Sheilajeanne

Fred, all I need to do for that is to fry up a pan of bacon! (and strain out the bacon bits afterwards.) Not so very long ago, farmers never thought of buying fat at the store. It all came from their animals - tallow from cows, lard from pigs, goose grease, etc. And the indigenous leather supply company I sometimes buy hides from has an ample supply of bear grease, which, unfortunately can't be shipped outside of Canada. Excellent research on the bees, Fred! Well done!

Hoping you do, and please report back afterwards!

"People just repeating what they've been told"... As someone who was heavily into riding and working with horses in my younger days, I was told to only use pure neatsfoot oil on leather, as neatsfoot compound contained petroleum products that would rot the stitches. Good tack is and has always been expensive. You need to take care of it if you want it to last. And horseback riding and driving has a very long history. So, I am quite happy assuming that what's been passed down to me by other knowledgeable equestrians is the truth - the result of several hundred years of caring for tack. My riding instructor served in the Hungarian cavalry prior to, and during WWII. He had an old saddle with his name (and rank) on the cantle from his military days. Except for some wear on the saddle flaps from his knees, it was in excellent shape. I also briefly dated a guy who was with Canada's Governor General's Horse Guards. They used traditional military tack, dating from when Canada still had a cavalry. He told me his newest piece of equipment was a curb bit with the date 1913 stamped on it! In days gone by, the cavalry knew how to look after its equipment, and I saw it with my own eyes. Contrast that with what I once read in Mother Earth News, from the hippie generation. People who subscribed to this magazine were all about going back to the land, and living an eco-friendly way of life. For some of them, that meant using horsepower instead of driving a car. This particular article talked about what was necessary to use horses for transportation. It said that leather will eventually dry out and crack and break. so once a year, you should give the horse's harness a good soaking in a barrel of oil.* Yes, this is really messy, and you will have to hang the harness somewhere where the oil can drip off it afterwards without harming anything, but if you don't do it the leather won't last... * I don't recall if they specified what kind of oil, but I'm fairly sure it was motor oil. Probably USED motor oil. My reaction to reading this: F....ing idiots!! As students of a former cavalry captain, we were taught to clean our tack EVERY time we rode. The main cause of tack breaking at the stable was either years and years of wear and tear, or a horse damaging it after dumping its rider!

Love this thread!!

Bruce, for over 20 years, our family lived across the road from a Metro Toronto fire captain. I once saw his wife take some rags to the curb, and set them on fire. So your solution is fire-department approved! Another good method would be that fire proof red pail they show in the video. The really scary part for me was that the bags he sprayed with the fire extinguisher re-ignited a number of hours later!

Tell me about it!! Between helping my relatives out during hay season, and working in a riding stable and the racetrack, I've bucked many a hay bale. Dirty, sweaty, prickly hard work!

It's not just waste hay, Fred. Many a farmer has lost his barn from putting hay away when it's too wet. One of my uncles said he'd once come across a burned out section of hay in the mow, where a fire had started, then extinguished itself due to lack of oxygen, as the bales were packed really tightly. He sure dodged a bullet on that one! That's why those big round bales wrapped in plastic have become popular as they can be stored outside, eliminating the chances of your barn going up in flames, along with all your livestock.

Very nice save!

This was posted by a wood working site, but I feel leatherworkers also need to be reminded of the dangers. I also know quite a few of the leatherworkers on this board also work with wood! It's a YouTube video, unfortunately. Hope you can see it! https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=6835198336500559

Dwight, we me being hearing impaired, orders like that would NOT be taken over the phone. An e-mail or letter would have to be involved! Then the customer has no one to blame but him/herself!

And us Canadians use the British spelling!

I was very fortunate the dye missed my clothing in this particular case. I keep a box of gloves on a shelf above my bench, and a roll of paper towels is always in a nearby holder. And I use glass shot glasses for large dye projects, and Tandy's little plastic painter's pallet for smaller ones. Maybe I need to make a holder for the shot glasses and/or my dye bottles. Have yet to spill a shot glass, though, as they are bottom heavy. Oh, and I have a box of 1 ml. syringes for measuring dye, plus some larger 3 and 10 ml syringes for larger amounts. Once the dye is measured out, the neck of the dye bottle and the cap are carefully wiped down before recapping to make sure I get a good seal, and to make sure I can get the cap off the next time I need that particular dye!

