Laurie

Hey y'all. Any suggestions on how to remove automotive spray primer from a pair of chaps? It's not a small spot, the guy used the chap leg, smooth grain outward, as a masking deal and the whole lag almost is solid primer grey! I need to remove that primer hopefully without pulling up the leather dye. then I will re-condition the leather. Any experienced answers will be very helpful and apreciated (sp), as I can guess alot of ways to try to do this myself, but I don't want to keep experimenting with different chemicals on the old leather.

why? your friend bought them to better you works, no? he bought them knowing that you're well equiped to use them as you need. as your workings call for. you're obviously an artist and your friend see's that also. you go on and customize those pieces as you see fit and hey,, if nothing else ~ you make one hell of a custom thing for him. from the look of yer work, you'll be useing those custom parts alot more than you're anticipating. your work is great

and also, if you dont have means to get such really neat and realistic tools as these folks have mentioned above ...i give most of my work away so i'm alot tool poor and make due. my dumb but oh well!!! if you are cutting with a 36" or longer straight edge...make sure that your table, counter or bench isn't pitted. then get your ass up on your table before you cut. make sure you've marked and set your leather right. before you cut, get your other hand, and your knee, and your foot on your steel edge. before you cut. make sure that you can cut this lenth that you now have secured under the steel. (or at least yer hand at top, knee in middle. if no foot, dont cut beyond your knee, leather might have resetteled under the loose end of the steel) re check your leather to make sure nothing moved. score the leather as smarter folks than i already said, dont gouge. this'll allow you to keep whatever yer cutting with at a staight angle instead of slicing sideways against the steel edge. reason for the knee, if youre not used to cutting long lenths of heavy or light oz, its inevetable you'll stretch or sqeeze your perfectly scored piece then it'll cut wrong. hey, its worked for me for 18 years now!

for smaller, light or heavy oz lenths of strap or thong cuts..like from 20" or less.. keep a solid, uncut piece of the the same wieght leather behind the piece youre cutting underneath your straight cut tool. i mean, if youre trying to use the steel edge and a real good knife or rotary and youre to the last few straps/thongs yer cutting, make sure you put a (perfectly straight cut) piece of that same size leather under the steel edge youre using as a guide. it'll keep your steel from wobbling off the back edge of the thong or stap if that piece of leather is skinnier than your straight edge. i do alot of small work, and i know from way back when, to buy enough sq inches to have extra to make sure that i can keep me steel balanced when making final cuts. dont know if that helped or made sence, i cant do a picture deal of this right now

THAT IS A GREAT TUTORIAL! Thank you Nutty Saddler!!!!

Hey there y'all. been away awhile taking care of business and all. missed the site! bought this really cool little '52 Singer portable that i'll get picts of up another time. immaculate, she's a beaut. i messed up like crazy, i looked it up on e-bay to show the lady who had it what it might be worth, and then decided to buy. too bad for me a current bid i showed the lady was way higher than any bid i've seen the same machine go for since! oh well, i like hell outta this little thing. not quite heavy leather quality at all, but it will do on the road for light leather and jean repair and such. i shut down my leather repair shop up here, i'm setting my paint van up as a portable full repair/alteration shop for when i get back on the road this spring. fixing to make the van easy to dump out the machines, set up and work with minimal electric, at friend's events and such. should be a great summer! i'm half tempted to head back to TX right now as cold as i think it is up here! ...seriously thought that snow, big snow, would be a blast after all these years back down south. ...i changed my mind, y'all stay warm and safe ok? be back again eventualy.

I dont doubt the parts are newer than that. the box has the stamped date is all. the piping attachments are all Singer, embossed with the old original singer 'S' emblem and the name singer across the big 'S'. I was more interested in the box itself really. not trying to lay claim that all in it is 1883.

its a velvet lined wooden box with hidden hinges, it opens and unfolds as the pictures show. pretty neat huh? i'll get better picts up soon. it holds a bunch of sewing attatchments, likely more for the housewife making her family's clothing or the quilter. i just got it a month ago, so i'm still looking into it.

yep, lots of piping attatchments in there a few intricate depth gauges too. not familiar with the depth keepers but will keep notes as I figure them out

This is the box that was in the treadle desk I bought sight unseen a month ago. Pretty neat. I call it a Mystery Box cause thats what a lady on another site called hers, dont know if thats its proper name but it works for me. Ill get the tape marks off eventually, and it was scratched on the trip to me. I paid 5 bucks for this box!! With all the shown attachments in the box. oh, some of the picts are sideways, my bad.

Ive done this knot in the dark (lol) but it has completely slipped my mind how to do even the simplest. Im sure theres tutorails here but I cant find any short of pdf files. Im not on my own pc to download alotta stuff, is there a pictorial that I can see to refresh my mind ? I hate to repeat an obvious quetion but Im not seeing a pict of the knot breakdown, probly just missing it. ? I wrap my braids in UV upholsters thread (Im from Oklahoma, its an Indian tradition to wrap) & wrap in colors according to whom Im making the particular braid(s) for. . I pull a needle thru the wrap, turn the threads & knot with drop a bit of super glue to hold the UV thread knot.Then I douch the thread wrap with a fray block for longevity of the wrap. Been doing this so long that I cannot concieve a turks knot anymore. ??

ART you have the perfect solution. I am going to show this all to my boyfriend in the morning. He gets real peeved that I stay up all hours in my shop~~~this will be my solution to him getting mad that I'm out in the shop half the night all week!!! I'll just catch him when he gets home & practice this method on him, then maybe he'll quit hollering for me in the middle of the night. Thank you!!!! ...funny, Ive had the customer-showing-up problem so far at the new shop. Hard to work when yer shop is at the house. And the boyfriend's shop is outside my shop door, hell maybe I should just give yer advice to him instead....

Leave open a stinky non-toxic chem solution in yer shop. We dont mind our leather chem smells but the unaccustomed lol nose will reel from the 'stink' . Good luck with the heater, we chics are way trained to turn heaters down when "not in use" lol. its in our genes. She might also be worried that yer chemicals will get too warm, explode blah blah, ask her if thats why she turns down the heat ~ it'll break the ice on discussing why you keep the heat up maybe.