‘Sabi Belt

Posted in Projects on February 7th, 2017 by The Cyberwolfe

See that wallet a few posts back? Well, the guy liked it so much he asked for a matching belt. My daughter had also requested a new belt, so I guessed the Universe was telling me to make belts.

Who am I to argue with the Universe?

Wasabi Belt

Black Belt

I got all insta-grammy with this pic. Lookit me bein’ all trendy-like.

A Public Service Announcement

Posted in Tips & Tricks on November 28th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

Just a quick reminder, folks: as tempting as it is to just grab that little jewelry anvil you have when you need a bit of weight on a wet-formed piece while it dries, DO NOT drop it straight onto the wet leather.

Steel stains

That there was supposed to be the belt keeper on a mahogany belt, but I forgot to put a piece of scrap under the anvil first. Luckily it wasn’t something important-and I can always hang onto it for my next black belt project.

This is the result of a chemical reaction between wet leather and iron, and it can’t be cleaned off. All you can do is dye the whole thing black.

You can do the same thing on purpose if you like – it’s called vinegaroon, and is made by dumping a handful of steel wool and/or old nails into a jar of vinegar, which you then leave to simmer in the sun for a few days or a couple weeks, depending on how impatient you are. The resultant tincture will dye leather indelibly black, guaranteed. It is not to be trifled with, however: this is not for brush-dyeing the background areas, as the mixture WILL bleed past your intentions. This is for dyeing the whole piece. There’s a very informative thread over at Leatherworker.net on the subject.

The More You Know(tm)

 

The ‘Sabi Wallet

Posted in Projects on November 9th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

One of the wife’s work buddies was kind enough to hang out with our cats last time we went camping (because Wasabi is a Ravenous Gorph who will eat all the food at once…), and he took a real liking to our youngest cat Wasabi Six-Toes (or ‘Sabi to some). When our illustrious cat-sitter recently lost his wallet, I got an idea.

Several outlets sell an odd money-clip that’s a wavy hook attached to a spring-tensioned rod. The hook pivots out from the rod, allowing you to tuck that rod into a pocket-type space and then hook the crease of a bill folded in half. Fold a piece of leather in half around said spring rod, sew it in place, and you have a handy money clip. Add a couple of pockets, and you have a decent minimalist wallet for carrying s few important cards and a hook for your cash.

The Sabi Wallet

Dress it up with a nice basket weave stamp pattern and some mahogany gel antique for color, and then top it all off with the Pawprint O’ Quality!

Pawprint O' Quality

Like I said, the cat’s name is Wasabi Six-Toes. He’s a polydactyl mutant, and that’s a pretty close approximation of his actual print.

Whassup?

(‘Sup?)

Watchband and cuff

Posted in Projects on September 16th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

Just a quick project for myself, based on an idea I totally hijacked from something I saw on Pinterest from this guy’s page.

Pass-thru Cuff

The cuff is two layers of light leather sewn back-to-back, with holes in the top layer to allow the watch straps to pass between the two layers.

On the inside, you can see something new I tried on this one. You know how you get wrinkles on the inside piece if you sew the two layers together flat and then wrap them around something? On this one I pre-empted this by making my own wrinkles with a bone folder.

Pass-thru cuff interior

Looks kinda like alligator belly.

Belt Keyhook

Posted in Projects on August 29th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

I’ve seen a number of these lately, thought I’d make one for myself. I’ve been meaning to do something like it for years – walked around with a carabiner on my belt since like 1998.

Belt KeyHook

Only downside so far is this will probably hasten the demise of the driver’s seat upholstery in the car. Maybe I can sew a leather patch onto that…

Card box

Posted in Projects on July 7th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

Greyduck gifted me a copy of Batman Fluxx for my birthday this year, and I thought I’d build a travel case for it – mainly as a reason to flex some skills a bit, I’m out of practice on boxes.

Completed boxOpen box

This is the project I built the clamp in the previous post for, although for at least half the stitching I just had the pieces glued together around a piece of wood I cut and sanded to the correct dimensions of the box interior. Not my best sewing, and there’s a couple of miscellaneous mistakes in construction. It does, however, do the job nicely.

