Northmount

Really great! CTG

I agree with you about lemon juice. There are others here that use it rather than track down oxalic acid, or that seem to be uncomfortable using something with acid in the name. Oxalic acid has always done a nice job for me. If you can't get it in a good paint supply store, then order it through a local pharmacy. Cost less than $20 for about a pound. CTG

It's possible. Maybe a few filings stuck to it past your stroping, or maybe even on your fingers. So yes, wipe down your knife carefully and wash your hands before handling the leather. I was just wondering if some hand creams would do this, but not likely as dots, more likely as finger prints. What about your water source for casing? If you have iron pipes in your area, it could be from some rusty water. Does your tap run muddy red first thing in the morning sometimes when the first flow of water stirs the sediment in the pipes up? I was in an old city (Belfort France) one day when they had done some work on the street water main. After the water was turned back on, it ran muddy red for a couple hours before it got flushed through. Didn't feel like showering in it! Some people will only used distiller water or demineralized water for casing due to there water possibly being contaminated with minerals. Lots of water wells in rural locations have high iron content. CTG

Try with cloth. There should also be examples on the web with segmented spheres or hemispheres, like peeling an orange. Or find a cheap baseball cap and cut it apart for the triangular orange peel shapes. CTG

Glue together before triming the edges and before punching holes for lacing or doing your stitching. Don't glue the liner at the bottom fold, the liner needs to be shorter than the back so it doesn't pucker up when folded. If I use a one piece liner, I cut the edge back to miss the lacing or stiching at the bottom fold. For a one piece liner, the wallet won't open out flat. A 3 piece liner that allows the center piece to float can lay flat and can fold without puckering. See the following threads for some help with wallets. http://leatherworker...let#entry265281 http://leatherworker...60881.  There http://leatherworker...=0 Good luck. Wallets shouldn't be hard to make if you take a look at how the liner and the back have to interact as the wallet is folded. CTG

The dots look like contamination with iron filings. The tannin (tannic acid) in the leather plus iron make these dots. Check out the vinegaroon process used to dye leather black. Need to keep all metal filings away from your leather working area. You can use lemon juice or oxalic acid to bleach the dots out. Some people use a q-tip or paint brush to treat just the spot. You can bleach the whole surface if necessary. Do a search for oxalic acid here and you will find lots of posts. Good luck with your big project. In about 1961 I got into leatherwork because my grandfather gave me an old saddle that needed a lot of repair. The saddle got left behind in one of our moves, so never ever got fixed and I haven't ventured into saddle making or repair. I envy you and compliment you on being brave enough to try on your own. CTG

Yup, when your hands and fingers get sore enough, you'll definitely accelerate your savings! CTG

There is a thickness table here. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.ca/en-cad/home/infoandservices/leatherguide/leatherguide.aspx CTG

Try this link. http://www.tools4leather.com/01_ma_series_III_clicker.htm I think they are expensive, but it is small and can sit on your bench. CTG

I'm finding updates real slow at the moment, whether it is increased site traffic this time of day or something else. I did get a couple SQL errors today, one when loading a picture from a thumbnail, the other when selecting a link from related similar topics. Both worked when retrying the link. CTG

Display is blue. Each post is on a relatively narrow strip. No message # like non-mobile. Thumbnails okay, and open okay. Minimal poster info, which is probably best for mobiles. No signature displayed. Thumbnails line up down the left side. I'm sure you know most of this since you must be picking what you think fits for the template. I viewing from an iPad in landscape mode. I think it is looking pretty good. Don't forget the color! CTG

Seems fine this morning. Keep up the great work. I and many others appreciate it. CTG

Very nice combination. Gives me some new ideas. CTG

I have used LePage PRES-TITE GREEN water based contact cement. Non-toxic, non-flammable, low odour. About $10 for a pint. It is a little slower drying than the nasty solvent based, and gives just a tiny bit of chance to reposition if you haven't gone too far, but not very much. CTG

You can have a makers mark put on a branding iron. Then you can brand grain or flesh side of any leather. You can also do pyrography on any leather. There are warnings about using chrome tanned. I'd use a good exhaust fan and a cross draft to keep the smoke away regardless of the type of leather. I have seen some really nice pyrography on leather. CTG

