Now, for most geeky gamers, the classic method of dice storage is a Crown Royal bag – it’s a good size for dice, it’s garishly purple (and therefore easy to spot among the clutter) and it gives you that extra bit of cred as a younger gamer to have something that was associated at one time with alcohol of a better variety than PBR or Ranier. Myself, I’ve had things like fishing-reel cases and random belt pouches, and my last one was a suede pencil-case I picked up at a bookstore. I like the style of the pencil-case the best I think, since it also leaves room for a couple pencils and other such that a floppy bag doesn’t. It would also give me a chance to practice up on another method of stitching: the Butt Stitch.

(DunDun-Dunnn….)

Once again, I go to my Al Stohlman’s Guide to Sewing Leather where he outlines the basics of this difficult stitch – and of course he makes it look a lot easier than it is. The idea is that you take two pieces of leather and line the edges up. You then stab (using a curved awl) through the top side out the edge of piece A, then in the edge and out the top side of piece B. Picture it as a pair of phone books: you stab through the front cover and come out in the N-section, then into the N-section of the next book and out the front cover. Here’s a picture:

In this instance, I have made a tube by wrapping a piece of leather around a bit of plastic pipe I had handy. If you plan on doing something like this, I would HIGHLY recommend using a piece of doweling instead of plastic pipe for one simple reason: tacks. Al recommends using a bit of glue to seal the pieces together, but I really don’t like trying to sew through glue. As you can see, I chose instead to go with a bit of ribbon to hold it all to the pipe, and as such I had some gapping problems when pushing the awl through.

If you use a dowel, however, you can hammer a few tacks or brads through your work to pin it to the dowel, thus snugly securing the work and making the sewing that much easier.

There are still other pitfalls you will run into. For this project, I chose a “tannery run” grade of leather instead of an “A” grade, and I have paid the price. I cut the pieces from the center of the hide I had to get the best color, and once I started sewing I realized that the surface layer of the grain was being pulled from the substrate as I snugged it up – and I wasn’t snugging all that hard. In the “Top seam” picture below, you can see how the first dozen stitches are separating.

Full seam

Top seam

Bottom of seam

Once we get down to the bottom seam, things are looking much better. (Except for the bat wings being at different altitudes, anyway. I apparently had my pattern skewed ever-so-slightly…) This is due to two things: the leather tightened up at that stretch, and I also ditched my bent awl in favor of my straight awl. The straight one has a thinner cross-section and puts less stress on the seam. Al’s advice originally was to take a regular awl and bend it using heat – which is excellent advice indeed.

Here’s a picture of the bat symbol after it had been cut and beveled.

Now on to the rest of the project. Here you can see how I have attached the lid:

The lid is a second tube, cut to be a larger diameter than the main body so it fits snugly over the top. That top panel is attached with a variant of the butt stitch, in which I stabbed through the surface of the tube, out the edge, and into the bottom of that top panel and through. That seam gave me a blister on my left hand from trying to brace the top panel as I stabbed through it. That blister tore when I was doing the bottom panel with the same method. Every project demands a sacrifice…

And finally, we have the completed project in it’s natural habitat: the kitchen table with dice.

You’ll notice the round seam above the bat’s head. I pulled the magnets out of an old phone case and sewed them into the two pieces of the project as a way to make sure the top didn’t flip open. I scraped out the flesh side of each pice to thin out the leather, and then glued and sewed some scraps over the magnets to keep them in place. It turned out to be unnecessary though, as the top is snug enough that spillage won’t be a problem. final finish is simple oil and Fiebing’s black dye, topped with a coat of Tan-Kote.

Oh, one other thing I learned on this project: when slicking the edges, use real cotton canvas. I got a much better result than with the scrap of old trousers from the rag bin I had been using prior.

I recently decided to invest in some better miniature screwdrivers, and found a set with a single handle and interchangeable blades that takes up a very small amount of room in my backpack kit. The case, however, is an uninspiring plastic jobbie with a blown-plastic insert. The lid is kinda thin, and I get the feeling it will get cracked before long.

I smell a new project!

