Renewing an Old Hobby

Me with my new belt and cell phone holder.

When I was a fairly young boy scout I got a leatherworking kit from my parents. I earned my leatherwork merit badge and took a particular liking to the craft. As a result for years afterward I listed "leatherwork" as one of my hobbies. The problem was that it was a "hobby" that I would often let slide for years at a time. I doubt I did much with the stamps from around the time I turned 16 until I returned from my mission. Then I only made a wallet for my dad because the last one I had made him was too beaten up to use. I think I made one for myself around that time too. Finally I made a clutch purse for Rachel (my first wife) while we were dating this was my masterpiece and between then and this week (nearly 14 years) I had barely touched my tools. I did keep them in the garage and I did help Perry make one project to work on his leatherwork badge. I even dug out the wallet I had made as a scout (the one I'd made myself later was finally wearing out).

So finally this week I decided to take some of my birthday money and get back into leatherwork. The local Tandy Leathercraft store was kind enough to give me wholesale price both for it being my birthday and Perry being a scout. I bought a cell phone case (my cell phone always gets beat up in my pocket with my keys), a belt blank, a belt pattern, and a buckle.

Here is the belt blank after the pattern has been traced and cut in but none of the tooling has been done.

This is what it looks like after it has been tooled extensively. Notice how the leaf really seems to come alive. I think that is my favorite part of leatherwork, watching the picture come alive in low relief.

These two show the belt and the cell phone case after they have been stained. The stain darkens all of the leather, but mostly it raises the contrast on the tooling and makes the pattern come out even more.