electrathon

Any shop that sells air conditioning parts will have oil. It is a mineral oil like was used in the old days with R12.

go to hardware elf

I would not soak them if they have the wooden backing that many of them have. I have used acetone, lacquer thinner and the one that works amazingly well is "goof off". Keep cleaning till no more color comes off when you are wiping it, use a swab in the cracks.

I would use shoe polish.

Hmm, how do I measure them. Compressed or apart? There are different sizes in the different bags. All are older so not crappy like the new ones (got them out of a lot that had been stored for lots of years.

That is what quotes are for. As I said earlier, allowing editing on ones posts are pretty much standard practice on forums (at least on the ones I have been on and the ones I have seen). If someone is donkey butt, then you quote them. It locks what they said so it can only be changed by both or a moderator. As far as I know, quoting to lock what they said is also pretty standard. I think this is just one of those reminders to us that we are not at home. We are at someone elses house and to not get to comfortable. Coffie is offered to us to drimk, but don't get up to make your own. I do understand this. But I also feel very much at home here and sometimes need to be slapped back to remember that it is not my/our home. We are visiting. Don't get up to fix what is a problem, rather accept it and hope to find a work around. This is hard for me because I am a fix-it person. When I see something that needs fixing, it tend to try to do it. Heck, I have gone to weddings and ended up fixing someones car (I do not often wear white). Even in the attacks on new guy for complaining I saw people saying they felt it was wrong too, but shut up and do not rock the boat. They evidently did not feel at home either, but definatly wanted to continue hanging around. I was not going to post any more in this thread, but comments were directed at me, so I felt I should answer.

Yes, seal it up, then antique.

I have not done it but I have always thought that headliner foam would work well for bag padding.

Brass jiffy rivets. Small flat rate box packed full. $15 paypal for them. Cleaning up the bunches of stuff I have accumulated. Aaron

I want to post a follow up to this thread, I received a few questions. Historically Chan Geer has came to Portland annually. This year Chan will not be coming (hope to get him back next year) due to his busy teaching schedule. Chan will be teaching in Pendleton in October at the trade show and I encourage those who missed him here to attend his class there.

Antique it with t-shirt paint. I have never done this but the technique was brought up a couple days ago at class.

I opened an account at Abby and imported it. I was going to do a group buy but got no interest when I posted about it.

The ones at Abbey are what are called jiffy rivets here, not good ones. The quality ones flair open to look like a star when set.

Build it with three layers, the middle layer basically is the "hole" that the knife slips into. Do not harden it, no need to. Sew through the three layers.

Yes, depending on the chemicals in the leather and the moisture in the air they will tarnish or turn green with hard growth ickyness on them. When I started in leatherwork I used them till I saw what happens a year later. You want to use tubular stainless steel rivets The look good and they hold. The jiffy rivets should be used for nothing but ornamentation and are a poor choice for that.

I like both designs.

I often see people traveling in a poor direction on hobby/career/small business working. You open a bigger shop and $3000 more has to be earned just to break even. If you work out of the space you have you often have less stress. Make QUALITY and sell to the small group. You can not compete with China and the mas production issue. You can blow them out on the quality that they can not do. The internet gives all of us the ability to market to a wide range of the world that you never had before. Sell with a gimmick: Personal service, Big business can not offer this. Then actually provide the personal service.

Paul is heading home this morning. We had a great class and a special thank you to Oregon leather for hosting us. I think everyone in the class learned a lot. If any other areas of the country is looking for a teacher to come in and teach at your guild/club I would highly recommend Paul. Just his knowledge of swivel knives, corrosion and sharpening are well worth the experience.

Today is the final day of Paul being in Portland teaching. If you have the chance please stop in at Oregon Leather and say hello. Paul also has a supply of his famous SK3 swivel knives with him that are available for sale.

I will track down the pattern and go from there. I plan on making this out of leather, not sure what kind yet or what I will line it with.

Post updates as you proceed. I am interested.

To go low budget you can use pantyhose and cover your foot with plaster casting material just like old school broken bone casting. Even cheaper use 20 minute hot mud for fixing walls and dip stranded newspaper in it. You can treat it very similar to how he was working in the article. For a few dollars you would have enough material to do multiple castings.

Very interesting day today. Went through Sharpening and tuning up our swivel knives. Went on from there to finger cuts and layout. Tomorrow we will be covering more on finger cuts and tap-offs. Good times.

pics attached To start out with I think I like the third one.

When I took shoe making class we were told that measurement of the foot to properly fit the last the foot is placed on the floor to measure it. But, when I had orthotics made it was done with the foot suspended. Use tights/thick pantyhose as the sock that you cast over. Very cheap.