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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2008 19:02:34 GMT
While I wait for my sword to be delivered (it could take 2 more weeks!!) I find I am spending a good bit of time day dreaming about making a swordbelt. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from Christian Fletcher's site and from Brian of DBK Custom Swords' posts here: /index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=5420 I really like the look of those integral belts! And yeah, I have already accepted that mine won't look anywhere near that good, lol. Still... I am reasonably "crafty". But I haven't worked much in leather before. I plan on trying to make a modified version of the integral belt that doesn't involve cutting into the leather on actual scabbard itself. I don't want to muck up my scabbard on my first attempt, if I can help it. Does anyone here have any hot tips on belt making, about where to get leather, or major mistakes to avoid? One of my thoughts was to cruise Goodwill for cheap old leather belts to cut up as practice and to maybe find a nice buckle or 2. Thanks, Buff
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Post by Brian of DBK on Aug 12, 2008 16:53:44 GMT
While I wait for my sword to be delivered (it could take 2 more weeks!!) I find I am spending a good bit of time day dreaming about making a swordbelt. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from Christian Fletcher's site and from Brian of DBK Custom Swords' posts here: /index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=5420 I really like the look of those integral belts! And yeah, I have already accepted that mine won't look anywhere near that good, lol. Still... I am reasonably "crafty". But I haven't worked much in leather before. I plan on trying to make a modified version of the integral belt that doesn't involve cutting into the leather on actual scabbard itself. I don't want to muck up my scabbard on my first attempt, if I can help it. Does anyone here have any hot tips on belt making, about where to get leather, or major mistakes to avoid? One of my thoughts was to cruise Goodwill for cheap old leather belts to cut up as practice and to maybe find a nice buckle or 2. Thanks, Buff I get most of my leather from Tandy. Look up leather in your yellowpages and see what's closest to you. You don't have to do anything that could potentially muck-up your scabbard, but you will make some leather crafting mistakes, so buy a little extra leather. I recommend a thinner leather for scabbard material to wrap over the original scabbard. I use thicker leather for suspension because if it is too thin it will stretch. It helps to pre-plan what you're going to do, then give it a trial run. Odds are your first shot won't turn out quite right, but your second run should fly after learning from your mistakes. I use oak tanned (veg tanned) cowhide leather. You want around a 50" length for a belt to start on the back half, and 4 to 10 inches on the front half depending on where you want the buckle to meet. You can usually buy strips pre-cut to this length in a leather store somewhere in the belt section. Last but not least, learn to dye on practice leather, and not the final product. Practice, practice, practice...
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Post by brotherbanzai on Aug 12, 2008 20:56:53 GMT
Yeah, like Brian said, Tandy is the place. www.tandyleatherfactory.com/If there's a location near you, you can usually get good deals on odd lots and little leftover pieces.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2008 22:45:03 GMT
Thanks guys. I found a Tandy store near me and plan to head out to browse later this week.
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