Back on the (stitching) horse...

© Joshua Stark 2016. 

Well, I had to work through another few months' worth of fits and despair, a general lack of confidence, and an honest-to-goodness artist's block (though I strain credulity with the use of the word, "artist").  However, I have finally finished an extremely overdue leather order -- three California duck straps.

Confidence is a real problem for me, and it is compounded by the fact that when you finally make your measurements and trace out your templates, there comes a time when you actually have to cut very expensive material.  A good side of leather can cost $200, and though it isn't as bad as I make it sound (I mean, I can cut, make a mistake, and cut another part, due to its size), it is still a pretty steep climb.

These duck straps were ordered by a good friend of the family, going back decades.  He's one of those guys you admire from afar: an amazing outdoorsman, great dad, and a man who hunts out-of-state with a group (these folks go to Colorado each year).

Here are some pictures of the process...

I've picked out the spot on the leather, traced the template, and began cutting with the head knife.

Here is the process for cutting out a strap end with a strap-end punch.  I've got here a rubber mallet, a strap-end punch, a block of marble, and a cutting board of some kind.  Notice that the strap has been cut at the end to the dimensions of the punch.

I'm setting up the punch.  I'll hold the punch, and hammer on it a few times while rotating it a bit on its edge.

And here's the final result. 

Three straps in slightly different stages, after stamping.  The top one is stained, the middle one is "cased" (fancy leather term for "wetted with water"), and the bottom one is natural (before being stained).

Cutting three straps from about 6 oz. leather.  Since I made three California duck straps, I cut 21 individual 1/2 in. straps, 14 in. in length (to leave room for folding over and riveting the strap ends).

To make the folding and riveting flush, I skived the ends of each of the straps.  I use a safety skiver, and hope that one day they'll make a left-handed version.

Here they are.  The top one was stained with "saddle tan", the bottom two with medium brown.

I was overwhelmed, in part, by the repetition.  I had 21 straps to build, dye, seal, then 42 skive cuts, and 42 rivets to place.  The great part is that, once I started, I realized that this repetition was just what I needed!  I got into a rhythm, and worked to improve my technique.  I also, I believe, have become more confident.

Now, it's onto a knife sheath, followed by a very nice Ranger-style belt for an Angolan friend.  I'm worried about the last one, because I want it to be just about perfect, and hand-cutting billets to look symmetrical is quite a challenge.  But working on these duck straps have put a measure of confidence in me I haven't had in a long time.

Sorry for the gory details.  Here's a pic. of my cousin after a successful day afield, using a strap I made for him last year.  He's my pro staff, I suppose.

Latest leather project: a belt

My brother in-law Back East commissioned a belt from me a few weeks back. Talk about a teachable moment! I'd never tried a belt before -- well, I'd recycled a thrift store leather belt for my three-year old son, Ruben's, kilt, but I hadn't tried any tooling.

In talking over what he wanted, he expressed an interest in some kind of Nicaragua-themed pattern on a simple leather 1 1/4" belt with no fancy buckle
.

I skipped down to my local Tandy Leather, picked up a vegetable tanned belt blank (my leather wasn't long enough for a belt, or I would have tried cutting a strip). Their craftsman blanks are plenty thick and good quality.  I also bought a solid brass buckle, an adjustable groover, and some tracing paper.

Then, per my process, I seized up with fear and anxiety for a few days as I considered some pattern.  Unfortunately, when I look at a blank piece of veg-tanned leather, I don't see any possibility other than the very likely one that I will screw up a valuable piece of leather with a hideously ugly pattern and a few slips of the hand with a knife.

I flipped through the Google for good images from Nicaragua. My brother in-law's style is understated.  Without getting too far down into a stereotype, he is a professor at a prestigious East Coast liberal arts school: Katherine Hepburn's alma mater, as a matter of fact. He is also, as a geologist and paleontologist, a man who gets out in the field, so something rugged and natural would be important. Earth tones.

