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@Handstitched how about wrist bracers with the leftovers, or this; Thats a 'leather' type covering held on by elastic or something. The 'spikes' or 'teeth' are curved to meet our police regulations, but I reckon you could do something similar with the pointy spikes. Also, if you use an old non-reusable helmet you could just drill though it to fit the spikes

Yesterday I finished my first order: a client of my partner asked if I could make her a leather case for putting her reading glasses in. They're some special kind of foldable ones, so I took the pattern from the case we made at school and adjusted it to fit her glasses. I gave her a choice of colours from what I have lying around: black, green or brown outside, combined with a black, blue, red or brown inside. I had no idea what to ask for it so a gave a price fork of between 10 and 20 euros. This is how it turned out and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I hope she'll be too. Afterwards I did some calculations for material costs: the surrounding rectangle of the pattern came down to 400cm² (rounded up), so that made for 3.55 euros of leather, salpa and suede. Added to that some guestimates of 20 ml of glue, a metre of thread, 5 ml edge paint and two small neodymium magnets I had lying around, I reached a material cost of around 5.5 euros, so I asked for 15. What would you guys have charged for something like this?

Hi GPD, how much does it weigh? Can the machine be removed from the table? What are the measurements for the whole thing? What thread will it take and what thickness will it sew (when it’s working) do you know? Can I come and take a look at it?

Thanks everyone for all the help so far and getting me in the right direction!!

Yes luckily I already had pretty good grip strength. Luckily tacking them together with rivets made it easier especially with relining the holes.

I was able to get ahold of a Singer 111w155 and a 31-15 both for $200 and they both work great!! Now I’m trying to slow the clutch motor down for the 111w155 and find proper needles and thread and lube for it!! Super excited.

@bvdv @kgg I don't make anything from them yet, but I am planning to start this winter. I have some locals who have seen the leathers and have asked if I can make wallets and rifle slings. Here is a wallet a guy I know made with some of the leather, wallets about 4 years old here:

@Sheilajeanne and @fredk When I put them on my stall, there's a 'not for sale strictly for display ' sign attached as they bring people into my stall, peeps take a lot of pics of them. I' ll try to up load another pic ,but the spikes along the back of the boots are around 3" long x just under an inch in thickness. The rest are around 1" to 2 " in length , some around 3/4 " . The hardest part was fitting the spikes on the toes, as getting my hands , being a bit arthritic , into a small space. I quite like them . I do have some spikes left over, I'm sure I can find a creative use for them try googling ' goth boots with spikes' , and omg, some designs are so wild and whacky. One design had a knife blade as the heel of the boot. So i came up with a design of my own. Love to do more HS

The banding steel isn't hardened but it had no problem punching into the white plastic board in the press so yes, I think the saw would work ok. I looked up those rolling thingies, unfortunately they're not cheap anymore.

I've got one of those sharpened hole saws somewhere. Don't think I've ever used it. That mini rolling mill makes it so easy to do circles. I would have thought that even the soft part of the hole saw would do the job if the edge wasn't so fine to make it fold over i.e a blunter edge. Even mild steel is much harder than leather.

I put the stitch length adjuster as you told me, so now it touches the top of the raised foot. I tried with the same two layers of leather and it still won't work. Then I tried with a piece of knit fabric way much lighter in weight and thickness and the machine transported the fabric very well. Then I tried with a piece of felt, the machine stitched me one stitch transporting the fabric but then it strarted sewing on the same spot as before and only if I applied a bit of pressure pushing the fabric the foot would take it back. I don't know if it just a problem of adjusting the pressure to the material at this point. I would really like to avoid taking apart the head of the machine as I am afraid I won't be able to put it back together. Thank you for the patience

There is one on eBay that's been there for a while. It's $200.00 but he temporarily lowered the price to $150.00. I offered $125.00 and got no response. But I think he'd take $150.00. Out of curiosity, what stamps do you have to trade? Dale

While on the subject here is another restoration . Its an Esto 3 in 1 . Similar to a Landis . When i got it it was seized from being outside for 20 years. I replace it with a new blade and had to make a crank handle for it . As a matter of interest to fellow Esto 3 in 1 owners . The rotary blade i replaced is a new Landis blade . Therefore an Esto round knife / blade and the Landis are interchangeable. I got my blade in Australia from Leffler and sons in Melbourne . The color choice this time was inspired by a Subaroo that drove by . Estos were originally and ugly green but i think i chose one a little more appealing to my eye . The green color of the 3 in 1 and the orange one in the previous post are both auto paints in a candy pearl . The auto paint shop down the road will mix any color i want and will put it in an aerosol can for so i don't have to clean a spray gun between coats . Both machines work perfectly and are in every day use . I believe the orange one is over 100 years old and the green one from the 1950's

I forgot about this thread , Here the story. I bought the esto skiver in a previous post from RoToMiMo. I stripped it down to bare bones and went the whole hog. Below is a photo of the finished job. I went full Liberace on the paint job inspired by a Ford ranger that drove by when i was thing about color. I know its a bit out there but why not .

