Shine Light Shine

"Spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison." - C.S. Lewis

[shinelightshine]

Had an amazing weekend with my wife Sandi and our good friends up at the cottage on Crystal Lake in the Kawarthas (Ontario, Canada). It was so refreshing to get out of the city and spend quality time with each other over good food, good beer, the fresh air, and no cell phone reception. 

[shinelightshine]

Sunday afternoon hangouts on the balcony with my pretty wife.

[shinelightshine]

Latest off the bench: 2 passport wallets, a pencil case and a natural veg tan bifold wallet.

The second picture shows the same wallet that I made a year ago, against the brand new one. The patina that natural veg tan develops is s beautiful, and now patina is the same. Each piece wears and ages with use of the carrier.

[shinelightshine]

This is a passport wallet I made. I included a sleeve on the right for the passport, and a  bill/document sleeve with two card slots on the left. I hand-dyed the leather with a mixture of Fiebing's Saddle-Tan and Fiebing's Dark Brown (both oil based). The colour up being a medium brown with a hint of orange. I included a double snap closure, and sanded, burnished and polished all the edges.

[shinelightshine]

I made some Christmas gifts for the family this year. I made my wife a natural veg tan coin pouch, my brother in law a bi-fold wallet (hand-dyed dark brown) and glasses cases for my dad and father in law (both hand-dyed dark brown).

[shinelightshine]

The latest off the bench is another tobacco pouch. This time with a snap enclosure.

[shinelightshine]

A carpenter friend of mine asked me to make him a wallet for his hand scrapers similar to this:

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=W-HS

He needed the wallet to hold 4 large scrapers, and one small one. I drew up the template, and cut out the pieces from a piece of veg tan, and dyed it with Fiebing's Saddle Tan oil dye.

While that was drying, I made 3 separator sleeves to go inside the wallet, to protect the individual scrapers from scratching against each other. I made the sleeves from canvas.

Once everything was dry, I finished the edges, installed all the hardware, stitched on the small rear pocket for the small scraper, and stitched the sleeves in/wallet together.

[primenw]

I learned a man’s gotta be alot tougher then the timber he’s cutting.

- Johnny Cash  (via thatkindofwoman)

[shinelightshine]

I Finally got ahold of some olive green heavy canvas and can start constructing my roll-top rucksack. It will be day-trip/overnight/commuter bag. Fairly simple with canvas construction, leather strapping and brass hardware. This is my first attempt at bag making, so we'll see how it goes.

I think I may wax the canvas with an equal blend of beeswax and paraffin wax for waterproofing.

The lighter weight, untreated canvas shown in the picture is for prototyping (it's cheaper to screw up than the heavy weight cotton canvas). Once I have the design/pattern down, I'll construct the final version with the olive green canvas.

I'll post progress as it moves along.

[shinelightshine]

My wife's beautiful smile on our LA stop during our road trip. Love her. x

[shinelightshine]

Picked up some hardware yesterday and made a few key lanyards. I've had a few requests for these, so made some for a few buddies to test out. 

I made 2 dark brown lanyards and one saddle tan (for me). 

Veg tan dyed with Fiebings Professional Oil Dyes, solid brass trigger snaps, and brass plated rivits/snaps.

[shinelightshine]

My friend's birthday was a couple weeks ago, and he's a pipe enthusiast. I decided to make him a simple tobacco pouch that he can keep in an inner jacket or pant pocket. It holds about 2-3 pipe's worth of tobacco. My original intention was to dye the leather a dark, rich brown, but I ended up deciding to leave it natural veg tan. The only dye I have on hand right now is Fiebings dark brown oil dye which smells pretty harsh. I didn't want the chemical smell to interfere with any tobacco my friend put in the pouch, so I opted to leave it natural. Besides, it will develop a really nice patina over time. I put a little pocket on the back to hold matched, or a pipe tool, or a lighter.

[shinelightshine]

Finished a minimalist 15" Macbook Pro sleeve today. Veg tan, hand stitched, and burnished edges. It's really simple in aesthetic, but it looks classy. Stoked.v 

[shinelightshine]

This is the second part of what I started HERE. 

This was my first (and second) attempt at stitching. I finished the wallet I started a few days ago, and made another (my wife surprised me with stitching pony I needed to start and finish the stitching).

I began by re-reading part of Al Stohlman's "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather" (which I recommend to anyone wanting to learn).

I glued the edges of the wallet together using a rubber contact cement, mounted it in the stitching pony, and began preparing my needles /thread for stitching.

Saddle stitching uses one length of thread with a needle at either end. Each needle passes through each hole from opposite sides of the leather, creating a really strong stitch that will last a life time.

The thread used is a waxed linen thread. The wax on the thread helps preserve the thread over time, and helps the thread slide through the leather with ease. I used a pre-waxed linen thread that I got from Tandy Leather Factory. I would prefer to use unwaxed linen thread and wax it myself as there are certain limitations to pre-waxed linen thread. Alas, they didn't have any at the shop I went to, so it's pre-waxed thread for the time being.

Once I prepped the thread/needles, I was ready to start stitching. With the wallet firmly in the stitching pony I pierced my holes with the diamond shaped awl along the stitch marks in the stitch groove that I marked out earlier with a groover and an angled stitch chisel.

Punch one hole, pass one needle through, then the other from the opposite side, pull tight. This is repeated all around the wallet with back stitching at either end of the stitch groove to lock the stitches in place and reinforce the edges.

After I completed the stitching, I finished the edges with a beveler, edge slicker, and Edge Kote (a back leather dye that protects the edges).

As expected, the stitching (being my first attempt ever) was a little sloppy. I'm ok with that though. I learned a lot, and already have in mine how to improve my technique.

Eager to adjust my new skill, I decided to whip together another wallet (which turned out way neater than the first). I left this one in its natural veg tan state.

I look forward to more practise, taking my time to refine and learn. Fun.

[wearelapaz]

[zxxxxvxvsvv]

[mattybing1025]

[coldwindandiron-deactivated2020]

Johnny Cash and June Carter photographed on stage by Baron Wolman, 1967.

We’ve been talking bout Jackson ever since the fire went out.