Art

Carrie, Make Big full width pockets, actually more of a lining with an open top. If you want more, sew them to that pocket. All the stitching for the liner pocket would be in the seams. Art

Do you already have the new belt? Take pics of what you have and give a time frame. Art

Take it out to Steve at Leather Machine Co. They sell a machine with a 14 inch width, usually effective to 12 inches. Usually a tanner is the only one that will have a machine big enough to do a whole hide.

This happens when the steel won't hold a very acute edge. For instance, there are a few (I won't name them) head knives that will take and hold 10 degrees a side (20 degrees included) for light duty. But when the steel isn't up to it, the effect is just as you describe. I have found that 18 to 20 degrees per side (36 to 40 degrees included) works for most leather knives. Art

Getting in on the tail end of this, I generally derust then cold blue. If stainless or not to be blued, I use Johnsons paste wax. Art

OR 600 with stropping. But keep the angle at 40°, 20° per side if it is a heavy user. The 1000 or 800 will work fine too, that doesn't have anything to do with edge strength or how long you will go between sharpenings. That's more of an angle thing. It is the old how sharp is sharp thing. It needs to be sharp enough to do the job, and 600 with stropping or 800 or 1000 won't make a lot of difference, but the angle with enough steel behind the edge makes a world of difference along with what you are cutting. Stripping out romex or cutting cardboard boxes needs more angle than cutting meat. Art

I still use the Sharpie/Marks-a-Lot/Dykem to tell me what's going on. Even on machines I use it. Even with jigs I use it, because if the setup is wrong, the whole thing is wrong; and if you get your profile wrong by not grinding enough, it just won't cut right. If you grind too much, you're just wasting metal, so those guide lines are important. If I'm just putting an edge on a tool I will get away without marker, but for something critical, or a customer tool, always. Art

I recommend that your first diamond stone should be a DMT diasharp 1000. You can use it to true-up your other stones. I also recommend something that is easy like a tri-hone. Baby oil (mineral oil) works just fine on these things and you can get things pretty sharp if you go up through the grits. The the finest stone on the two tri-hones I have is around 600 grit one is an original Smith 6" and the other is a big 10" monster sold by Tandy in the late '70s or early '80s. Both bought off of eBay for $20 or so. The 600 leaves the edge sharp with enough tooth to make cutting easier. A strop with green compound will refine that a little and make an acceptable using edge. One of the big errors I see a lot is getting the edge too smooth by going to extremely fine grits. The other thing is edge angle. I often use a 20° edge for a head knife, 10° each side, and it goes through leather wickedly, but I am maintaining it all the time, I have the tools to do it, and when I roll the edge, the knife flat stops cutting and I fix it. If I do it for someone else, a 30° to 40° angle is more appropriate for someone who doesn't sharpen a lot but knows how to strop. I can't say I use the tri-hones a lot, but if I am packing light, it goes in the bag. I use DMT diamond stones a lot. I have 120 micron (about 150 grit) up to 3 micron (about 8000 grit). I DO NOT use them dry, I use 50/50 simple green and water, it lubricates and cleans the stone. Right out of the box, these stones grade 3 to 5 microns rougher than they marked, which means a 9 micron (1000 grit) will be more like a 600 grit and eventually (it takes some use) work it's way up to a 9 micron (1000 grit). Edges on DMT stones can be brutal and I break the edges with a diamond lap. These things should NEVER be your first stones unless you use it to lap your other stones. Shapton makes very good stones, they call them ceramic whetstones, and I buy the stones they sell into the Japanese market as they are the same stones at a better price. They come in 120 grit to 30,000 grit. I don't go much higher than 8000 as it is hard to tell the difference between 5000 and 8000, much less 8000 and 12000. 30,000, I guess they just had to because they could. The 1000 is a good finish stone except for something like a luthier's chisel, but no luthier would let anyone touch his chisels, much less sharpen them. The number on the Shapton 1000 (Japanese) Ha No Kuromaku is #K0702, and I think it is around $40, great stone, great price. Remember, too sharp and too polished are real conditions. You need to sharpen based on the tool's use. Art

Ah yes, but they built the Forth Rail Bridge using Imperial measurements. Then again, they also built the Tay bridge (prior Forth Rail Bridge) using Imperial Measurements too, and we know how THAT turned out. Art

EVERYBODY uses Lille White oil. It is a 50/50 mix of light and heavy mineral oil, and here is the kicker, no detergents. In the "old" days (Wiz and I will remember this) hydraulic oil was just mineral oil. Nowadays it has detergents and additives, a ton of them to extend the life of the oil and give it better performance characteristics for automatic transmissions and all other hydraulic systems. By the way, ISO 22, the number 22 is just the viscosity of the oil usually in centistrokes (cSt or mm²/s); it is actually ISO 3448 - ISO VG 22. Any wonder why they use just ISO 22? Defrix No.2 oil is just mineral oil blended to Juki's 169 specification, which just happens to be very close to ISO VG 22 AND drum roll, you guessed it SAE No. 2. So as the machinery gets more complex, the specifications must get more precise, but lets face it folks, it is just No. 2 mineral oil. Art And THAT is more than you ever wanted to know.

Don't read this, it is just a midnight xenophobic rant: I guess the old farts like me are hoping that SAE and Imperial measure and sizes will be "What Makes America Great Again". While I have my wish list out, There should be a law that anything exported from or imported into the U.S. should not have any metric measures, fasteners, or doodads in it, and that all packaging can only have English on the boxes and directions. Malt Whiskey from the Spey or the Island (or any of it for that matter) may have whatever the hell they want to put on it, spelled whatever way they desire, with the requirement that I can tell what it is and that they keep making it. While I'm at it, if you want to immigrate, legal, illegal, refugee, or otherwise, you will be speaking fluent English in a year or you are on the next boat outta here. Maybe enough for now. Now folks, that is what I call Hope and Change! Art

People don't want to sell you wood by the cord over here (well at least in Maryland) because it must be stacked at delivery, measure 4' x 4' x 8', and be stacked tight enough that a chipmunk cannot get through it (it's the law). All they want to do is dump it, sometimes where you want it, and charge you for a "truckload". Art

No darling, That would be fell off a truck, which means -- stolen while the truck was unattended. Art

Well, I'm quite proud of yourself too. If you can sharpen a head knife to that degree, to the point that it satisfies you, you have arrived. Art

Not a problem at all, get one from Bob (Toledo) or Gregg (Keystone). Go for more power and a reducer won't be necessary. Ask Bob or Gregg.