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Author Topic: Bulvoy's Leather Wrap Walk Through Tutorial Written with Pictures and Video Demo  (Read 51458 times)
RevanReborn
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« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2016, 10:02:50 PM »

Good call on the sticky Smiley

This tutorial is intense!  SO thorough, and OMG that leather work is SO incredible!!  I am definitely doing this in the future- and now I will actually be able to Smiley.  Thanks for putting this together Bulvoy.

lol I was cracking up at the 'not apologizing for 80's rock tunes'' comment!  Hahaha
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Landen Se-Sentien
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« Reply #16 on: May 08, 2016, 03:42:58 AM »

Drahcir, thank you for giving this thread a sticky.

Bulvoy, you know where I stand on your work, and I'm glad to see you get the recognition on this forum that you have earned. Congratulations, and thank you for an awesome contribution to the forum. I think I found my new summer learning project.
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shade_1313
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« Reply #17 on: May 08, 2016, 05:11:43 AM »

I will be using this on Project: Chimera.
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TheDarkOpossum
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« Reply #18 on: May 22, 2016, 09:46:51 PM »

This is an awesome tutorial, thanks so much for posting it! Your work is gorgeous.

I have a question about using this technique on a hilt with machined grooves -- would it be possible to get such a clean look when forming the leather into the grooves, or would it be better to utilize the O-rings and form over those as you've done?

Also, what weight of leather would you recommend?
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Bulvoy
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« Reply #19 on: May 23, 2016, 03:42:06 AM »

This is an awesome tutorial, thanks so much for posting it! Your work is gorgeous.
I have a question about using this technique on a hilt with machined grooves -- would it be possible to get such a clean look when forming the leather into the grooves, or would it be better to utilize the O-rings and form over those as you've done?
Also, what weight of leather would you recommend?
Thank you so much, glad to see its useful, yes Absolutely possible just as easy, the only reason i added  'O' rings was to enhance the grip when wielding.
As you are into the process, you will find that when " moistening " your leather it is MUCH easier to form , curve , stretch etc. . since you want the existing grooves detailed, follow the guide , but instead of finger nails/ popsicle stick, Instead use some sort of cylinder shape, pen cap, sharpie marker, dowel rod piece ,your pinkie finger , something narrow etc.
               The oz leather thats entirely what look you are going for , My go-to standard is usually goatskin 1 oz. in pictures below i outlined oz thickness, type and use, in the "leather choices"  of this guide the last 2 resource links i provided have an array of thinner leather. ebay Etsy, etc type into search " Thin Leather hide", samples, scraps, you'll see hrs worth of choices.
 The Video guide i used 2oz leather ( Thickest) , and bigger cord design, ONLY so it could be seen Clearly, easily for anyone that watched. I pretty much stick to 1 oz thickness
                      * This First Picture is one i forgot to upload originally, to show what that seam looked liked when dried that i used for video guide
z Finished dry seam by bulvoy, on Flickr
                          Here is example of what your recessed Grooves will look like, i just wet it and pulled it tight for you to see close to what outcome it will look like .
Thickness wrap examples by bulvoy, on Flickr
                                              *************  Hope this helped, don't hesitate to pm me with Q's. Look forward to seeing it
Bulvoy~
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Benji
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« Reply #20 on: August 07, 2016, 09:01:58 PM »

Fascinating and informative. I may end up trying this at some point.
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« Reply #21 on: December 20, 2016, 05:13:38 AM »

Well I finally started my leather wrapped project following your totorial. I'm waiting the 24 hours for it to full harden, I currently got it wrapped. At first I read the tutorial and I thought I was putting it on light, but (once I finished) I watched video I it looks like I used to much and I slid a (used a paper clap because of the rounded edge) tool to rock as you demonstrated but found myself sliding as well. I flat out frelled up I connecting between the two a bit, while it's touching tiny bit of a gap and one part overlaps some how I guess I didn't cut straight. I probably tried a bit to hard of a riser pattern for first attempt, bunch of 90 degree corners. I got them fairly anug, but since I'm used to much I was having a hard time getting them to stick down tight to the pattern.

Worst case secernaio it only turns out sub par, but meh it only going to be trophy hanging from belt of my cosplay so I don't need it absolute perfection. I'll try to post pics soon once it's nice a dry before moving to next stage of leather.
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Ginsu117
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« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2017, 08:43:43 PM »

How did you put that Jedi emblem on the base of your brown leather saber. Also where did you get it?
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Landen Se-Sentien
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« Reply #23 on: January 04, 2017, 11:02:43 PM »

How did you put that Jedi emblem on the base of your brown leather saber. Also where did you get it?


