Leathercraft Masterclass

hello and welcome to the leathercraft masterclass with me Phil and in today's podcast I have some juicy and somewhat controversial topics to talk about in the leathercraft world uh I know it's been a while since I did my last podcast and I say that a lot because it's so difficult to fit them in around doing the courses and the editing and and running the business and everything but I try to and uh I found some time let's do a podcast now before we start I realize uh how green I am and for those of you who are listening and wondering what the hell I'm talking about I I've sat down in front of the camera I'm looking at myself in the uh in the screen there and I can say I'm wearing a green top with a green flat cap with uh green leatherbound headphones uh with a green boom arm I've even got green on the microphone luckily I'm backed by red so you know you can see me okay so let's talk about the subjects that I'm going to be discussing today so you can kind of get a feel for what we're going to be talking about a couple of these things have been mentioned to me in the past and some of them I've kind of found online and I thought you know what this would make a great subject to talk about in a podcast uh and a couple of them are from uh Forum members who have asked questions on the Forum and I've thought again you know great subjects for a podcast that I could talk about something that doesn't require you know heavy visuals so at the beginning we had have four main subjects so the beginning is the increased use of AI images in bags on social media something I'm want to discuss the next one is a mirror polish burnish is it worth it the third thing I want to talk about is leather drop in Linings and this was a a question asked by a for member on you know what are they and how to do it and how would you measure for one so this is an alternative something I haven't actually done in the master the class before in the courses uh I'm thinking now it would be high time to actually do or create a bag project with a drop-in lining so that people have those skills but I'll talk about it a bit uh today and lastly how to make durable leather cutting patterns how to make durable leather cutting patterns so when you cut out a leather project obviously we use patterns to cut around or at least Mark before cutting um and if you want something durable that's made of metal or not MDF hard that's great but you need Machinery to cut that out that not many people have the alternative is cardboard however after repeated use it starts to show where and you lose accuracy on it so how can we get around that I've come up with an idea that I've used in the past I thought I'd share today so that you can make something for yourself that will last but you can cut out with a craft knife so let's start at the beginning with the increased use of AI on bags on social media so I remember where I was I was in Egypt at the time and I was I can't remember if I was sitting by the pool or in my hotel room whatever the case I was scrolling through Instagram and I remember scrolling through and seeing this really unusual quite remarkable looking bag and I was kind of studying it and looking at it and thinking wow this is incredible this is amazing I can't believe that someone actually made this it was a really intricate design just the way it was sitting on the desk it looked absolutely Flawless absolutely perfect Too Perfect so I could of did what everyone does when they're studying a new design or something interesting that they've seen something that inspires them kind of zoom in a little bit and take a closer look and I remember thinking that seam doesn't go anywhere that's odd well that Buckle doesn't look quite right the tabs go in the wrong way around and very quickly dawned on me that this image that I'm looking at isn't reality but it is in fact an AI image and I went down to the comments cuz I thought okay people are going to be ripping this apart surely and it was a mixture of wow this is amazing and where can I get this from where can I buy this how much is it like people were genuinely fooled by this and it's only really cuz I'm a a leather Craftsman that I can look at it and go that looks looks too perfect and the Design's off and there's a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense but if you're not used to that and you don't have that kind of knowledge you can see why people will be easily fooled and I think if I remember correctly this account was selling bags that were I did a little bit of digging made in the Far East but they're resellers and they were putting AI images to just kind of get a bit of uh get a bit of attention on on social media so the bags that they were showing that were AI images aren't something that they can make or have made so it was interesting that they were even doing that in the first place and they were I think they were mixing it up with bags that they sell and these perfect AI images so it's probably quite confusing for people looking at it but whatever the reason uh and that was over yeah that was a year well over a year ago now so I'm sure that AI images have even improved since then and become more convincing now than ever before now I'm all for progress and Technology although I do something that's very you know Hands-On and crafty and old school in in in one sense the way I present it is is very much new school so I'm not afraid of Technology I'm not afraid of advancements but there's something quite Sinister about being able to fool people about certain projects and and and products that people put out that aren't actually real I mean it fool it completely fooled me for for a second I'll put the images up online and now you know that they're AI you'll immediately see that it's Ai and back then AI images were in their infancy and it was I think well not in their infancy but they weren't as good as they are right now so I wasn't expecting it so but now you'll see it you'll be like oh it's obviously AI but it got me thinking you know how long is it going to be before people look at I mean this could be any