custom knife sheaths

I don't use much of a pattern when the knife group is all shapes.

I lay the knife on the leather and mark off around the knife then cut it out.

I then case the leather and push it in around the knife. At this time it takes a little shape and you can start marking trim lines . I like to leave a good 1/2" on the stitch line and I leave it that way till it is stitch then I trim it.  That will give a nice smooth welt with little sanding..

Make sure your belt loop is placed so it won't be in the way when you stitch up your welt.

It can be great fun making knife sheaths and I think it is my most enjoyable work in the saddle shop.  I have turned into a knife junky

making a mold

This is a simple example of a mold to speed up production time.  This is sometimes a necessary thing in the shop when you start do larger numbers. I would never go to a mold if I was doing a onesy .  But dozens of the same size is a big time saver and helps add a look of consity .
   On the first pic you can see that there is room around the plug. If you add the thickness of the leather all around plus a little extra this will help avoid to much stress to the leather.  If you have cracks in the finish leather your plug needs to be shaved down or case your leather more.
  The piece of leather in the pic is a little over sized but I do us a bigger than need piece.  If you come out short you have wasted the time in cutting, molding and the leather.  I try to look over every piece I cut so there are no blemishes or scores for the same time saving reason. If it goes through the process and then gets culled or worse makes to a finished sheath and then to the trash. I look them over real good and still miss a few.
 

   This is the the mold I use now days work with the same tools and has close to the same end results but I would have to rebuild it ever.

braided mandolin strap

The rommel mandolin strap uses some of the same methods as making a rien and rommel .  Not a lot of worries about them breaking so all is making them stout and in fact it is easy to make them to heavy for a instrument strap. I have that happen where you finish and it makes a better tow strap. I have had to work at the instrument strap to keep them more fine and lite.
 To begin I first make the lace and then prep it get it all ready to braid then I cut the tail 12" and taper it from 1.25" to zero. The zero end I punch a # 5 hole 4" down in the center and skive it from the hole to zero. That is where the two lace ends feed in.
 Carve the tail to the customers wishes finish and dry. Then that's when the braiding can start. So we have two 8' thongs or strings if its rawhide and we taper the ends and feed the two in the hole half way .  Now we have four thongs to braid a four round. As you lay it out it will become very clear how to start braiding. This start and finish is covered with a long knot but the smoother it lies the better the long knot will look at the finish. The total length of the strap is 38" to 42" and when sell it is always a good sell point to say they are adjustable.  I end with a loop by back braiding a ways.  The loop end has a bit connector made for the same leather that I laced cut 5/8" wide and 14" long and I lace through its self to make a button. then add some button hole 8 to 10 " from the button make some Spanish ring knot for keeps and that is that in a nut shell.
  I do know that we didn't say any thing about how to braid or tieing any of the knots but there is lots on youtube or in books and besides I'm not sure I could explain it  I know it sure helps to have someone show you how.

The leatherman Sheath

I can't really remember a time not having a leatherman. I didn't care to have it on my belt when they first came out. It was handy to have but it wasn't used like my pocket knife. The blade just wasn't handy to use but the rest of the tools were great to have close at hand. Then the Wave came out and I don't know where I even got one but that was it for me. It filled all my needs and was made into the can't live without tool.  The sheath that it came with was very usable well made and nice to wear.  I lost the tool and had to buy one and I didn't waist any time. I still had the sheath from the old Wave but when I saw what sheath came with the new Wave I couldn't believe it.
  So there came the thought, who would want that on there belt.  So I made one that day and have been carrying on my belt going on ten years. I always had it in my mind that the after market cases would be a big hit. Maybe so but I wasn't making near as many as I thought.  But it did allow me to test designs and wear plus test markets on sizes and models.  While I was dragging my feet leatherman kept making new designs and model and there sheath got worse.
  Now after ten years I have most of the leatherman tools to form fit sheath to.  I still have the Wave on my belt in the same

10 year old sheath.  I make them almost every day and love doing it.  Folks are so kind and have given my so many hints to improve the line and even sent design drawing to custom make there sheaths and allowed me to add the line to my store.

