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.

List of upcoming Projects:

• Archery arm guards
• Pouch with a pocket for fire tools (magnesium starters or lighters)
• More skirt chasers!
• Sword and dagger frogs
• Et cetera.

I’ll post as I have progress.

Obviously, this just won’t do. The problem is, how to fix it?

Well, I took the piece down to the good folks at Oregon Leather, and they showed me how to use Carnauba Cream to remove the tarnish. Rub the product on, let it dry, and then buff it out with some sheepskin. Here’s what you get afterwards:

Not too bad. It may take another coat before I’m completely happy with it though.

Here’s the finished prototype:

simple dice bag

Now those of you in the forums may know that the purpose of the betting pool is to guess the final build number of MapTool 1.3, and here I’ve gone and carved the symbol for DiceTool, which has been in released status for quite some time now. Truth is, the MT symbol substitutes a surveyor’s sextant for the die shown above, and it doesn’t carve well at that scale. It’s ok I guess, but I didn’t like the three tests I did of the sextant, so I’m putting the DT emblem on the dice bag – which makes sense anyway.

If the winner complains, he can always send it back :)

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.

These are the 5″ cuffs with buckles. They cover about half of your forearm (as seen in the last post). For the buckles and straps, I went with a slot-mount this time instead of the surface-mount method of the bracers seen previously. This allowed me to minimize the surface area required for them, as well as simplifying the construction process. I did, however have to re-create my construction template for the buckles from scratch, so once again one side fits better then the other. One of these days I’ll get it right.

For the finish, I used a Fiebing’s oil dye, followed by Angelus leather paint and topped off with Fiebing’s Tan-Kote. This design would probably look good in a nice brown, and leaving the carved design un-dyed like I did in the last pouch project should work out pretty well. I was making this pair for myself, though, and my current wardrobe is all black.

One truly nice point of this build was using leather from a full side instead of a belly cut. Bellies are great for prototypes and one-off designs, but for your best work use the best leather. Even then, I skimped a bit and used a “tannery run” grade here instead of an “A” grade leather. The main difference you will find between the two from what I could see at the leather supply store is that TR-grade doesn’t have as even of a surface color as A-grade. If you plan on dying or painting the finished product, however, the leather itself is the same quality.

A friend of mine wants a pair of bracers or cuffs, he isn’t sure which. So, this post is to get some pictures out where he can see them to make up his mind. (Note: the bracer pictured here is an early prototype made from tannery-dyed leather that I will not be using again. It is, however, the only finished one I have at the moment.)

Here’s a cuff:

And a bracer:

Options:

Tied or Buckles?

Like I said, that bracer is a prototype – the straps for the buckles have been re-designed and look much better in version 2.

I’ve seen some cool ideas for carving on tattoo websites, but I always make sure that the images I base my designs on are not copyrighted in any way. In this day and age, you gotta be real careful about what you copy, even if you don’t plan on selling it. The last thing I want is for some jackass lawyer to come ’round with a stack of paper in his hand because my design looks like his client’s.

Now, as for whether I will publish or give away my patterns and designs, allow me to put on my Asshole Hat for a second here. The entire point of doing this sort of thing is to be creative and enjoy yourself. I will never publish complete designs with instructions and measurements and such, because I want you to use the grey matter between your ears. If all you are looking for is instructions on pounding out some crap to sell or give away or whatever, go somewhere else. The world is full of knock-offs, and I would much prefer you take enough pride in your work to screw around with it until you think it looks good and would be happy to give it to a friend and have them show it off ’round the campfire.

There has been more than one occasion where I have taken a half-hour to carefully replace a screwed up rivet because i couldn’t bear to look at it. Would you?

As an example of this, I was at an event last year and discovered I had left my hat at home in July, and needed to get some shade on my head quick. I wandered over to a haberdasher’s and selected a wide-brimmed number with one side folded up. Now, it was all leather, but the guy had slammed it out on a commercial-grade machine, had run over his own seams partway instead of matching them up, and the hat generally had this “half-assed” feeling to it, like the maker was just trying to push out some stock for his booth.