industry but but leathercraft products and go that looks too perfect that's AI I I mean Are We There Yet I mean I don't think there's many creators who love the you know the art of creating something and making handmade things I don't think that the leathercraft community that I speak to are really going to embrace completely false and and fake Goods that don't actually exist to pass off as their own it's it's a very different mindset so I don't think it's going to be a huge problem but it might be some people might find it very tempting to do and I wonder if it's going to get to a point a bit of a halfway house where people will take pictures of their leather work and then get AI to enhance it I mean I know you can do that on Photoshop already but you need skill on Photoshop to do that but you could create a prompt use an existing image and say this is The Edge I want you to make it look perfect this is the stitching I want you to perfect the stitching so that it's all consistent now how long is it I mean it might that might be here already I don't know but it's kind of worries me a little bit so it's a case of I I I think almost like buyer beware you should really at this point in time be quite skeptical of images and Trust video a little bit more that will that advice will be outdated in the next few years I think where AI video which is quite obvious at the moment especially if it's an elaborate video you you'll pick up on it that something's wrong but I think at the moment when someone's taking a video a short video of something that they've made what you see is what you get they might be able to show it off in good lighting they might even be able to put a a little bit of a filter on it but you you can to kind of see through that and you'll get a good idea of whether or not you know something that someone's made is the real deal or if it's good or it's not good whereas on an image is getting harder and harder to trust images now so what I'll say is this use a skeptical eye when you see something on social media just know that it may not be real so if you're looking at your own leather work and then you're looking at these images you might be as good as that already or you might be better because the thing you're looking at doesn't even exist in the first place that's subject number one the use of AI whether or not I think it's good I mean don't don't get me wrong I've used it myself uh for example when I write a blog what I like to do sometimes is I'll go into chat GPT and say you know give me the top 10 most commonly asked questions to do with leather work or to do with bag making or to do with wallet making or to do with uh beginner starting in leathercraft and it will give me a list and then I'll go through that and go oh that's an interesting subject I could talk about that well that n that's not so good and and can give me an idea of of what to talk about I won't do that very often it's usually I know what I'm going to talk about in advance but sometimes I will use that to go oh yeah I didn't even think of that that's a good idea I I'll I'll write a blog about that I did once um get chat gbt to write me you know when I was first playing around with it I thought let's get it to write me a Blog about burnishing or hand stitching or something like that and I think when it comes to more Niche uh subjects it struggles a little bit more and get some really kind of generic wishy-washy advice that's kind of like you know really boring it's got no juice to it do you know what I mean like it was you know oh you can you can burnish an edge using water some people like to use uh toonol or other types of gum such as gum Trager um you can burnish using a wood Slicker or you can use uh canvas when it's and it's just like yeah yeah you I mean you're not wrong but it's there's there's nothing in there there's there's no juicy subject there's no like quick hack that anyone can do to try out and it's like oh my God it makes a big difference there's there's none of that in there I've even um got chat GPT to read my blog and just improve it and make it better and I don't know there seem to be something just a bit disingenuous about it and and inauthentic if I've got mistakes in there or I haven't elaborated on something that I should have elaborated on to make it make more sense that's okay that's on me it's something that I created and it's never going to be perfect and if there's something I didn't mention in there that should be mentioned people can ask in the comments and interact with me and we can have an entire conversation it's it's the human element it's the uh the community you know it doesn't have to be perfect it's it's just a piece of me which is imperfect put out there for people to help them to entertain them and maybe even make them laugh about my own mistakes that's fine and you just don't get that from AI you know I I think it has its place but I think it's permeate permeating into areas that it probably shouldn't and that's my thoughts so the next one is uh the mirror polish burnish is it worth it and this is uh this is a subject I get asked a lot about no one's ever asked me is it worth it but they say how can I do this so I get people emailing me on social media doing screenshots of someone's work that they've seen where they've got these you know beautiful perfect mirror polished edges or is the the cool kids like to call it candy edges I I can't stand that I really don't like the phrase candy edges I don't know why it irks me it's a bit like the word chops nothing wrong with it but I just don't like the word or spuds which is another word for potato I don't know maybe I'm getting old and grumpy but just certain words of phrases that you're just like no don't like that for no particular reason candy edges just irks me anyway back to the mirror polish is it worth it okay in a nutshell my opinion no it it's not and here's the reason why when people mirror polish an edge and we're really talking a burnished Edge using vegetable tanned leather most people are using some kind of burnishing compound to get those polished edges they're using various