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Pardalis
Dec 26, 2008

The Amazing Dreadheaded Chameleon Keeper
I recently had an older male customer of mine drop off the gift of a giant toolbox of leatherworking tools after I mentioned I was learning the craft.

Guys, there's like a thousand dollars worth of tools here :stare:

I don't know where to start.

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Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Pardalis posted:

I don't know where to start.

What about : By posting loving pictures!

Turdo
Jun 15, 2012

Does anyone else get the Tandy newsletter? They were offering 5-7 oz sides for $20 (normally around $60) for a few days as a Black Friday sale. I called the store nearest me today and they didn't have any problem selling me a few at that price still. Perfect thickness for any projects under belt thickness.

leg bones
Jan 14, 2011

co-dependent villain
I've been testing out leatherworking for a little while now, and I want to move up to something more..useful. I want to make a bag like what Spy Blimp puts out , but i have no idea what sort of hardware i need to complete this mission.

Does anyone have any advice?

Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

leg bones posted:

I've been testing out leatherworking for a little while now, and I want to move up to something more..useful. I want to make a bag like what Spy Blimp puts out , but i have no idea what sort of hardware i need to complete this mission.

Does anyone have any advice?

Start with these books; Volumes 1 and 2 are great, Volume 3 becomes slightly less useful, but I'm glad I have it.

You're going to need sewing stuff (needles, thread, hole punchers, etc), hardware for buckles and snaps, and probably some sort of lining material. If you want rigidity to your case, you'll probably need some material that goes between the leather and the lining. I don't know what you'd pick for that, although it's possible that really thick leather would obviate the need for other stuff.

Timid
Dec 13, 2012

Glad I ran into this!

Recently I've been planning on making an iPhone phone case, and I want to use leather for the outside part of it.

I've been doing a little research on leather, and I think I want a 5-6oz. leather. Something soft, thin, and flexible.

The problem is, those leather websites only sell in bulk. I just want a small piece of leather to kinda try stuff out (And plus I don't really wanna spend alot..) I looked on Ebay and Etsy for scrap leather and I havent found anything ideal yet.

The closest thing I've found is this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300810170346

But I would like a 'topgrain' piece thats as thin as the listing's. I really like the distressed look.

Can someone help me out?

Baron Fuzzlewhack
Sep 22, 2010

ALIVE ENOUGH TO DIE
I've started a project making leather-bound journals with the signatures sewn directly onto the leather. This is the first time I've ever worked with leather, and for some reason I decided to go full-tilt and do everything from scratch.

I've got a big piece of 6-7 oz. veg-tanned leather that I'll be cutting down to smaller pieces and dyeing. I have a few issues I need to resolve:

1) How would I go about smoothing down the "fresh" side of the leather to the point where it won't really "shed" bits of material? Obviously it won't be perfectly smooth and that's ok because I like the way it looks, but I don't want bits of dead skin floating around in these books forever. I've sanded it down a bit but I'm not sure if it's doing much good.

2) To make the leather pretty supple, should I just be working it with my hands or should I oil it as well? How will the oil affect the color of the natural leather? Will it affect the color of the dye that I end up using?

3) When dyeing the leather (using Fiebing's dye), would a single coat of uncut dye on the dry leather be sufficient on the top-grain side? Should I wet the leather with water a bit/oil the leather first? I've tested it out on a dry scrap piece and cutting the dye with water seems to make it too light for what I'm aiming for, whereas when the dye is uncut and applied to a dry piece it seems to be just right. Do I absolutely need a sealer? Would sealing the "fresh" side help reduce the "shedding" a bit?

I'm a total beginner with this but I'd like to get it right (maybe not perfect). The finished pieces don't need to look super finished/polished, just nice enough to where they don't look like they're still a work in progress.

Baron Fuzzlewhack fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Dec 27, 2012

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

Baron Fuzzlewhack posted:

Do I absolutely need a sealer? Would sealing the "fresh" side help reduce the "shedding" a bit?

