Northmount

Light coat of neatsfoot oil should not bother you. Some finishes will do strange things. The hotter the iron, the shorter the time required to burn the brand. I'd go with a cooler iron and hold it longer. Also, make a templet out of pressed hardboard or similar to use as a guide, so you can position the brand carefully. Hold or clamp it down. Then you can lift your iron off, see if it needs more time, or if one side is too light. Then place your iron back in the guide to adjust time, pressure, or correct for being less than square while holding it. Cooler iron will not tend to shrivel up thin leather as easily too. Tom

What are you using for a mallet? If it is a steel hammer, it's knocking little flakes of metal off your stamps. Make sure to use a mallet made of the right materials to avoid damaging your tools. Any filing, sharpening, sanding, wire brushing or similar activities involving iron based material could spread fine bits of iron over various surfaces. Need to keep the leather, tools, and work surfaces clean. Keep anything rusty away. Another source is iron in your water. Try distilled or deionized or reverse osmosis treated water. Do you have rust stains in your sink where your water drips? Another is contaminants in the leather that reacted when dampened, but not likely as it should have shown up in the tanning and finishing processes. Phosphoric acid is fairly strong, so could do more than you wish. Should be rinsed off and neutralized. Tom

Oil is a conditioner, not a finish. Too much makes the leather soggy, and it bleeds on what ever rests against it. Tom

Leave some folded paper towel under the presser foot to pickup excess oil, then wipe the feet and stuff above when you are ready to start sewing next time. Tom

Mildew overnight is rather unusual. Chances are some specs of iron got onto the surface and reacted with the tannin in the leather to produce the black spots. As Sylvia says, use oxalic acid to bleach it out. About a teaspoon per pint of water is usually strong enough. In a pinch, use lemon juice. Iron and tannin is the process for using vinegaroon to dye vegtan leather black. You will find it interesting to look up and read about it. Lots of threads here on how to make and how to use. Tom

Welcome to your new addiction. Let the cb sit for a couple days for the oil to be evenly absorbed. Always go light on the oil as too much makes it soggy! What town are you in? Tom

Holding a hot branding iron on too long will burn right through the leather. The thinner the leather ... Easier to burn through. Also leather shrivels up and shrinks. Just touch the iron and remove. If not dark enough, reapply for another touch. They should do some practice on some cut offs from the same piece first. To be able to reapply in the same position takes some practice. May be worthwhile to make a template guide clamped in position. 1/4" tempered hardboard is easy to cut and work with, and won't catch fire easily. At least for the short time the hot iron needs to be against it. Tom

The smaller piece is sewn or laced to one of the flaps on the cover, leaving a pocket to slip the memo/journal notebook front or back cover into the pocket. Tom

Most covers have a slot where you slide the notepad back cover into it. Picture or diagram would help for those of us that don't have that kit. Tom

Cowboy 227 and Techsew 2700/2800 are the same basic machine. I have a 2700. Works well for me. If you ever sew 8 oz, single layer hard temper or 2 layers, get the pulley reduction kit. Tom

Have you looked at Al Stohlman's encyclopedia? https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/p-1128-the-stohlman-encyclopedia-of-saddle-making-volume-1-by-al-and-ann-stohlman.aspx Three volumes. Also there are sites selling DVDs. Tom

Do a search here. I recall seeing a post about sharpening bell skivers. After the initial sharpening, there is a stick used to take the burr off. The post was probably within the past 3 months. Tom

Welcome to the forum. Let's see some photos, especially when you do horse carvings. Tom

I think the <return> key not working is a problem with MS IE. Try holding down the <alt> key and typing "010" on the keypad. This is the code for a line feed (LF). "013" is the code for a carriage return (CR). You can try it too and see if one or the other works. This only works on PCs, not Apple products. Tom

Brown paper bag works well for burnishing the thread too. Tom

Look pretty nice. Tom

By sized I'm supposing you mean cased. The leather should be properly cased before tracing your pattern, and thus still properly cased for all your swivel knife work and stamping. Tom

Pretty fair job for doing new stuff. Two things stand out. Bevelling is choppy. Either was still too wet, or need more practice to get it smoothed out. Can run over it with a modelling spoon to smooth it out. Second item is the raw edges of the leather needs to be burnished. See http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101 for a tutorial. Keep working at it. Practice makes perfect. And, welcome to the forum! Tom

As the leather heats up, it gets hard, warps, and chars. As plastic heats up, it wrinkles and burns, not just char. In both cases, sample held in open air. If held against a table top, tests won't be as effective. Tom

A certain BB phone in a tight case will lock up. Have to remove the battery to reset it. So, yes, be careful about how tight it is and whether the buttons are being held in. Tom

Really depends on what you want to be visible. Some cases you may like the matte, in others you may want to see the shiny side. If you are gluing the shiny side to something, then rough it up well so the glue will adhere to the surface. Tom

I'd heat it and buff the heck out of it to both work it into the leather and remove the excess from the surface. By the way, products that have been finished with a lacquer don't absorb oils and greases well. Same applies to woods finished with a lacquer. Oils sit on top and get sticky instead of being absorbed. Tom

Clutch motors have been around for many years, very reliable. The inertia of the rotating mass helps punch through heavy or harder material. Just hard for us to get used to feathering the clutch and maintains control at low speeds. If you have a 3" pulley on your motor now, a 2" will reduce the top speed to 2/3 of what it is now, still quite fast, at least for me, but at least a little more manageable. Low cost servos are relatively new. Some cheap ones have had problems. Old clutch motor ... throw it away unless you know someone that needs one or can find another use for it. Tom

Canadian source: Princess Auto has a 12 piece drive punch set for $16.00. Sizes from 1/8 to 3/4". Made in China. Knurled handle. Need sharpening, but what do you expect for the price? 3/4" on 8 oz leather, took around 20 hits with a 1# dead blow hammer versus 3 hits with a sharp arch punch. So for the beginner or for occasional use, I think it's a good deal. http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Sets/12-pc-Hollow-Punch-Set/2920169.p Tom

Put a small 2 to 2.5" pulley on the motor whether you use the original clutch motor or a servo motor. If you want to run even slower with the clutch motor, then you put a pulley speed reducer set between the clutch motor and the machine pulley. For the light weight sewing you are doing, a servo with a 2.5" pulley should be fine. No additional speed reducer pulley needed. Rheostats or varac transformers can be used. There is a risk of overheating the motor. The motor has a cooling fan. If it is running too slow, it will not provide the required cooling. Running an induction motor (the kind on your clutch motor) slow also causes more internal heating in the motor. Don't expect the motor to be able to run at half speed. That is probably too slow to provide the cooling it requires. I have a digital servo on a Singer U20-33 (It is a high speed commercial sewing machine used for draperies and dress making originally, came with a clutch motor) that I use for wallet interiors and such. This is like my servo http://shop.raphaelsewing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=293 This is a pulley speed reducer http://shop.raphaelsewing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=354 You can build your own speed reducer if you are handy with tools and have a source for the hardware. See http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=45336&hl=pulley#entry284770 post #11. You are probably further ahead time wise to buy the set already built. Tom