grits of sandpaper up to very very fine grits that almost burnish the edge in themselves like 2,000 grit and Beyond and using waxes that tend to hold a Polish better uh for example Columbus wax uh which I'm not I'm not sure what's in that another one that I've used quite successful in the past which is uh canoro wax and they're very hard waxes and they can be quite Britt so if you build up too much of a thickness it will crack when flexed so wax being quite soft even hard waxes they don't tend to hold that perfectly mirror polish for very long mostly I mean all it takes is a few Fingerprints of it touching a wallet with those edges on going in and out your pocket a few times it doesn't last long it doesn't uh hold that polish so it is realistically a temporary finish which works well on social media to get interest likes uh sales uh you name it depending on what the individual creating these projects is is trying to do I feel like once you start using these products with these mirror Mir mirror polished edges it loses that very quickly very very quickly and if it's a product that flexes a lot like a a bold wallet and you've polished everything to the highest degree uh with a little bit of opening and closing and and going in and out the pocket it really doesn't hold it it will hold a reasonable Edge once it comes down to a reasonable Edge it holds it for a bit you know for for longer but it comes down to that level very very quickly it's kind of I guess equilibrium unless you're accidentally rubbing it against a brick wall so the finer the Polish the quicker it is to show marks and scratching and damage is is the main thing you can and I've done it before use uh a top coat uh a few brands do this Edge paint makers uh I use one uh by Gardini it's uh gloss top coat I believe it's called Uh goes on in like a milky white finish and it dries level and clear it's uh it's almost like you know patent leather it's a synthetic layer on the surface that sits there yes you'll lose the gloss with some fingerprints but you can just wipe that off and it's gone and it's back to a mirror polish so unless you're using some kind of synthetic Compound on your work a mirror polish doesn't ver last very long at least not my experience now if you know a way of doing this naturally just using waxes and and gum finishes and sandpapering that's fine but I do wonder sometimes when people create these edges you know spending 5 hours making the product and 3 hours finishing the edges when customers get them and they look at it and it's shining and they can see their own reflection in it and it starts to degrade very very quickly I wonder if people get a little bit upset with it or feel that they've they've been done over a little bit I don't know I've I've I've never seen any evidence of that but if I were to get something that was really finally finished and it lasted about as long as a tuna sandwich I would probably be a bit upset by that and contact them going hi it was really shiny but take a look at this and then it's like a really dull Edge and most customers aren't going to have the skill to to bring that back uh and there there's always also a trade-off I mean to get a reasonable burnished Edge doesn't take more than a few minutes realistically if you have a clean cut finish you know bevel the edges doesn't need any sanding put your compound straight on use a Slicker and within a few seconds you start to hear that of it drying and it's it's starting to burnish you get a really reasonable Edge it doesn't take very long at all but to get an absolute absolute polished Edge can take sometimes hours or people I've heard you know sitting in front of the television with a piece of 3,000 grit in their hand and a few rags and and different waxes and spending hours just finishing the edges for something that really doesn't last long so there is there is a trade-off between how polished you can get it and its durability level and whether that's worth it to you well that's a you know a question you have to answer yourself so I like to go to what I call a practical Edge I like it to be shiny I like it to reflect the light and I like it to be nice and smooth without any voids in there or any obvious flaws it should be nice and clean cut from the start I don't take it to the level where I could literally take use it to take an eyelash out of my eye because it's such a it's like a mirror I like that that practical Edge because I know after some use it's going to look pretty much the same and it's that kind of consistency that I like as long as there's nothing that stands out on it that draws the eye and think you think to yourself oh that's there's something wrong with that I can see that there's a there's a void there or there's a gap there that that is not acceptable to me but a practical shiny Edge doesn't have to be mirror polished I think is is much more effective some things can hold the Polish better than others I think um solid leather belt for example if you get really nice edges on there when you're putting it through the belt loops all the time you're essentially repolishing it every time it goes through you're wearing a pair of jeans it's like running it through five pieces of canvas every time you put it on put it on and take it off so it's that kind of thing is going to hold its polish a little bit better than say uh a briefcase where it could be scuffing against elevator doors or rubbing against a door frame or something so mirror polish is it worth it that really is up to you in my opinion taking it to that degree spending that much time on something that isn't going to last very long I think I prefer taking it to a practical Edge which is something that looks good looks neat but I haven't spent many many hours working on it and at the end of the day the last thing I want is for all the attention that people kind of look out or remark out is just the edges and not the piece not the design not the creativity or the construction of what I've made the only thing that people can remark on is oh wow look at those edges this might be a bit harsh but that would be a failure in my