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These are the knives and sharpening implements I use on a daily basis. The top knife is a trim knife and the bottom knife is called a head knife. The trim knife is used by pulling it toward you and the head knife is used by pushing it away. I use the head knife a lot to cut short pieces of leather using what is called a roll cut. Basically, roll the blade as you apply pressure to cut the leather. On the far left, you’ll see the strop board I use. This is what I use the most to keep my blades in working order. This strop board is made by hand by Douglass Tools. It has horse hide on each side. On the other side, I apply Douglass’ own “grit” and on this side I use red jeweler’s rouge before I strop the blades. The two sharpening stones you see in the picture are ceramic. The dark one is a medium grit and the lighter one is a fine grit. I only use the medium every once in a while to get the edge back. Most of the time the fine stone takes care of it.

This is a picture of one of the trays of foundry type I use to personalize my handmade leather goods. I put the letters in a holder, and then put that holder in my hot stamp machine. When the type is heated to 350 degrees, I apply the type to the leather, leaving debossed letters in the leather. They are referred to as “debossed” because the letters are recessed in relation to the top of the leather. Sometimes people mistakenly refer to this as embossed. Embossed actually means the letters are raised. All of my type is made by a type maker in Los Angeles.

Here's part of a batch of personalized wedding favors I've been working on for a couple who is getting married in June. They're planning to put one at each of their guest's place setting. These personalized key fobs are made from 4-5 oz natural veg-tan leather. If you would like to do the same, or just order one for yourself, you can do it by clicking this link Personalized Wedding Favor Key Fobs

The Tagsmith site is undergoing renovation! I've been so busy making each and every one of the items I sell, it was hard to find time to freshen up my online shop. But I'm doing it. The new site has an updated look and is much easier to navigate. As time permits, I'll continue to add photos of all the items and colors in my line of handmade leather goods. I'm one guy doing it all here at Tagsmith.

Thanks for choosing handmade.

Steve