some other little things from wood and brass, some burnishing tools, a little brass hammer and roller etc.  

I'm not much of a metal worker, probably for the best or I'd still be making tools LOL

Then came the tool box.  I'm planning to keep leatherworking out of the shed because it's really dusty in there, so I had to make something kinda presentable for in the house, and this is what I came up with 

(that little knob thing is just some buttons cast in epoxy and turned on the lathe.  I'm still deciding on drawer handles)

 

So yeah, so far I'm having a lot of fun with this leatherworking thing without even doing any actual leatherworking LOL

But I have started making a tote, and I'll post it here soon for you guys to laugh at

in the meantime if anyone wants to make any of that stuff in the photos and is wondering how, please feel free to ask!    

All the best, Spyro

[Northmount]

Welcome to the world of leather!  Keep having fun!

Tom

 

[DJole]

That's some lovely work on the stitching pony and tool chest! Looks like you're having a grand time and keeping busy. 
Next step-- put down the wood tools and pick up some leather! 
Welcome to the forum.

[Spyros]

Thank you

[Kenzo]

Awesome!!!

[Spyros]

Thanks!

Ok so here's my first finished project. 

I picked the leather pretty much randomly online, based on the photo only as I didn't really know what I was doing and I had to start somewhere.  It said "Bowden combination tan milled side" but I don't know what any of that means, if anyone can explain that would be great.  I know it has a oil/wax pull up sort of feel to it and it's supposed to be 2.2mm thick, although it felt like more.  But I like how it looked in the picture and I like it in person as well.  It's kinda stretchy though which made it a bit of a nightmare to skive by hand (or maybe I'm just bad at skiving).  I did go right through it with the skiving knife at some point leaving a 10mm gash, I packed it with glue and decided to take my chances with it.  So far you cant even see it but lets see how it holds overtime.  Other than the skiving I really enjoyed making it, the Mrs merrily confiscated it (initially it was earmarked as a present for someone else), and it taught me a lot.

In terms of patters, I didn't use any because I want to force myself to start designing my own stuff.  That's kind of the whole point of leatherworking for me, I've bought a lot of backpacks, camera bags, duffel bags etc in my life, and I always wanted to change something to make it better.  So here's my chance, I just have to learn how to do it.

  Now I can't wait to start something else

 

[toxo]

Well done. It looks like you've found something that suits your brain. I predict lots of satisfaction and swearing in your future.

[Alden]

Mate that is major prep work on the tools and organisation. Amazing. Combining a good set of skills too.

You should head off to Leffler and Sons near Footscrazy and NSW Leather (Colingwood?)to speak to someone about leather hides.

I used to live in Melbourne.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Alden
loaction edit

[Spyros]

2 hours ago, Alden said:

Mate that is major prep work on the tools and organisation. Amazing. Combining a good set of skills too.

You should head off to Leffler and Sons near Footscrazy and NSW Leather (Colingwood?)to speak to someone about leather hides.

I used to live in Melbourne.

On my to do list, as soon as they open from COVID, I don't think there's another leathercraft shop in the whole city anyway.  They're expensive though.

Thanks!

[Alden]

if you become a member at Leffler it is cheaper.They do have scrap bins with various leathers including kangaroo which is perfect for watch straps and wallets etc. Strapping for belts even Sedgwick  bridle .

Yeah if your doing a leather Tote bag then you'll be up for a hide and that starts at around 150AUD!

watch straps are great for practice and use very little leather while really challenging you 

[Spyros]

29 minutes ago, Alden said:

if you become a member at Leffler it is cheaper.They do have scrap bins with various leathers including kangaroo which is perfect for watch straps and wallets etc. Strapping for belts even Sedgwick  bridle .

Yeah if your doing a leather Tote bag then you'll be up for a hide and that starts at around 150AUD!

watch straps are great for practice and use very little leather while really challenging you 

Yeah I did a NATO from the same hide I did the tote, I was really proud that i custom made it for my wrist and it only had one hole, I was the only person I knew with a single hole watchstrap 

And then I started wearing it and it stretched to buggery, now it looks like swiss cheese LOL

[Alden]

Nice:)

[Scoutmom103]

Nice job on the stitching pony, maul, awls, and the chest.  They are really nice.   I would be interested in info on the stitching pony.  My husband has begun to do more woodworking and has shown interest in making things to help me in my leatherworking.    My current pony is small and isn't really designed to clamp onto the edge of a bench.