Yes. A sealer will help prevent bleeding of the dye, which is especially necessary for something that's going to be in (sweaty) hands.

Sealing the rough side helps a bit. I've found that burnishing the rough side helps as well - dampen the rough side and rub it down with a bone folder.

Best answer is to inspect your leather before purchase and buy leather with a clean backside.

Oiling the leather will make it more supple. Not 100% on this, but pretty sure you should do this after dying it. Dying's not something I know much about, though.

Oil will darken uncolored leather - how much depends on which oil. Colored, I don't know.

If you don't mind my asking, what are you using for paper, and what's your binding method? I'm using 75-pound drawing paper and the longstitch method. I'm not stitching names in, though; that's a good angle.

Baron Fuzzlewhack
Sep 22, 2010

ALIVE ENOUGH TO DIE

TheNothingNew posted:

:words:

If you don't mind my asking, what are you using for paper, and what's your binding method? I'm using 75-pound drawing paper and the longstitch method. I'm not stitching names in, though; that's a good angle.

That was a lot of good information, thank you!

I'm using 80-lb drawing paper also with the longstitch method, so pretty much exactly the same thing you're doing. I ended up making one sort of as a test run before reading your post, and this was the result:






I dyed the leather with straight, undiluted dye without doing anything else to the leather before or after. It turned out pretty uneven but I didn't want a uniform look, and I like the almost wood-grain look that came out. Dying the "fresh" side actually helped out with the shedding considerably (there was just a rough patch on one part, the rest was pretty good). The dye itself seems to have set in pretty well and doesn't rub off, even when hit with a fair bit of moisture. I didn't seal this one, but I'll probably seal later ones.

As far as oiling, I might do that in the future to other journals. Even after working it for a while after dyeing it the leather is still pretty stiff, which is ok, but a bit more supple would be nice.

The stitching came out a bit uneven, too, which is just because I was rubbish at lining up the holes while poking them, but I'm not too worried about it.

Baron Fuzzlewhack fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Dec 28, 2012

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008
Looks pretty good. Definitely digging the wood-grain look.

For the stitching-holes, make yourself a template, so you only have to get them perfect once.

Here's one of mine in 3-ounce veg-tan. Just waxed, no oil or color. Looks kind of boring without, now.

Baron Fuzzlewhack
Sep 22, 2010

ALIVE ENOUGH TO DIE
I love how clean that looks. And is that a blue/green thread I see on the spine? Neat.

How does wax affect the leather? I hadn't even realized that was an option.

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008
That thread is a forest green, looks a bit off because my camera is lovely.

I got sick of a lack of options for leather thread, so I buy heavy coat/button thread and wax it by hand with a bigass chunk of beeswax. Not as strong as purpose-built, but good enough to hold some paper in. I do double-up, though; otherwise it cuts through the paper when I pull the thread tight.

The wax is just a topcoat/finisher. Gives a nice semi-shine to the project.
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/leather-dye/leather-finish/2180-117.aspx
That stuff. Doesn't change the color of the leather very much - I don't think it soaks in very well. Does not add flexibility to the leather; that shape is the result of creasing by hand, prior to wax application. If you buff it after it dries you get a bit of a shine.

Don't buy their daubers; cotton rounds for makeup removal work just fine and are way cheaper. Might be a good idea to wear latex gloves, but I don't.

Oh, yeah, a warning from the lady who runs my local Tandy: Neatsfoot oil will eat stitching. Apparently.

Very much a newbie myself. The coloring stuff is fascinating to me; I'm just not there yet.

Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

Glad to see more people posting! I figure I'll add my 2 cents.

first, for thread : This is by far the best choice. Linen Thread.

The Barbour's stuff is good, and a single 1 lb spool will last you forever.

