dirtclod

I made a flat plate for mine out of a piece of 1/4" steel. You can make a pattern out of poster board, took me maybe 10 / 15 minutes to make and half and hour to cut it with a hacksaw. I used the pointed foot that comes on them i guess it worked fine. I never have seen a flat table your talking about i don't think. My had a tray that fit on the pedestal part.

Nice work !! That will be a neat looking seat for sure and i bet it gets you some more business.

Get Weldwood cement in the red can. It works as well as Barge or the Tandy stuff, it's cheaper and you can get it at a hardware store. I used to use Barge all the time and it would do what your talking about in the last 2 or 3 years i never had the weldwood go to a blob. I put my glue in one of the small plastic coke bottles and drill a hole in the top and keep the sheepskin that i use to spread the glue with stuck to the top. If you use the plastic bottle and it's something different than the coke bottle just put a little in and see what happens all plastic bottles won't work. I had a couple melt down when i put glue in them.

Nice job ! Never in a million years would i ever though of using cork for a purse.

Diesel fuel works put it on with a brush.

I'd make the big part 1 inch wide and the smaller leags 1/2 inch and see what happens you can go bigger / wider or smaller and cut your pattern pieces out poster board to see if they fit then cut your leather. I have no ideal on the harding part but i think it has been talked about on here before.

Put a center line on what your going to make your pattern out of and measure off of that. Cans, plates, washers are good for making corners and curves. If your attaching a gusset or something like that be sure and add a seam allowence, tape your pattern togeather before you cut leather to make sure things fit.

Pictures of what your wanting to do ? Somebody might be able to help then.

Your pricking iron is made to mark your stitches and to show the angle you need to use for your awl, not to puch your holes to stitch with. Like Greystone said you will get faster.

Nice button ! The next thing ya know they will be stealing your locks !

Get some poster board and start drawing ! You can make your own pattern if you try and it will be your own design.

I'd get a 20 or 22 ounce maul. You can hit harder a lot more times with a light maul but it's hunting a bear with a switch no sense in it and you will work a lot harder for a decent impression stamping with a basket weave and such. I have a 14 / 16 ounce and a 20 / 22 ounce and for all round work the bigger one is the best IMHO.

Here's a link with all kinds of info on french seams. https://www.google.com/search?q=french+seam&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

Well good thing is you have plenty of time to save some money to buy treasures with next year ! Or time to make something to enter next year.

You have missed it for this year. It's held in May. Their are several places to find out when it is, type in Sheridan leather show.

I understand then why you did what you did now. But reading your post makes it sound like theirs something wrong with the stand.

You do know that you can move the sewing machine table and down don't you ? You can move your chair height up and down to. I have a stand really close to yours and i have sewed comfortabley with for 20 years by moving the stool height up and down or the machine height up and down.

Take a pencil and mark on the outside of the adjustment slot when you get a stitch lenght you like.

You don't have a ruler ?

All of my prices end in even amounts like 50.00 . Because if i'm selling some place on the road and most of my sales are on the road i don't want to carry a bunch of 1's or change.

Something that nobody has said anything about is the makers that use a rasp to rough up on a rawhide tree. I've seen some that were pretty cut up. Personally i never understood the roughing up on a fork. I know they say it makes the glue stick better. But on the other hand the fork cover really doesn't do anything as far streingth and if it's glued and nailed it's not going anywhere. Very few fork covers i ever took off come off easy even if they weren't roughed up. In other words roughing up a rawhide tree defeats the purpose of having the rawhide on it to start with because roughing it with a rasp will make it weaker because of the cuts in the rawhide and the lacing / stitching. IMO

I used Barge for years and switched to Weld Wood in the RED can and like it A LOT better. My shop isn't heated except when i'm working. In the last two or three years i used Weld Wood i haven't had it turn into a blob like Barge would and i buy it by the gallon. Never have needed to use any thinner on it either. I have the hardware store order the gallon for me and it's A LOT cheaper than Barge because i don't have to pay the 25 or 30.00 flamable charge that UPS rips you off on and it is a rip off youi can buy 4 quarts of glue or dye and not have to pay the extra charge but you buy one gallon of glue or dye and they stick you with the rip off charge.

I had a blade made at a machine shop one time and it works fine.

It looks real nice !! Have two questions though. Why did you punch such big holes in the strap and whats the rivet / chicago screw for in the cross draw ?

I seen a sewing machine guy take a screwdriver bit and hold in place with a pair of pliers then he took a small wrench that would fit the bit and loosen a couple of screws that he couldn't get loose with a screw driver. That might work for you to.