The tote looks nice.   

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Scoutmom103
Not enough coffee yet this morning.

[toxo]

7 hours ago, Spyros said:

Yeah I did a NATO from the same hide I did the tote, I was really proud that i custom made it for my wrist and it only had one hole, I was the only person I knew with a single hole watchstrap 

And then I started wearing it and it stretched to buggery, now it looks like swiss cheese LOL

I would just say that it's not best practice to sew all the way across a watch strap. Someone on here mentioned that they'd found a rather expensive watch that had given way at the stitch line.

[Spyros]

6 hours ago, Scoutmom103 said:

Nice job on the stitching pony, maul, awls, and the chest.  They are really nice.   I would be interested in info on the stitching pony.  My husband has begun to do more woodworking and has shown interest in making things to help me in my leatherworking.    My current pony is small and isn't really designed to clamp onto the edge of a bench.

The tote looks nice.   

 

Sure, although I must warn you it's probably not the easiest build.  It requires some accurate freehand radius cutting on a 12" or bigger bandsaw, a router table and some specialised hardware like a T-track and the blue cam clamp that runs on it, but you can find those things in most woodworking shops like Rockler for example. Also a couple of threaded rods, a spring and some nuts and washers, just typical hardware store stuff.  I chose to make my own star knobs out of wood but you can find ready made plastic ones on ebay for a couple of bucks. Overall depending on quality there's probably about $50 of materials in this thing but it can be made cheaper if you skip the T-track and the fancy cam clamp (that thing was USD$16, I only used it because I had one leftover from another project).  You can also laminate plywood instead of solid timber for cheaper. The T-track is not really necessary,  I put it there so I can lift the upper part of the pony a little bit higher so that the whole thing can fold into itself for storage, which can be achieved with a slightly different design, and to offer a bit more flexibility on the table to position the clamp exactly where I want it.  I guess I did a few things the hard way on this pony, I'm sure I can come up with a simpler way.  For example I made the clamp with a loose bottom jaw that clamps but doesnt turn (which was a giant pain to make), because i didn't want it to scratch the bottom of my table every time I clamp it.  But now I see the other popular ponys on etsy etc that don't have that so maybe nobody cares about the bottom of their tables LOL

Now I'm looking at youtube to see if someone has made a similar type of pony because it's probably easier to show you than type instructions, but I can't find anything.  Check with your husband if it doesn't sound like too much trouble and he still wants to have a go, and if so I'll put together a pattern or instructions for you. 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Spyros

[Spyros]

1 hour ago, toxo said:

I would just say that it's not best practice to sew all the way across a watch strap. Someone on here mentioned that they'd found a rather expensive watch that had given way at the stitch line.

Yeah I can see how that might happen... didn't think about it to be honest.  Anyway I'll probably need to make it again soon as this leather is way too stretchy, just not meant for this type of thing.

[Scoutmom103]

2 hours ago, Spyros said:

Sure, although I must warn you it's probably not the easiest build.  It requires some accurate freehand radius cutting on a 12" or bigger bandsaw, a router table and some specialised hardware like a T-track and the blue cam clamp that runs on it, but you can find those things in most woodworking shops like Rockler for example. Also a couple of threaded rods, a spring and some nuts and washers, just typical hardware store stuff.  I chose to make my own star knobs out of wood but you can find ready made plastic ones on ebay for a couple of bucks. Overall depending on quality there's probably about $50 of materials in this thing but it can be made cheaper if you skip the T-track and the fancy cam clamp (that thing was USD$16, I only used it because I had one leftover from another project).  You can also laminate plywood instead of solid timber for cheaper. The T-track is not really necessary,  I put it there so I can lift the upper part of the pony a little bit higher so that the whole thing can fold into itself for storage, which can be achieved with a slightly different design, and to offer a bit more flexibility on the table to position the clamp exactly where I want it.  I guess I did a few things the hard way on this pony, I'm sure I can come up with a simpler way.  For example I made the clamp with a loose bottom jaw that clamps but doesnt turn (which was a giant pain to make), because i didn't want it to scratch the bottom of my table every time I clamp it.  But now I see the other popular ponys on etsy etc that don't have that so maybe nobody cares about the bottom of their tables LOL

Now I'm looking at youtube to see if someone has made a similar type of pony because it's probably easier to show you than type instructions, but I can't find anything.  Check with your husband if it doesn't sound like too much trouble and he still wants to have a go, and if so I'll put together a pattern or instructions for you. 

