Strap Cutter

Here is a neat trick shown to me by Larry Moskiewicz.  

The purpose is to make sure that the wooden strap cutter does not wander off too easily when you cut straps for horse tack or belts or any other strapping. 

By gluing a 1/4" wide strip of cardboard into the tool, the bar holding the blade is swung slightly, which gives the blade a very slight angle to the cutting direction so that it ever so slightly forces the leather strap being cut, against the guide handle.

   

 I think the photos explain themselves well, but I will show you a close-up or two: Here you can see the edge of the piece of card board - it is just about 1/16" thick and 1/4" wide.  

 From another angle you can see the piece of cardboard just about showing behind the bar holding the blade.  

 The next photo shows the same angle, but the bar holding the blade has been drawn back into the handle to expose the piece of cardboard.  

 This small modification makes one of the simplest tools to use, even more effective than it already is.

Braiding a Foundation Knot

Thanks to my friend Mark Sampson, my capcam works excellent so that you can see on the videos exactly what I see! 

 

You will have to practice this knot quite a few times, one after the other, then go have coffee and come tie five more knots!

Once you know the "story" I teach you by heart, try to tie at least one knot a day for a week.   It will help a lot to be able to do these without referring to any reference material. 

(The whole channel can be seen by clicking on the little icon in the top right hand corner:)

After tying the knot, you can roll it the same way you roll a round braid between two blocks of wood:

Updated 04/15/2021

Quick Effective Belt

Need a fast gift? 

This is a pre-embossed belt.  That's why I put it under small projects - there is very little work involved in making this belt.

I used water and spirit based dye to roughly add the red and green and purple to the belt design.  I worked fast to get a more organic look.  I did not want a detailed dye job.

So after that was done the belt did not look so hot at all.    

Then I sprayed the belt with two layers of Supersheen to create an even, partial resist and coated it with Chestnut Tan Hi-lite stain.   It outlined the tooling and gave the belt, even with the red and green, a very well made look!

Neck Purses

With Christmas around the corner, you may want to make a few quick gifts for the young kids in your family:

A small coin pocket that hangs from a lace around the neck. 

Their shape is not very crucial, so you can just draw up your own pattern from looking at these pictures. Even the construction of these are not complicated, so just study the pictures and let me know if you have a question.

New Take on Basketweave

Tom Evans of Boarshead came up with this idea and I will probably mostly do basketweave backgrounding like this!

This is a piece of leather stamped with the basket weave background and Block-out resist painted on every second line of stamping

After applying Dark Brown Antique Gel

This one was done by Tim:  On this piece only the 'tops' of the weave was coated with Block-out. You can still see some spots that have not dried completely.

Medium brown Hi-Lite Stain (Tandy Item #2608-03) made this design come alive.

Here is another one I tried - this time with Super Sheen and a mix of Briar Brown and Raisin Mahogany Eco-Flo Hi-Lite Stain.

This video shows the technique in action:

A newer video about using this technique:

In 2017 I did a Live Video Stream showing the same - it's a bit long because it was live, but could still be usefull!

Updated May 24th, 2020

Embossing a Bird

Here are the first photographs of my latest embossing project: embossing a grey African Hornbil. 

The original photo was taken by a school friend of mine, Stephan de Lange.

 The first two photos show the design transferred to the leather, cut with a swivel knife and all the key lines beveled. The purpose of this is to be able to see the design outline on the back of the leather. So the leather needs to be well cased - the water has to penetrate right through the thickness of the leather.

 The leather used is a 4oz  Tooling Cowhide - beautiful soft stuff that 'almost carves itself'!  

 The beveling shows on the flesh side of the leather.  

 I trace the plug on a thicker leather and make sure I trace all the important lines of the design so that I have guides to help me sculpt the plug. 

After tracing, I cut the plug out smaller than the original design. I reduce the size of the design for the plug by the thickness of the leather that will be over the plug - that piece that I beveled the original design on.