Fluxx is a fun game, if you like games that warp the rules as you play. Featuring art from the WB’s animated series, arguably the best run of any Batman cartoon.

Batman Fluxx Cards

Box Corners Clamp

Posted in Tips & Tricks on July 7th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

clamp and kitten

With bonus kitten!

If you’ve ever tried to sew a leather box, you know how much of a pain it can be to keep everything lined up. Nigel Armitage does a good tutorial video on the process and also shows his simple solution to holding everything together at a nice 90-degree angle.

After spending 30 minutes doing a piss-poor job of sewing the first two pieces of the latest project together, I decided I needed to build one for myself. Considering I have limited table surface in my apartment hobby shop, I decided to make it as an attachment for the stitching horse, kind of like a Hardy for an anvil.

I had a 12″ board lying around after a false-start of a shelving project, so I nudged Nigel’s idea a bit and just butted two pieces into a “roof” shape, then sandwiched a pair of off-cuts and beveled them to act as the stem. Two more off-cuts get a similar bevel and become clamp arms. $3 worth of hardware later, it’s a clamp!

Of course, this won’t allow you to do all the seams of a box – eventually, you end up building an inside form as you attach the 4th wall and bottom, but it makes the first couple seams that much easier.

ClampClamp front

How-To: Leather Buttons and Toggles

Posted in Tips & Tricks on June 21st, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

Working a project and need a cheap-and-easy method of fastening two things together? A button sounds like just the thing. We’ve been using them for a few millenia, but surprisingly enough the button pre-dates the button hole by several centuries.

Before the button hole was invented, folks would make a loop of leather, cord or twine and push the button through that. It helps to have a wider button with this method, so they made toggles, which can really be anything vaguely stick-shaped – or even a stick. Antler tips lend themselves to the task well since they polish up nice, but a scrap of leather can work just as well.

Here I’m going to show you one way of making a leather toggle. There’s always more than one way to do something like this though, so feel free to improvise.

ButtonToggles

Read more »

Making use of vertical space

Posted in Projects on June 19th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

Bows On the Wall

Since the move to the smaller apartment, the archery equipment has been relegated to the bedroom closet, and the Wife thought it should be out where people could see it – and more importantly, clear out valuable shelf space. With that in mind, I came up with using a couple of spare belt blanks to act as the anchors, and some simple loop-and-toggle pairs to secure the items to the straps.

Loop and toggle detail

Just a simple loop of lace wrapped up and around the toggle. Yes, my stamping is a little off. I wasn’t measuring.

Button? Toggle?

Those toggles are just a strip of leather rolled up with a bit of lace run through it to secure the roll – and I just decided to do a tutorial on those as a separate post – come back tomorrow for that. Unless you’re reading this at some point in the future, in which case you probably just read it.

Timelines are hell.

Anyway, for those that are interested: Yes, I made the quiver on the right, see this post. The quiver on the left was left behind with the bottom bow.

From top to bottom:

  • Das Flingenstick, a 35# English-style longbow. Red oak backed with linen.
  • My daughter’s 25# Samick recurve
  • A wimpy flatbow a buddy left behind when he moved out. It’s mostly decorative.

Workbench 2.5

Posted in Projects on June 11th, 2016 by The Cyberwolfe

After about a year with the modded computer desk as a primary workbench, we’ve made some adjustments. One of these is we balanced a board between my right-hand drawers and the computer case on the left at the back of the desk to keep the kitten from playing in the cords back there. This of course turned into Kitty Highway 101, and eventually to both cats deciding my desk was an onramp, no matter what sharp bits may have been laying out.

This was starting to piss me off pretty good. Plus, I have all these sharp bits laying out and needed more organization. So, viola! Pegboard walls to block the cats and hang my tools on.

Workbench 2.5

Home Despot carries pegboard in 1/4 sheet “hobby boards”, and the birch 2×2’s were easy enough to trim to length with my jigsaw. The walls were screwed to the 2×2’s, and then I ran a pocket screw through each of the uprights and down into the work surface. So far I haven’t needed to brace it any.