Also trying to avoid stereotypes, it seems safe to say that, "understated" is not a cornerstone characteristic of Nicaraguan visual art. "Vibrant" may be more appropriate. There is a strong leather craft culture, and I would love to go visit and learn from some of their masters, and there is an eon of human history and art remnants, as well as rain forests, lakes, the ocean, and volcanoes for inspiration.

I knew I'd use images from stone carvings, Granada tile, pottery, and also some images from nature. I looked through the list of national symbols and picked the flower and tree, and also a jaguar and a snail, the latter recommended by his good friend.

Finally satisfied (mostly), I settled in to the actual work.

Alright, here's a quick tutorial, in case you'd like to make and tool your own belt:

First, after a few days of trying out different pattern ideas, finally commit, dammit!  This is the pattern I drafted: Steps and swirls, some native flora and fauna.

Thanks to Mr. Fashion House for the snail tip -- they look cool!

Next, bevel the edges of the belt to round them out (don't forget to wet your leather and let it dry just for a minute or so), and then groove the edge to frame your pattern. You can also cut grooves with that grooving tool, if you want to deepen the background of your belt to make your tooling marks really stand out, but, since I was going for "understated", I kept the grooves shallower.

My newest tool: a groovy adjustable groover with interchangeable tips. 

Now, it's time to trace your pattern.  I finally bit the bullet and bought honest-to-goodness tracing paper, simply because I couldn't see the pattern through regular white paper well enough to keep it in line.  Belts are long, and (especially with skinnier ones like this one) if you veer off course on your pattern, it's visible.

With wet or "cased" leather, all you need is light pressure with the stylus.

Now, it's carving time!  Again, make sure the leather is cased. Keep your knife sharp (the Tandy instructions say to consider your strop a part of your knife, and it's good advice).  If your knife starts to drag or catch, stop and strop.

Carving sets the stage for the tooling.  Note strop in the upper right.

Tooling is next.  For this project, all I did was use a beveling tool to make the cuts stand out.  I could have also use a pear shader on a couple of spots if I'd chosen.

Tall end of the beveler goes into the cut on the outside of the image. Hammer lightly.

 After carving and stamping, it's time to dye... I learned a lot from this belt, dyeing being one of them.  My dye didn't go on as evenly as I'd have liked, although it gave an impression of age that the owner really appreciates (whew!).

For more even dye applications, make sure to thoroughly clean the oils that have accumulated from your hands onto the leather -- I believe you are supposed to use some sort of denatured alcohol or oxalic acid, and I think Tandy Leather sells a "deglazer" that does the trick.  I'm looking into it.

Almost finished.  What's left?  Edge dyeing and slicking, hole punching, adding the belt keeper, and shipping off.

And here are a couple of pictures of the final product:

Solid brass buckle so it won't rub off to steel, a darker brown edge dye, and Fiebings Aussie leather conditioner applied.

The part I'm happiest with -- the belt end keeper.  The dye went on beautifully, and the stamping was just a simple and very traditional leather veiner tool.

Lesson learned:

--Belts are long and narrow, which creates some issues with design (patterns are easier to carve if they flow in a shallow diagonal), casing (keep wetting it!), and the build-up of oils and dust (keep your workspace clean -- even the floor).  

In all, it was a great experience, and now I can add belts, straps and slings to custom projects at my other website.

Feverishly tooling away (with a tutorial), and teaching archery again

What have I been up to?  Finally filling orders!

Last year, I picked up both leather working and archery instruction as business enterprises, and though I lost some money (mostly on tools and a tiny archery arsenal), it wasn't a whole bunch, and it really set me up for this year (besides, I hear that businesses usually lose money the first three years).

Even January was a bit slow, but, since I'd put "getting my business running" on my New Year's Resolution list on the refrigerator (that's depressing -- I don't recommend it)  I stepped up my game.

First, I re-connected with the Jungs, a wonderful couple in town who run Southport ATA, a very good taekwondo dojang.  They are both amazing martial artists, and more importantly, great and loving people who have allowed me to again offer archery seminars.