Thanks Spyros.    The band saw my husband owns isn't even 12" nor does he have a T-track and the blue cam clamp.

 

[Spyros]

7 hours ago, Scoutmom103 said:

Thanks Spyros.    The band saw my husband owns isn't even 12" nor does he have a T-track and the blue cam clamp.

 

That's alright, you can make it out of 3/4 inch plywood which is easy to cut in a small bandsaw, and we'll skip the track.

Ok so first step is to cut some 2inch by 10 inch pieces of plywood, make about 10 of them because there will be mistakes for sure.

Then print this and glue it on 8 pieces (sorry about the hand drawing but it would take me forever to make those curves in sketchup)  and cut them out on the bansaw. 

I guess you could also cut with a jigsaw or coping saw, but it's harder and it will take longer.

Now about this shape, these are obviously the jaws of the clamp.  If you want to make them a different curve, or maybe a couple of inches longer so you can clamp bigger leather pieces in there, you can, it's up to you.

But dont make them much longer than that because then I'm not sure if the clamping mechanism will work properly. 1-2 inches should be fine, if I was making mine again I'd probably do that actually.

In terms of cutting them.  Those pieces need to be as identical as possible, but again it's really up to you how pretty you want your pony to look.  If they are not completely identical it will still work fine.

The method of making identical ones depends on if you have a router and a flush trim bit.  If you do then you make one piece as perfect as you can, sand all the curves to perfection etc, and you use it as a template.   This guy explains it well:

 

 

 

If you don't have a router just do the best you can cutting them as identical as you can, and in the end of the project when everything is glued and ready you can file and sand down the pieces that stick out.  But it's best to avoid that as much as possible because sanding curves is a bit of a PITA.  

Let me know how this sounds so far, if it sounds doable I'll continue with the next steps.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Spyros

[Scoutmom103]

Thanks Spyros.   It sounds like it's doable.

 

[Spyros]

Cool, cool

Alright so now you should have 8 of those curvy pieces. 

If you stack them together in two piles facing eachother you have the basic shape of the two jaws of your clamp.   

Take the the two middle pieces of each stack and cut them shorter from the bottom along the lines I've marked below.  The two middle pieces from the right stack will be cut a little shorter than the other two.

[Spyros]

next, cut the remaining pieces:

2 X shape "B" and 2 X shape "C" below.  again sorry about my crappy drawings, I'm kinda doing them on the fly on my breaks from work.

[Spyros]

Then it's time for glue up

stack the two Cs together as aligned as possible, glue and clamp them, and do the same for the Bs.

The As are glued in 2 stacks of 4: each stack will have two whole pieces first and last and two short pieces in the middle.   

 

Does it all kinda make sense? It probably sounds confusing...  I should probably do a build along thread and actually make another one and take photos or video while I'm doing it.

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Spyros

[Retswerb]

2 hours ago, Spyros said:

I should probably do a build along thread and actually make another one and take photos or video while I'm doing it.

If you have time and materials available, this would be an excellent resource. I’m no woodworker but I made a simple pony out of scrap, one of these days I’d like to upgrade but in the meantime I saved a bit by making my own.

[Spyros]

4 hours ago, Retswerb said:

If you have time and materials available, this would be an excellent resource. I’m no woodworker but I made a simple pony out of scrap, one of these days I’d like to upgrade but in the meantime I saved a bit by making my own.

All right then... I came here to learn how to make backpacks, but I guess we're making a stitching pony 

I'll pop out to the shed and see what I have, I should have some plywood and a few bolts.  But I'm not doing any video, I'm alone in there and it's just too hard.  I'll stop and take a photo every now and then.

You guys can show me backpacks later 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Spyros

[Scoutmom103]

8 hours ago, Retswerb said:

11 hours ago, Spyros said:

I should probably do a build along thread and actually make another one and take photos or video while I'm doing it.

If you have time and materials available, this would be an excellent resource. I’m no woodworker but I made a simple pony out of scrap, one of these days I’d like to upgrade but in the meantime I saved a bit by making my own.

 

4 hours ago, Spyros said:

All right then... I came here to learn how to make backpacks, but I guess we're making a stitching pony 

I'll pop out to the shed and see what I have, I should have some plywood and a few bolts.  But I'm not doing any video, I'm alone in there and it's just too hard.  I'll stop and take a photo every now and then.

That would be wonderful.  Thank you.