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I've got the one from Goods Japan as well and found this one is better quality than the Tandy one I got yesterday, I'd ordered just the replacement blade (doing a lot of sewing channels at the moment and wanted a spare) but it looks like the supplier was out of them and sent me the whole thing. In these photos the Tandy one is on the left, the Goods Japan one is branded Seiwa. After getting this one make sure you check the tip if you go for the Tandy one. Cheers, Clair

I don't know squat about holsters but this one looks nice and clean to me, well done Eaglestroker. Cheers, Clair

Mine sit about 36", I have a wrap around the room arrangement using kitchen cabinets, I'm short though 5"3' so need to use a drafting chair when sitting down. Clair

Yep these ones http://springfieldleather.com/category/17/235/Tooling-Leathers/ . I ordered through email though not the store this time as I had to ask a couple of questions as well. Cheers, Clair

I just ordered a couple of 9 -10oz bends from Springfield, I got two really nice pieces of leather. I don't know if they are A grade or not but they are much higher quality than the supposed Hermann Oak mongrel side I got here. I also don't need sides, from now on I definately will be going with Springfield even though it works out a bit higher with postage I'm not getting as much wastage. I have no use for shoulders with what I do so in the end it's probably fairly even. Clair

I believe Christians (Xianleather) pebble tool is probably from Bob Beard going by what he has said about it previously they leave a much better impression than the ones from Springfield or Tandy. Bob's tools are more expensive and take awhile to get however, I've got the Springfield set and they are okay the smallest one of mine works the best. Clair

Hi Ray, these couple of sites might be of some help as well http://www.leatherconservation.org/ and http://leatherworkingreverend.wordpress.com/. Also thankyou for the pdf link I had downloaded it before but had accidently deleted it, definately some interesting stuff in there. Cheers, Clair

Pete, I have an older model Dremel and a set of Spinners burnishers and I use the middle setting, I'm not doing a lot of burnishing at the moment but they work very well when I do need to burnish something. Cheers, Clair

We have that with a manufacturer that advertises about being hand sewn here as well and they try to make a big thing out of it suffice to say there is a video of their staff quite cheerily working along with industrial sewing machines. Most of the general public I doubt would know what saddle stitching is unless there is a leather worker in the family,I would go with hand stitching and educate customers on the difference between actual hand sewn and hand sewing with machine help. Clair

Very cool, what a neat little case great idea. Cheers, Clair

Looks like it's gone up I bought one in 2010 for $1895. jsmith could you please tell me what the replacement blade is going for now as I have it listed at $135, would like to have a spare lying around now as I'm using it a lot more. Thankyou, Clair

I've bought things from them in the past, great service and very helpful. Clair

I can only write for Western Australia but yes a lot of the cattle here are kept outside, my father in law runs a wholesale butcher and all his cattle are kept in fenced fields they still end up as meat though. Not sure what happens to the dairy ones past their prime as he has never dealt with those type of cows. There aren't any tanneries here though all salted hides are sent to the eastern states and overseas for leather processing you could try http://www.gretannery.com.au/ I know they process hides in a more traditional way but I don't know where they actually get them from, postage is likely to be expensive though from Australia. Clair

For small amounts I use a chocolate fondue maker, has just the right temperature settings for melting wax. Been using it for the last few years to mix up the recipe Dwight mentioned.. Clair

They are used a lot in Australia as well most of the older leather workers I've come across here have at least one floating around. Your new blade looks great Bruce, well done Terry great workmanship. Cheers, Clair

Your welcome Peter, if you get some Serabraid I would love to know how it compares to Ritza as I believe you can get custom colours from them which I might need in the future. Cheers, Clair

For the type of compressor Chris mentioned you should be able to get one at Bunnings the other bigger hardware stores, places that sell air tools and spray painters equipment shops. Airbrush compressors can be found at hobby stores the main brand here seems to be Sparmax, I've had mine a number of years and it's still going strong. The American stores will have either type cheap but the postage costs are likely to wipe out any savings. Also if you haven't used one before I would look at the shops first before buying one off ebay as they can show you how everything fits together properly. Space and noise are also a consideration pulling a big compressor around you house isn't going to be fun and if you spray outside and your neighbours are close you are likely to annoy them alot. Clair

Hi Peter, I use the Ritza 25 / tiger thread in 1mm and 1.2mm and Abbey is the only place I know of that stocks it in small quantities in any size occasionally it does come up on ebay but I've never seen it in 1.4mm there, Julius Koch is unlikely to get back to you unless your after a large quantity. I've been trying to get colour charts from them for the last ten months without any luck. These threads are pretty similiar to Ritza 25 (Zircon, Serabraid & Mox), I've used the Zircon and Mox. http://www.mrechtonline.com.au/cgi-bin/collab/app?pg=list&zc=no&in=138&st=65&pc=10008&op=shop&zz=1544 http://caudwell.co.nz/braid.htm http://www.amann.com/en/industrial-sewing-threads/serabraid.html http://www.amann.com/fileadmin/pdfs/naehgarne/infomappen/info_serabraid_gb.pdf (Has colour chart in it) http://www.paskal.com.au/index.php/products/Sewing-Thread/Saddlery/Mox/details Hope this is of some help Cheers, Clair

This might be the place http://turtlefeathers.net/text/angelus/dye.html. I've used them in the past, good service. Cheers, Clair

A lot of early Australian leather tooling was done without a swivel knife, Ron Edwards mentioned it in a couple of his books he said he only used modelling spoons for a number of years until the overseas way of using the swivel knife started to take hold.

Would be nice if that was possible but with members from all over the world everyone's expenses are going to be different. I've used this calculator in the past for graphics work http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/ it's not the be all and end all but it might help you to determine a price a bit easier.

This question pops up every now and then, these are the threads I know of for some reason they didn't come up in my intial search here, had to use google to find them I only know of them because I posted in a couple. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1423 I believe this might be the original thread I based my recipe on the info found here. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3924&hl http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=6864&st=0&p=76598&hl=+methylated%20+spirits&fromsearch=1entry76598 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15347 Hope these are of help, the one thing I found though is that the Rit mixture isn't that light fast probably even worse than the actual leather alcohol dyes, that's under the harsh West Australian sun though. So you might get better durability depending on where you live and what you make. I no longer use Rit or any other alcohol dye as I developed a sensitivity to them and swapped to Craftsha water based so I'm afraid I can't help with any other info. The above threads should definately get you started with it though. Cheers, Clair

Thanks for the link Roo I didn't know Kelly was making tools again, though it only seems like the patterned ones no bevellers or matting ones. I've got a couple of the older ones and a set of those Carvertools, great to see them back though. Cheers, Clair