Matt S

No offence taken or meant Sam -- I meant news networks being the BSers not you! I wouldn't survive a day without caffeine myself...

Every tannery's blend of herbs and spices is a closely guarded secret, but generally the traditional English bridle dressing is dubbin. Dubbin is an organic oil (neetsfoot, cod liver, vegetable etc.), (bees)wax and fat/tallow. Exactly which oil, which wax and which fat, and in what proportions, is their private recipe. However if anything I would say that the wax would only help in the preservation of a gun. If in doubt you could always line your holsters. If you're wanting to wet the leather for forming, use lukewarm water and "work" the leather underwater until it stops bubbling. Bridle is usually mouldable, though not to the same extent that is russet tooling leather.

I don't watch CNN. I've shovelled too much animal faeces in my life to enjoy people BSing me. Considered switching to decaff?

What's threatened about the leather industry? What's leather got to do with the ozone layer?

Congrats on the score -- I think that's the ideal solution. If you would like to get your Tandy coasters all the same thickness,, I have a band-knife splitter which is very consistent and accurate. We could deal by post.

I doubt I'll see a significant decline in the availability of bovine hides at the high end of the market within my lifetime, regardless of the environment. Beeves may fart but people like steak and milk too much -- and there's a lot of different ways to raise cattle than simply "shove it full of soy as fast as you can". Then we've got deer, pigs, buffalo, sheep, goats and other larger animals, none of which are in short supply either in the wild or in agriculture, before we start being limited to things the size of salmon. Nothing wrong with fish leather, but plenty wrong with that article.

Where did you get your Techsew from? The wheel should turn over smoothly if not connected to a motor. If it came fitted on a table with a motor the motor might have a brake, which disengages when you press the pedal a little.

The current G Barnsley & Sons is, AIUI, being run by George's grandson, who until recently was producing a limited range of tools under his main business' name, Woodware Repetitions, which specialises in machining wooden components such as tool handles. Knives branded for Woodware have been sold for years through British dealers like JT Bachelor and Abbey England. However as of last year, I think, they are now doing the full range of traditional tools. All new production -- they show in-progress photos of what they're producing each week on social media. I have had no problems viewing their website. Maybe you need to clear your internet cache?

George Barnsley. Solid, no-nonsense old-fashioned knives made in Sheffield, England (a world leader in the cutlery and tool trade for centuries). Quarter-round ("head" in England) knife for about £15 and a half-round knife for £30. I've been using one of their head knives every day for several years now. It just works. https://www.georgebarnsleyandsons.co.uk/saddlery-knives They've recently revived their wider range of leather-working tools (pricking irons, edge shaves etc.) but I've not tried any yet. Osborne tools are very good. Ivan aren't nearly so good quality. Blanchard I've only used vintage tools, which were good quality but I can't say about the current production ones.

Can you sew everything you want to sew on a flat-bed, or at least the majority of what you want to do and hand sew the other bits? If not, you would probably be better off with a cylinder-arm machine. Apart from reduced availability and increased price, the disadvantage of a cylinder-arm machine is that larger panels are trickier to do than on a flat-bed. Ideally you'd have a matched pair of machines, one in each format. Realistically, for a situation where budget and space don't allow this, a cylinder-arm machine with a flat-bed attachment is a good compromise. In direct answer to your question: assuming they're in good working order all of them could work, subject to the thread size compromises mentioned earlier and the restrictions of a flat-bed machine. Yes a servo motor is a massive benefit.

You'll struggle putting 4"straps through any pull skiver/splitter, have issues maintaing a consistent pull angle (ergo consistent thickness), and likely encounter stretching issues. A crank splitter, correctly setup for what you want to do, will probably work well. A band knife splitter is the ideal tool.

@jrprottas bear in mind that those "portable" setups are still quite heavy. The head alone on a 3200 must be over 100lb.

That's news to me. I've bought plenty of different cuts from them in the past -- if true I wonder how they sell their nappas and calf leathers cos a shoulder of each of those would be quite tiddly. If you want to buy online, in no particular order you can take a look at Le Prevo, AA Crack, Metropolitan, Marcus Gear, Pittards, SC Hall, J Woods, Abbey England.

Not so much these days but I used be down there at least once a week. Good people. Barnesley make good tools, I use them daily.

Yeah scrap buildup around and inside the knife is a bugger. I don't know if it's just cos of the heavy cuts I take or if it's cos I run the knife at top speed but mine seems to clear itself pretty well most of the time. Brian/Rocky Aussie showed how

Quick trial of the PU-based stuff is successful. Whiffs a bit but that dissipates within a few hours. Initial tack is a bit lower than ideal but I can live with it. In thin quantities it cures pretty fast. Just hope it doesn't cure in the nozzle -- I only need to use a few ml at a time so a tube's going to last some time! Now I have to finish the current order that's on the bench before I do a proper dress rehearsal. How boring.

