Sheilajeanne

The plumber knows where the problem is - it's in the sewer line that goes from the east side of the house (laundry, tenant's apartment over the garage) and joins into the main house line just before going into the tank. There's an area in that line that must have sunk down over the years, and the camera showed the line is completely full of water for a distance of about 10 ft. The water clears up before the camera reached the junction with the other line. When the septic tank was pumped out, we took all 3 covers off it, so we got a really good look at it, and the guy doing the pumping said it looked okay. There were no blockages and no leaks. And it hadn't been pumped out in more than 2 years, so of COURSE it was quite full. The tank has a very slight slope towards the weeping bed end, so it should be fine unless it settles further. We can check on that when replacing the sewer pipe. If the tank has a problem it's at THAT end, not the weeping bed. But the main problem is definitely the sewer pipe, as the camera confirmed. The sewer line has been working fine since the plumber snaked it out. He say he thinks we have about a month before it clogs up again. I'm not so sure about that, and want to get it replaced ASAP!

Stolen from the Tandy FB group...

I live in a small town that has municipal water, but no sewage service. Everyone is dependent on a septic tank. Last year, the sewage line leading to my tenant's upstairs apartment backed up twice. A friend of mine thought he'd fixed it - it looked like the back of the septic tank had sunk down over the years, causing the sewage to have to flow uphill. He dug out the line, disconnected it, and replaced it lower down on the tank. That worked okay until about a month ago, when my tenants reported it was backing up again and there was water all over the laundry room, garage and lower hallway. I called a septic service, and they did an emergency pump out of the tank, for about double what it would have cost if I'd had it done during regular business hours. Although the tank was very full it didn't fix the problem. The next day, I had a plumber come out and snake the line. He said he thought there was a problem with the drain, and part of it must have sunk down. I wasn't happy to hear this, as some time after the drain line was put in place, some idiot poured 4 big concrete slabs over top of it. Fixing the drain was going to be a huge job! 20 days after the snake out, the drain clogged again. Called the plumber, and this time, after snaking the line, he put a camera down, and confirmed the line was full of water/sewage for about a 10 ft. section, 20 feet out from the house. There was nothing I could do but bite the bullet, and take up those damn concrete slabs! So, I rented a jackhammer on the weekend, and my tenant, with help from his son, went to work on it. Two trailer loads of concrete have gone to the dump already, and this is what's left to do. The other picture shows what I've accomplished so far today and yesterday. The dirt next to the patio is from where my tenant dug down beside the foundation trying to find the drain. We eventually figured out the drain exits the house somewhere underneath the door to the patio. We just haven't found the time/energy to fill the hole in yet! Oh, and you see the tank at the far right of the second picture? That's my oil tank. It looks like the sewage line goes underneath the tank, which is going to be REALLY fun... The tank is up off the ground about a foot and a half, so maybe it won't be TOO bad to fix...

Thank you! Wow, his tools are works of art!

JayEl, I asked someone about using petal lifters recently, and they said they DO cut the leather. It helps that the leather they use is top grade Herman Oak, but they also said they practiced a lot first to make sure they didn't accidentally tear the leather instead of cutting it.

I couldn't find any tools by Ed. Anyone have the link? All I found were obituaries!!

Lovely! What do you use to undercut the leaves?

That's some very nice tooling! So there are no initials, names or numbers anywhere that might identify the makers?

jowen, uploading videos off site usually results in links that don't work anymore after several years. Do you have Windows Paint on your computer? It's a standard feature on all Microsoft computers. It should be there even if you've never used it. If so, it's dead simple to resize the picture yourself. Open it in Paint, and you will see a tab that says "Resize picture'. Click on that then select either percentage or pixels. I do pixels, and pick a size that's around 500 pixels. If you resize the one dimension, the other will automatically resize to keep the picture in correct proportion. If you want to keep the original photo, you must give the new one a new name. Select 'save as' in the 'File' menu and give it a new title. Then you should be able to post the new picture here!

Now you're talking fishing gear! https://www.purefishing.com/pages/shakespeare

I need to take some photos. Will get back to you on this!

I am curious to know how you got the very dark background in the journal cover. Did you treat the whole piece with antique, or did you just paint the background with dye, using a small brush? I never seem to be able to get such good contrast using antique, even if I use several coats of resist on my carving!

Yes - THIS! Would like to see more!

Gorgeous work!

The chemical in walnut sawdust/shavings, juglone, is extremely toxic. Horses have died when walnut shavings was used as their bedding. I would certainly wear a mask if working with walnut wood.

A 104 is my favourite backgrounding tool, too. I also use it sometimes to bevel tight corners! Very useful tool!

LOL!!

Nice work! How do you manage to get the background looking like fabric? Do you use a bar grounder, or another matting tool?

Mike, so the only thing keeping that clam on your work table is the weight of the antique iron?? How well does that work?

"Western floral style" You will usually see this called 'Sheridan style". Excellent work! So, the Chinese like this style, and this what they prefer to buy? Would also like to see some Chinese patterns. Maybe North Americans and Europeans will buy those! I think dragons would look good on leather - you could maybe combine the two styles!

Me neither! Most of what I was trying to sell was china and other breakables, so I didn't want to risk shipping it. I did make an exception when one lady asked for ONE teacup to be shipped within the province. She must have really wanted it as shipping was nearly as much as I was asking for the cup and saucer! You're lucky if you do decide to ship - leather working tools are pretty much unbreakable!

I was wondering what that was! Very cute! Hope you're planning to make a purse or other item out of it so the dog shows on both front and back! The mandala is wonderful, too! The tooling is so very crisp. Great work!

Chuck is correct. Here's how I resize my photos. If you are running Windows, it will include Windows Paint. Open the photo in Paint, and look at the top menu. There will be an option to resize the photo. Click on that, and it will give you a choice of pixels or percentage. I usually go with pixels, and select somewhere around 500 to 600 pixels. If you resize the height of the photo, the length will resize automatically to keep the photo in proportion. If you want to keep the original photo, make sure you select 'save as' and give the resized photo a new name! P.S. - no need to post multiple times about this issue. New posts pop up on the right side of the page, where everyone will see them. If no one responds right away, it's because we're busy, or don't have an answer. Be patient - we do love to help newcomers, if we can! Oh, yeah, that cat portrait of yours is incredible! Looking forward to seeing how you did it!

Facebook Buy and Sell buyers will try to get you to give away the tools for a fraction of their value. I am speaking from experience with other items I've tried to sell there. The best place to advertise is on leatherworking sites, or maybe e-Bay. [keeps muttering to self: You do NOT need more tools, you do NOT need more tools....]