Arm Guard Build

**postman** · 12-26-2012, 08:55 PM

Hi guys and gals, here is a new arm guard that I made this morning. Instead of a carving I decided to do a basket weave pattern, I love how clean and simple this design looks. Very easy to do, yet looks so cool. I draw the outline of the arm guard on the back of the leather using a home made stencil and pen. I then cut out the shape with leather shears and proceed to do the tooling on the leather. Sorry I had most of the tooling done before I thought of posting these pictures. I'll show the tooling in more detail on another project, actually I'm going to do a back quiver as well and I'll show the tooling on that. Any way after the basket weave pattern is done, I add a border which is cut into the leather with a swivel knife and then finished with a beveler.

**postman** · 12-26-2012, 09:09 PM

After the tooling is done it's time to punch the holes for the buttons and stretch cord, and then apply the dye. I apply the dye with a small cotton applicator, it's important to apply the dye with strokes in the same direction, otherwise when the dye dries the leather will have random blotchy patterns where the dye is over lapped. Once the dye has dried, it's time to sew on the buttons and insert the stretch cords. The buttons are made of Elk antler that I purchase from a local Elk farmer. The stretch cord comes from Fabricland, I cut them into 14" lengths.

**postman** · 12-26-2012, 09:21 PM

Once the cords are fed through the holes, they are whip finished toghether at the ends to prevent them from being pulled out. This works better than a knot as a knot will tend to dig into your arm. After the cords are tied off, the buttons are sewn on, using heavy duty waxed nylon thread.

**postman** · 12-26-2012, 09:30 PM

Here is the finished arm guard. The last thing that I do is burn my "makers mark" and the date into the back of the leather. I hope some of you found this interesting. Like I said before, sorry I didn't show any of the actual tooling in process. I will do that on another item. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and I wish everyone a Happy New Year.

**CKjeep84** · 12-26-2012, 11:29 PM

nice work, i think i might have to make one one of these days(another thing on my winter project list lol)

**Memnos** · 12-26-2012, 11:57 PM

Wow! That's awesome, bro. I've been trying to get into tooling leather but have no clue how to do it. Not to mention stamps are soooo expensive. I have gotten a few on ebay for cheap but still have no clue how to do it. If you could post a tutorial at some point I'd sure appreciate it. Again, very nice job.