opinion if the only thing that that stood out about my work was nicely finished edges that's not quite I think it's missing the point anyway let's move on so uh number three or four leather drop in Linings now when you make a bag you tend to a lined bag more commonly what you'll see is you'll create the panels the bass or the bass and the gasset separately and you will have the linings on each piece separately and then you bring all the pieces together and you stitch them through that might be for a a bag that you create inside out and then flip it right side out afterwards or it might be one that has cut edges on the outside where the stitching is visible on the outside whatever the case more commonly when you create a lining it is glued onto each panel piece base and and gusset usually around the edges so it's loose in the center so it's a little bit more flexible and that's that's the common way of doing it there's many different ways obviously but that's that's probably the most common now A Drop in lining is where you create your bag and on the inside it's completely unlined and then what you do is you separately like a completely different project create a lining with the sides and the base and the the gusset area whatever it happens to be for that particular design and then you literally as the name suggests drop it in and then once you've dropped it in you glue the edges together from the outside and the the new lining and then you can stitch them through so that's really what a drop in lining is it's you're making a very slightly smaller version of your exterior usually with a lining leather okay like a goat skin Cal skin something soft uh usually Chrome tan leather could even be suede or something like that could even add pockets as well and then you drop it in so what the benefits of a drop in lining usually it's going to be softer like you could literally reach into the bottom gather it up with your fingers and then pull it out okay like a inverting a sock it's it's a separate bag essentially on the inside so it's softer it's a bit more relaxed you tend to see it I say a little bit more often in in tote bags but that's not always the case there's all sorts of bags that have them there's sometimes less complicated to build and I don't mean less time consuming because you essentially having to make two projects but you can focus on making the bag itself okay the the frame the the exterior and then focus on making the drop in lining and then you marry them up at the end so it can kind of separate that so you're not having to construct the bag and a lining all in at the same time you can separate them and bring them together at the end for the grand finale so there is a there is that benefit to it so I'd say it's also easier to make pockets on it so how do you measure and this was the main question how do you measure for a drop in lining and I will I'll mention a method of how you can measure because it's going to be a smaller diameter than the exterior itself you don't want to make it exactly the same because it would you know be a bit of a tight fit but the main thing is realistically is creating a prototype usually with just a cheaper material something you can test out so you can go by your theory and then make it out of Cheaper material and see if it fits then you can start cutting into premium leather Linings and then start making that so the way that I I've measured in the past quite successfully is to take a a long strip of the leather that you intend to use for the lining at at the thickness that you intend to use importantly and what I do is take a thin strip only has to be like an inch wide but as long as you can get it and then what I do is I get double-sided tape on the back place it down pull the outside off and then I tape it to the inside and go all the way around the inside of the bag the interior until it goes to the very end and that thin strip of leather is now touching end to end it's buttered up that gives you the base measurement of the inside of the bag with that particular leather at that particular thickness okay you change any of these variables you need to retest it then you have to think how many seams is this going to have so you might have a bag that has you know four main Corners so you have a drop in lining with four main Corners so you think okay each seam is going to take up 10 mm of leather because I'm going to have a stitch line 5 mm in from each Edge okay hopefully you're still with me on this so you got four corners each needs an extra centimeter to make up for the fact that you've got to stitch the edges together on all four sides okay all four corners so you then take your overall measurement that you got and you would add 4 cm to that okay now it could be a little bit less than that if you tend to have your seam you know 3 millimet in from each Edge you have two edges there 6 mmtimes 4 you get the idea so that is essentially how you do it and it's okay if you get the math wrong or something doesn't go quite right the next stage which is prototyping your lining and you only have to do this once once you've got your measurements as long as you keep the Leathers the same the thickness is the same you can repeat this over and over again and it will give the same result you'll have that consistency and this is to create a prototype so you even if you've created the exterior you can still prototype for the interior before actually cutting into leather I recommend using leather cheap leather like couch leather you can get you know cheap bonded leather that you would use for leather couches online on eBay you know you can get them real cheap sometimes and and make a line you don't have to stitch it all together you can just glue it where the seams will normally go so that's one way of doing it another one is uh using foam so if your lining is 1 mm thick which is a common thickness for a lining you can get 1 mm craft foam do the same thing just glue them in where the the seam would normally go drop it in and then glue it to the sides remembering that foam can compress a little bit similar to leather but foam can