KeableLeather

04/03/2026

Colour Done, But not sure on the contrast combination with the horn pad???? Your opinions please???....
Might have to redo the centre to black or same colour as the outer rim????🤔

Keep in mind, the outer Tan cover will "patina"... darken and develop its own balance of hue and shades and sheen the longer it is exposed to light and use, that bright tan/orange will change.... it will absorb the natural oils from skin through being handled, sunlight will tan it just like our own skin, and friction will burnish the surface..... a fine attribute of vegtable tanned leather is its characteristic to continually improve its look and feel as it is used and ages over time.... and the oils from the hands will help keep it hydrated.
Well, atleast it feels good.... 👍 ✌️

03/03/2026

Bit of progress on the steering wheel cover... All done in-situ... the "case" molding took a good 24hrs as this process is done over time as the leather dries back to different moisture content with each state slowly morphing from elasticity to plasticity.
The final stage of moldability is called casing or "cased" leather, it's a unique characteristic of vegtable tanned that as mentioned, changes the phyical properties of the leather into a high level of workability. At this stage you can apply the final shaping, contouring, sizing etc without any elasticity forces trying to return to its original shape.
Understanding the principles of casing correctly will improve your work incredibly for such projects as molding, stamping, carving and tooling.

After completely dry, the fitting, seam glueing and trimming is done, then stitch marking and finally with an AWL in hand and 2 needles and thread with a plan, the stitching begins.

Stitch Planning.
Notice how I begin in the centre of the long run, by doing this I eliminate the need for excessively long thread management. So instead I use the centre of the stitch line as the starting points and stitch out in either direction, finishing with a few back stitches on either end.
It makes life easier and makes for a much more professional look when there's no obvious thread joints offset on your run.

28/02/2026

Slowly getting the creative spirit back as I manage to get space in the workshop....

10/02/2026

I've been back in town after weeks relaxing in the mountains.... been spending a few days trying to half organise the storage shed into a workable studio..... slowly getting there.
Gave away a lot of household goods, more to either dump or hopefully find someone in need that's happy to take it off my hands.

Can nearly swing a cat in the shed now! 👍

21/01/2026

What's happening..... well it's been quite on the leathercrafting as I transition from the old residence and put everything in storage. I'm just taking some time out to travel and work on getting the totally offgrid.

Once I am happy with my set up, which I am getting pretty close to, I will be returning to clear out the unnecessary household clutter in my storage shed. I had it all set up as a new workshop with a neat layout....I was going to offload most items from fridge to bed to appliances, cupboards and sideboard big TV ETC and not store them.... but an opportunity arose which had me keep all the s**t and completely fill the storage shed beyond any practical use.

Anyways that fell through and I've gone back to the original plan of having a dedicated workshop in a leased facility that I can use to cut hides and patterns and store leather, tools and hardware etc and then load the projects and tools into the van and travel and be able to work from the van.....from any location or backdrop I choose.

Stay tuned, it won't be till around the end of February when I can clear the s**t and have a workable shed and also kick of my tutorial based website.

Stay happy 😊 👍✌️

09/01/2026

The tools I use to make moccasins, no machines, nothing fancy and nothing expensive.... except the leathers.... 5+ different beasts make up a pair. Elk, Kangaroo, Horse, Goat Sheep, Cow and Buffalo 🐃

13/12/2025

Silver is just over $97AUD per oz. (Dec 13 2025), (I acquired several 100's of 1 and 1/2 oz coins at around $22AUD per oz back in 2008)
There's 32 Drafts alone in the chess/games set I am building, each piece is a mint condition sealed 1oz silver proof coin.... in Metric terms 32 oz is approximately 1kg of 99.99999% pure silver, chemical symbol - Ag, atomic number 47 which relates to 47 protons to the nucleus.

Next plan is to build 100 leather jacketed 1/2oz silver coins for the Poker chips.

If you're been following this set build you'll be aware that the weights in the base of the 32 chess pieces are solid 24 carot gold coins....

Coupled with over 1000 hours in time invested so far ....Could it possibly end up the most valuable chess set of the modern era..... 🤔.... that is yet to be seen.....

28/11/2025

A gift from nature.

09/11/2025

I recommend using buttons opposed to snaps or press studs for cuffs and bracelets.
Why.... I lost a very nicely crafted cuff while out one night having a beer and a dance.
It had dual snaps and I've obviously caught it on something that unclipped the snaps without my knowledge..... since then I upgraded to buttons. It reiterated the old saying..... horses for courses..... snaps have a place and it's not on cuffs or bracelets. 😉

01/11/2025

I make a lot of my tools to ensure true quality craftsmanship. Handstitching leather is a science very few actually perfect. Modern commercial tools, oversize holes, need for speed and actually punching out leather wads and oversized holes are all common practices detrimental to the end result. If you know you know. If you disagree then you don't know.

29/10/2025

No more peppercorns flying across the room and also a lid to keep the nasties out.

25/10/2025

Check out and follow my additional page:
LeatherVanMan - Travel, Food & Leathercraft https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090443367033
A new journey commences.....

Leather & Lace & Cooking with Jace in the Hiace.