Neatsfoot oil does a bunch of things; it helps leather stay soft and supple, it preserves it, and it also gives you a more even dye if applied before you dye. That woodgrain look is nice, but if you wanted the opposite; a solid, even coat, applying a little bit of neatsfoot beforehand the way to go. A little goes a long way, and it IS possible to over-oil leather, so start off slow.

Daubers have some use, but for dyeing big sections, the round things are the best by far.

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!
Oh yay! A leather working thread!
This is actually what I do. I also teach classes. Would it be spammy to post the schedule to see if any goons want to spend an afternoon playing with dead cow bits with me?

Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

Linear Ouroboros posted:

Oh yay! A leather working thread!
This is actually what I do. I also teach classes. Would it be spammy to post the schedule to see if any goons want to spend an afternoon playing with dead cow bits with me?

Not at all, and feel free to contribute. I consider myself to be a complete newbie to all this, and I'm always trying to learn more.

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!

Pagan posted:

Not at all, and feel free to contribute. I consider myself to be a complete newbie to all this, and I'm always trying to learn more.

Nifty then.
I'm the lead artist at Fine Line Leather Design. We make neat stuff.

Like books


Leather sculpting


Costume armor


Masks

And other fun stuff.


Like I said, I teach classes from time to time out of the Tandy store in Richmond, Virginia. If anyone has interests, I'll post it the next time there's a class schedule posted.

If you live in the rest of the world, if you go to Tandy's blog, there's a list of their classes on the left. http://blog.leathercraftlibrary.com/ I will tell you that Tandy is very touch and go as far as classes. Many stores don't offer them, some are astounding workshops with master leatherworkers, and some are fumbling through a project with someone who has only done this once or twice themselves. I can't vouch for your experience.

I hightly recommend checking out http://www.leatherworker.net It's a decent community online, and tends to weed out the idiots fairly quickly. Also, http://www.leatherlearn.com is a great blog for this.

The major problem you run into with leatherworking is that much of it is geared towards the same style. If you're not interested in Western carving, holsters, and saddles, you can run into a brick wall for information. It makes things difficult, but not impossible.

Which... offhand anyone have any ideas where I can trade awesome leathery goodness for website design?

Linear Ouroboros fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Dec 31, 2012

Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

Linear Ouroboros posted:

The major problem you run into with leatherworking is that much of it is geared towards the same style. If you're not interested in Western carving, holsters, and saddles, you can run into a brick wall for information. It makes things difficult, but not impossible.

Which... offhand anyone have any ideas where I can trade awesome leathery goodness for website design?

I can't help you with website design, but I agree completely about the Western thing. Tons of great resources for that, but I want to make leather armor, something fantasy styled, and there's nothing.

Uranium 235
Oct 12, 2004

Have any of you tried any kind of leather upholstery? I never thought of it before until this thread, but it makes sense why leather-covered furniture is so expensive. The materials themselves are pretty expensive, and it's got to be very time-consuming and challenging.

Baron Fuzzlewhack
Sep 22, 2010

ALIVE ENOUGH TO DIE

Linear Ouroboros posted:

Like I said, I teach classes from time to time out of the Tandy store in Richmond, Virginia. If anyone has interests, I'll post it the next time there's a class schedule posted.

I would be very interested and I'm local. I just started working with leather and visited Tandy for the first time a week or so ago and popped in there again last night to pick up more stuff. Kinda :psyduck: that you post about that right after I start and post in this thread, but your stuff is really cool, especially the book and masks.

The folks in the Richmond store are a huge help and a great resource of information. I went in there pretty much blind the first time and looking for a bit of information about bookbinding with leather and they had someone there who does just that and spent the better part of half an hour schooling me on the basics to get me started. Definitely making lots of return visits.

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!

Baron Fuzzlewhack posted:


The folks in the Richmond store are a huge help and a great resource of information. I went in there pretty much blind the first time and looking for a bit of information about bookbinding with leather and they had someone there who does just that and spent the better part of half an hour schooling me on the basics to get me started. Definitely making lots of return visits.

