I’m loving the leather work that the Glowforge has afforded me. Here’s a Watch Band design that I’ve put together and am currently wearing. Super comfortable and pretty easy to put together.
It’s a 2 layer design using Medium PG Leather. There is a captive keeper and a floating keeper. Once dyed, I used a Dremel to sand down the underside of the keepers to make them super thin and pliable. Then I folded them and held them with clamps to retain their shape. After that, I removed the clamps, glued them and clamped them again (this helps to get the folds to have a better shape than just gluing at first). I didn’t take a good picture of this, as I didn’t know I’d be uploading it here.
For the watch straps, place the finished sides out, line the layers up and glue together. I placed leather needles in stitching holes as I clamped to keep the alignment. The long flaps that get folded over need to be sanded thin like the keepers. You can do this either before or after you glue the layers together. I put the Band Bars and the buckle into place, add the captive keeper, then fold, glue, and clamp. When dry, grab your stitching pony, and start stitching! Have pliers (needlenose) handy, as the stitching holes are a bit small, but that makes the stitching look great and keeps it in a straight line.
FYI, “skiving” is the term for the thinning/beveling the leather layers for gluing together without adding bulk. Using a Dremel is a great trick when you don’t have a skiving blade or machine–or for small pieces/areas!
Oh, have fun doing down this rabbit hole! The tools range from hand held blade tools to industrial level machines. I ended up getting a Scharf-Fix years ago, and recommend that if you want something other than a hand tool…
And for beveling edges of the leather, to give a little more polished look, I really like Palosanto (I’ve only gotten 2 so far)–but prior to getting those, I was (and still am) happy with the tools made in Japan I got from goodsjapan.com.
the only thing i will caution you about is spring bars are things you should not get overly cheap on. the cheap ones stick and/or break and your watch (apple or otherwise) will fall. (unless you have a nato strap on, which is the only truly safe way to avoid that). you don’t have to spend a ton, but just no cheap ones are notoriously unreliable.
Agreed, and funny enough, the spring bars that came with the adapters kept popping. Once I replaced them with those from the set above, I’ve had no issues at all. I wear the watch daily, woodworking, painting, sanding, etc.
