Anyone Here Do Leatherwork?

[Erick]

I am looking to have a sling made for a rifle. I am looking to do something simple with my last name and a small panel on each side. One with oak leaves the other with cedar.

I old really like to do it myself but figured I'd ask here. If you can do something like that PM me details. Thanks!

 

[Super Dave]

Have you done leatherwork before, Erick?

I did this about ten years ago. I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I could help you out if you want to make it yourself.

 

[Erick]

That looks nice! I've never done any sort of leatherwork. I may take you up on that. It's for a rifle that I plan on passing down so making the sling myself would be pretty nifty. What is the basic method, drill for hardware, tool design and dye?

 

[aarondhgraham]

Tandy has a sling kit,,,

You would still need to get it tooled and dyed though,,,
But for this all you need to do is ask the people at Tandy.

They all have plenty of people to recommend for any small leather jobs.

Aarond

.

 

[Super Dave]

That looks nice! I've never done any sort of leatherwork. I may take you up on that. It's for a rifle that I plan on passing down so making the sling myself would be pretty nifty. What is the basic method, drill for hardware, tool design and dye?

I have about half of a cow hide laying around, and a pretty good amount of tooling. Somewhere I have a book that I bought at Tandy. It's a lot easier than you would think. Being patient is the big thing. You can buy stamps for the letters of your name, but I prefer carving it. More neato that way, I think. I did a belt that way for my wife, several Christmases ago.

If you carve and shade, you draw it up first, then use a clear, thin plastic sheet to transfer it to. You wet the leather (it gets kind of like clay then), and lay the pattern over the leather, and use a tool that is not unlike a dull scribe to trace over the lines on the pattern, pressing hard enough to leave a dark line where the leather indents. Then you use a swivel knife to cut the leather, then various shaders to indent around the background, making your letters more pronounced. This also makes the background denser, and when you dye it, it becomes darker. The first holster I did was not s pretty, and you can see where a little dye goes a long way. It is just stamped with patterns, and a little, poorly carved DCL TooL Co. logo.



I just used olive oil on the holster you see in post #2, with the roses. It has a more natural look, which I decided I like a lot better. See the hammered copper looking background, and how it is darker? That is done with a pear shader. It's easy, but tedious. The more you smack it, the denser it becomes, and more pronounced your letters become. I did not want it to have too much contrast on my roses, do I didn't do it too hard, too much.

It's pretty fun, and really satisfying when you are done. I sat on the floor, and did most of my work in the evening on a little wooden footstool while the family was watching TV.

 

[OKCHunter]

How are you doing the stitching? By hand?

 

[Super Dave]

When you are ready, holler, and I'll dig out the stuff. Got a wood stove out in the shop, which makes for a good place to get away, and tinker on whatever, especially this time of year.

 

[Super Dave]

How are you doing the stitching? By hand?

Me? Yes, by hand. You use a little wheel roller marker thing like this:

Then you make the holes with this unforgiving, finger stabbing son of a b!tch:

As you stitch with sinew, and a couple of these dull needles:

You hold it together with a fancy wooden stitching pony, but as I am cheap, I just use a big old wooden screw clamp:

If I can do it, anyone can!

 

[twoguns?]

Those look pretty good...cool man...

 

[OKCHunter]

Thanks SD. I've wondered how the stitching was done on leather products and looked so nice. I couldn't imagine everyone having a sewing machine for the job.