New belt

[Todd Bradshaw]

Today's project. My wife wanted a belt like my kilt belt for a tartan dress she is making from the navy version of our tartan. I ordered a really neat buckle, which should be here in a couple of weeks and figured I'd get the leatherwork out of the way today while watching embarrassingly bad football games. It's 2.5" wide and tapers down a bit at the ends for a 60 mm buckle.



It was made to match her sporran-style shoulder bag (top row, far right).

[OC Richard]

Wow you do amazing work!

I really like the "distressed" sporrans on the left.

Do you make those for sale?

[kilted firefighter]

That looks great. I wish my sewing machine could handle thicker leather. I would like to try my hand at leather work.

[GrainReaper]

You are an amazing craftsman! You piece together the most amazing things, I suppose your business lends itself nicely to making things of leather and cloth huh?

Just please don't try handcrafting a car, I couldn't handle seeing a show quality hand hammered aluminum bodied AC Cobra that you just "slapped together" from bits lying around the shop.

[MacKenzie]

Superb craftsmanship!

[hector]

Your work is superior sir!
I particularly like the fur sporran. It is so beautiful! This would be my dream sporran.

[grizzbass]

I really need to get a sewing machine some day

[Todd Bradshaw]

Since I already have one business making things that take way too much hand labor I have avoided trying to be in the leather goods trade. It would probably take the fun out of it. Once in a while I'll sell off a couple of things I'm not using to generate some cash to buy more leather for new projects, but that's about it.

The "distressed" finish is actually really easy to make. I stumbled on the process a couple of years ago when making a shooting bag. The dye is Tandy "Gel Antique" in tan color. It's not my favorite leather dye, compared to the usual and much thinner alcohol or oil-based dyes, but the water-based gel formula gives it some interesting workability. I wipe on a coat and quickly rub it down to even it out. After sitting a couple of minutes, I pour a little bit more dye out on a plate. Then I crumple up a paper towel into a wad, blot up a little bit of dye from the plate and lightly dab it on the leather. This is left as-is and not rubbed out, and that's what gives the mottled color. Here is the original shooting bag. I love watching that big old Consew cruise through heavy leather, but it certainly isn't absolutely required. This one, for example, was all hand-sewn. Then I had to make an Inkle Loom and learn how to use it to make the strap. It's always something.... We then made a whole bunch of fantastic, 8' long Inkle-woven bands in wild patterns. We're still trying to figure out what to do with them.



It's actually the same dye and dye shade that the new belt has. To get the light tan color, you apply and wipe down the first coat of dye. After a couple of minutes you wipe it down again, but with a wet sponge or paper towel, removing much of the dye. Let dry for an hour or so and if you want a slightly darker shade, you repeat the process, building up thin layers of tan.

[Todd Bradshaw]

Hector,
The wild boar sporran was my adaptation of one I saw on the web and really liked that is available for sale. I liked the way it brought the fur sporran concept down to a more rustic level for daywear.


from: http://www.outfit4events.com/usd/pro...eltic-pattern/

There was a lot of seat-of-the -pants engineering, trying to figure out how they did it and adapt that to my tools, skills, etc. but it came out pretty interesting (though rather heavy, it has a walnut cantle inside). I built one with fur and one with just the distressed leather top to highlight that "acorn" shape.

[Roadkill]

incredible work! Very impressed!