More tools at the shop

Top pic is a model 83 Osborne bench splitter
2nd String beveler don't know the maker
3rd is lacing tool,strap cutter,Plough gage
4th head knifes and round knifes

Leather tooling and stamping

Honestly this is what makes leather crafts fun.  There was a time that all I wanted  wast to just build. The tooling was not necessary to make a project work and I could understand why it was it was done at all . Now it's more of a pain to do a plain outfit than tooled and I don't know why anybody would want it plain.
   Well I might be a little one sided on things or thick headed this I understand.  I come around if you give me a little time.  I  thought long and hard about why we like to tool leather and there seems to alot of pros and cons . Starting with the cons and there is not as many as there use to be mind you.
1)  It makes it harder to clean
2)  Increases the overall costs
3) Harder to layout and build
The pros to this are.
!
1) Easy to work in a range mark
2)Makes for skill stand out more
3)Gives more options for custom work
4)Bigger marketing window
5)Over all craftsmanship
   So if your in the mind set that you don't have to develop the art of tooling and stamping I can sure understand that thinking.  But I would spend a little time on the block learning the skill.  There is all kinds of aids out there to help.

project design

It won't take long before you run it to the fact that a Tandy kit just won't cut the mustard.  So you search high and low for a pattern pack with no good results.  Now is the time to break out the paper and pencil and draw your self a pattern.
  It's a little unnerving with the cost of leather and all but with a few guide line it can be done with little disappointing screw ups.  I do like to make drawing of what the end result will look like and maybe some layout drawing. Lets look at a simple phone case.  The drawings can give you the styles or the look that your after.  and then when your good with that I go to the pattern paper.  I like to start with shipping paper that my leather is wrapped in.  Then after I'm done and I like what I made I will use poster board for a hard copy name and date it then hang it for latter use.
  I add extra leather any where I can when tracing on the leather.  Yes you do waste some but it is a far cry from being to short. My thought is I want it to look how I want it and I don't want the leather to decide for me and that is what will happen is you come up short. you either scrap it or change the design to fit the screw up.  The extra labor and just the plain fight that is necessary to make it work isn't worth the leather that saved in your layout.  Extra room where your sewing will add glue surface and hold together better while your  sewing .  It is also easier to trim off with extra room.
  It is fun to have your own look and it's not hard to do  I might of made it sound to simple but until you do your own it will be hard to believe how easy it is .   Good luck

Tools of the the trade

Tools can become a large part of the craft.  It seems that any thing that has a potential to make life easier you want it in are tool rack.Don't get me wrong I'm not trading off my tool selection and I want to add more.  My point is that a small amount of tools can result in a quality built leather projects.
  There is no doubt the low end tools work .   Those $5 rotary punches won't punch very many hole before the bend.  This is common knowledge any more so use your best judgement when buying. As far as the quality tools it seems to me that there are more out there and it is easier to find than when I started out.
  Old tools can be reconditioned and it is fun to collect them and often you strike the mother load and find a real cool tool that helps in the shop a bunch.  I love that part of the tool collecting and it is very addicting . Of coarse it goes the other way I have tools that I have know idea what to do with or what there were used for. they seem hard to trade off for some reason.
 Well off to that shop and happy trails!    

Lacing is a good fabricating tool

lacing a project together

That in the next thing on the endless list of leathercraft  .It was tough in the start to use lace as a fabricating tool other than small project like wallets and such because the lace just wasn't for sale any where.   It wasn't long that I learned that you always had to make your own to be happy.  That was cool anyway I had a braiding book by Bruce Grant and it explained the process easy enough.  What it didn't say or I missed it that it took a little practice and skill to do it .Ok a lot of practice and skill
  There are some handy tools out there that have made life easier for lace making and they work well and it's not tough to master.  I remember stringing up some rawhide with a onlooker watching , his comment was "That's medieval don't they have a better tool for that other than a knife" I haven't found one yet for rawhide but that's a hole other thing.
  So taking a quote for the great braider Bill Dorrance and it does apply to every thing in the shop is " The key is in the preparation" Life is so much easier when all the steps are done and when your project starts coming together there are no serious fights involved.
 Her are the steps I take
1: Leather selection  I use a lot of my scraps for this and being careful not to have any belly leather and cutting out any scores it the leather. this prevents stretching and breakage during the process .  
2:  Size of the lace.  The lace should fill the hole that is being laced. In making the lace you have to count on some shrink it's going to happen for sure so I solve this by making my lace before punching any holes just to time. you may also over size the lace and size it down to fit but if it is to small you are cutting more lace for sure.
3: Belvel  A nice belvel to the lace allows it to lay flat and is more I pleasing and flat out more sounds construction all around. The tools for this are a little harder to find and it does taht some time to master them.
4 Soaping  The soap allows your lace to pass through without harming the lace as you work. the longer the lacing job the more your lace takes a beating.