I wouldn't say the inside is downright ugly, not at all. It's the inside of a hat, not supposed to be nice. Now the outside? That's b-e-a-utiful! Been making a hat in my mind, never built one with my hands yet. I hope it turns out half as nice as this. Nicely done!

same as for singer 111w https://www.ebay.de/itm/142635485129 College Sewing or Trojan Sewing in the UK should have them as well EDIT: https://www.college-sewing.co.uk/parts-by-type/single-needle-walking-foot-feet/singer-walking-foot-feet/singer-111w-walking-foot-feet.html?p=3

Might depend on the type of saw? I was thinking of the real cheap Chinese ones which are likely made out of plain carbon steel which hopefully would mean it can be re-hardened if necessary.

I did that for a 4" hole saw. When you get down to the base of the teeth and sharpen it, you are into soft material. The edge rolls over if you don't come down perfectly square, then have to take more material off and sharpen it again. I guess I should try heating and quenching it to harden the edge. Lots to heat to an even temperature before quenching.

It works well. I will remove a number of post that distract from the intent of your post.

This topic has inspired me to try stitching with larger cotton thread. I often use number 10 cotton yarn for practicing and prototyping, because I like the puffy look and it's available in bright colors. The next size up is "number 3", so I acquired a spool. Here is some number 3 cotton yarn ("natural" color) through the needle. The thread has a lineal weight of 360 mg/m, so it would be TEX 360 if you applied that scale. I used number 10 cotton yarn (black) in the bobbin, which weighs 170mg/m This is on a singer 144W103 with size 180 needle. Here is the number 3 yarn I bought: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRLDP8CB

Here's the link everyone : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uK_Quj90vuxowtVofD77-GUKnayPjoZyc0AX046l9Uk/edit?usp=sharing If there's any problem, please tell me I'll try to get it fixed ! @JHLeatherwood I posted on r/LeatherClassifieds and on r/Leathercraft.

Very interesting. What products have you made with the skins? kgg

Funny you should mention that toxo 'cos it's been hovering there in the back of my mind. No hurry though, I'm just happy that I can make useable dies. I've been thinking about a round die for cutting out coasters and I reckon a cheap holesaw should do, grind off the teeth and sharpen the edge. That stainless tubing looks like interesting stuff.

A few generations before my time (before 1830 that is) my Naegle ancestors were wine makers. They emigrated to the US from Alberweiler Bavaria, which to my understanding is an area that's bounced around from German rule to Swiss rule and back for centuries. As far back as I've been able to go (1500's?) the Naegle's were there and made wine like the rest of the village and their fathers before them. The old village is still there and they're still making wine. I Google translated the village website a while back, and I think I remember finding a page that listed the families/vineyards in the area and there was at least one with a similar spelling of Naegle that might be a distant cousin, so one day I want to go back and look them up. Now after 1830, not long after arriving in the states my great great grandfather John ran away from home and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons!) who teach abstinence from alcohol. At that time, they still used wine for the sacrament and grandpa John made wine for that purpose and he sold some too, but the church eventually moved on to just using water for the sacrament and John moved on to other endeavors like growing vegetables, livestock, etc. My family is still part of the LDS church and I don't have any desire to drink wine, but I like learning about the process and feel a bit of kinship to it. A couple years ago I started some vines in my back yard and have gotten into making grape jams every year. I've thought about canning grape juice too, but I still need to learn how to keep it from fermenting but still getting it to store well. Maybe next year... Around here in south Texas the Muscadine varieties do really well. They have a tougher skin so while they're not a good table grape, but they can process down into other things just fine and to my unrefined pallet they taste a bit like a concord. I've also got a couple or hybrid vines going that haven't put out much yet, but should put out red table grapes eventually.

My understanding is the class 45 will take needles having a diameter of 2.5 to 3 mm not 2.5 to 3mm thread, reference ( https://maxandshed.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/une-singer-45k-par-mscr/ ). That makes sense as the class 441 machines take a 7x3 needles having a diameter of about 2.5mm. The max size of thread for those machines is usually around V415 thread which has a diameter of just a touch over .7 mm. A reference chart for the size of thread ( https://www.tolindsewmach.com/thread-chart.html ). I know of no sewing machine capable of sewing a thread with a diameter of 2.5mm. kgg