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This is about brass letters for hot foiling but the premise could also apply top many things. I wanted to do hot foiling so bought an alphabet set that included multiples of the most used letters. OK except that many names have multiple of the same letter and the set I bought didn't have enough. This set is what's known as "T"slot meaning they can be slotted together in a brass holder to form a name for example I wanted to put my phone number on the dog collars that I'm currently making but it has three "9"s in it and my set only has two. I saw some letters on Ebay and bought them but they turned out to be non T slot so didn't gel with the set I already had. Next I got back to the people on Ali Express where I bought my foil machine and bought another set of 8mm letters believing that they were measured from the shoulders so now have a set of 8mm letters that also don't gel with my 6mm set. Finally went back to the same people and bit the bullet and bought another set of 6mm letters. After waiting for ages this set, although they are 6mm, they don't match with the set that I already have. They don't even fit in the holder. So unless I do some shaping on this latest set I still can't do all the names I wanted to do. The moral of this story is, if you want to get into hot foiling, be sure to buy at least two sets of letters from the same seller at the same time.

Never felt the need to do one of these before and the only reason for this one is because I broke my favourite cup. Normally I'd chuck it and buy another but my mouth is dry all the time and so I take a couple mouthfuls often. The tea gets cold and I re heat it in the microwave all the time. A normal cup is too wide and the tea gets cold quickly whereas a narrow mouthed cup stays hot for longer. I found a narrow and tall cup which is perfect. I broke it and can't find another so after looking at it I decided, before I bin it to grind down what was left of the handle and make a koozie so I can hold it. I'm amazed at how simple it ain't. Because it's not straight all the cuts are not what you'd expect. I eventually worked it out and as usual I'm enjoying the learning. I've got most of it done and tomorrow I'll need to learn the basketball stitch. I think that's the one I need.

Well done dikman, you gotta love a speriment doncha.

Welcome from the UK.

Bag Fastenings/Fixtures - London Trimmings

No idea on the tooling Sup but was it you looking for the old fashioned purse closers? Is that what you're calling a kiss lock? Cos I found some.

Don't know if they'll post to Oz but I'd be surprised if this place doesn't have them. I was blown away when I went there at the range of stuff they do. Bag Fastenings/Fixtures - London Trimmings

I think the key might be in the casing. You mention that you wet the leather. Wet leather won't give as crisp an image as damp leather. Depending on the leather try dry stamping first. If not sharp enough just dampen just enough to soften the crust. When applying dye try using something flat like a sponge. A paintbrush will get in everywhere which might not be what you want if you want contrast.

I made one similar to this and I broke it but I do remember the thread used to catch on the wing nut. Looking at yours Dwight it occurred to me that it wouldn't be much trouble to solder a washer across those two wings and invert it.

How about cutting up a tin of beans?

Good heads up Fred. Yet another example of Royal Mail forever increasing prices for less and less service.

The Japanese can be a formidable tool in the right hands but they do need to be scary sharp. I keep telling myself that I'm ok with sharpening but in truth I can get most tools to a state where they work but it's not often that's scary. Thank god I have a bell skiver. Re; the French skiver I forgot to say it's the only hand tool that will skive a whole piece rather than just the edges.

Forgive me for saying but you seem to be coming at this from the wrong angle. Before even thinking about skiving you need to think about what you want to make. That in turn will dictate to some extent what sort of leather you will be working with. The most expensive leather is usually veg tan because you can do everything with it. I comes from hard and thick to soft and thin and everything in between but that's not the be all and end all. When you see people skiving on YouTube it's usually veg tan because it's relatively easy compared to chrome tan leather. To begin with, before you even think about stuff like tooling and carving you should think about chrome tan. It comes in all colours so you don't have to mess with dying. It comes in all thicknesses so you don't need to skive which is just as well because skiving thin chrome tan is something you don't want to get anywhere near. what you want to make will also give you some idea about needle/thread size/colour, not all thread brands come in all the colours. Make haste slowly my friend.

The purists would say the Japanese. As you say The French is easier to use by far as long as you're on the flat. The two wings stop you from digging in making it fairly easy to thin down a piece of leather. Different story when tilted on an edge, just needs more care. Some use the Japanese for cutting as well especially alongside a template. I would advise you buy both but the best advice is to buy the best you can afford. With cutting tools that means better steel will hold an edge for longer but if budget is involved I would say if starting out and many tools are on the horizon, buying cheapER will give you a chance to work out what works for you. Buying best and vintage will surely come along later.