My first seminar of the year took place last Saturday, where nine kids showed up to learn the basics of archery.  A good time was had by all, and I've been asked back on March 21st.  Sadly, I didn't take any pictures.  Next time, for sure!

Next, I set to finishing an order that had been placed by a friend of mine, J.R., who volunteers for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a group dedicated to protecting our wild places.  J.R. had seen pictures of the bag I'd made for Holly last year, and asked me to carve and tool some arm guards with the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers logo.  I said yes, then immediately became seized with artist's block and debilitating self-doubt.  It's my artistic process.

Three months later, I'd finally worked out my anxieties, figured out how I wanted to approach the job, and set to it.  I also decided to take some pictures and explain the process, since Hippo had asked for me to explain more just how I do it.

It starts with a piece of leather -- in this case, vegetable-tanned leather, the kind you can tool:

The ever-vigilant Rocio... let's all just keep quiet about her being in the house for this part...

I used an earlier arm guard I'd made to trace as my template, and I cut three arm guard blanks with a very precise tool, a "Stanley razor":

Three blanks cut, using the arm guard above as template.  Note the highly precise tool used to cut the leather.

 Next, I printed out a copy of the logo I used, in an appropriate size for the arm guards (it took about one hour to decide on a size... part of my anxiety-ridden "process"):

Note the precision instrument for drawing a circle -- passed down to me by a professional leatherworker.  She didn't say so, specifically, but I am absolutely sure that the flowers are a must.

 Now, I began the process of carving, pounding and stamping the design onto the leather, known as "tooling".  Step 1: Case the leather (a very technical process by which you wet a sponge with water and rub it on the leather).  Cased (or, for you novices, "wetted") leather will look darker.  let the water soak into the leather for a minute or so, then start your work.

Cased leather on the right, dry leather on the left. No biggie.

 I first use a swivel knife to carve out the parts I want to stand out: in this case, the circles and the paw print. Be sure to case your leather when it gets too dry, and strop your blade every few cuts.  The knife should always slide smoothly through the leather, about 1/3 to 1/2 into the leather, not through it.

A sharp knife is vital here; as soon as you feel it "catch" or hang up on the leather, stop and strop.

 After carving out the lines, it is time to pound the leather into place.  A series of specialized tools are very helpful here.  The first one in a beveler.  Push it into the cut line, and hammer down, walking the piece around and along the line.

An edge beveler in action (kinda -- I had to take my own pictures).

 I repeated the process along the outside edges of the paw print.

Next, I used a pear shading tool to put smooth, wide divots into the paw print; then I used a backgrounding tool to stamp out a pattern around the paw print and inside the circle, making the print stand out:

There are many types of backgrounding tools -- this one makes tiny, random dots.

This is the pear shader.

 After this, I made my circles more pronounced.  The two inner circles I pushed down and traced with a ball-point stylus, and the outer circle I traced/cut with a Revlon cuticle tool (that's right).

Stylus on the right, cuticle tool on the left.

 I then used a pyrography pen to burn in the letters.  This took the longest time of any process.

Here are the blanks ready to be dyed and punched.  The pyrography pen is on the left.  Be careful, it is very hot.

Next, I dyed the pieces and cut the edges with an edge beveler:

Pieces dyed and edge beveled.  I then dye the edges a darker color, paint on gum tragacanth, and slick the edges to a beautiful shine.

Following up, I punched holes and attached the hardware: grommets and lacehooks.

Here are two with hardware, and two up next. A rubber or rawhide mallet is a must, unless you like buying new tools all the time.  Note the tiny anvil (a favorite purchase) and the white tool, called an edge slicker (another favorite, since it adds a final touch that makes your stuff look really professional).

 And here they are in all their glory -- four complete arm guards, sealed and waterproofed and ready to be shipped!

Off to Montana with you!

If you or someone you know is interested in an arm guard or perhaps a leather possibles bag or belt bag, let me know!

I am finishing up another website for the two businesses, and will link to it when it is all ready.

UPDATE:  Though still in its early stages, here is a link to my website for archery instruction and leather work:  Wild Spirit & Old Soul.