Leathercrafters?

[Smoky]

Anybody here ever make a wallet from a kit? Is there a Tandy store near you? Anybody want to learn how to carve leather designs?

[tufhelp]

I learned the craft in the 8th grade. I followed it for many years (even still have all my leather tools – Along with almost everything else I have ever owned… but that is another problem for another thread!). I do small projects from time to time - mostly construction type things, scabbards and cases etc.

[waterlily]

My Father has been a Leather crafter for over 50 yrs! You name it he can carve it! He has made good money at it over the years. Most everything he makes he starts from scratch not kits!! I've only seen a few kits in his shop and they were ordered to be used as patterns only. All of his children had to help in with the "crafting" and by the time I was 18 I was so sick of crafting! When I left home I swore I wouldn't ever lace another wallet or ever even think about leather ever again! Well I have since eaten my words!! ::) Over the past few years I've started Leather crafting as a hobby I'll never be as good as Dad but I'm not half bad at it! I and my DH are currently working on a web site to sell my crafts from.

Carving Leather is very therapeutic!

Lily

[Smoky]

Waterlily: Sounds nice. Will you post the url here when you finish your site?

[Smoky]

These are straps that I make for dressing up Croc brand shoes. Takes a few minutes and I sell them at the craft fair with other stuff.
You can spend more time on the leather part, but I just run up and down with a stamp or two and add the concho. People will spend almost as much as they paid for the Crocs new! Lots want a name for a gift if you have letter stamps, that's fast. Each size increase adds about 1/8 inch to the length, but you need to fit them to the Croc, close tolerance.

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=138615602/a=19634606_19634606/t_=19634606

[DM]

This thread made me think of something.... Sorry if it gets long...

My sister used to make those leather kits... She really did a nice job, and when i was about 20 she made me a wallet. I was always talking about Alaska, so she made one with a moose on it.. I did move to Alaska not long after that..

I used that wallet for many years, but then my home burned down and the wallet burned up in the fire. I so missed that wallet as it seemed just perfect to me!!

One day the phone rang and my brother told me my sister had been killed in an auto accident!! Man... that made me even more bummed about the wallet as it was just about the only thing she had ever made "just for me!!!" and i had hoped to get her to make me another one some day...

Some years after that, i was visiting my elderly father and we drove to the "big city". I was stopping at hobby stores looking for a "kit" for a wallet like my sister had made me. I just wanted to have another one, if for no other reason just in memory of her.. But, there was none to be had.. :'(

Finally dad asked me what it was i was looking for at those stores, and i told him what i wanted and why... He sat there thinking for a while and finally said, "i think she made one for me too!" He said when we get home i'll look..... Once home he started digging in his "stuff" and after a LONG time came back with the wallet my sister had made for him many years eariler. He had never used it! It was "exactly" like mine had been except it had a deer on it instead of a moose!!

Well, he said "i never used it and you can have it!" Dang, that sure made me happy!!! I hope to have it the rest of my life!!

DM

[Shortstack]

Smoky,
I made a wallet from a tandy kit, Oh bout 10 years ago.
Still have it too, but it needs to be relaced.
I do a little leather work, nothing close to professional, mostly holsters, cases and such.

[MYellowRose]

There's a tiny Tandy Leather store in Windcrest, a suburb northeast of SA. I got a catalog from them before the holidays but don't really have the money to order anything.

[Smoky]

Yeah, leather is high. The only way for me to make a profit is to buy a bigger hide and cut it in pieces, then I have to sell a bunch! I wish I knew a better process for making "tooling" leather at home. Since the leather is not the main part of my sales, I just do the best I can.

[azsavage]

leathercraft is a family tradition with us, i was a lot like waterlily, swore i would never double buckstitch another belt in my life, then one year did a favor for a freind and hooked him up with a belt custom tooled and here i am double buck stitching belts again and i love it, right now i am taking a little time off from the tooling part as i have no where to set up my shop and doing more native american type stuff but will be back at it in six months or so, people out here on the west coast may have even seen some of my family's work, my mom has done most of the leather work for the clampers out in california, mostly naughty hat bands. if you seen them you know what i am talking about, i stitched all those and was told not to look and not to ask, lol

love my leather projects, thanks for the links to the leather supplies.

[HOP]

I have some leather and basic tools and have made simple thing for the belt and knife sheaths simple repairs, I prefer not to use kits and usually work out a prototype design and go from there with basic supplies I browse knife forums and get ideas for sheaths and a few other things.

[LeatherneckPA]

My mother got started in leather back in the late 60's. In the 70's I started doing it with her to make money at craft fairs. Got to be fairly good at it. took a long time off.

Two years ago, when they moved houses in Fl, Mom gave me all of her tools and stamps. It was enough to get me started foolin' around again.

I still have the wallet she made me for my 16th birthday (33 years ago). My most recent scratch project was a nice inside-the-waistband holster for my Sig 229. I couldn't find anything that rode right in the sports stores. So I took the ideas of what I had liked for my 45 and melded them into a holster that I absolutely love. It ain't pretty (being my first attempt) but it fits and rides like a glove.