Lol. James or Nikki? Both learned bookbinding from me, hehe. I actually have taught all four of the Richmond staff, they are great. I will tell them when I stop by tomorrow they are representing well

Baron Fuzzlewhack
Sep 22, 2010

ALIVE ENOUGH TO DIE

Linear Ouroboros posted:

Lol. James or Nikki? Both learned bookbinding from me, hehe. I actually have taught all four of the Richmond staff, they are great. I will tell them when I stop by tomorrow they are representing well

Nikki was the one they grabbed as soon as I mentioned bookbinding, and I think James was there both times and helped me out again last night. Literally every question I had they were able to answer, which is why I went back so soon after the first time.

For more content, I made a few more journals. Much happier with the way these turned out.


All five pieces of leather lined up! These are all done with British Tan and Ox Blood (or a mix of the two) from Fiebing's.


The two finished ones. The one on the left is a deeper shade of red than what shows up in the image.


The stitching came out way better after making a template like TheNothingNew suggested.


Detail of one of the ones dyed with the ox blood dye. Came out way more pink than expected, but the pattern my girlfriend decided to try came out looking pretty neat, so I'm happy with it.

master morality
Nov 3, 2008
So I'm looking to make my first belts. One is going to be black, and I have an all in one dye that I'm lead to believe will be the only thing I need to put on it. The other one I'd like to do in nude, ie leave it pretty much as-is. Do I need to treat it with some kind of wax or something? Or should I just look for a dye in a color close to the leather?

Pardalis
Dec 26, 2008

The Amazing Dreadheaded Chameleon Keeper
I think you can oil it to finish it off. You want to treat it with *something*, though.

I also want to make a belt as one of my first projects. The leather store told me to take (neatsfoot?) oil to start with and to use it on my project after I am done tooling it to seal it up. Is this correct?

Tea Bone
Feb 18, 2011

I'm going for gasps.
I've just got done with the wallet that comes with the Tandy deluxe starter kit. It was alot of fun and I was surprised at how quickly I picked it up. A few questions though, do I need to treat the leather with anything once it's been stained? The dvd/booklet doesn't say much about that. Which hands do people use for tooling? I've been using my dominant (right) hand for the mallet and left hand for holding the tool, it makes walking the tool smoothly difficult but holding the mallet in my left hand seems alot more awkward. Lastly the Tandy site is kind of intimidating with its range of leathers, whats a good piece to get that I can use for multiple projects? Should I buy leather for each individual project?

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

Tea Bone posted:

I've just got done with the wallet that comes with the Tandy deluxe starter kit. It was alot of fun and I was surprised at how quickly I picked it up. A few questions though, do I need to treat the leather with anything once it's been stained? The dvd/booklet doesn't say much about that. Which hands do people use for tooling? I've been using my dominant (right) hand for the mallet and left hand for holding the tool, it makes walking the tool smoothly difficult but holding the mallet in my left hand seems alot more awkward. Lastly the Tandy site is kind of intimidating with its range of leathers, whats a good piece to get that I can use for multiple projects? Should I buy leather for each individual project?

I don't have answers for your other questions, though I hope someone does - I'm just starting staining myself, and proceeding blindly. I can tackle the last one - you really don't want to buy a piece of leather for each individual project, and that is exactly what you are going to have to do.

Leather isn't sold by the yard, like in a fabric store; it's sold by the side, or by the cut. So you're going to end up with quite a lot of leather, and you need to make certain that it is the right kind of leather. What is right is going to depend on what you want to do with it. So, what are you planning?

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!

Pardalis posted:

I think you can oil it to finish it off. You want to treat it with *something*, though.

I also want to make a belt as one of my first projects. The leather store told me to take (neatsfoot?) oil to start with and to use it on my project after I am done tooling it to seal it up. Is this correct?