compress a little bit more so it's a bit more forgiving in this sense so you have to really keep an eye out for is this too big or is it too small and then you can make adjustments and you can remake the internal prototype the drop in lining prototype another one is is thick canvas if you get very heavyweight canvas that's another reasonably inexpensive way to test it out but again once you've got the right measurements once it fits in nicely and it's not incredibly baggy area and folded everywhere then you can take those measurements you can you know prize it all apart measure them then create a template a pattern that you can cut out your lining leather with and you should end up with something that fits and just drops in perfectly and then you can glue the edges at the top Stitch it round Edge finish how you want to Edge finish and there you have your drop in lining so just a recap don't measure the inside with you know like a tailor tape or something you need to use the leather that you're going to use for your lining and then make sure you add add a seam allowance where the seams are going to go so that's my advice on leather drop in Linings now lastly the final topic that I want to discuss is how to make durable leather cutting patterns so this is something that most of us do if you've been involved in leathercraft for a while even if you're making uh a card holder a small very simply made wallet it doesn't matter most people are going to usually start with some kind of pattern usually made out of card something that will hold its shape that you can either use to cut against with a craft knife or something that you can use like a scratch all to Mark around and then finish off with a a ruler and a craft knife however you'd like to do it most of us start with a pattern now the most durable patterns as I mentioned earlier in the podcast are and I've seen anything from aluminium to Brass uh all sorts of um High high density fiber board hardboard the these things are great they'll last a very very long time especially the metal ones but you would have to have the equipment to cut that out and it's not necessarily very cheap to get hold of you know large sheets of brass or zinc is another one or aluminum and it's going to involve cutting with a band saw usually fitted with some kind of metal cut very fine tooth metal cutting uh saw blade and not everybody has access to that so how are you meant to create something durable but yet you can still cut out with a craft knife now if you've created a bag that you really like perhaps you sell this bag and you've made a lot of them you may have noticed that your patterns are starting to get a bit worn the corners aren't sharp there's a few Nicks where you've accidentally cut into the pattern what can we do to make that more durable so my kind of little idea my little hack that I've had good success with in the past is to cut out with a craft knife either thick card very thick card stock uh craft card which is KR which is the process of making a heavyweight card gray board is another one or bookbinders board usually in the 1 to 1.5 mm range 2 mm starts to get a bit thick so if you have a very big pattern that's fine but when you have intricate patterns when they too thick it's a little hard to cut around uh or another one which is quite durable is cellulose fiber board okay now these are all quite absorbent which is good for what I'm going to suggest that you do next which is to take super glue okay not thick super glue or gel super glue I made the mistake of using that in a pinch once it didn't make for a good experience take thin super glue and all you have to do making sure you're in a well ventilated area okay is run a bead of super glue round the finished Edge so you've cut out your pattern to the to the dimensions of your project and you're just making a bead all the way around and letting it soak in okay put it to the side to completely cure completely dry out and then when you finished what I like to do is take a piece of fine grit sandpaper anything over a th000 is fine against a piece of board could be the same board that you use to cut out the pattern and just gently okay just in One Direction just take off any high spots or bits of fiber that's sticking out that's super glued in place that your blade could catch on the way around and just very gently sand it that's all you need to do just a little bit of sanding and what you'll end up is with is something that was easy to cut out but the edges are literally as hard as fiberglass so it's much harder for your knife to cut into by accident and it's much more durable so the corners are going to going to be you know uh sharper for longer the internal Corners are going to be sharper for longer and it creates something that I think really enhances your experience but also the durability of the pattern so that you don't have to resort to trying to spend a couple of days cutting out a bag pattern from sheet aluminium okay so it's up to you you might want to do that as a big project but it's a really easy hack to do you can even do it with thick card stock in one millim for smaller things like like uh wallets 1.5 maybe two for larger bags so something within that range and uh and thin superg glue okay specifically thin superglue or was it um cyanoacrylate I think cyan cyanoacrylate which is the generic term for for the base of superglue okay so that is it guys if you have any feedback uh maybe you disagree with something that I've said maybe um have another idea to add on to something that I've talked about today feel free to comment below and uh let me know what you think if you want to share some ideas that would be great and if you're listening to this on YouTube or watching this on YouTube should I say don't forget to give me a like and uh turn on your notifications so anytime I do drop a new podcast or video uh you'll always be the first to know in the meantime thank you for listening to the leathercraft masterclass podcast with me Phil and I will see you or you'll hear me me very very soon take care

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