Okay, pet peeve time... we work with dye when colouring leather. That means we are DYEING it. The other spelling (dying) means you're about to leave this world!

Let's not forget your work table, the floor and in this particular case, one of my sneakers...

Yeah, it was, especially when some close family members decided the vaccines were killing people and masks were useless in preventing transmission. I just had a bad scare with the breast swelling up and getting hard, but after a round of very comprehensive tests, my oncologist says it's just due to scarring causing an increase in lymph-edema. I'm coming up for 4 years cancer free in November!

Hang in there! I was going through chemo during the COVID lockdown. And the chemo caused breathing problems - I was on oxygen for awhile! You can bet I kept my distance from anyone not wearing a mask!! It was a scary time.

You decide you need to do this one little touch-up on your nearly completed project, and can't be bothered taking your usual precautions with the leather dye... You can guess what comes next, I'm sure!

The only possible way I can think of to fix this is to try trimming a bit off the cover of the notebook itself. Covers always extend a bit beyond the pages inside them, and since the notebook is going to fit inside the leather cover, no one is ever going to notice, until they need to replace the notebook with a new one! The only OTHER alternative would be to throw the cover in the trash bin and start over... Tooling errors can often be fixed. Same with dyeing. But for measurement errors, it's measure twice, cut once. And if you're at all unsure, leave a margin for error. You can always cut something smaller if you have to!

Wow, if I lived close by, I'd be there for sure! Both to help the horses, and to dig for fossils!

Two of my favourite smells go together - leather and horses!

SUP, I really doubt that, as the initial small amount the tracker took out was on the same day I attended the luncheon. The only other place i visited that day was the grocery store, and as I said, opportunities for hacking my card there are very limited because I stick extremely close to my cart, and would notice someone trying to get close to me.

I think the card was hacked either when I paid or when I left it lying on the table for quite some time. Not going to do that again! I believe the tap feature is disabled for amounts over $100. I know when I use my debit card, that's the case. Should check and see if it's the same with my Master Card.

Master Card suspended my card when the hacker tried to make that cash advance, which was over my credit limit. And here was poor me, wondering why they wouldn't let me activate the NEW card I'd just received in the mail! By sheer coincidence, my old card's expiry date was just days after it was hacked. I've spoken with MC twice, and it's all sorted out, and a new card is on its way. I have also warned the Friday lunch group at my church about what happened. I'm sure the hacking happened at the Legion, as the only other place I used the card that day was at my usual grocery store. It would be pretty difficult for someone to hack the card there, as I never let anyone get near my buggy. Most people seem to still observe the COVID 6 feet apart rules in the grocery store.

Today I found out my credit card was hacked. After somehow stealing my information, the hackee ran a small payment of just over a dollar through the card, and when that was successful, tried to take a large cash advance from the account. Fortunately, this didn't go through as it exceeded my credit limit, which I deliberately keep low for just that reason. I got my statement today, and the last place I used the card prior to this was at the local legion. My Anglican church meets for lunch at the Legion every Friday, and we all sit together at the same table. On this occasion, I decided to pay by credit card, and had the card sitting out on the table for quite some time before paying. To pay, you have to go into another room, where someone had a terminal. I don't recall if I paid by tapping, or if I had to enter my pin, but the amount was only $8.00. I'm wondering if someone possibly scanned my card while it was lying on the table. I certainly don't suspect anyone in our group - the person immediately on my left was our priest, and the one across from me was a member of the Altar Guild, and someone I know quite well compared to some of the other people in the church. So, since credit and debit cards allowed tap and go, how close do you have to be to the card to steal someone's information? And do I need to warn others about this?

Had to Google that. They are an extinct form of sea creature, distantly related to the octopus: https://www.google.com/search?q=Baculites&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Cool!