Northmount

Tree Reaper's router idea is probably the best and easiest to do. Once you have your burnisher mounted on your shoe finishing bench, you can true up any eccentricity and cut your grooves. No lathe needed. Make sure you use a good quality glue so it doesn't blow apart when it is spinning. CTG

Really nice! Keep it up. CTG

If you have a spade bit the right size (or forstner bit better yet) and extensions to fit, a center steady rest and of course a lathe with long enough bed, you can drill from both ends and meet in the middle. If you drill only from one end, chances are the hole will wander to one side and not come through the middle on the other end. I have used this technique to drill through stock for pepper mills. Drilling from both ends reduces the length of drill bit required, and you can add the extension after the bit reaches its maximum depth. As ususal, when you switch ends, take your time to make sure the stock is centered in the chuck. If you need a center rest, you can build one with a piece of plywood and wheels from inline skates. My center rest was commercially made, but the rollers are too small and have no tire, so tend to mark up the wood. One of these days, I'll make one using roller supports I salvaged from a clothes dryer (they support the drum). They have nice tires instead of a hard surface. CTG

Try oxalic acid to bleach the dye. Make a test 'project' first to simulate the accident. Same leather, same everything. If it is contact cement, there was a post during the past month. Pour some cement into a plastic cup or such, just a little. Let it dry for a few hours, peal it off and wad into a ball of gum. Use it to dab against the cement to pull it off. Kneed the gum ball to get new sticky surface, and keep dabbing away. I got some off that way, and also used a strip of packing tape to lift some off. If it is white glue (general purpose stuff), you may be able to peal it off carefully. If you catch it while still wet, wood workers use a wet toothbrush to scrub it and wipe it dry. But with leather, that is going to leave a stain or color change. You might be able to bleach it out. Or work the whole piece so it has the same stain over all the surface. With both of these problems, you may have to lightly dye the whole surface to hide the remaining stains. If you have abraded the leather under the cement slightly, you may be able to hide it with a coat of acrylic or lacquer based finish. Test it first on another piece of the same leather, same simulated conditions. CTG

You like my soaking wet bluejay. I was really surprised to see how wet they get in the birdbath on a hot day! 2 cm of snow overnight, about 0 C here right now, so not as bad as your snow. We have hardly had any snow this winter in comparison to normal. Most will melt off today or tomorrow. Your snowflake is interesting, just not my style, but so what. Lots of different interests and viewpoints out there. I'm stuck in the middle of trying to figure out why a piece of software I'm building won't load a resource, so it's gong to be a while before I get back to leather and wood. Have a great day everybody! CTG

Awesome! I need to try it out too. CTG

Great and beautiful work. CTG

There are 2 that I think of, time hh:mm:ss, also related, angular measure ddd:mm:ss. Unless you consider grads, 100 grads is a right angle, but it falls apart with a full circle being 400 grads.

I thought you would rise to the bait! I'm very familiar with SI (metric). Canada went metric many years ago. I taught using it in various branches of engineering for 19 years. I have used it in the engineering firm I work with for 13 years. Often flipping back and forth between SI and English units as demanded by old and new facilities. I think it's past time the US adopted SI, the same as the rest of the world has. You buy a supposedly American made car and half the parts are metric, half English. So factories are tooled to use both. The mechanic has to buy 2 sets of tools to work on the car. The the stuff that is imported from China has metric threads and English heads! What a crazy mixed up world we live in. According to SI standards (European), the base unit of length is the metre. Meter is a device used to measure something, like voltmeter.

They are licensed to the party that paid for and signed an agreement. Commercial usage by others that are not party to this agreement is in contravention of the registered trademark and copyright laws. In other words, you could be sued. Great find for collector items. CTG

Must be a 10 point one, just like metric stars!

I didn't have to use Google, but isn't Google just great for finding many of the details we need. Even finds LW!

Remember that snowflakes have 6 points. Not 8 as you see in many commercial graphics. So simply folding a square of paper in half 3 times won't work for your basic pattern. Fold in half, then fold in thirds to get your 6 points, or use a protractor, 60 degrees. CTG

You may be able to remove the lacing, re-align the edges starting in the middle, counting holes like others have mentioned. Then see how you can finish off the spare holes at the end. You may be able to punch a couple additional holes in the side where you need them. CTG

Try letting it dry naturally, make sure there is good air circulation on both sides. I had forgotten to put the makers stamp on an item, remembered after putting neatlac on. Had not assembled it yet so dampened the flesh side to case it. Let it soak through so would have roughly the right water content, then stamped it. Let it air dry for a couple days and no stain or blotch. Maybe just lucky, but gradual air drying might work for you, even with the stiffener being wet. Good luck. Hope it does well for you. CTG

If tooling (stamping) on your lap is difficult due to how low the work surface is, try placing the slab on 2 to 4" of high density foam like for chair cushions on top a table or desk to get some height back. CTG

Looks like wood. That's really great. CTG

I love your work! Really outstanding. CTG

Chicago screws, Tandy has them CTG

Are either of the holes threaded for a screw? If so, there should have been at least one small pointed 'grub' screw. If no holes threaded, I'd look look at using epoxy on the flesh side. Test on a scrap to see if the epoxy bleeds any color through to the grain side. Anyone else with a solution? CTG

Great roses. I like how you have rounded the petals edges, makes them look a lot more realistic. CTG

Or buy a sheet metal brake and modify it to suit. That light duty one is only about $50. Probably available at Harbor Freight too for a US source.

Looks much like a metal brake for bending sheetmetal metal brake CTG

Here's a link to Loctite Application Guide to help make sure you pick the properties you want. CTG

There are different grades of loctite. Use one that will let you remove the screw later without twisting it off or having to heat it up. You want just enough additional holding power to keep it from vibrating loose, not a permanent bond.