Northmount

It's looking pretty fair. Lines that are beveled can be softened some by running a spoon over the sharp edge to round it over some. You can do some small practice pieces where you just experiment with eyes, nose, etc. There is an Al Stohlman book called Figure Carving. It has lots of info for both human and animal figure carving. 132 pages. part of it is in colour and includes using dyes. Tom

3M and other companies now have water based versions of contact cement. Check your local hardware/builders supply. Not so strong solvent smell. Much easier on the sinuses and safer. There are also several thread about what type of glue to use and about contact cement here on LW net if you want to search for them. Tom

I have the Techsew 2700. Good machine, had it dropped at the curb, unpacked it and brought it, assembled and ready to go in a couple hours. Tom

The NF oil should be pure, not a compound containing other stuff. NF oil does darken leather. The purse has a finish on it that may not take oil very easily. It is probably a lacquer which really seals the leather. If the oil doesn't reach the leather evenly across the surface, it can be blotchy looking. It may even out over an extended period. Some people are using extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). They say it doesn't darken the leather as much. I have a contour belt that I made in 1969. It was finished with NeatLac. It sat in the drawer for most of the time since. It was getting dried out, so applied a little NF oil to the front and to the back. The back was raw, no sealer or conditioner. It turned to a dark brown. I'll attach a couple photos so you can see the difference. Before After Tom

Don't put too much NF oil on at once. Light applications and leave soak in. If you get too much on, the leather will get soggy. You will find lots of threads here about how to apply NF oil, and also how to eliminate the excess oil when people put on too much. Tom

Skiving the end of the lace will help, but you may still need to use pliers occasionally. Before you do much work on the purse, recondition the leather so it is a little more pliable. Else you may start getting cracking and even tearing out some holes. Don't pull outward putting strain the lacing holes, pulling through the edge. And when you get all the way around to make the final slice, pull out a few of the starting stitches so you get the slope of the lace consistent across the splice. The first few stitches are usually too vertical, so need to come out. You should do some practise lacing around a piece of leather say about 4x4". It will help you a lot with the purse. Good luck. Tom

You can pull out as much lacing as you wish. If you get into an area where it is holding 2 or more layers together, you can use small zip-ties every 10 or so holes so everything stays aligned. Tom

And you may have trouble matching the lace colour and quality. So yes, replace it all. Tom

When I was a kid, a long time ago, my dad ran a hog farm. We got a whole lot of flax straw for just picking it up and thought it would make good bedding in the hog pens. By the time spring came, and the hogs had been trampling the flax straw for some months, the pens were extremely hard to clean. If you tried picking up the mess with a manure fork, you were literally trying to pick up the whole pen. It was all matted together. Had to use an old silage cutting knife to break it up into pieces that could be thrown into the wheelbarrow. So all the trampling and bacterial action did little to weaken the flax straw, just helped to bind it together. And of course you know that linen comes from flax. So I have little concern that linen thread will deteriorate faster than synthetics. Anyhow, the story would make a good cartoon! Tom

A side cutters / diagonal cutters / wire cutters and a small ball-peen hammer are all that you really need for setting copper rivets. And of course an anvil of some sort under it. Anything beyond that is a nice to have. Just make sure you press the washer down tight and trim the post to fit. A tool for doming the peened end could be nice sometimes. Tom

Really nice job! Tom

Moved to leather sewing machines forum Tom

Calgary Tom

I can put you in contact with my son that does website design and maintenance. He says "I could set up a private phpBB installation if they want to set up a shared hosting account on BlueHost, GoDaddy, or somewhere similar." Send me a PM if you want more info and to make contact. Tom

We got it fixed, thanks Johanna. Welcome to the forum. Tell us a little about yourself. Tom

What should it be? Moderators can change it for you. Tom

These kits by Tandy and Springfield are pre-cut and may be punched for lacing or sewing, but haven't been tooled. The design of the tooling is up to you. Make your own design or use one of theirs.http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/4179-00.aspx even though this ad looks like it is already tooled, it isn't. They are showing a finished product. Tom

Inside radius and outside radius of the fold are different so something has to give. Usually you notice the bunching up wrinkles on the inside more than the outside. But your outside leather has stretched, so when you open it flat, it wrinkles. If you make your own wallets, there are techniques to minimize the problem. Tom

Here is a brochure from Grozny-Beckert. http://www.groz-beckert.com/home/getFileCh.php?chbid=60&lang=en&file=content&download=true shows various needle points and stitch appearance. Lots of info out there on the web and here on LW. Tom

Fixed it for you! Tom

I assume you mean oz. instead of lbs? Tom

Quoted: I actually checked that site out. To shop on OTB do you have to have a business ID number or anything? I heard that you dont, but I'm not sure how to order otherwise. End quote. I understand from other threads that OTB requires a fairly large order as your first order. Even if you show a business license. I have no experience with OTB. Tom

Please see market place rules Tom

What do you have for a heated stamp or carrier? Tom

Here are a few you can check out. Note that some US suppliers ship to Canada via USPS which is much lower cost than shipping UPS or FedEx due to their brokerage charges. http://www.buckskinleather.com/default.asp http://www.longviewleather.com/ http://tundraleather.ca/index.php?main_page=contact_us So where in the province are you? Tom