Quick answer, you'll want more than that unless you're planning on treating it frequently.
Vegetable tanned leather is permeable, which is why it can be cased and stamped. SOMETHING has to seal it in when you are done--if not you'll be dealing with stains, smells, mold and mildew being able to get into your leather really really easily.

Neatsfoot is technically a conditioner. Meaning it soaks into the core of your leather and helps to replenish the natural oils and keep the leather flexible and supple. As it is an oil, it will repel water--for a while. But the oil will eventually work its way out of the leather and it will take any dyes out with it. Also, it's really easy to overdo it with neatsfoot. You'll see guys who saturate their leather in neatsfoot, and walk around with an oil slick on their butts where their wallet is--like a napkin under fast food french fries. Plus, neatsfoot will darken your leather. Like, a lot.

There are other conditioners, and generally speaking, the thicker the liquid, the slower it will work its way out of the leather, but generally you want to think about conditioners for preserving and maintaining your leather instead.

A finish goes on top of your leather, and stays there. It's basically a protective barrier against water and the outside world. Acryllic based finishes have the best waterproofing, but also tend to make your leather less flexible and more likely to crack. I've seen situations where people have soaked leather in acryllic finishes, and then you can actually snap off pieces like it's dried wood. They also tend to have some gloss to them, and look less "natural". You'll also run into issues if you condition your leather down the road. Acryllics either will resist the oil completely, or cause it to buckle and crack. You also have to be careful to put acryllics on well dried leather, if you rush after dying it will crack. Oh, and some acryllics turn if you store them in the sun. You'll open them and smell nasty rotten eggs.

Wax based finishes have a lower gloss, and tend to leave leather looking and feeling more natural. They will want to sort of rub off after time, especially on products where there's a fair amount of fabric/leather attachment. (Think wallets, belts, backs of purses) If you are maintaining with fairly regular reconditioning, it shouldn't be an issue, but it runs into issues of whether or not you trust the person with the care of their leather. (the care sheets I hand out with my leather products include "don't get wet" followed by "don't feed after midnight")

So, my answer to all of this has been combos. I mix most of my own finishes. There's a few different formulas you'll find online, including ones using everything from resins to floorwaxes. My finishes vary. I have five different ones right now, but I'm always tweaking to get the right spectrum of glosses and to help prevent yellowing. If I ever perfect them, I might sell them, lol!

But for yours, if you are looking for complete natural looking leather that will be protected, go with carnuba wax. Skip Tandy's brand, way too expensive. Instead get it from the dollar store in the car wash area. Just be sure to check there's no weird additives or dyes, you just want the pure stuff. It'll give you such a low gloss it barely looks like it's there, and provide you with waterproofing and keeps your leather nice and flexy.


I wrote that up off the cuff and poorly, but I'm realising if anyone has any interest in an infodump, I can seriously post basically what I teach in my classes. I'll just take some time to edit it up a little. But this is what I do for a living, so I have a bit of knowledge on hand.

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

Linear Ouroboros posted:

I wrote that up off the cuff and poorly, but I'm realising if anyone has any interest in an infodump, I can seriously post basically what I teach in my classes. I'll just take some time to edit it up a little. But this is what I do for a living, so I have a bit of knowledge on hand.

gently caress yes, please.

Oh, and to add: acrylic finishes tend to destroy the natural leather smell, which is a big part of leather goods for some folk.

Discussion Quorum
Dec 5, 2002
Armchair Philistine
I've been thinking about leatherworking for a while. I find that making stuff is a great stress reliever, and leatherworking seems relatively left-brain friendly. Plus I just like nice leather stuff. I'm mostly interested in small daily/professional items - card cases, portfolios, belts, watch bands, etc. Maybe holsters, but that looks like a specialty all its own.

I just ordered up this and this from GoodsJapan. I'm lucky enough to live just up the freeway from a Tandy, so I'll head over this weekend to pick up some leather and finishing stuff.