A quick vid. It's fabric but apart from the first bit about bias it's exactly the same for leather. Upholstery Basics: How to Make Single Welt Cording/Piping (youtube.com)

She'll like that dikman, especially if you put it on a bag. I've been looking for a dragon also because I have family in Wales. I'd like to find a slightly more ferocious one. Re the Lightburn thing, I had a similar experience. No idea how I did it but ended up (with a little help from a member) with a nice image of my dog. Don't you just love experimenting.

You could just buy piping feet in different sizes Doc but lots of people do it with ordinary feet, usually a zipper foot for the second stitch because that needs to be real close to the cord else the stitches will show on the finished job. The piping cord you can buy ready made but most of it is fabric or faux leather. You get more satisfaction if you make your own. Try this.. Cut a piece of thin leather or skive it say a foot long and about 1 1/2 inch wide. Take a length of weedwacker nylon (or anything else that resembles a cord hard or soft the same length. Put a line of glue down the center or use double sided tape. put some on the WW as well. Place the WW down the center and fold the leather over. You now have some piping cord. Take a piece of scrap same length. On the good side glue or d/sided tape or even just clips and get em edge to edge as in @RockyAussies vid and run a stitch to keep everything together. This stitch doesn't have to be close. Take another piece of scrap and clip it on top right side to right side edge to edge. Now run another stitch but thjis one needs to be as close as you can get it to the cord with that zipper foot. You'll be surprised and impressed when you open it up.

OK, just to clarify a few things. As you can see on Brian's stills, the piping cord is attached to the good side of the leather. Good lob on the piping cord join @RockyAussie. On the video you're looking at the flesh side so it's right side to right side. There's a piping foot on the machine which has a tunnel underneath to trap the piping cord. If you look closely you can see the impression of the cord under the leather as the foot travels over it. If you're making a bag you are doing all this with the bag inside out and you have to leave an opening somewhere to be able to turn the bag rightside out. The binding is happening on the inside of the bag which not everyone bothers with because it's not seen. Just another piece of class from Brian. My Adler 69 is virtually the same as the Pfaff 335 and I have all the binding stuff for it including the main plate which is why that machine has to stay along with the new one.

Looks like you're going through it Fred. And yes, hurray for the NHS for all it's faults. I won't say at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

I was waiting for this question to come up. As you know I have big pulleys on two of my machines and the NPSs work fine but my new machine has a box style reducer and it the NPS won't work properly. It's not a rail crash because I can start and stop really slowly (and speed up in the middle) so with some practice I should be able to needle up/down without the NPS. This did get me thinking and I wondered if anyone had tried putting the NPS directly on the motor pulley?

This is a huge question. Firstly I'll repeat something I've often said, there's not a lot of mystery to leathercraft, far more common sense and finding a way to fulfill a purpose. "Piping" covers a huge swathe of applications. Piping "cord" can be many things. I put the commas around the word because some piping uses no internal cord at all. Then there is the choice of the size of cord that's used according to the project. As an example I think the size I used here is bigger than I would like for that size of pocket. If doing it for real it would be smaller. What's the cord made of? This goes to some of your question @NatesLeatherGds, plastic cord could help hold up a bag made of thinner leather, some piping cord is made of soft cotton type material which might be useful along with a soft leather when you don't want chafing against someone's skin such as clothing or a nice collar maybe. Of course most piping is used as a decorative detail and can be very effective and not just on edges either. I'm getting excited about learning about double piping on bag panels. Check this out. Forgive the ads. UPHOLSTERY TIPS - How you can make a double Piping - MECA - YouTube

Thanks mate but I think you might be overdue a visit to the optician lol. The machine choice was purely because of the presser feet. I have lots of em for the Durkopp 239 and the new machine but not so much for the Adler 69 and because it was "practice" the thread/colour didn't matter so much either so the turned edges were done on the 69 using the colour "Toast" and the piping foot was on the new machine using a blue thread which also tested the theory that, if done right you won't see the thread.

It's not too bad from ten feet but I don't care, I've learned so much. I like to challenge myself and this was a challenge . I even made the leather strap thing that goes around the cord and joined the pieces together with that diagonal/right angle thing. I didn't do myself any favours with a fairly tight curve and those corners were tough. Even though I skived everything it's difficult to find the piping under the second piece of leather and it's a constant worry that you want to get as close to the piping as you can but you don't want to break the needle. Not sure if I was using the right size piping foot and I'm not sure sure if a piping foot is even needed with tight corners because they just wanna go straight on. I don't know if I'm brave enough to attempt the smaller pocket that sits in the middle of this one.

We've all been there Frodo. No point wasting any more brain time on it. Just move on.

Maybe it's me that's doing it wrong but I've never mollycoddled my leather, mind you I've never used really delicate leather. I regularly use a hair dryer in between coats of dye etc. I've put wet moulded stuff in the oven. I even put a big soft lump through the washing machine cos it had some mould on it.