Archive for leatherwork

A Brut de Forge Dagger from 2016

Posted in Blacksmithing, bladesmithing, brutdeforge, EDC, knifemaking, Leather working, metalwork, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2016 by Jim

I met Joe Keeslar  this year at the ICCE knife show this year and I wanted to make a dagger in his style. Below are some photos of the process.

 

Here it the initial forging. I started with 1.5″ x 1/4″ 1084 steel:

hotdagger

Here is the forging complete:

finishedforgingdagger

Profiled and finish ground:

finishgrounddagger

Then a mystery wood handle (rosewood or ironwood, not sure – it was a gift):

finisheddagger

A handle detail showing the sterling silver and copper pins:

daggerhandle

I etched my logo:

daggerwithsmalllogo

I also made the sheath:

rattlesnakesheathcloseup

And here is the entire package:

daggerinsheath

This was a really fun build – it pushed my abilities in both blade and sheath and I am happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for looking – keep making,

Jim

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Making a leather sandbag for metal forming

Posted in Blacksmithing, Forging, Leather working, metalwork, Raising Copper, Tool Making with tags , , on July 5, 2010 by Jim

First, a little leather work – making a sandbag

I wanted a 12″ sandbag, but was not willing to spend the $50 or $60 to buy one. I had some good scrap leather in the shop and made my own.

I started by taking 6″ into my dividers.

Taking six inches into a divider

I drew two twelve inch circles on the back of my leather.

Drawing a circle on leather with dividers

And cut them out with some kitchen shears. I find that good kitchen shears do a great job cutting leather.

Cutting circles in leather

I ran a line of Barge Cement around each piece, skipping 1″ to allow for filling. I let the cement dry and stuck the two pieces of leather together. Next, I punched holes  around the edge with an awl. I used a saddle stitch and some strong waxed twine to sew the edges. All that was left was adding about  six cups of sand.

Filling leather sandbag

After pouring in the sand, I glued and stitched the last bit shut. Here is the bag with a sheet metal forming stake that I have been working up in the forge. It started from a circus tent stake. One end is mostly done and the rough end will be a ball shape when I am done.

Sandbag and sheet metal forming stake

I had looked for some forming stakes to buy and was astounded at how much a simple T stake could cost. I found several that were three hundred dollars or more. Per normal, I went to the forge and shop and made one.

Happy Fourth of July and happy making,

Jim

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