I continue to work out processes to improve my leather craft and have been toying around with the idea of a little side business selling products. One big factor in doing this is to get consistent results. I decided to go and make a batch of Holiday pocket journal covers for my family for the holidays. Learning experience as I got distracted and it was well into February before they were in the mail. I did learn a ton on consistent crafting and process.
Die cutting with a clicker press
The first step in my learning process was to really utilize steel rule dies and clicker press. I am still working out using the laser cutter to make my own steel rule dies, and it is a slow process but now that I have a few sets of import dies. It gives me an understanding of what I need to do to get this working.
This project used a Journal cover from LEETHER Store on Aliexpress It was well made and inexpensive. They are a great resource and shipped my selections almost next day, so the delay from China was not too bad. I also used a clicker press from amazon, as prime free shipping saved me a boatload over direct from China ordering. I want one of the Weaver master tools Mighty Wonder presses, but my hobby budget cannot afford it Yet. The more I use my current dies and clicker the more I learn what I want in tools.
Leather Edge Craft
I have also worked to improve my edge craft. I did a light burnish on the interior exposed edges prior to assembly using Tokonole. That stuff is magic. A little slicking with the Tokonole and then a polish with some canvas cloth and a rubbing stick.
A touch of water can be used first to really get a slick edge. See the main photo of the assembled covers edged. Slicked with water and then Tokonole with the drill press burnisher from Pro Edge Burnishers who’s website sadly has the 404 of sadness. I hate to see small business go, but the current pandemic climate has been hard on folks.
Journals Final Assembly
I made a glue template to reduce over gluing the pieces, and used some Barge contact cement. Once the glue had dried. I stitched the edges with the thread color of my family’s choice. I still need to work on my edge guide and straight stitching. The pen loops caused a bit of an issue with consistency. I was stitching at the limit of my Sailrite Ultrafeed lsz-1, even with the walking foot. It had a hard time with the slippery and stiff vegetable tanned leather during layer transitions. I think I could do some minor bobbin tension adjustments to get a better underside stitch, and some foot pressure adjustment to get the missed stitches during transitions under control. The transitions near the pen loop on the pattern are 3 layers of 4-5 oz leather and gauge right at 7mm (0.275591 in)assembled. The Journals are all 5.5mm (0.216535 inches) most other places but have a slope towards the edge due to the inside pockets. I will have to skive the pockets in the future for easier assembly. I have sewn thicker belts 6.5 MM (0.255906 inches) which is above the published limit of the Ultrafeed lsz-1, but all one consistent thickness. The Salirite Ultrafeed lsz-1 handles those belts perfectly especially with the monster balance wheel.
Sailrite also has some new SD1 point needles from Schmetz which may tear out the veg tan less with the new point shape. I’ll have to try some out as the DIA i’m using does tear the veg tan on exit just a bit. I some times use round point if it is too bad, but those break sewing heavy leather.
Once I got the stitches in. I did a quick 3d printed embossing stamp for each family member’s name and embossed their journal cover. These are created in OpenScad and Tony Buser’s OpenScad Bitmap Font’s Module. I update this module to mirror the text and then use my clicker press to emboss the name onto the journal cover.
Per usual I do a coat of Smith’s Leather balm and you can see in the photo how it brings out the beauty of the vegetable tanned leather. The three on the left of the rack have been balm’d and the 4 on the right are naked and pale, as are the ones in the stitching color photo.
Finally I trimmed some covers on some pocket journal sized fillers and loaded them up. I trimmed the covers as it makes it easier to insert the Pocket Journals which are 90×140 mm or 3.54×5.51 inches, into the covers without too much bending.
I will likely do one more batch test before committing to actual sales of these.