Leather Wrist band

Posted by Tracey Ambrose in Uncategorized and tagged with , ,

Craig was able to tear himself away from his computer today and spend time making a leather wrist band (guaranteed to increase your manliness). The entire peace has been hand cut, decoratively sewn and riveted by him and I think it looks great.

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6 responses

  1. Waauw

    This is what i have been searching for.
    Man Man i Need one of those and espescially handmade !!
    Make me one of those and name your price damnit !!

    Greetings from Belgium
    Greg

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  4. Sure,

    All the items came from a wholesale leather suppliers in Melbourne, called Lefflers. There’s probably one of these in most cities, but they are usually tricky to find on the web. Try the phone book instead. These sort of places do their business primarily with businesses (shoemakers, saddlemakers, etc) not with the general public. Customer service is generally a bit sparse. If you have any trouble with such a place not wanting to sell to the public, it generally helps to take cash.

    So, the ingredients were:

    Leather: Leather is bought by the hide or half hide. Making little things like this, a half hide will keep you going for ages. Leather suppliers usually also have bins of cheap scraps which are good for this sort of thing.

    An Awl: The awl is used to poke the holes that your needle is going to go through. It’s basically something sharp and pointy, but a leatherworking awl is different to a woodworking awl in that it is actually a small pointy blade rather than just a spike. Ie, it makes a tiny slit rather than just poking a hole. This is important.

    A Stitch Gauge: This has a little wheel with spikes on it that you run along where you’re going to stitch, and it makes little indentations allowing you to space the stitches nicely. It’s not required, but it does make life easier.

    Two big needles: I use tapestry needles from a sewing store. The main criteria is having an eye big enough for the thread, and being strong enough not to break as you try and wiggle it through the hole in the leather. Also, it should be quite blunt. It needs to find the hole you’ve already made, not try and make a new one. If your needles are too pointy, you can file the tips a bit with sandpaper, a fine file, or a course tool sharpening stone.

    Thread: I used waxed linen thread from the leatherworking store. The waxed thread gives it that nice chunky look, but almost any strong thread works. Linen is traditional for leatherwork, and waking it is primarily to keep the sewing waterproof for shoes, not really necessary for an armband.

    Buckles: The best place for buckles is the leatherwork or saddlery wholesale store. Failing that, a saddlery retailer (a place that actually sells saddles and horse gear) might have some interesting buckles. Failing that, go to a second hand store and find some cheap old belts and cut the buckles off, I do that a lot. Having said all that, those particular buckles of mine were purchased at a medieval fair.

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