toxo

There's always a way. I made this from just the same leather. My leather shop has a bin full of sheep/calf/goat sized leathers, mainly garment/upholstery grade And I really enjoyed designing and making this huge tote. I backed it with cheap pigskin lining and it lovely and soft. If the backing is a different colour just leave an allowance to fold the outer edges so the lining doesn't show. I even made a bag for a young lady and reversed the same leather as lining so it had a kind of suede on the inside.

If you're talking about the area, I would put the two end semi circles together and add the circle and the remaining rectangle.

On most forums we're kinda treading on eggshells because you can't please all the people all the time but this is ridiculous. But mikesc you know how much I admire and respect your work ethic, your knowledge and your altruism and after reading some of this, that extends to your wife also, in fact more so and I hope with all my heart she doesn't come to regret what she's doing. That's perhaps the wrong way to say it because I suspect that even if she catches the damn thing she won't regret doing it. The fact still remains that if you want to reach the masses you have to talk in a way that the masses can understand. Tesco don't sell a cleaning agent by listing the ingredients. If I've touched a nerve I'm sorry. You know it wasn't meant to offend, that's just not me. I just hope you were tired when you responded but you're far too valuable to this site to leave and if me being here is going to offend you then I'll leave.

+1 . Mike, what's the point of talking as if we're all bio chemists? If there's a mask pattern that we can make that works, show me the pattern. If there's a bottle of something that I can soak the mask in, show me a bottle label to look for and where to find it. If I need to add this to that then show me two bottles with labels.

It's an old video and I guess many have seen it but I was fascinated from beginning to end. Interesting how they deal with the waste. Connecting with other tanneries and even the waste from the waste is usable.

This is purely for interest for you masochistic restorer types. Didn't want to interfere with the other thread for the Little Wonder but I saw this. Maybe you could cut leather with it?? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/W-Crossland-bredbury-1930s-cutting-press-sold-as-scrap-good-for-a-museum-/142952905232?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10 And then I saw this,

You can make some good stuff using thin leather that you can maybe use on your domestic. Here's a very large shopping tote that I made from garment/upholstery weight leather (around 1mm) that I backed with a pigskin lining (less than 1mm). It's extremely soft and I love it. The next one will be darker colours so I can use it

It just came into my head when I was looking for something small enough and it is just a coin purse your honour. The next one will be a handbag, promise.

After recently getting a one ton arbor press I wondered how useful it would be as a small clicker press. I ordered some rule steel which came in a box of sixty one metre lengths. The project I chose was something that was posted recently that I found interesting and was small enough. I used just two bars in a vice with a small gap and a pair of Stillsons to pull the steel. It wasn't easy but with some pushing and pulling and bashing I got it into a rough shape. Remember I wasn't trying to be exact, rather testing the feasabilityof the concept. Without putting a back on it I tested it with a steel plate on top and bottom with a silicon cutting board under the leather. I made the waist too thin which compromised the length of the zip but I only broke three needles entirely my fault. Then a couple of coats of neetsfoot oil. And finished. I seem to have lost the pic of it folded over the belt. A coin purse that might be handy when walking down those dodgy dark alleys. As usual I learned a lot and am looking forward to making some tools to make the making easier and more precise. The thing I'd never thought of before was the two parts are completely identical and thus making the edges more perfect which can never be achieved when cutting by hand.

This MUST be worth a look for you restorer guys. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/W-Crossland-bredbury-1930s-cutting-press-sold-as-scrap-good-for-a-museum-/142952905232?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

I thought the image had to be bitmaps. All the sample images are bitmaps. Is that why the image won't resize properly, because they're not vectors? The problem is, the instructions are nowhere near comprehensive. I'm not even sure I've installed it correctly. I got it working and left it at that. The computer interface isn't the same as the instruction leaflet and has less options. I'll post some pics later and hopefully find out what's wrong.

Welcome to another Brit. Looking forward to seeing what you're up to. There's a few places on here for resizing pics but until you sort it out just email em to yourself.

Having a frustrating time with the laser at the moment. The max cutting size is too small anyway but it's nowhere near 80 watts, more like 7 watts. I did try three passes at 100% the other day and it still didn't get any deeper that about a sixtenth of an inch. To be fair I only wanted it for engraving which I'm gradually getting to grips with. Even that is driving me up the wall because it keeps changing the size. Too late anyway Tim, 60metres of rule steel arrived this morning. . I'm looking forward to playing with it. I won't be doing any long production runs and my leather shop will allow me to use their clicker press for anything that I can't do with the arbor press.

I was driving in the countryside late one night when I broke down. I don't know much about cars and after poking and prodding under the bonnet for about ten minutes I couldn't get the thing started. After scratching my head for another five minutes a voice came out of nowhere and said "Try the points". I was startled because there wasn't a living thing in sight except for a white horse looking at me over a field gate about 3 yards away. Thinking I might have imagined it I took no notice and had another prod and a poke.. "Try the points" rang out again and again there was no one there. Thinking I had nothing to lose I looked at the points and found the distributer cap was loose. After fixing it the car started first time and off I went. About a mile further on there was a nice looking country pub and I pulled in for a pint. I told the barman about what had just happened and the voice coming out of nowhere. He said "Was there by any chance a white horse in the field?". Actually there was " I said. "Well you were really really lucky" he said. "why do you say that" said I. He said, "Cos the black one knows nothing about motor cars".

I'm struggling to find polyester thread up to Tkt 20 and colours. Am I missing something here? Is it only bonded nylon in the bigger sizes and brighter colours?

There are other types. Here's another. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leather-Hand-Single-Stitch-Sew-Sewing-Awl-Tool-Needle-Stitching-With-Thread-LD/184122417342?hash=item2ade8d20be:g:HmIAAOSwyupa3sNz

Just when I think I'm beginning to get a handle on this stuff!!! Another curve ball. You just like to fry my brain don'tcha Folker!

That's either a fantastic typo or a very clever goat on line 7. . Nice to see Phil and I hope you're passing your knowledge on.

Love it. Well done.

Good to see you still have the spirit after all that. Well done.

Well done! Something that will be treasured.

I can't increase the size of the image! Is it because it becomes pixelated or something? I'll try increasing the size before importing to the laser. Re: Using the laser to make clicker dies, my laser laser doesn't look like cutting anywhere deep enough for the rule steel. I ordered the steel with a view to cutting the groove with my electric fret saw and so ordered the 1.05mm rather than the 0.71mm but it turns out it's a scroll saw and the cut looks to be around 0.5mm . It's going to be interesting.

Just what I didn't want to hear dikman. I'll try to get it going with some larger needles. It lays down a lovely top stitch.