While the tool roll I have shown you before is pretty neat, I decided to go with more of a wallet approach on this one. I figured a three-pocket design would be good, with a cover flap that snaps in place. This also gives me room to carve something interesting on it.

For the pockets, I figured I could use a softer leather sewn onto hard leather, and if I worked it just right, I might be able to hide a couple of seams for appearance’s sake. Considering the dimensions of the screwdriver handle, it would require at least one layer of welt to thicken the profile enough to look right.

So – on to the sewing.  I dug some suitable material out of my scraps bag and spent about an hour agonizing over the math regarding how big the top section should be to make decent pockets, settled on some numbers, and set to it. The outside seams are done with glover’s needles, and I won’t be doing that again without a thimble. Those bastards are sharp! I switched to my awl and harness needles for the handle’s pocket.

Once the pockets were stitched up, I cut the welt piece and skived it thinner along my stitch line so it wouldn’t bunch up too badly on the final seam. The welt is a U-shaped piece that just goes around the outside. In the pictures below, you can see I’ve also cut a second U-shaped piece, mounted snaps, and glued it atop the welt, which has already been sewn to the pockets.

Now comes the fun part – carving the design.

After much thought and agonizing, I decided to go with the Transformers Autobot insignia. I’ll be using this kit at work, so it has to be something bland enough that no-one could take offense at it. (The other most popular idea was to carve “I void warranties” on it, but I suck at lettering.) Here’s the piece with the design carved and backgrounded:

As I said, this will be living in my backpack and subject to all the dangers therein, so I backgrounded the positive image instead of the negative to give it a better shot at survival. I also intended to dye the whole thing black and paint the design silver, so this will save the paint from being scraped off as well.

Now for the painful part – sewing three layers of 7-8 oz leather together. Here’s a test-fitting of the project:

Again, I begged forgiveness from the ghost of Al Stohlman and used my Dremmel to pre-drill the holes. I’ve gotten better at judging seam distances though – I managed to get all of this seam done with one piece of string. Here it is all sewn up and the snaps installed:

The edges look a little rough here – these pix were taken just before I trimmed and sanded everything straight and smooth. Once that was done, it was time to dye.

Points to the World’s Best Girlfriend here, she brought me another bottle of dye just as the first one ran out.

The fiddliest bit of this sort of project for me is the coloring process. Dying something black is simple and straightforward enough, but the painting gets at me. First a coat of bone white, then we tidy up with a dye marker, then a couple coats of silver, more tidying up, and correcting where I over-tidied… you get the picture.

The last two steps I finished just today – I slicked the edges and applied a thick coat of Tan-Kote. Here’s the finished product:

And now it goes into the backpack, rarely to be seen again…

Real simple project, just cut out two shapes and stitch them together. The only tricky part was to keep breathing while trimming down the bunny fur for the cuff – cut bunny fur floats, and that shit gets everywhere.

The cuff is two 5″ tall strips of rabbit fur cut from two different hides to get a good quality section with no blemishes. Sew them at the sides so it forms a circle, then stuff the circle into the stocking until the top edges line up. (Fur should be touching the inside of the leather). For best results, tack the fur in place in about 4 places to make sure you’ve got it centered and not bunched up.

Now stitch the tops together (I used a simple running loop stitch), then turn the fur out and down, and viola: fur-cuffed stocking.

Finished scabbard

…and I decided it was just too pretty to dye, so I gave it a coat of sealant and called it good.

I think I’m actually getting good at this…

With that in mind, J went out and bought us a new camp hatchet, and sure enough, i decided it had to have a scabbard for safe transport.

I’m not sure if J and Illyana intended for me to be making a scabbard for it, but they sure didn’t complain when I offered. They’re no dummies.

Anywho, here’s what it looks like before the dye. I made it ambidextrous, so it’s pretty on both sides.

Those rivets are called double-caps, and designed just for projects like these where you can’t hide the ugly side.

In this design, the top and bottom rivet are there to keep the scabbard from pivoting off the blade (the tips of the blade are almost right at the points of the trefoil) and the two middle rivets are there to keep the blade from cutting the stitches.

