Leather Working Class

Creative Arts
#41

I’ve scheduled another two leather crafting classes. The first is the second INTRO TO LEATHER class on Monday the 14th (next week).

The second is a project class where we are going to build a small knife case for pocket knives. It will be taught the following week on September 23rd. There is not a prerquisite of taking the intro class, but you might want to so that you are familiar with the process. There is NO charge for the intro class.

Nicole has purchased the knife case kits and I will be teaching on how to stamp and stitch them. There will be a nominal $5 charge for the class to pay for the cost of the kit. Just bring a $5 bill to class to purchase the kit. (Nicole got a significant business discount at Tandy so the $5 is less than Tandy sells them for retail.) https://www.tandyleather.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/4106-00.aspx We only have 10 kits. Please send me email if you plan to come to the class: [email protected]

The emphasis will be on hands on project construction. The teaching will center around learning to stamp, stitch and assemble the project. We will touch on lacing, finishing, and accoutrements briefly during this class, too.

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#42

This is the syllabus for the class tonight:
1.Introductions -Name and what are your interests in leather working? (5-10 mins)
2.Types of leather, what to buy and what you can do with it. This will help you when you go to purchase the raw materials for your project. (10 minutes)
3.Basic tools including stamps, mallets, knives, punches, skiving tools, snap tools, needles and others. I plan to introduce you to the tools of a leather worker and how to use them. (20 mins)
4.Project basics: Pattern selection, Cutting, Tracing, Casing, Stamping, Burnishing, Finishing, and Assembly. My intent is to help you get started in a leather project. I’ll explain the steps necessary to complete a project. . (20 mins)
5.Accoutrements such as conchos, rings, snaps and beads. How you can enhance your project with accoutrements. .
6. Practice simple stamping on scrap leather. This is the hands on part of the class. Everyone will be given a piece or two of leather to practice on. This will familiarize you with the tools so you can get a feel for how to use them. (20 mins)
You will leave knowing how to complete a leather project. There are many kinds of leather projects you can work on ranging from designing costumes, building different types of stamped objects, to making whips through braiding and weaving leather. Like any skill leather working requires practice. The class will help you get started.

There is no fee for the class, but if the class size is more than 9-10 people we won’t have enough equipment to accommodate everyone.

#43

We had another eight students last night in the intro to leather craft class. Several of them were not members of DMS, but are very interested in joining. One had joined at the open house.

Everyone got to practice tooling some leather. Thank you Nicole for buying the additional poundo boards, granite slabs and mallets. They were very useful in teaching the class. The vellum you provided worked beautifully, too.

I’m looking forward to the pocket knife case project class next Wednesday.

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#44

With regard to the knife case making class. The class will be a hands on class taught in the CA workspace. You can see the case we will be working on here: http://www.tandyleather.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/4104-00.aspx. There will be a $5.00 cost for the class which will cover the cost of the case. Nicole got a discount on the case from the list price of $5.99 on the Tandy site. Please bring a $5 bill to the class to pay for the case.

There is no prerequisite for this class, however, the first 45-60 minutes will be spent stamping the leather so you should know how to stamp before you take the class. (You could assemble the knife case without stamping if desired, but it would not be as interesting)

The last half of the class will be centered around assembly, primarily stitching and finishing the piece. Several methods of stitching/lacing will be presented.

CA has 5 sets of mallets and stamping slabs so if there are more than 5 students we will have to share the tools. There are also only a few sets of the basic stamps, but this should be manageable.

Lastly, there are only 12 cases available for purchase. I didn’t set up an eventbrite for this class and probably should have.

Please send me an email to [email protected] if you are planning to attend.

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#45

I know you will have an awesome class. People are excited!

#46

For those of you who were unable to complete the stitching on your knife case here is a great little video from George Hurst who produced some nice videos for Tandy and later for one of his companies Hide Crafter leather. https://youtu.be/qi3BRWO7kuo?t=25
I enjoyed the class and getting to know some of you better. I hope you got something out of the class and had some fun doing the project.

I’m considering teaching so additional classes on stamping, lacing and finishing leather projects. I haven’t scheduled them yet. Please email me if you have any interest in these additional classes. [email protected]

#47

Have you tried it?

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#48

I’ve done it, it works just fine (if a touch stinky)…

#49

Thank you for the reply.

Do you recall the weight / thickness of the leather?

Have you tried to cut stitch holes?

#50

Its been a while, but pretty sure it was very light weight (3-4oz). That said, our laser will have no problems with
heavier leathers up to 10 oz, and after that you will probably just have to play with the settings a bit for optimal results. I wouldn’t be surprised to see good cuts with 16oz leather after the settings are dialed in.

Stitch holes were easy, no problems. You can also raster an image, as well as etch your guidelines for tooling before casing the leather.

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#51

I would love for someone to teach a class/show others how to do this. One of the major time consuming parts of leatherwork is drawing the lines for tooling and cutting the leather to begin work. This would be an awesome addition to the leatherworking capabilities for DMS members.

I’m sure it is a simple matter of getting the settings right for the materials, but I still think it would be a fun class.

#52

I am extremely interested in settings for cutting leather on the laser

#53

FYI, saw this Instructable email today: DIY Scrap Leather Projects
Maybe, good for starting the idea process.

#54

I joined DMS to cut leather and acrylic templates for my leatherworking on the laser, but sadly my lack of design software skills has kept me from doing just that. …insert sad face here… If someone who knows the laser would like to play around to find the right settings and develop a class, I will gladly make my personal scrap boxes available to supply the experiments and the class. I’m free most Mon & Thurs nights and weekends. My concern about laser-cut leather is that the burned edges might be unfinishable other than with paint…would like to find out in any event!

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#55

For those interested in leatherwork + laser, I am also about to head down this path. My inspiration came from a new laser coming on the market “Glowforge”. Came across this video. Jump to 4:59 and he shows a beautifully etched wallet he made. I reached out to @lukeiamyourfather to see if this could be done and he pointed me to the leather strap on the lasersaur. I’ve already got the ticket to the laser class on the 10th and will be starting to work on etching leather afterwards. If I can figure it out and get some good results would be happy to teach a class specific to the process. Planning on going by Tandy Leather this week and getting different weights of scrap to test with.

3 Likes
#56

Please let me know when you do this. I am most interested in doing this with some leather also.

#57

Will most likely be very humble beginings, but if you want to watch your more than welcome. Will be up there most of Sunday (7ish - Noon)

#58

I’m sorry I couldn’t make the Sunday time. I was already engaged in another activity. Did you discover anything in your experimentation? @apparently_weird Can you tell the group here a little about your findings please?

Did you successfully cut and engrave your leather? What settings did you find worked the best?
Which laser did you use to cut?

Any information would be most appreciated.

#59

Actually it is this upcoming Sunday, the 11th that I will be messing with leather hopefully.

#60

Laser marked leather is a really cool look. I got interested after seeing the guys at BossLaser do both leather and fabric. Super-fast tone on tone…just a cool look. They have several videos on YouTube.