The Leather Shop

Nice work, and the videos were done well.

I did a little leatherwork way back in Cub Scouts, but nothing since. I have seen a few YouTube videos recently from Jimmy Diresta and Blackbeard Projects where they made wallets and other things.

I dabble with making holsters and gun belts. It's a pretty fun hobby and relatively cheap compared to my other hobbies. I have thought about picking up a tattoo gun and get into that side of the craft.

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It's a beach. I take blades (finished) to knives much easier than I can make a sheath.
Have plenty of unfinished leather projects in the shop. Having the right tools makes it a bit easier. Thanks for posting, maybe I can get motivated again!

Been watching a lot of Brian the Bootmaker lately.

I went to a small custom bootmaker shop in south Texas once and bought some boots and they took me into the shop and showed me all of the leathers they had, how they cut and molded it, and how they made all the stitching patterns on the boots. It was very interesting.

I keep meaning to make some axe sheaths, nothing too fancy, just good function.

I used to watch my two aunts make things out of leather. Belts, wallets, purses, even and attempt at a saddle or two. All the carving and filigree was impressive to say the least.
They both dropped it several decades ago. I never figured that out, develop an impressive skill, then just drop it. Boredom or life, who knows.

I dabbled in leather working for a bit. Made a few holsters and sheaths a few years ago when I thought I might be interested in Cowboy action shooting. That phase passed.

My father was apart time harness maker when I was growing up. Same media completely different tools and skill set. I can still remember the smell of the leather in the basement. He had 2 great big sewing machines. One was hand cranked and one was electric, both were nearly 6 feet tall. I vaguely remember a bunch of his friend coming over to help get them into the basement through the outside stair case.

I bought a bunch of leather hides off a guy on Craigslist a couple years ago. Had been looking for something to make - I ended up making a bunch of shoulder bags/purses for my ladies. I did them on my industrial sewing machine, and it forced me to learn how to use the machine. It was fun, but they were such a big hit, I have a long line of requests for more.

IndyGarage said:

I bought a bunch of leather hides off a guy on Craigslist a couple years ago. Had been looking for something to make - I ended up making a bunch of shoulder bags/purses for my ladies. I did them on my industrial sewing machine, and it forced me to learn how to use the machine. It was fun, but they were such a big hit, I have a long line of requests for more.

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Indy, what is the minimum size sewing machine for leather?

LegacyIndustrial said:

Indy, what is the minimum size sewing machine for leather?

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Depends on the type of leather, and how thick it is. My wife's baby loc can sew garment leather without trouble up to a set thickness so long as you use the correct needles.

For belts, holsters, saddles, and bags you need a beefier industrial grade machine or one of the manual machines (I.E. CowBoy Outlaw or Tippmann boss). They're expensive but worth it if you do a lot of that type of work. I just hand sew using a saddle stitch and stitching pony to hold my work piece.

I used to do hand tooled leather, belts, wallets, holsters, purses etc, and did this for about 15 years as a sideline while working full time. The price of leather kept rising and people did not understand that the work involved in cutting, designing and then tooling the products took a lot of time and therefore the price was reflected in the price of the product. I would always hear but I can get a leather wallet for $20.00 dollars yes but it is not quality leather and will not last like a hand made item. I finally stopped selling products and just do my own stuff now even younger family members do not appreciate hand made items these days. But if you want to get started tooling search the internet for Tandy Leather Factory they have all the tools and many free tooling patterns and good instructional books on the art of leather crafting.

I remember the Tandy Leather store in downtown Minneapolis as a kid.

And the Radio Shack stores.

THOSE were good days.

Ya............ Big time good days.

Marc

Lots of neat projects over there at Corter. But, I don't see a pen holster, dog collar (Martingale) or a harness.

Whenever we visited SoCal, we always popped over the border to TJ. There quality, cheap leather goods were abundant. The vendors would chase you down the the sidewalk just to make a sale and did they like to bargain. Those were the days, unfortunately all those main street sheds are gone along with the bargain leather.....even they cannot compete with the imports.

Speaking of Tandy, I have a recliner (vinyl) that needed recovering, went to Tandy for the leather and found some one to do a quality job at a reasonable price. Done more than twenty-five years ago....the results.

LegacyIndustrial said:

Indy, what is the minimum size sewing machine for leather?

Click to expand...

Sorry missed the question.

I'm sure you can do some leather on a regular sewing machine, but thicker materials require an industrial machine with what they call "triple feed".

Sometimes called a "walking foot" machine.

Normal machines push the material through using a series of serrated teeth under the material. These are called "drop feed" machines. because the teeth drop down at the end of the feed and index a specific amount to start another stitch. Most home machines and most tailoring machines are drop-feed.

A "walking foot" machine adds a second presser foot on top of the material that "walks" with the drop feed mechanism pushing the material through from both sides. It's a much more positive feed and necessary for thick materials. They are much more complex because the presser feed has to be timed exactly with the drop feed - so they had a series of shafts that come from the bottom to the top side to feed the walking foot.

A triple feed machine has a needle that also moves with the presser foot - which makes them "triple feed".

Another factor for working on thick material is the power of the motor. It takes a lot of torque to push the needle through 3-4 layers of leather. Most of the time home machines don't have powerful enough motors or enough structural rigidity to keep from flexing under the force.

Most of the modern walking foot machines are copies of the old Singer 111 series machines which can go back to the 1930's - in fact many companies still call them 111's.

An industrial machine will come on a workbench type base usually with a clutch motor drive. Although professionals learn to use a clutch motor, I found for an amateur like me a servo motor was necessary.


I have a 80 year old Singer 111-w153 and a 30 year old German made Pfaff 145 which are very similar machines. The Pfaff has a few more features, but doesn't really sew any better.

Something very relaxing about watching this video, thank you for sharing.

I dabble a bit and the best advice I have is get good at sharpening stuff - it will make the difference between ruining things and hurting yourself and having a nice time making things.

I do 100% hand stitching and yes it is time consuming but it is meditative and super relaxing if you have a sharp awl and a decent stitching horse.

Also - proper thread and needles.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it's like any craft, there is nuance in the tools and the further along you get the more particular about things you get.