Ferg

That little arbor press at Harbor Freight was made for this job. It will make a perfect impression every time with little or no effort on your part. ferg

Here is agent in USA: MILFORD ENTERPRISES INC Dix Hills (New York) Tel 1631 3920742 Fax 1631 8249354 email: michellea@milfordenterprises.com The company site has an English translation for at least a portion of the site. Some real nice "stuff". ferg

I don't think the image you selected is bad, it is your rendering of it. With this type of image I think you should ease up on your tooling and modeling, it is distracting from what you are trying to do. If you want to "catch" the image as in the pic, you need to use Neatlac, or similar, as a resist. Apply it with a good quality brush to all the areas you want to stay white. Allow your first coat to dry completely then brush on another coat. Don't apply so it is too heavy. Nice light coats are better. Make sure the resist is very dry. Now, apply your paste dye. Allow it to dry just a tad more than normal before wiping. When you get the desired effect seal with at least two coats of finish of your choice. I believe you will be surprised at how great it looks in comparison to what you done with the first try. ferg

First thing I have done? I have bought two sewing machines. My old hands and fingers just won't take the strain from hand stitching. I still love the look of a great hand stitching job. The time element involved with some stitching will slow your ability to make "time". Make patterns. ferg

I have a video of manufacturing prestigious women's purses. The man cutting the parts is cutting with a knife that is similar but different. I would like to have one. They go around their pattern, which appears to be heavy but flexible by the way, as though they are cutting warm butter. ferg

I have an issue of that book that is probably just about as old. I would have bought about 1956 or so. Mine is in better shape than yours. LOL ferg

You might consider making the cross look like wood. To background those large areas you need the largest tool you can find of a "Subtle" texture. Don't get carried away with the depth of the texture. ferg

Art, Are these machines, like "dirtclod's" , configured so you can use feed dogs with them? ferg

I have a 206RB-5. You aren't going to sew i/2" with these machines. Three eighths is max. ferg

Ray, You might want to check Harbor Freight for their press with the hydraulic jack. It would give you more surface and pressure. May also help with the impairments you have. ferg

Probably could if you only wanted Concho size pieces. There isn't enough surface for a good clicker. Weaver has a hand operated clicker, very expensive I think, may work fine. ferg

You need a drill press and a good material clamp so you can hold onto the Ram. I made the hole just deep enough so the stamps and snap hardware would be about 1/3 the length of the tool handle. Remember, you also need a threaded hole and a thumb screw to hold the tool in place. I used mine for snaps. It is easy to clamp the snap button too tight. Takes a little practice, beats that mallet. ferg

I am going to show my stupidity here but I do not know what you use this blade for. Can I assume that it is used to cut straps more accurately than a draw knife? Fill me in please. LOL ferg

I hope you can get your stamps made but from what I know you aren't going to get them made for a couple dollars per stamp. think about that for a minute, you couldn't even buy the metal for that???? Your best bet would be a Chinese company, there are certainly some around. Good luck ferg

Wait until your leather has dried enough for carving, then apply the tape. If you follow the correct way of casing your leather, sponging a little on top will show you how bad an idea this is. You need to immerse the leather in tepid water until you see no bubbles rising from it. If you place the wetted piece between glass or plexiglass and leave it for more than 24 hours you can expect to see some mildew form. After wetting the leather, I wrap it in an old T-shirt or something of that nature so you don't transfer any texture. Leave it over night, remove from wrap, allow to dry correctly, carve. If you do your carving in the correct steps everything works great. If your piece is too large to finish in one session wrap it in Saran Wrap or place between two layers of glass to retain moisture. When you rewet leather to finish your tooling you will likely lose some of your depth of previously finished work. I may spritz a little water or use the sponge if the leather is getting too dry to work but only after it was initially cased. When using the glass burnisher you are making the fibers of the leather move closer, it stretches very little unless you are pressing too hard. Move the burnisher in one direction if possible. ferg

I cannot stretch the horse hide strip with my hands. If you were tugging on a horse or something of that sort it might be another story. I did not wet the leather, it may stretch some if it got wet. ferg

I assume you did not buy from Steve. Even so, call them, phone number on banner above. They will get you straightened out. ferg

Have never tried to make lace or braiding from it, the leather is very dense, not particularly hard but dense. ferg

Doug, Call Bob Kovar at Toledo Industrial. 1-866-362-7397. He has at least one of everything ever made for a sewing machine. BTW: Lowe's has a board attached to a post next to the Metric screws. It has "fittings" on it for your correct sizing etc. ferg

I seldom tell folks to go to You Tube but there are hundreds of tutorials there. Some are even pretty good but most are showing how to do a particular type of sewing. Will give you some ideas. ferg

Doug, Lowe's has a fairly good supply of metric screws/bolts. If you have a good Ace Hardware close to you they are more likely to have what you need. I think I remember that screw is a "4" and what we would call a fine thread. What the stores have will possibly be longer than you need, I just cut them to the length I need. A "Fastenall" store may them also. ferg

Too wet for stamping. ferg

I think you done a decent job on your dyeing. When you make another without a border, don't let the design get into the stitch line. Your carving on the flower side looks pretty good, I believe your leather may have been too wet when you done the basket weave. Also: don't let the BW stamp impinge on the stitch line. ferg

I used strips cut 3/4" , fastened them with 1/2" screws to my "Back" board. I held each tool on the board after placing the first/last screw, pulled the strap over the tool so it was held firm but not too tight to remove easily, marked strap for a screw, punched a hole in the leather and placed the screw. Works great. One thing I learned right away, don't place most used tools too high to reach when siting at the bench. Least used doesn't matter much. Also, longer tools like leather shears need to have more space between the rows of tools. I didn't tool any design on my straps but that does look nice. Length for straps just happened to be what I had available to cut them from. Don't get the most used too far left or right side of center of your stamping/work area as well. ferg

YES ferg