Bulvoy hasn't been on for a while, but he bought a piece of scrap blank and etched it. He also treated it with something to make the logo darker and then shaped it to match the hilt. He made a couple for me, and they both look amazing. I'll try to see if I can find a thread where he mentions how he did it and I'll post the link.

Here it is.

http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=28366.msg418616#msg418616
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Ginsu117
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« Reply #24 on: January 05, 2017, 01:31:00 AM »

Bulvoy hasn't been on for a while, but he bought a piece of scrap blank and etched it. He also treated it with something to make the logo darker and then shaped it to match the hilt. He made a couple for me, and they both look amazing. I'll try to see if I can find a thread where he mentions how he did it and I'll post the link.

Here it is.

http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=28366.msg418616#msg418616


Thanks man, lemme know if you have an extra for me lol
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Landen Se-Sentien
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« Reply #25 on: January 05, 2017, 01:42:21 AM »

Thanks man, lemme know if you have an extra for me lol

Lol.

I don't, unfortunately. I have one one my Manticore and one on my son's Initiate. Since he hasn't been on in a while, and I lost his contact information, I'm out of luck for my younger son's saber.
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Nomadicus
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« Reply #26 on: January 19, 2017, 05:38:56 AM »

I decided to give this a try, but no way I was going to make my first attempt ever on an actual hilt. So I used some scrap wood dowel I had laying around, to varying degrees of success.


At a quick glance, it seems successful.



However, as I got to the end, I messed up a bit.

Not enough overlap. I know I was supposed to leave a large overlap to make a better seam, but somehow I was quite inaccurate with my original cut and only had about half an inch or less of overlap.

Too much epoxy? I did fine for the most part, but when I got to the second-to-last epoxy spread I must have put too much on because even though I left an inch of leather with no epoxy so I could find and cut my seam, as I pressed the leather to the wood there was a spot where it squeezed out a bit and in one spot only left me with a quarter of an inch gap between my glued leather and my original seam! This made it very challenging to properly fit the seam.

Didn't properly stretch leather over my o-ring. While I was careful about initially lining up the leather on the wood, even drawing a line as suggested, as this wasn't a "real" project I didn't take the time to worry about any horizontal axis. What I mean by that is on a real US the grooves in the hilt are all parallel and it is easy to tell if you are drifting off track while wrapping the leather. I wasn't really paying attention to that so as I got to the end I realized I had a bit of a wrinkle formed over my o-ring. I realized that instead of stretching the leather over the o-ring as I went around the wood, I must have been pulling the leather from one side or the other. So it appeared that I was doing a good job of forming the leather around the o-ring but at the end it would seem I had not. So I just used my knife to slice off the wrinkle, which exposes the ring and a little bit of wood. So that would have really boned me had this been a real saber.



Was my ribbon too tight? After letting the saber cure overnight I unwrapped it to see how it all worked out. It has now been several hours since I did so, yet I still see the indentation from the ribbon I used to wrap the project as it cured. I am concerned that the epoxy soaked into the leather so much that the impression of the ribbon wrap is now permanently embedded in the leather. I will wait another day to see if it slowly goes back to a smooth surface. If not, I may need to find something else to wrap it with as it cures.

Be more careful and deliberate when cutting seam. I need to make sure I make a nice, clean, cut. There looks like I have a few spots where the leather seam isn't as clean where I might not have cut 100% through the leather and instead kinda pulled it apart. It created tiny little "frays" that are visible.

Perhaps I pressed in with my fingernails too hard when marking the seam. I swear I can still see the indentation where I pressed the leather with my nail to mark the cut. I cut a little outside that as suggested, but maybe I cut too far and pressed too hard. Or the leather was too thin, and the epoxy hardened before the leather relaxed while the indentation was visible.


I think when I make my actual saber hilt, I am going to press the leather down into the grooves rather than inserting o-rings and putting the leather over them. It might be easier... Plus, this is for my nephew and he has smaller hands than me. Using o-rings kind of expands the "effective" diameter of the hilt and I think he'll have a better grip using the indented grooves instead.

Anyway, that's what happened to me. Curious if anyone else has any thoughts.

And this is my first real post too!
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Darth_Eclipse
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« Reply #27 on: February 16, 2018, 04:49:29 AM »

This is a must try this is extremely cool, got a weekend project ahead of me, thanks for this info
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Infinit01
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« Reply #28 on: June 19, 2018, 08:30:19 PM »

Thank you for the write up!  I've been looking for wraps to do myself but haven't had any luck so those ebay stores with leather scrapes were great!
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mrg149
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« Reply #29 on: June 27, 2018, 02:22:31 AM »

any adhesive besides epoxy you reccommwnd
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