Waiste Belt and Bag

[Capt. Jas.]

A blind tooled belt bag and waiste belt with one of my hand crafted, signature steel buckles. The bag has an internal divider, bound flap and entry and rolled welt seaming. The billet strap is cut from the spine, the heel bar buckle is hand stitched to a skived return incorporating a fixed keeper, is creased, edged, burnished and has a pasted back as well as a running keeper.

 

[Brokennock]

What does "blind tooled" mean?
Excellent work as always. As I mentioned on the other forum very neat and crisp and I really like the buckles you've been making.
I'm having trouble with turned bags that have a divider. Your work inspires me to keep trying. I would like to see where the edges of each piece come together if possible.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Blind tooling is a term for surface impressions that have no gilding as one might see on a fine leather bound book. It typically does not involve any cutting of the leather surface. In western/Spanish style tooling one generally begins by cutting the leather, usually with a swivel knife and then a surface of raised and lower areas of various textures are created from it. Embossing on the other hand is done from the rear of the leather, raising it above the surface and then it is perfected by working on the finer features from the front. The cavity created at the rear is traditionally filled with leather dust/trimmings and hide glue.
I attached some pics on the Americsn Longrifles forum to hopefully help answer your construction questions. It is constructed just like a standard turned bag. It just has a divider added.
To get a simpler visual, make yourself a small bag with divider and do not use a welt at all.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

This belt and bag is one of the finest pieces of work that I have seen on this site. Exquisite.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[Brokennock]

Thanks @Capt. Jas. When I turn my bag with a divider the edges on the sides wind up all to one side of the divider, no matter what order I stack the pieces before stitching. Instead of the front panel's edge to the front of the divider and the back panel's edge to the rear of it.

 

[rickystl]

Hi Captain.

That bag and belt are beauties. Outstanding work. And yes, love that iron buckle.

Rick

 

[Notchy Bob]

Beautiful work, in iron and leather.

Thank you for the explanation of the terminology for different tooling techniques, also. I don't see much about techniques other than the "Spanish/Western" style, which is promoted so aggressively by Tandy et al. I didn't even know that was the name for it!

Nice job with photography, too. I am developing an increasing appreciation for that. Pictures can add so much to a post, but you see so many (including my own) with cluttered backgrounds, glare, excessive shadow, or poor focus. These photos set a benchmark!

Notchy Bob

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Bob, I'm really a true hack at photography. I do have a photo booth but I don't have much success with it. I think a cloudy day and a solid background work great

 

[bisleyjohn]

Lovely work, thanks for sharing. Brought back memories of an Uncle who had polio as a boy and did leatherwork similar to that. Thanks for that too.

 

[Kev308]

That is really beautiful work. The thing that attracted me to muzzleloading was the craftsmanship in rifles bags etc. just fantastic work.
Now I’m gonna go throw rocks at the stuff I made hehehe