You can cover all the slats with thin leather, even make the blinds multi colour. If you get wild enough with the colours, she might never ask to have you fix anything ever again! You could go even further by laying out a pattern (sort of like patch work) for each side so the blind shows a different pattern inside and out when closed. It could even say "GO AWAY" when closed, or something even more startling. Could have a lot of fun with this project. CTG

For small articles, easy to go around with one length of lace. For larger perimeters, skive the ends of the lace and do a wet join (glue). For items like your belt, join the lace so you only have the beginning and ending to hide, or if going all the way around, just have the ends to hide on that final join. If the item is thick enough, you can slice into the leather from the edge, so you now have two layers and can bury the ends there. You can make a narrow slit in the back side to bring your needle out through, cut the lace, poke it down and glue the slit back together. For lighter stuff, you are stuck with hiding ends under the lace braid itself. Try to do it on the edge, under the braid rather than on the back. CTG

See https://www.acklandsgrainger.com/AGIPortalWeb/WebSource/Main/globalSearch.do?%7BglobalApp.quickSearchSearchType%7D=&%7BglobalApp.quickSearchCriteria%7D=Arch+punch Just bought a few. Good quality steel. Made in India. CTG

Princess Auto presses are made in China. No name brand. Take a look in Harbor Freight. Also do a search here for presses. There are a few threads I recall, including a link to a PDF about using hydraulic presses for clicking. I bought the Princess Auto 20 ton press a few months ago. It was on sale for the same price as a 10 ton so i couldn't resist it. Now need to get some dies made. My son has been using it doing mechanical repairs since I put it in his shop. Ran out of space here! CTG

Your and your cohorts' work and time are greatly appreciated. Testing and making everything work with tablets and mobile devices is a lot of work too! Would be nice if all browsers actually followed the standards. My iPad is behaving quite nicely with your new templates. CTG

Nice job. You have certainly been bitten by the leather bug. Keep it up! CTG

If you are using MS Outlook for email, email it to yourself and let Outlook resize it for you. Else look through the computer help section and find help there. One program you can use is IrfanView http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm. Resize to max 800 pixels wide. CTG

I think a $5 or $10 minimum charge is quite reasonable. $2 or $3 hardly makes it worthwhile to do the bookkeeping, look after sales tax, file income tax and all those pesky time consuming things that goes with being in business. People these days think nothing of dropping $10 on things of absolutely no lasting value. The work and repairs we do have much longer term value than a bag of popcorn or a soft drink at the movies. If you aren't going to charge for reasonable value, then skip the charge and just do it for free. No bookkeeping, no taxes ... Put a tip jar on the counter, just like a box for pennies that people don't want and leave for someone else to make up those few cents difference to round out a nickel or dime. If you don't want the tips, give it to a charity end of each week. Let them do the accounting. Over 20 years ago in a computer business, we decided that the only way to price the small bits and pieces was to start at $5. It didn't make sense to mark up 30% on a $1.39 item when you look at all the time and costs that go into ordering, picking up, stocking, etc. It sure made pricing a lot more simple and no one ever complained. Only high volume sales can make money on $1 items. And we are not high volume sellers. Think about it. Remember our work has lasting value. Keep that in your mind when working and pricing your time, labor, talents, skills, etc. CTG

Yes they do. There is some good wallet info in this post: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=41902&hl=+wallet%20+pattern#entry260881. There is also a reference to a pattern near the end of that thread. If you copy an old wallet, pick a simple one. Some have too many pieces and would be quite bulky when made of leather. There is a tutorial here: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=38359&hl=wallet Enjoy. CTG

Looks like gallery pictures are working now. Last I tried looking at comments this morning, on the right column beside the gallery, it was still having a problem. I know some of the headaches they are going through with this upgrade. They will have them solved before long. In the meantime, hang in there. Computers and related systems have sure changed since the 60s when I first started working with them. Then I had a long break for 15 to 20 years, then back as a user, then 10 years later, had to set up windows ntserver 3.51 for my distributed control systems lab in a tech school. My 13 year old son did most of it. He was one of the first in Calgary to successfully install nt3.5. Took him many tries, but finally located all the drivers to make it work. After he set up the server for my lab, then I just had to maintain it, lucky for me! Then had about 10 years in a computer sales and service business, then back to just a user. Still do a touch of programming, but glad I don't have to keep up to date with all the software changes.