  Of coarse there are many ways to pull this off and lots of tips and tricks that help you along the way.  I'm not keeping any of them a secret I just don't write or type well enough to explain plus you kind of have to be at it to remember what they are for me anyway.  So happy lacing and sure I will answer any questions If I don't know the answer I will have a good story why I don't know    

Sewing Machine

I do remember the shop before a sewing machine. It a came down to money when you think of a machine. You would think that a machine would free you up to make all kinds of projects. Yes but what is it going to run to keep a machine going to where you are making a profit, that is a good question to ask. It didn't take me long to see the customer didn't care to pay any extra because you hand sew even after explaining all the greatness in hand stitching . I always got the feeling that they thought more along the line that I was to cheap to own a sewing machine. So the search began.
   So I found a small flat bed machine( used) that I drove 5 hours one way to buy and I did buy it. It worked great but I soon learned that I would need a bigger machine to really help so I found one closer to home and it was great for a while.I found out once again that bigger and better is what I need so the search continued .Now 15 years latter I own 3 sewing machine two of them just take up valuable shop space but there nice when I need them. And the big machine and I hope they don't come out wit a bigger one or I might have to get that but I'm real happy with what I have now.
 Yes I still find that hand sewing is very necessary even if I can sew it on a machine. Like stirrups I like to sew them real close. I have tried many ways to sew on a machine but they all fell short so I just hand sew, it takes a little out of my profit to do so but I think that it is worth the extra money. I have seen a lot of the tricks that go into a factory made saddle to cut the hand sewing out and I'm not going to even try that.  The horn and the cantle binding is always hand sewn in my shop.
  There are some great companies   out there that handle leather stitchers   that weren't around when I was looking .  I will gladly point you to them another thing they are almost half the money now it doesn't figure

Hand Sewing

Lets start with  sewing :
 What is called a saddle stitch is very simple to use. We use a wax thread because it helps hold your stitching tight while you work. To measure the amount of thread you will need just lay the thread long the stitch line and double that thread then double the whole length of that then I add a foot to thread the needles with. Thread a needle on both ends by going in the eye 2' then piercing the thread twice and pull the slack up near the eye then rolling it on your leg or the bench..
  Your stitch line can be crease with a tickler or a molding tool it can also be groove with a number of stitch groover.  Next is to space your stitches a over stitch wheel is handy for that job. Dividers work fine but its a little slow. Stitches should be no larger that 5 to that is the spacing showed in the picture.
  The awl is the key to all of this and it does take a little practice time. I have never bought a new awl that would work out of the box . They need to be worked down and sharpened. When your awl is cutting good it will push in the leather like butter. If you have to force it in it is very hard to get it to come out in the right place and your look will suffer on both sides of your work. I work my on a belt sander till it becomes thin enough to pierce a hole the size of my needle.  the work it on a stone to produce a fine polished cutting edge. This does take some time but it is time well spent.
  If you don't know the saddle stitch it is so simple it's hard to explain.  Just pass the needle through the hole and follow up with the needle on the other side and pass through the same hole and pull tight.  I like to make each hole as I go and I follow the awl as I pull it out with the needle for the reason that the hole is smallest on that side and it is easier to feed the other through the large hole. I do love to hand sew and if I can answer any questions give a shout

Fabricating And Tools For The Job

This is real simple to say the way you choose to assemble a project is according to your tools you have at hand.
You sure don't have to have much but it seems that with saddle maker the right amount of tools for the job is just one more.  The must have tools are a sharp Knife and a way to keep it sharp. A sewing Awl. and harness needles blunt end. A good pair of dividers. Then it all builds from there but that is your basic need.
  When I was hand sewing every thing my design was made to cut the amount of stitching and now a stitcher is in play the designs are made to fit on to the stitcher. So if you Savay what I'm getting at is. your end product has a lot to do with the tools you choose to use.