Sylvia

ha! Come to think of it some native cultures chew their leather to make it soft. I think I would request a refund and send it back. It is a cute necklace its too bad really.

Do you mean saliva or Salvia? One is spit, the other is an herb. He he he.... you said it smells like dried spit. If it smells acrid, it's probably a chemical in the tanning process. If it came from "over there" it may be have been tanned with who knows what. Some cultures even tan with urine. But to try to solve your problem, before waxing, I would wrap the necklace in permeable tissue like toilet paper and bury the entire thing in activated charcoal which you can get from fish tank supply stores. Keep it buried for about a week, then check for odors. It may, however, be a lost cause. I had a silk outfit that when warmed by body heat would give the most awful rotting fish smell. I washed that thing over and over in all kinds of solutions but was never able to get rid of that stink. It finally went in the trash.

There is a theory that it started in Sweden when they were trying to recover some of the Viking culture and identity. I've seen depictions on a piece of ancient Norse art that shows a figure with a helmet with snakes, wings, ... but most scholars believe those helmets were reserved (If they existed at all) for ceremony. No winged, or horned helmet has ever been found. Ok we've beat this dead horse to mush.... Sorry for hijacking this thread. Hope the original poster found what he or she was looking for.

The customer is the most important. I'm not sure where the idea Viking helmet's with horns came from. Perhaps it was an incarnation from some of the folks in Minnesota. Or perhaps someone saw depictions of the Vikings with Winged helmets and misunderstood what they were seeing. At any rate I loved your little guys helmet... I bet he loves it.

LOL Cute! But I hope people know that the real Vikings didn't sport horns on their helmets.

Interesting, seems I'm not the only one. It would probably help if I could actually see the blade in action so I could see the cutting edge. Perhaps one of the figure carvers will weigh in after a bit. Stacking the exacto blades is an interesting idea. Maybe this is another "Fine" use for duct tape. Thanks Gentlemen... I appreciate your thoughts.

I'm going to add to this tutorial. I'll admit I didn't read all through the responses so if this idea has been submitted. Woo hoo... if not... I have this roll of material for an old (and terrible) Denio seal-a-meal that never really worked as they said it would. Basically this stuff is an open sided "tube" , seal one side, pull the roll off the rolll and through the machine seal other side... fill, seal the end. you get the picture. Well the machine is crap. But I've found a use for the material. Instead of taping paper to your lap top. Cut off a piece of this clear plastic and allow it to static cling to the monitor. Trace with felt tip pin on the plastic. I like this better because I can see exactly the position of the figure on the leather. Also the first time I tried the paper method on this laptop I had sharpie marks on the monitor. Yikes! You'll need a fairly dull, or ball tip stylus in order to retrace onto the leather and sometimes it tears the plastic a bit... but it is so nice to really see where the design is going.

I've been temped by a couple hair blades for swivel knives but have held off because I have NO CLUE how to sharpen or strop one. So.... How exactly does one sharpen a hair blade?

Watch out Antiques Road Show..... here come Cheryl. BTW... Have you ever upholstered with stripes before? If not, I would avoid stripes. I've had experience with upholstering with striped material. What a PITA. Never again.

Chocolate brown, Burgundy, or Cordovan are the colors I would choose from. However, your red and yellow walls may not look good with Burgundy or Cordovan.... so your best choice because it's more neutral is a chocolate brown. You really should have this chair appraised before you do much to it. It looks pretty substantial it might be worth a quarter million dollars and it would suck to find out you would only get $200 because you did something to it.

Bob: Thanks! you just saved me $50 I don't really have. )

Well, eat and get to bed, woman!

Can't really tell from the scan, but does it look like this in real life? http://www.cobblersupplies.com/servlet/the-424/Professional-Heavy-Duty-Steel/Detail

I think the forked thing is a tack puller. #12 is a cobblers blade though I've seen regular leather workers use them too as trim knives. Get out some WD40 and saturate the metal... allow to soak, then scrub with some fine steel wool. Or you could try an old gardener's trick. motor oil in a bucket of sand... plunge tools in and out for several minutes until the rust is gone.

Thank you for taking time to create demand for American Made goods. I wish I could find a crafter that makes brass and nickle plated buckles at a decent price.

There is actually free help with starting a business from the Small Business Administration. There is also "SCORE" which is free and manned by retired business people. http://www.sba.gov/ http://www.score.org/ Hope that helps.

One method of pattern making is to make a "cast" of an item. Say you want to copy a coffee can. Wrap the coffee can in plastic wrap. Then take duct tape and tape the entire body of the can, overlapping the tape strips by at least 1cm. Make sure you cover then entire outside. Make reference lines. Using a ruler, make vertical lines and a few perpendicular ones to that line. These lines will be helpful when you go to make your pattern. Run a horizontal line around the bottom of the can. (typically this line is about 1/2 cm up from the bottom.) Make short vertical reference lines. I should say that it helps to use one color marker for the main cut lines, and a different colored marker for the reference lines. Cut the cast from the can. Cut the bottom off the cast. Open the cast up and lay it flat on pattern paper. Pattern weights are helpful here but you can use canned goods to hold this in place. Now, trace around the cast piece an transfer the reference lines. Remove the cast piece... and measure your seam allowance what ever size you feel you need and use a ruler to mark your cut lines and to extend your reference lines. Now a coffee can would be fairly easy to cast. When you get into making patterns for a body part, you'll deal with having to make a 3D cast into a 2D pattern. This is why the reference lines are so important. You'll need to take several tiny tucks to make a 3D cast lay flat so you can trace all they while trying to not lose those reference lines. This is sometimes called easing. I think by now you have a general idea of how to cast and pattern objects. Have fun practicing. May I suggest you try this on your feet? BTW... use a decent quality duct tape to do this... the cheap stuff is a pain to work with.

OUCH! Or... she could be looking to do both.

Thanks Gentlemen: I thought that might be the case.

Good idea, but I've noticed that sometimes the d-rings and clasps show wear so I would recommend taking time to look the purses and belts over very well. Another thing one can do is find second hand leather jackets usually they are soiled pretty badly but the amount of leather found in some of these is astounding and also good for wallet linings.

LOL I thought I felt a distinct tug on my left leg... but just thought it was my broken toe bugging me. Good theory though... I buy it actually. From my studies, I learned that all the "norse" tribes were excellent wood workers and engineers. I did a few reports and learned a lot about their ship building techniques. I almost think I could build one if my body could hold up to the heavy labor. I remember that you are American, but admittedly, I did confuse you with Suicide for the moment.

he he he... It must have been my Viking Studies getting the best of me. Finlander, Vinlander... But Ok, I'm with you... FINNISH. No disrespect intended. Uhm... 18*F is not perfect in my book. It's currently 43*F at 4:11pm. I've seen plenty of 18*F days here, hoar frost, gloomy snow ridden days from Hades... Nope, still don't like the cold. Nice to know the etymology of Finish Carpenter. (American Spelling) Makes a lot of sense actually.

I agree... turns out the most disastrous results.