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needles

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Posts posted by needles


  1. we camp out a lot or used to when we had weekends free, and hardley ever saw much in the way of road kill, odd small animal but nothing of any real use larger.

    I think its a great idea, and may appease the anti leather/fur brigade. but probably not.

    still not sure i cold go pick up something thats been recently killed, skin there and then.... got to admit i prefer my hides pre detached...... think I'm just a wuss. ha ha certainly wish her luck.


  2. My work is slightly different to most of you guys, i have very little time making new stuff, and even less time learning to carve, have done a few things but no where near like I would like to, however I do make my income from repairing leather stuff, be it, gucci / prada, mui mui handbags etc to leather furniture to auto interiors, etc etc. so I am not a craftmens like you guys, although would dearly love to be.

    I started in the building trade and developed a love for leather and repairing such ( a lot in a childrens charity repairing leather furniture etc for them), eventually being made redundant, whilst agonising over what an old git like me is going to do to pay the mortage, wife said you've been making money at repairing leather for a good while, do that..... oh yeh why didn't I think of that...? your a bloke she said.... :lol: ha ha.

    difficult making ends meet sometimes, and sometimes hard to find the right amount of drive, but I love it. and its still paying the bills, although only just sometimes. If i have a choice I wouldn't change it for the world....

    as one said above if you can start without debt, way to go,

    start small and build up your reputation, that will help big time to carry you forward, best advertisement ever.

    try not to worry about what the competition is doing, otherwise it can become an all consuming obsession, and if you're actively competing even if they don't know it, your already losing, because you'll be under valuing your time and work....... trying to be cheaper, quicker what ever.

    thats my take on it anyway


  3. I use a calor gas heater in my workshop, until i get round to putting adiators in, runs on bottle butane gas...... gets really cosy, infact warmer thna the house, but has the tendancy to run out just when the suppliers are closed and its really cold outside....

    as for electricity, depending on how much yyou need, ie, just lights or hand tools, as other have said above, generator-these can annoy neighbours big time if not careful being in london I guess there are a few around you.

    other wise solar panels, i have them on my van and it powers everything, but most is 12v. you'll need the panel a distribution board, a mppt controller, and batteries to hold charge until needed. kits can be had for a couple of hundred pounds, although they will probably be around 100watts, should eb enough for lighting providing you have good light outside and not shadowed. but you wuld struggle for powering other things.

    i have seen those portable starter charger units that hold big amounts of power, don't know how long the power would last for using for lights, but may be worth looking into as can be charged at home then used in workshop??


  4. thanks guys

    i think your right, i must of built too far forward,

    I think i had the roller further forward so the blade egde is closer to the far edge of the roller, cut was upeard, if that makes sense

    gonna play more maybe as someone said try to position the blade on the horizontal and roller below

    definetly need to work on the blade, but I'll do more on that when i get the main body right.

    been fun playing with this though.


  5. Hi

    I've knocked up a skiver, managed to get it set pretty good and it managed to split a 10inch x 1inch strip of leather, unfortunately it came apart, so made another but can't get the blade at the right angle,

    can anyone please take a side pic of their manual skiver, hoping they may give me an idea of angles, etc

    Alanpost-33777-0-50099700-1408732049_thumb.jpost-33777-0-80704800-1408732057_thumb.jpost-33777-0-85500900-1408732066_thumb.j

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