How this "miraculous" cutting mat is dealing with push cuts? Because I remember Philip criticizing the ability of green mats to favor the forward cuts of round knives.

Thanks again! That gusset shape was the trickiest part to come across from the whole pocket design. While designing this pouch I have developed a method similar to that used in car design based on clay modelling. A 3D modelling in physical world 😉

The travel humidor has been updated.

Yeah, that's interesting for sure! I suspect that mat to be made of some kind of ultra-high density closed-cell neoprene board because it regenerates itself instantly and has a similar texture, but I can as well be very wrong.

What's the special thing about the glover's that a tailor's can't do? PS: a glove making course would be quite nice, having a pair bespoked for my hands was one of my wet dreams before I even started leathercraft.

Nice findings there! R Heinisch is one of the oldest shears makers of the USA along with Wiss and Compton. Funny enough, they were imported in the UK although there was already a strong establishment of scissors and shears makers in Sheffield area, amongst them Wilkinson, Whiteley and Wright which all still exist. Wilkinson though, has been taken over by Whiteley. I also have a 12" Heinisch shear which is one of the most ergonomic from my entire collection, surpassed only by a Wiss and a Solingen made one.

My philosophy is this: the product is of the client, the work is mine. I don't own a hot foil machine (yet), but my approach would be the humbleness: I'm not a brand, therefore I assume from the beginning my client wouldn't pride himself up with a (still) obscure name, unknown to the audience. So no visible logo for the public. But the work is truly mine, therefore my client should be very aware of this everytime he uses the product, so my logo should sit proudly but unobtrusive inside the product - visible only to my client, or if that isn't possible, in a hidden part, away from the public eye. Discretion is in itself a luxury in today's world, even more so when applied in leathergoods manufacture.

There is no other option than to pull the scrap ejector out with that tool. But you have to have faith. And some force too. Et Voilà! 🙂

'Ground anchor U shaped' is a good name for ebay.

In restoring my vintage leather tools I always use a rotary steel brush powered by a bench motor to remove rust and stains with highly succes.

These are the kind of issues that Lucian @industrialdesignconcept (instagram) would be the ideal person to clarify them for you. Recently he came out with sets of alphabets both in serif and sans serif versions. I do not own alphabets but I recall Philip saying he uses 6mm letters, maybe you could get a better formed opinion from him.

I haven't had the chance to try ME yet, only DF. Omac is an industrial grade machine which, in my opinion, doesn't bring too many advantages to a small workshop. There are many good hot foiling machines on the market today, many of them coming from China as well. Amongst them Iron Bridge and Maxita. But if you live in States you should definitely have a look at Kwik Print. For CNCed brass dies the only person I would recommend is my friend, Lucian @industrialdesignconcept, who can help you with all the info regarding a well made die. He is also a DF representative. Have a chat with him and don't forget to say hello from me.

I have some friends with the DF press so I had the chance to try it out. In contrast to ME, DF uses a leverege mechanism combined with a height adjustable column, so you adjust the imprinting pressure by adjusting the column's height rather than the manual force required. This is a good method whenever you have a series of identical pieces to deboss. There are 3 factors influencing any debossing process and they are the applied pressure, the temperature and the dwell time. So the DF press makes constant the pressure and temperature leaving the dwell time to your latitude meanwhile the ME press makes constant only the temperature leaving you room to master the other two. I would say that for prototypes there is not a real difference in results between them, but if you want to maintain a consistent result to a series of identical pieces then DF is a better option I believe. You should also consider the quality of the brass die which, I consider, is more important than the press itself. Maintaining details to a minimum and no lines under 0.2mm in width should create the prerequisites of a high quality hot foiling.

Any piece of advice I will give bellow presumes that your machine is in good working condition which means you have a sharp blade, well adjusted roller, a concentric to the blade, polished and correctly adjusted presser foot. I will also presume that the real subject of the discussion is actually splitting rather than skiving leather. First, a good rule of thumb is to never try splitting down leather in thick layers at once. By thick layers I mean more than 0.5 mm. If you need thinning, lets say 2mm down to 0.5mm, the best approach is to have successive splits until you reach the desired thickness. Also, keep in mind that soft leathers under 1mm are always prone of raising problems even on machines equipped with suction. And this is especially valid when thinning down to under 0.6mm in thickness. Because any bigger bits of residue that sticks to the roller, when turning on the roller, will increase the pressure on the skived piece between the knife and the roller leading to 'bites' in the chorium up to the grain, resulting many times in holes to the surface of your leather piece. Suction, though, tends to reduce the possibility of these things happening. The roller speed is always a good idea to be at the lower end because it leaves more time to the roller to dispose any residues that would affect the splitting process. You may also consider adding a separate servomotor to your feed roller if you find the need of a better speed control. Any other piece of advise given to you in the comments section is valid and should be taken into consideration.

@james.hoang2010 the cylinder is a plastic pipe used for plumbing. Light enough and moisture proof. Of course, carbon fiber is next level. The whole ensemble is rather tight so no variations in moisture level there. Moreover there is a Boveda membrane permanently inside so any moisture loss by openings will be compensated by that.

@atelierashton thank you! Yeah, a well organised shop keeps the flow flowing, to say so... Plus, it creates a comfortable space to work in.

@Leathercraft Masterclass thank you very much! Well, half the issue is now as solved. That's a good idea! Let's see how it turns out.

Thanks! The leather zip puller should be the cherry on the cake, my focus for now is on the body and especially the pouch. For the inside I lined the cylinder with Spanish Cedar veneer, the traditional wood for humidors, used as a moisture buffer to keep the cigars at a relatively constant humidity level, usually between 70-80%.

That is literally the million dollar question, isn't it?......I'm hearing Phil saying 😂 And it really is, because the one who can design and create a pattern and make a bag and sell 1000 copies of it with $10,000/piece will become eventually a millionaire 😆 Usually when designing any bag you start from the parts that create the general shape, the skeleton of that bag, the immovable ones which, usually, are the front and the back sides and sometimes the base. Then, based on the perimeter of these steady parts you need to design the gusset whose perimeter will have it matching that of the fixed parts. Now, that's simple in theory but how do you actually get that, you will ask... There are two methods I know. 1. The traditional one, used by all modelists: walking the pattern to match notches, and walking which pattern part on which pattern part depends on the style of bag you're designing. I find this method prone to errors. 2. The Armitage method: matching the stitching holes numbers. This is my favourite method because it 'compels' things to match up nicely based on the same number of holes both on the large, steady parts (which should be designed first in this method) and the gusset. For example, if the front of your bag results in 100 holes, you shall trust that your gusset should have 100 holes also, whether you believe anything else. I'm not in anyway sure that Nigel has come up the first with this method, I just know the method from him. I do also feel that professional pattern making, much like Freemasonry, is covered in some kind of secrecy, or at least discretion, because it really stands as the head of all things when it comes to making high-end leather goods. But good design in general is at the intersection of a few skills of which some are learnable, while others are inborn. If one has not enough of the inborn skills (volumetric and abstract thinking, even some psychological traits I would add) he can't be a good designer and lot of effort should be put in acquiring these.

@ronnieli I was speaking Romanian as the dedicated audience is from my country. I tried at once introducing the English subtitles, unfortunately that is a long and tedious process as it requires doing all the translations and synchronisation by myself.