Sadly no. In my experience and opinion these "bench splitters" are strictly lap-skivers which can, with care, be pressed into use to split longer pieces, so long as your leather is relatively thick and stiff. There's a solid pillar both sides of the blade, so you can't really do edge skives with one. Like I said before, your cheapest options are to either get a knife and practice or to find somebody to put your leather through their machine for you. Similarly you can shave down leather with a spokeshave, which is how it used to be done before splitting machines were common, but that is a skill in and of itself. If you weren't on the wrong side of the capital I'd say drop round for a cuppa when you're nearby and I'd do it for you. As with all things there are various qualities and prices. Le Prevo do a cheapie very similar to the Tandy for about £150. Never tried it and doubt I will, always looked a bit tinny to me. I managed to import a Cowboy 800 direct from China a few years back, for a similar price. Got fed up with the blade so after years of searching I was able to import one out of the US which takes Stanley blades (no sharpening!) and is the size of two coke cans side by side. That was about £100 but had to pay some import fees. Old Dixons go for a few hundred, nice machines and they hold their value. Osbornes are available new still (see Nigel Armitage's reviews) but they're a lot more beer tokens. There are ways to modify belt grinders to do the job, which apparently is very good on hornback, but TBH I think that's more trouble than it's worth for occasional use on standard cow leathers. As for edge skiving I know of very little that fits in the gap between "knife" and "bell skiving machine" except for the ones that take razor blades. The machines they were copied from were intended for bookbinding (very fine leathers) so take that as you will. Like I said, I could never get mine consistent but that's not exactly a statistically significant sample.

Those brands are popular because they give you Juki 441-like machines at a fraction the price of a real one. I'm sure they're good (we don't get many this side of the pond) and many businesses seem happy to give them house room. Not an exhaustive list, but the 1/2"+ of thickness would really limit your choices. Juki 441, Adler 969 and Seiko CH-8 would be suitable. Expect to pay somewhere between $6-10K depending on options.

Not being funny, but the only one I know of is a knife or a skirt shave. I spent months looking for something that will do that job and not be a full-size bell-skiving machine. That's why I bought the one that takes razor blades. Much frustration, blood and wasted leather later I bought a bell-skiving machine. For me, it's fantastic but I appreciate that not everyone wants or can justify one. Perhaps you can find somebody nearby who will skive some bits for you. I could be wrong but think Toxo is looking for something to skive edges for turning, rather than split/skive the entire width of a belt.

Thanks Mike. Just ordered a tube of PU-based car trim adhesive to try out. It'll take me a long time to get through 500ml! If that doesn't work I'll try some silicone RTV.

Not an uncommon issue but a frustrating one. I'm trying to glue waxy leather to metal (stainless steel I think). The shape of the pieces prevents me from using contact cements, and epoxy is inconvenient. Ideally the glue should be able to be squirted or sprayed through a narrow gap. Ideally it will have a high initial tack and go off quickly, leaving little or no fumes soon after curing. I've tried the usual range of glues a workshop has, and so far the most suitable has been the hot-snot gun. However this still peels away from the metal, no matter how I degrease and key the surface. Is there a specific type of stick I should be using, or quality I should look for, to improve performance?

Welcome, M. Essentially there is no such machine as you're seeking. Vintage domestic machines are often prettier and cheaper than their modern equivalents but are more difficult to use for most practical purposes. I have yet to be shown a domestic machine that is suitable for any more than occasional use on light leather. The weight and bulk of industrial machines is simply a matter of the engineering needed to withstand the forces involved. Industrial tables can often be cut down, but even just the machine heads are too heavy for easy portability. Most suitable would be something along the lines of a Singer 17 or Seiko TE -- fairly lightweight head (a little heavier than a 201) with good capabilities and readily available needles and bobbins -- IF you can find one of the sub-variants with compound feed. Whereabouts are you in the UK? There may well be a member nearby who can show you what they use, or a good dealer that you can visit nearby.

If you're referring to the incident a decade ago when an individual officer from Kent Constab made a foolish arrest under stress, which was reversed before the photographer was taken to a police station, I think you're either tilting at windmills or should stop believing the headlines. Interpretation of the law in England ultimately sits with the courts, and for practical purposes with the local plod and CPS. Not by two barrack-room lawyers on an internet forum ;-)

I did not get along with the one I used to have, which was similar but a bit more adjustable.

Making it obvious that a person's conduct is being recorded (or implying that it is, even when not) is often believed to improve their conduct. Further, as I said previously, use of a recording for commercial purposes is a different kettle of fish. Filming someone's kids without an obvious reason why will cause police intervention/investigation because there is a prima face case of filming with criminal intent. Under UK law there is no and never has been any presumption of privacy in a public place (which can and does include business premises and other private property). This is very well established. Similarly, covert/concealed (as opposed to overt) CCTV cameras, private or public, are perfectly legal to operate anywhere, except where privacy is reasonably expected, such as a changing room or toilet. I don't agree with your interpretation of the law at all, especially the automatic supremacy of EU law over Westminster statute, but you are free to do so and I think that we are drifting rather far from the topic of this thread. I live and work under the interpretation of the law that the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service use -- as do the many people I know who operate recording devices within the UK for hobby and business purposes.