Leather Journal with Celtic Knotwork

[MagiKelly]

Well way back I made a leather journal cover

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23987

Crazy as it may seem some people might not want a SotP badge embossed on them :O I know, crazy talk but still true. So I looked for alternative pattern I could try and came up with Celtic Knotwork. I found just the thing for designing knots here

http://www.clanbadge.com/ details of how it works is here http://www.clanbadge.com/how.htm

I got the truetype font for making up these patterns and did a few tests on coasters. Happy with the results it was time to do a full journal cover. Here is the result. it is hand stitched with artificial sinew and made pretty much as the tutorial. the embossing is designed using the font I mentioned above but done pretty much as Thomas's belt embossing tutorial (on British Blades).

So here are the pictures

 

[Toddy]

Oh nice, very nice indeed

How long did it take ?

I take it you're coming to the next re-enactors market for supplies then ?

atb,
Mary

 

[Mistwalker]

That is indeed very nice, I love the knot work!

 

[g4ghb]

Wow - top work John - that looks really great!

(still like your sotp logo though)

 

[jojo]

That's really good work, John. Nice to see what other things people make along with knife sheaths and pouches!

 

[MagiKelly]

How long did it take ?

Roughly an hour measuring and cutting the parts.

Maybe about 8 hours marking tracing out the pattern, tracing it onto the leather, cutting the pattern then stamping it out,

Then about 4 hours stitching it all together and half an hour finishing the edges and waxing.

I take it you're coming to the next re-enactors market for supplies then ?

I was just going to give Russell a list

 

[warthog1981]

Very nice its just getting better and better well done

 

[Sniper]

That's a belter John, real nice work. I'll have to have a chat with you about one for myself at some time.

 

[Eric_Methven]

That's fantastic John. I've just ordered the font myself. That'll save me hours of work.

Eric

 

[Robby]

Superb work. beautiffully done. I love the way that you've done the spine.

 

[spamel]

That's brilliant. I've seen some of Firecrests' pyrography on leather, using that to make one of your journals would be simply stunning.

 

[MagiKelly]

I love the way that you've done the spine.

Thanks. Part of this was as I thought it worked as a design and part was because it helped with a slight problem. The font used to create the patterns is infinitely and minutely scalable but getting to the exact ratio of width to height I wanted was a bit of a footer.

So I got it to the right height and pretty much the right width (actually slightly too wide). When I traced the first half i just traced it to the start of the straight bits at the spine. Then slid the leather along a bit so it was under the pattern on the second side and continued the tracing. So in effect i took about 15mm out of the centre section. And as you say it has worked out well. I think the basic pattern continuing over the spine would not have been nearly as good.

 

[Barney]

that's is absolutely wonderful.

 

[Eric_Methven]

Well, I've had a play about with the font, and it has surpassed all my expectations.
I did this in about fifteen minutes. It's the template layout for one of my waxed leather tankards. This would normally have been four or five hours work.

It will allow me to start offering tooled knotwork on the stuff I make as it has become affordable now.

One of the best online purchases I have ever made.

Technical note: I managed to bend the knotwork by first taking it into CorelDraw9, converting it to curves (which makes it a vector graphic) then setting a path for it to follow. Using this method, you can chase knotwork borders round curves and awkward shapes.

Like this:

The top and bottom knotworks are exactly the same. I've just reshaped the bottom one to suit my exact needs.

Eric

 

[traderran]

looking good

 

[topknot]

Very nice MagiKelly

 

[SOAR]

Nice work I like it.

 

[MagiKelly]

Before I go off to play with my new carving tools I thought I may as well post pictures of a journal I finished last week for a friend. He could not decide between Celtic Knotwork or a Ying and Yang, so we compromised

 

[Shewie]

Wow John, that is superb sir

 

[Soloman]

Thats superb John,happy birthday by the way.
Soloman