ferret

You could use wood hardener, has similar effect to hot water treatment without the shrinkage. Does leave a glossy coating which can crack under impact, but the surface can be sanded without weakening the leather.

there's a tutorial on handle braiding here

Another alternative would be to switch to stam fairs, always pleny of interesting vehicles to tow you out

Easiest solution is ditch the volkswagen and get a landrover. An ex military ambulance should give you similar carrying capacity and it's unlikely to get stuck.

Only ever used lemon juice for cleaning leather, it's cheap and easy to obtain. Does a good job with no harmfull effects on the leather. Can sting a bit if you get it in a cut or splash it in your eye, but otherwise no harmfull effects.

Rather than paying for shipping you may be better sourcing rivets this side of the pond. Try http://www.sapphireproducts.co.uk/

you could paint a layer of white pva glue on the back, that would stiffen them without any danger of shrinkage or overcooking.

Try neat lemon juice, works on lots of marks and doesn't mess up the fibres.

There's a good rescource for patterns here . Most of the patterns are intended for constrution in steel, but canbe done in leather (and a lot quieter than bashing steel)

That's brilliant , the ferrets loved it

Another thing to consider is the time taken to cut the straps. Not so important if you are just leatherworking as a hobby , but if you are selling stuff the extra cost of pre cut straps may be less than your hourly rate

You could make your own using a dremel on a bolt head

This isn't happening in the UK. I suspect the "british press" refered to is one newspaper favoured by neo nazis and gullible bigots who are too stupid or too lazy to think for themselves. Yes we do have some vandals and criminals who do appaling things, just like every other nation on the planet, but these are a small minority. If anyone wants to fly the union flag no one will stop them. If you want to shout "I am proud to be british" you may get some funny looks from your neighbours, but no one will stop you. Not many people do either, as we are a bit reserved and as an Island nation we know what country we are in. As for "Great Britan no longer exists" , that's utter crap. A nation is it's people, not a few boats. Great Britain has enriched the world with It's creativity in arts and science. Other nations have achievments which they are proud of, but this relatively small nation has been disproportionatly blessed with talent. The country may be in a mess at the moment, but we've been through tougher times and come out stronger and will again. I am proud of my nations past and have faith in it's future. I wouldn't live in any other country. I may not wave the flag often, but I don't need to. When you know you are the best you don't need to flaunt it.

That's one of my favourites. Personally I can't stand Bing crosby's "white christmas" and I suspect the rest of the country is rapidly going off it too.

Used to know a re-enactor who put "benolyn" in his home brew, most of us would avoid it unless realy desperate and/or drunk.

I'd go for alum tanned , the military use it a lot so there must be suppliers on that side of the pond. You can get it here if it's not available locally.

Anything worn by a biker wearing colours (at least to anyone with any survival instinct).

The sharpie permanent markers are ok for leather, you should be able to get them at most stationers. I found a pack of 4 fine/ultra fine in a pound shop a while ago. If you cant find the colour/shade you need you can use fiebings dyes and apply them with a fountain pen or caligraphy set . You can also use the pen for applying thinned down acrylics. You can't put the sharpies/dyes on top of each other as it just results in a yucky coloured mess, but you can put acrylics on dried dyes (never the other way around). All the usual selants/finishes will work ok once the dyes/acrylics have dried. hope this helps

There is this tool which should make lining up the holes easier.