Leather Tooling - Custom Key Chain

Since I have been staying home for the past few days, I have been very productive. Today I decided to make a key chain from a kit that I purchased from Tandy Leather over 30 years ago. I never worked on it because one of my son's borrowed my leather working tools and never returned them. He lost them on a job site and didn't replace them. Anyway, that's another story.

I started this project with materials and supplies that I already own. I have a steel stamping kit that I bought for my jewelry making, but it can also be used to stamp leather. I also have a stitching Awl which has a number of uses including sewing leather goods.

The first step that I took was to dampen a sea sponge so that I could wet the leather. The leather should be wet but not drenched. I set it aside to dry some until it returned back to its original color.

Next, I chose the letters from my set that wouild spell out my Steem name which is jluvs2fly. My set did not have an @ sign and I didn't want to freehand draw it. I used a hammer and stamped out my name along a diagonal line across the body of the key chain.

The next thing that I did was to apply some stain. I don't have my leather stain at this house so I used some wood stain that I had in the garage. I applied a small amount to the leather, rubbed it in, and then quickly wiped off the excess with a damp sponge.

I let that dry for a while before I began to stitch the two parts together using my stitching awl and some waxed heavy duty thread.

Since this keychain is so small, I decided to double the stitch for aesthetic purposes. If this was on some leather that would take a beating and be under constant stress, then a double stitching might be needed. I just did it because I pulled out enough thread to go around the keychain twice.

The final step was to add my car key. Actually, there is another step that I intend to do later after the stain is completely dry. I am going to seal the leather with a half and half mixture of mop and glo and water. I read about using that if you don't have any leather sealer. I don't like the leather sealers that leave your leather looking like plastic. I would rather a natural finish that ages over time.

Voila! My own custom key chain that didn't take all day long to make.

Enjoy your day!