Unfortunately, the guy got me talking and I forgot to ask how much it was until he was halfway through sizing it for me. He wanted $125 for this thing. The leather itself cost maybe $15, and the skull pinning the side up another $3, so he basically wanted $112 for the _maybe_ two hours he spent building and fitting it. If he hadn’t sized it for me I would have turned and left – as it was, I bought the damn thing and felt like an idiot for it.

So. The point here is that if this is the kind of work you plan on doing, get the hell off my website.

If, however, you plan on taking pride in your work, giving attention to the details and making things for friends and family that you will be proud to have them fuss over, well, you my friend are welcome here. But I still want you to think! Be creative! Use my work as an example of what can be done, but don’t blindly copy it for yourself. (Unless, of course, I have managed to perfect something beyond any hope of improvement. Then you may copy. snerk)

In the end, it all comes down to what you want other people to think of your work. Are you just goofing around in the garage, or do you want to make something to remember? Do you want your projects to get tossed aside after a year or two, or do you want your grandkids to ooh and ahh when you tell ‘em you made it?

Me? I want the grandkids to ooh and ahh.

The new technique is the gridwork in the middle of the design. I purchased a couple of new shaders a while back, and this is the first chance I’ve had to play with them on a real design. I like the way it turned out.

The trick to using tools like this is all in the alignment – if you overlap them just a touch, it looks good. If you try to line the impressions right next to each other, you may end up with a thin line of material that isn’t stamped. As always, you gotta practice with it.

We’ll start off with a picture:

Here we can see some of my most-used tools in the roll-up pouch I made for them. From left to right, we have:

• a slot punch for belt buckles,
• my stitch groover,
• a belt-tip punch,
• a couple of bevelers,
• my #2 edge tool,
• a 4-way hole punch,
• my folding razor knife,
• my swivel knife,
• a selection of hole punches.

I also have a rotary punch, which is an excellent tool, but it’s only good for punching holes less than an inch away from an edge. For holes farther into a piece of work, you need a simple punch like these above.

The swivel knife is of course used for carving leather, and that razor knife makes cutting out the pices so much easier than using shears on heavy leather.

The 4-way punch doesn’t get a lot of use. I don’t do much in the way of lacing leather, and that is the main use of it. The #2 edge beveler next to it, however, gets used on every project to round off the square edges left by my razor knife.

The beveling tools next to that are used on leather carvings after the swivel knife to add dimension to the artwork. The stitch groover has gotten a lot of use lately, what with all the sewing projects I have attempted. The remaining tools are just for making straps – one puts a nice clean end on the strap, the other punches the slot for the tongue of a buckle or the key slot for a Sam Browne closure.

The tool roll was one of the first few things I made after my girlfriend gave me a starter set of tools for Xmas. I like having pockets and hooks for my tools, and this seemed like a good way to keep them stored and organized in my tool bag so I wasn’t always digging through a pile of stuff for them.

I started with a chunk of scrap leather, and only trimmed a little of it off to get the shape you see here. Then I just laid out my tools, folded the bottom over them and drew lines in between for a seam guide. i started on the right, and you can see how I mis-judged how the leather would gather – I thought that pocket would only hold one punch. The one next to it went a little small – that’s the only punch that will fit there. Luckily enough, I had it figured by then and the rest went pretty smoothly.

To finish the project, I whipped up a couple of buckled straps and riveted them to the left side. Here’s what it looks like all rolled up:

With the top flap rolled down over the tools and then the whole thing rolled up and buckled, it keeps everything tucked away inside, and the bundle fits neatly into my tool bag.

There is a selection of other tools in my bag, but the bag itself has many pockets that does the trick quite well. My stamping tools, however, will likely get a new case in the near future since they are currently stacked up in my parts box and I invariably have to dig all of them out to get the one tool I want. (Which is why the bevelers got moved to the tool roll.) It’s getting late though, so I’ll leave those for another post.