Now to figure out how I want to dye it…

The Phoenix:

…and the Dragon:

Not bad, if I do say so meself :)

Dragon…

…and the Phoenix

Notice these will have laces instead of buckle straps. I did not have wrist measurements for the recipients, and lacing them gives much better adjustment. For colors, the Phoenix is going to be dyed black and then the bird will be painted red, possibly with some orange and yellow highlights if I’m feeling daring. The Dragon gets a medium brown background with the dragon itself dyed black.

For that, I’m using the brush dye method, and here’s what it looks like at phase 1:

Astute observers may note that the dyed version doesn’t have grommets yet – that’s because I screwed up the dye process on the first attempt. I dyed the dragon and the background with the brush method the first time, but the brown dye just does not cover evenly, and I could not find a way to smooth it out for the life of me. This time, after I have soaked all the black I can into that dragon, I will apply a few coats of resist and then use a wool dauber to spread the brown dye right over the top.

And if that doesn’t work out, the next one gets dyed brown first and then I’ll paint the damn dragon on.

Now most of you should be familiar with the sheaths sold today – they only encase the blade of the knife, and then have a snap-strap to secure it in place. While this is a useful configuration, the more period method is the pouch sheath, which leaves only the last inch or so of the handle exposed. This is actually a more secure arrangement than the snap method, since you won’t ever accidentally unsnap it and risk the knife falling out on your foot, and with proper design the sheath will hold the knife securely through much bumping and jumping around.

To give full credit, I stole the design from Bruce Evans and the tutorial you will find at that link. I left the points sharper on mine than he did, but I followed his tutorial with the exception of using a drill bit instead of a nail to punch the holes for sewing, and I used a heavy thread instead of sinew. The sinew would have been more period, but I didn’t have any on hand.

I skipped the wax bath, mainly because I don’t really like the texture of wax-treated leather. Illyana is mildly into leatherwork herself, so she knows how to care for it properly. I also decided to forego any carving on this one, since I was going to dye it black, and the decoration gets lost in a black dye unless you paint it afterward. Knife sheaths get bumped around a lot so that paint would get abused pretty badly.

Here it is basically complete and waiting for the oil to dry before I dye it (with the original sheath for comparison.)

And with the knife sheathed:

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a pic after I dyed it, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

I ended up doing a selective dye method – I used a brush instead of a wool dauber to apply the dye, and I like the effect. This is the first finished piece after talking with a guy who swears by the oil dyes. His advice was to rub the piece with Neatsfoot Oil and let it sit for a day, then use an oil dye. Not too shabby.

It was purchased at an event, and cost was a major factor at the time, so it is very plain, the leather is a little sub-par, and I’m not 100% pleased with the design. So, I’ve made a lot of pouches in an effort to come up with the perfect replacement.

My first attempt was a success as far as construction went, but it was still plain and a little small for the amount of junk that normally gets tossed in there at an event. (Smokes, lighter, mints, flashlight, about half of my wallet – you get the picture.) So, off I went again. And again. And again…

The latest version is yet another change to the overall design – just two pieces instead of three or four in an effort to reduce the amount of sewing. The design works, but again this one is a tad small. I do need to pile up some stuff to auction off for our pavilion fund, however, so I thought I would dress this one up with some tooling.

The leather in the construction won’t tool, so I will be sewing or riveting something on to the flap. I’m leaning toward rivets – I like the visual better sometimes, but mostly I just don’t like sewing. (I really need a deeper jaw on the stitching pony for most of my work.) I was playing around with my drafting tools, and came up with a nice Celtic Trefoil design:

The rivets will go in the center of the three foils and also on either side of each tip, so it will be pretty secure. The closure, of course, is always my biggest headache of the design process because there are so many ways to do it, and what will work best? I really only get one shot at each pouch.

I thought I would give that Walnut oil dye one more chance, and used it on another design that I had screwed up, and I am once again thoroughly unimpressed with the results. There will be a trip to the store on my schedule for this weekend.

This last weekend, however, put another two projects on my list, as J bought a new sword and needs a good frog to hang it off his belt and K got herself a new knife with a lousy scabbard. Maybe I should just buy a hide this weekend while I’m at the store…