Rogue Leather

Okay, so I got the quiver done:

LoadedForBale

(yuk yuk)

A simple design that I unabashedly stole from Evrard de Valogne’s picture set posted to Flickr. He’s heavy into the SCA and used this pattern in several classes he taught, so I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind. Here’s what it looked like before the coloring process:

It’s just a simple tube about 19″ long, with a bit of a cutout at the throat. The base is an inverted cup wet-formed around a can and then stitched in. To hang it, that rectangle gets folded in half over a belt and the two straps riveted into the corners, then the fancy bits to the right hold on a set of D-rings forming the anchors for the straps.

For color, I used Tandy’s Eco-Flo Antique in Mahogany.

In Evrard’s original photos, the seam on the tube is an overlap, but I decided I had to try and improve that. Instead, I butted the two ends and then sewed a strip onto it using a nice lace. I put a pair of rivets into the top two holes just to make sure it didn’t come apart on me, then sewed it from the bottom up.

When you stitch with lace like this, make sure you go back to the beginning and tighten every stitch all the way up to the top – I ended up pulling another 4 inches of lace back out and getting a nice tight seam all the way up. Also watch your pattern – it makes a difference if the same over/under pattern is present through the whole seam.

I had originally opted for a fixed-length strap, but had to put buckles in because I didn’t estimate the canting angle correctly and it was on the verge of tipping the arrows out all the time – I had to shorten up that front strap to get a better angle. I also managed to punch the mounting holes for the D-ring placement crossways to what I should have done and in the wrong place, so I ended up with extra holes – I filled ’em in with rivets and it isn’t that bad.

And yes, the placement of the carving is deliberate, I wanted to show it off so I rolled it around to the side other people could see while I was wearing it.

All-in-all, not bad for a first attempt. It still seems a little front-heavy, so I’ve taken to just keeping a set of knocking pliers in the bottom to weigh it down on that end. having it must have given me some extra confidence last week or something – I finally managed to start grouping shots on  the target.

I’ll see you on the range.

My daughter and I have decided to take up archery for fun. (Well, take archery back up for me – I used to shoot ages ago…). But you know what a new hobby needs, right? New accessories!

While my daughter is shooting kinda modern-traditionalist, I went whole-hog primitive and got myself an actual longbow – Red Oak backed with linen. Being a period longbow, that means it doesn’t have an arrow rest / shelf like modern bows do – you rest the arrow on your knuckle and shoot off of that. Being that I sincerely do not want to experience the horrible delight of having fletching stuck in my hand, I made myself a little thumb-and-forefinger rig to keep between me and my fletchings (bottom right), as well as a bracer to keep from smacking my forearm with a bowstring. The funky thing at the top goes on your drawing-hand fingers to protect you from the string.

And yes, I am still unsatisfied with the way the bracer attaches. Tying one on is a pain with one hand, and buckles isn’t much better. I’ll figure that out eventually… probably about the time I get the quiver done.

If you’re a fan of tabletop games, you’ve probably run into the same problem we did, in that some games have lots of fiddly bits that take up valuable table space. This is usually solved with small storage containers (may I recommend Altoids tins?) or something, but what do you do with all the cards in some games? Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights has 12 piles of cards, and by the first roll of the dice they end up looking like this: Read more »

Due to the number of assholes spamming my comments, all comments will close after a number of days.

To all of you assholes who have nothing better to do all day than solve my captchas, bugger off.

Now that the holiday season is past and the activity level around here has mellowed a bit, I may actually get a project or two in the works, along with the one I’ve already started on.

Currently in progress is a new card sorter bin-thingy. If you’re into tabletop games, you’ll get the point of this. Many of the Euro-style tabletop/board games out the past few years come with several piles of cards for the game. These all take up table space, and sometimes it’s nice to be able to get them out of the way, so I built a handy cardboard contraption to give each pile a standing rest and divider. This is neat and all, but it would look so much better in leather, so…

For my Wife, I have another sort of sorter to do: she’s crafty as well, and has need of a knitting needle case. I’m thinking a tube arrangement, something like the dice tube I did a while back.

I’ve also been working on a business card case for myself (I currently just carry a wad around in my laptop bag, not so presentable…) that’s been giving me minor fits on the design.

