Dabbling with leather.

[johntarmac]

I recently treated myself to a Mora spoon knife and then a Robin Wood carving axe, neither of which came with a covering. Being an enterprising sort of chappie I decided to have a crack at making them myself.
Having ordered a kilogram pack of leather offcuts and some waxed linen thread of ebay I was good to go and the following pics are the results.















At this point my dear lady decided she wanted something too so I made her a phone case.


My next project is a water bottle.



The beeswax for this should arrive today, at least that's what the courier said

I think I've found myself a new hobby and now walk around the house looking at things and wondering if it would look nice with a leather coat.

What I've learnt from this ....... trying to melt the end of waxed linen thread will produce a nice if very short lived candle.

30 seconds ago

 

[bopdude]

Is that your first crack at leatherwork, if so very well done, it's something I have been thinking of attempting, this might just give me the kick up the backside to do it

Thanks for sharing.

 

[johntarmac]

Yes bopdude it was my first go and thank you.

Definitely give it a try, getting offcuts from ebay and thread is relatively cheap for having a go. The only 'specialized' tool I used is a small U gouge from a wood carving set for the stitch grooving.
Burnishing the edges seemed a bit hit and miss, I don't know if it was different bits of leather, my homemade burnisher or my technique. The last 2 I suspect
I finished them with shoe polish and a coat of beeswax furniture polish.

And a big thank you to anybody who has ever posted a tutorial on the internet.

 

[Robbi]

excellent stuff ! well done indeed

 

[Monikieman]

Pretty good dabbling if you ask me:You_Rock_

 

[Buckshot]

It's addictive isn't it!
well done

 

[Tengu]

Thats very good for first efforts.

(Says she who is rough and ready....)

 

[Honest Outrage]

Very nice indeed, they look great. Well done.

 

[johntarmac]

Thank you folks for your comments, very kind.

Carrying on I've decided to have a little go at tooling.



I stuffed the bottle with small aquarium gravel and then ran into problems. The stitching went wonky around the edges. A large growth appeared on one side about the size of half a lemon and the tooling disappeared.
Emptying the bottle and re-stuffing it again with less pressure removed the growth but I reckon I lost about 25% volume. When it was dry I went over the tooling again.



Dunking it in beeswax was great fun even if the kitchen and every bit of cookware we possess now also has a liberal coating too.
Despite using a bain marie affair with the inside pan sitting on aluminium foil balls the leather marked where it touched bottom of the dish.



It holds about 800ml, (would have been nice for it to be 1ltr,damn you lemon growth) and it doesn't leak. Woohoo.
I'm thinking a paracord strap with a piece of leather for a shoulder pad until I come up with something more inspired.

So far everything has been a great learning experience and I am quietly chuffed how it all turned out. Actually I'm sitting here with these bits spread out around me and stroking each of them in turn while occasionally cuddling the bottle.

Thanks for looking in

Oh, if anyone knows the reason for the wonky stitching, please do share.

 

[Ch@rlie]

Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

 

[NoName]

super well done, I think you discovered your talent, well done sir!