 

 A French Edge Beveler and a scalpel blade are now used to shape the plug - this is done like a panel sculpture and you need to take care to so it with as much perfection as you want to show in the final carving. 

Even the slightest bumps show through to the surface. The sharpness of these tools are absolutely crucial to the success of this step.  

You will see that I did not include the tail of the bird in the plug - according to the photo the tail is in the background and so I want that to be clearly 'in the background'.  

Now the outline on the back of the tooling piece is covered in rubber cement and the plug turned front side down to be glued in place. Carefully place it in the outlines you see at the back. I use rubber cement so that at this point the gluing is not very permanent and you can still move it. 

 An optional step before this, is to stretch the inside of the design a bit by rolling the leather over a small marble rolling on a flat surface.  

 The rest to follow soon!

Hardening leather or Cuir Bouilli

So many aspiring armor makers need information about treating the leather they make their armor with. 

And unfortunately there are a zillion web pages about the subject - both good and not-so-good.

To harden leather, it is heat treated. Here is the short version:

• These methods apply to veg tan (tree bark tanned) leather.
• Ideal heat seems to be 175ºF.
• Much warmer than this will melt end shrink the leather.
• Heat treating changes the chemical make-up of the leather and is not reversible.
• Heat treat the leather by one or more of the following methods:
  • Dip in warm water - NOT boiling water.
  • Dip the leather in warm wax.
  • Dry the leather with a hair dryer.
  • Bake the leather in a VERY cool conventional oven.

I very strongly recommend you read a very comprehensive document, by the late I. Marc Carlson, about this subject. It has been around since the early 1980's, when the internet was text-only.

There is an attached copy of this document on the Downloads Tab at the top of this page.

*****

This is from leatherworker.net (by Daggrim - a now-retired leather helms maker from Minnesota):

I've had lots of experience with Cuir Bouilli, since every helmet I make is treated to harden the leather. I just use the hot water, and the leather is 10 to 13 oz saddle skirting.

The procedure is very time and temperature critical. I aim for a water temp of 175 to 180 degrees, and the immersion time varies from 2 to 3 minutes. A difference of just 5 degrees can cut your time in half, or double it, so you need to watch closely.

I pull it out for inspection every 30 seconds or so. As you treat more pieces, the water turns dark red, and you can't see the leather.

I pre-soak the pieces in room temp water, because if they go in dry, the thermal shock will just shrivel them. Do not allow the peices to touch the pot, it'll make hot spots, and shrivel it there. I use a folding round vegetable steamer in the pot to isolate the leather. Water at 170 will have some hardening effect, but you'll need to leave it in there for maybe 4 minutes, and it'll never get really, really hard. It'll dry more like heavy cardboard than armour.

If you start with stiff leather, it hardens very well, and if you start with floppy leather, it'll also never get really hard. When the leather starts to turn dark...get it out asap, because that's the point when it starts to shrivel. Leather brought to that point gets super hard. The flesh side dries like sandpaper, and the edges have just begun to curl.

I've hardened 8 oz leather, but it's tricky. You can't fudge on the temp...hit it with the full monty...175 degrees, but watch it like a hawk. It'll start to shrink earlier than heavier leather, and so you might need to do some tugging to reshape it. You have about 30 seconds to get the leather into a mold after you pull it. It's gonna be rubbery, so be careful or you can distort it with careless handling.

It'll start to set up in about 15 minutes, and then you can moderately shape it for about an hour. I've taken pieces that never got hard enough, and re-soaked them, them dried them in the oven at 200 degrees. They kinda flatten out and sag, but you can reshape them.

I leave them in for 30 or 40 minutes. They scorch where they touch the pan, or the screen.

So, there it is...way more than you asked for. I read lotsa stuff on the internet when learning this technique, and I took the parts that made the most sense to me. I'm also a little lazy, so I always try to K.I.S.S. a job as much as possible. I hate the Fuss Factor, and try to cut it out of all my processes. And lastly, the temps are what I see on my candy thermometer, so there might be variations with your thermometer.