I Made a Camera Strap

leica m6 with leather camera strap
Leica M6 with Horween Leather Strap

I had a photo walk scheduled this past weekend with a couple local photographers but the weather had other plans. I was pretty bummed, but I’ve had the idea of making a camera strap for a while. A week prior I had already ordered a couple Horween CXL leather strips but I needed a few other things. So off to Tandy Leather we go! Went. We went, past tense.

Having a local Tandy is handy (heh.) I still needed some antique rivets and a rivet setter. Also fully planned on using round rings, but they had these nice triangular ones that fit the strip perfect. The strips I ordered were both 1/2" in width but I got one 4.5-5oz and one 7oz thickness. The difference is definitely noticeable.

We actually bought a lot of stuff from Tandy Leather months ago so I had a lot of the tools we needed already.

Lessons Learned:

  • No need to bevel the top of a nicely finished strip like this
  • No need to burnish the edges I was told (but isn’t a terrible idea)
  • Leather bumpers would be nice to silence the triangle rings

Going to try my hand at the 7oz strip next and see if I can do better.

This may work out as a nice little side project. There are so many combinations of things you can make. Shoulder pads, wrist straps, adjustable, with buckles of you’d like. This was my first venture into leathercrafting and I quite enjoyed it.