What's a good option for introductory punches and snap/rivet setters? Are the Springfield Leather (Craftool or Osborne I guess, doesn't say) ones any good? I've scoured leatherworker.net and all I can find is references to mail-order catalogs (they still have those?), and "Tandy is junk rabble rabble China! :bahgawd:"

Vanessie
Apr 29, 2004

oh my gosh. I am so excited to have found this thread, maybe one of you can help me with something!!

I dont work with leather (very open to it if time and money permit tough, in the meanwhile I have some leather jackets I am ready to work on) but I find myself in need of assistance on how to use
certain crafting tools commonly found in leathercraft...namely studs and spikes.

In my spare time I have customized denim and I am very pleased with how it is going and I always receive compliments on my little projects. I would love the option to maybe start selling some stuff since people ask sometimes but the problem is that I can not in good concience sell some of stuff with the supplies I currently use.

The spikes I use are screwback, and the studs are usually the crimp-the-corners-in yourself type. My bigger concern are the spikes right now, one ambitious jacket I modded has 200 spikes meticulously screwed in by hand with a assistance from a seamripper. Problem is, the spikes were ordered in bulk from china and the quality of them were poo poo. they unscrew all the time and many of them dont screw in all the way. I learned my loving lesson there. I really want to move up and find better methods for this, and even some of the spikes that come from a more reliable source can come loose. It feels crappy knowing I am too worried to wash any of my stuff.

I bought a small starter kit from a foreign seller on etsy, all I got was a pile of some rivets and this funny looking stick and absolutley no directions on how to use it. English was not his first language so asking him was no help.



can someone point me to some tutorials or professional installation methods for what I do?

Suave Fedora
Jun 10, 2004
I started python hunting this year in Florida. They're not easy to find (requires about 100 hours in the field before you come across one) but out of curiousity; what kind of goods (and how many) can be made from, say a 10-foot skin about 12 inches thick?

McBeth
Jul 11, 2006
Odeipus ruined a great sex life by asking too many questions.

That's a kind of a hole punch, you put it where you want a hole in paper or cardboard and twist it around and it bores a hole with the excess coming out the side opening.

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

Morris posted:

What's a good option for introductory punches and snap/rivet setters? Are the Springfield Leather (Craftool or Osborne I guess, doesn't say) ones any good? I've scoured leatherworker.net and all I can find is references to mail-order catalogs (they still have those?), and "Tandy is junk rabble rabble China! :bahgawd:"

Tandy=Craftool. I get what they're saying about the China-made stuff being poo poo (just had a diamond-hole punch break on me, whee pot-metal tools), but for a beginner they're fine. If you were intent on spending on quality now, I've heard good things about Joseph Dixon (http://www.josephdixon.co.uk/products.asp). Not sure how they are about shipping to the states, though.

Punches and rivet-setters - plan ahead and buy the multi-functional one from the start.
Punch: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/tools/punches/3003-00.aspx
Setter: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/8105-00.aspx
(making certain that those are what you need, obviously)


Dunno about Osborne tools. And of course mail-order catalogs exist; they make for fine shitter-readin'.

McBeth posted:

That's a kind of a hole punch, you put it where you want a hole in paper or cardboard and twist it around and it bores a hole with the excess coming out the side opening.


Except presumably for leather, so the process is a little different.
1. Place leather on cutting board or other hard surface you don't mind damaging.
2. Find where you want a hole.
3. Place the hole-punch open-side down against the leather.
4. Smack the other end of the punch with a hammer (wood, plastic, rubber, or rawhide; a metal hammer will damage the punch pretty quickly).
5. Remove punch, witness pretty new hole.

Heh, google image search's best guess for the picture was "mechanical pencil". I can see where they're coming from.

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!
Yup. In addition to the no-metal hammer thing, the other thing to watch out for is your punch surface.

A nonforgiving surface like metal or granite will just ruin your cutting edge as soon as it goes through. It'll pancake out.
Wood is usually no good either. If you hit a knot of section of the wood where one part is firmer than the other, you can split your punch tube, or dull out one edge. With a larger punch (for strap ends) I once saw someone actually crack it so that a chip flew up. If he hadn't been wearing glasses, it would have hit his eye. Instead he just had a chip in his lens.

