I was given an old felling axe by my Father-in-law a while ago. I was thinking of selling it as I don't have a great need to fell any trees. It's a nice axe and in good nick though, so instead I thought I'd have another go at making a leather axe mask - more as practice and to teach myself as much as anything else.
I've had an A4 size piece of 4mm veg tan leather lying around for ages that needed using up as well.
I scoured t'internet for ideas for patterns. Leatherworker.net is a great resource.
First off, I traced round the axe head and cut out some templates in paper:
Probably not necessary, but I then transferred the templates onto squidgy foam sheets from an art shop and mocked up the design, using split pins as rivets.
At this stage my plan was to use rivets in the mask. That didn't work out in practice. The mistake I made here was not thinking that squidgy art foam gives a lot more than leather. Basically I made the thing too small - which is why I ended up having to make it less deep than planned, and why I had to cut down the welt such that I couldn't fit the rivets in. That meant I had to sew much nearer to the edge than I wanted as well.
And here's a full length shot to get a bit of scale:
Then I cut out the leather using a Stanley knife. My next mistake was to not realise than you have turn the template over when you cut out the reverse side. Schoolboy error. Never mind; I could use the other side to cut the welt out from.
I dyed the parts before sticking the welt in place (little clamps with a bit of soft leather in their jaws helped here); then on to sewing. There was no way I was going to get an awl through three layers of 4mm leather, so I cheated and used a tiny drill bit on a Dremel-type tool I bought from Lidl. I followed the sewing instructions from Stohlman's book - which is great; really clear.
I rivetted on the strap and used a Sam Browne stud as a closure.
I bought all fittings and tools from Le Prevo by the way. The service was great; slightly old-school web purchasing, but it worked fine.
Enough waffle; I've learned plenty of lessons, and ended up with a result I'm relatively pleased with. It certainly does the job!
I've had an A4 size piece of 4mm veg tan leather lying around for ages that needed using up as well.
I scoured t'internet for ideas for patterns. Leatherworker.net is a great resource.
First off, I traced round the axe head and cut out some templates in paper:
Probably not necessary, but I then transferred the templates onto squidgy foam sheets from an art shop and mocked up the design, using split pins as rivets.
At this stage my plan was to use rivets in the mask. That didn't work out in practice. The mistake I made here was not thinking that squidgy art foam gives a lot more than leather. Basically I made the thing too small - which is why I ended up having to make it less deep than planned, and why I had to cut down the welt such that I couldn't fit the rivets in. That meant I had to sew much nearer to the edge than I wanted as well.
And here's a full length shot to get a bit of scale:
Then I cut out the leather using a Stanley knife. My next mistake was to not realise than you have turn the template over when you cut out the reverse side. Schoolboy error. Never mind; I could use the other side to cut the welt out from.
I dyed the parts before sticking the welt in place (little clamps with a bit of soft leather in their jaws helped here); then on to sewing. There was no way I was going to get an awl through three layers of 4mm leather, so I cheated and used a tiny drill bit on a Dremel-type tool I bought from Lidl. I followed the sewing instructions from Stohlman's book - which is great; really clear.
I rivetted on the strap and used a Sam Browne stud as a closure.
I bought all fittings and tools from Le Prevo by the way. The service was great; slightly old-school web purchasing, but it worked fine.
Enough waffle; I've learned plenty of lessons, and ended up with a result I'm relatively pleased with. It certainly does the job!
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