To help with all of this, the Wife gifted me with a new head knife and wing divider for the holiday, so I have new tools to play with – always a good incentive to get down to the lab, don’tcha know :)

This new project combines elements from two previous projects, the Cleaver Scabbard and the first Belt Knife Sheath. This is for a dagger, so I have sewn up both sides and used a welt to thicken the dimensions, but like the regular knife sheath, the scabbard covers almost all of the knife and the welt functions as a clip to hold he dagger in place. Here’s the glamor shot:

Now, I’ve had this dagger since sometime in high school, and that was far enough back that I’m not telling you the year. (Ye Gods, I’ve gotten old…) Anyway, I’ve rebuilt that sheath three times now – had to sew the original back together twice after the knife cut through the stitches, and then I built an almost-exact replica of the original a couple years ago. The Mark II sheath is on the left below. I’ve never been happy with it; it is restrictive and makes it difficult to draw the knife.

Read more »

After a lengthy hiatus, I managed to get some new leather and some time back into my busy life, so I’ll be posting some new projects over the coming weeks. First up is another knife scabbard, this one for a dagger from my SCA kit. I’ll be stitching it tomorrow, so pictures will come soon.

On the subject of new leather, I’ll say it again, or maybe for the first time, or something…: buy leather in person. I lost about $24 in shipping inferior product back to the internet seller. They were cool and refunded me, but I would have saved the shipping both ways plus about 2 weeks of delay had I just gone to my local shop first.

Okay, on to the tools. I was digging through the Tandy catalog the other day and saw that the Al Stohlman super-froofy swivel knife was on sale for about the same price as they normally charge for a blade, so I snagged one.

Yes, the decoration is a bit over the top, but let’s face it: so is 99% of most Western-style leather carving. On the practical side, Read more »

Several years ago at an SCA event I promised a buddy a sword hanger (otherwise known as a Frog for some ungodly reason), and worked up most of it while sitting around at that event.

Well, years go by and we’d stopped eventing due to numerous issues and I’d kinda forgotten about the project. Lo and behold we’re going to an event next weekend, and I remembered my promise. So, to make good on it I dug through the traveling tool kit today to finish it up. All I had left myself to do was the top loop and two of the securing belts, so it didn’t take too long.

For those that haven’t seen something like this before, the three securing belts wrap around the sword’s scabbard and hold it to the bottom portion. The wearer’s belt goes through the top loop above the silver ring, and the whole thing hangs on the wearer’s left side so that he may draw the blade with his right hand. That silver ring allows the sword to swing freely without the frog bunching up.

I know it has been a long time between projects; fear not, I may actually have an hour or so of free time next month :)

In other news, you may have seen a comment or two proselytizing the virtues of a particular leather supplier. I am currently investigating why they are trying to use my blog comment system for advertising. I’ll let you know what comes of it.

EDIT* I did hear back from them once or twice with mild protestations of “I’ll look into this”, but in the end I had to block a subnet or three coming out of India. The company in question was obviously paying a rather shady search engine optimizer, who was in turn hiring cheap labor in New Delhi to astro-turf for them.

This is an ad-free blog. If you see something that looks like an ad and I didn’t post it, then assume it is spam.

Hey wait! I swear I’m not dead yet!

Okay, you couldn’t really tell considering how I somehow neglected to post anything for an entire year.

Well, better late than never, right? Right? Okay, here are a few things I worked on in 2011, in no particular order:

Napkin Rings:

My daughter’s school held a fundraising auction, and I donated these. Apparently, they were the highest-bid item on the list. :)

Belt Holster:

Not one of my best works, but not bad for my first prototype of a formed-leather project. For this, I soaked the leather in water and then pinned it over a wooden form I had made approximating the shape of the multi-tool I always carry. Several months of daily wear has smoothed it out a bit and it actually looks better now.

Archery Armguard:

The prototype that never got finished. I got this far on it and realized that I had made a mistake in the knotwork. (Gah!) It’s also the last piece of that particular black leather I had, and I don’t think it will hold up well to having the stitches ripped and a replacement carving sewn back on, so I’m waiting to replenish my supplies before I get on with this one. I never did figure out how I was going to strap it to my forearm either…

Leather Valet:

This was the Girlfriend’s Xmas present for 2010. She was forever forgetting where she had emptied her pockets after coming home, so I made a memorable place for her. You can’t tell from the photo, but the area around the rose is a deep blue, while the outer ring is a forest green. This project proved how invaluable a stitching horse can be.

Upcoming projects, if I ever manage to get around to them:

Sword frog, a cover for my new e-book reader, a harness for my own sword (shoulder-style)…