What you want is poly (think of a kitchen cutting board) or rubber cutting board. A thick piece of leather works nice. I got ahold of an ugly but huge chunk of bullhide that's almost a half an inch thick which I use frequently.
Put your cutting surface on a stable base. A wobbly table will give or bounce and take some of the strike force away, making it harder to punch through and more likely you'll move the tool accidently.. This is why you see most leatherworkers working on a slab of marble.

It should only take one or two blows to go through. You're not hammering a nail, give it some oompf. If you take more blows to make the cut, you'll chew up the leather going through.
Don't worry about the leather left inside, it'll pop out when it gets full on its own.


Be careful of youtube videos, there's a lot of idiots out there, but there's some good guys out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMMtChY2meY

I probably will infodump a little later. Helps to keep the thoughts active to teach.

Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

I use these...

http://www.xacto.com/products/cutting-solutions/tools-accessories/tools-accessories/Self-Healing-Mats.aspx

Works pretty good, although you can punch through them with too much enthusiasm.

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!
I have seen plenty of people using poly/plastic dollar store cutting boards and they work great.
I am a huge proponent of cheap leather working. There's tools you should splurge on and those you can cheat.

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

Linear Ouroboros posted:

I have seen plenty of people using poly/plastic dollar store cutting boards and they work great.
I am a huge proponent of cheap leather working. There's tools you should splurge on and those you can cheat.

This right here. I bought one of Tandy's (super-expensive) 6-inch square boards, and the drat thing warped somehow. Bizarre. So to replace it I went to a restaurant supply store and bought the biggest board I could find, 24" x 18". Was around $30, and it stands up just fine to punching and cutting.

Next one'll be the size of my table, to better facilitate cutting out templates. Ah, someday...

Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

My best money saving tip : Go to a landscaper for your marble stone. What Tandy charges over $40 for, you can get for a few bucks. I got a huge marble slap, polished on one side. It's bigger and thicker than what Tandy sells.

I never thought of poly cutting boards, that is a drat good idea.

Linear Ouroboros
Mar 30, 2007
Sweet loving Ginger!
If you know of anyone who is getting marble countertops done, ask them to keep the sink/ edges, works well too.
There used to be a marble place that would be dumping scrap--I'd have my customers go over for $5 and pick through their "junk" for pieces. The other cheap way to go at just home depot is paving stones/stepping stones. Hell, I knew someone who had an extra thick piece--he had a miscut tombstone!
It doesn't have to be marble or granite either. Faux stuff like corian or polish concrete works well too. You just want a smooth, hard, nonporous, heavy and dense, but not metal or wood.
The only issue is thickness, you want something at least an inch thick so you can pound on it.

Dickbutt Ouroboros
Nov 13, 2002

handbandit?
Son of a bitch!

Pagan posted:

Here's a little pouch I made out of scraps, I'm pretty happy with this one.


I'd really like to see more detail on this one. Particularly the edges and sides. It looks like you did some extra finishing work. I'm really thinking about getting back into leatherworking, and would really like to scale something like that up into a satchel.

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Pagan
Jun 4, 2003

handbandit posted:

I'd really like to see more detail on this one. Particularly the edges and sides. It looks like you did some extra finishing work. I'm really thinking about getting back into leatherworking, and would really like to scale something like that up into a satchel.

Most of my edge finishing is pretty simple. I have a little slicker wheel (google it, you'll see what I'm talking about) and a few other things. I just rub those tools on the edge to round them off. I normally dye the edges black first, then slick them into a round profile. Sometimes I use other things, like the rounded handles of other tools, but that's pretty much it. Add in a little beeswax or gum arabic, and you've got a really finished looking edge.

Same with the seams, they're just rubbed down so they kind of mush together.

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