How I Made a Stitching Pony for Leather Working
Last week I made a stitching pony for leather working projects. In a few weeks I will be making a leather belt. Hence I need this stitching pony. This DIY project is made out of ash wood. It allows me to saddle stitch leather. Making it took me almost a full week in the evenings after work, but I learned some new skills in the process. For instance the wooden knob that I am really proud of. It is made entirely using the drill press.
Video transcript:
Hello again folks! Welcome to Tony Needs Hobbies. My name is Tony and in the nearby future I’m planning on doing some leather working projects. That’s why in this video I’m going to show you how I made this stitching pony.
I’ll be using this beautiful piece of ash wood. I start by drawing out the lines and then cutting the wood to size using the jigsaw because I don’t have a circular saw yet so I have to be extremely careful to cut the wood straight. Basically I’m following instructions from Bruce Ulrich. I’ll put the link in the description below. The idea for the shim also came from him. It allows you to open the stitching pony without unscrewing the knob too much.
I will try to make a knob on the drill press. It’s my first attempt ever. When I made the hole for this nut I used the Dremel tool. It didn’t really turn out great so for the knob I decided to go for chisels. As you can see this fits like a glove. I will mix up some five-minute epoxy and glue this thing together.
Here I’m using pieces of leather that came from a couch. They will protect the leather projects that I’m going to make in this stitching pony. I use contact cement to glue it together. You don’t see me putting it on the wood but I can assure you that I also put the contact cement on the wood. All the parts are finished now so it’s time to assemble this stitching pony.
Ash wood looks really nice once it’s coated. You will see the grain of the wood very nicely but you want to prevent it from turning pee yellow so you don’t want to use an oil-based varnish. That’s why I selected this water-based varnish. it’s a water-based polyurethane varnish and it will protect the wood and give it a very nice look.
This project took more time than I anticipated. I have a full-time job so I do all this stuff in evenings and weekends, but I’m quite happy with the results. I’m especially proud of this knob. It’s the first attempt and it just looks awesome and functions quite well. I will be using this stitching pony in an upcoming video about making a leather belt for myself. I hope you have some time to watch that video as well and I really appreciate that you watched this video.
I’d like to end this video by thanking you. I hope I see you in the future. Bye bye!
