penguineer

Cereal boxes are good - I also use beer cartons. Don't know what you have available but we can get a 30 can "block" of most of the common beers. The card used is the same as a cereal box and when folded out and the ratty/glued bits trimmed gives you a sheet about a foot by two and a half..... Take a look around your supermarket - it's a new way to go shopping!!! Find things you buy anyway, see if they come in a bulk pack(washing powder) made of the right board....... Cheers!

There probably is an industry standard for what A,B,C grade are but I don't know what it is. Some of the tanneries around here will also do grade 1, 2,3,4 etc..... Basically - with A grade you would expect no surface blemishes across the majority of the leather and firm consistent leather(except for the usual soft spots around neck/belly). By the time you get to C grade I'd be expecting a blemish around every hands breadth or so. Think of it as a guide to yield - the higher grades get you more clean real estate to play with. Of course - if you're doing small items it may not matter as much as you're able to work around blemishes. If you're doing lots of tooling and backgrounding you may be able to hide small marks in the "noise". Sometimes you want something that has a bit of "character", so you don't really care if deep brand marks and barbed wire scratches run across the front flap of a messenger bag or something. If you're cutting your own belt straps you probably want nice firm leather from the spine area without marks...... Cheers!

Can't really offer much in the way of specific "how to do it" on the turks heads, apart from how I managed to figure it out. Basically - persevere and practice. If you can figure out a 3/5 and a 4/5 turks head you have the basis of practically every other turks head(figuring out how to "raise" a turks head is another topic however). I found that things made more sense if I used diagrams from one book that seemed clear and the instructions from another - just the way they are written or drawn can change the way you understand them. You may be working with a mandrel or piece of dowel to set the knot up? Try doing the knot in some light cord around the first two fingers of your left(or non-dominant) hand - it keeps that hand out of the way, makes front and back of the knot obvious and I found it easier to spread the knot out to look like the pictures without it slipping out of shape. Most of the work is done on the front of the knot and you should only need to turn it over once or twice. Ron Edwards(Aussie) turks heads books had the description and diagrams on how to do the knots around your fingers, but I think I used the wording from Ashleys to understand some parts. Rolling the braid does help - try putting the braid on a bench and rolling a small piece of board across it - initially you will hear a thmp-thp-bmp-thmp noise as you roll top piece of board across it, but that will change to a wrr-wrr-wrr as the lumps and bumps get compressed. Then look at the braid and run your hand along it with your eyes closed - much smoother and I think the braid flexes easier, not as stiff. Bevelling lace can be done with a sharp edge beveler(reasonably cheap tool from a leather supplier) - lay a ruler on your bench, lay the lace alongside and run the beveller along the outside edge of the lace, move the lace along until the full length is done on one side, then turn the lace around and do the other side. It's not a perfect job, but it does reduce the bulk on the edges and makes the rolled braid much smoother. Splitting lace is really just ensuring a uniform thickness. There's any variety of gadgets to do it, but I use a straight blade and a jig made out of cereal packets. Essentially, two strips of card the thickness of the final lace glued to a larger piece of card so the lace runs between them. Lay the lace in the "tunnel", put the knife across the top of the two pieces of card and pull the lace through. It may take a little practice to get this happening smoothly without cutting the lace, but the end result is worth it. Cheers!

You can pay as much or more for old or new as the other - guess it depends if you know what you're looking at and can judge the difference between a "reasonable" new one and a "superb-but-used" old one that really is worth more as a tool. I've come to the conclusion that vintage/antique is ebay-speak for "I barely know what this is and it came out of a dusty old box" (take a look at craftool listings sometime). Cheers!

A bit abbreviated....... Made from a sheet of 3.7mm play - 1200mm * 600mm (long grain) Cut ply into six strips (three strips per side) Use liberal amounts of PVA to laminate each side together and form over piece of scrap timber, using clamps to hold in place until dry. Take care to make the top end "long", so that the two sides will press against each other(remember that you can always cut shorter). pic: two sides drying - note the length of the top end Use bolts to hold the base together, bolt in the middle has a wingnut to allow adjustments to pressure. Finished clamp: Original idea came from one of Ron Edwards books.... It's not the worlds best clamp, but its's cheap(<AUD$20) and easily made...... Cheers!

If you get stuck, a simple saddlers clamp can be made out of a sheet of plywood. Not as good in several ways compared to the real-deal steamed article, but is cheap and expedient. I'll see if I can find the photos from when I made the last one...... Cheers!

I'd go with the other suggestions here - things need to be more "solid" all round. Another small thing that may help is to move your tooling surface over a table leg(without the rubber underneath) - this means that the leather is between the stamp and a solid mass that runs directly to the floor. Also helps with punching, and it eliminates some of the bounce on the rest of the bench that makes things rattle. Cheers!

That is the way it's supposed to work. Turn up to court and present your prior art - no problem. Of course, that probably costs more than the settlement and maybe a "license". The ability of the patent holder to shop the courts for a nice venue also helps dissuade people fighting these things - apparently courts in East Texas are quite amenable. The law firm does what the client wants. The patent office ensures that there is no obvious conflict with any other patent and that the patent was correctly filed. If there are problems they'll end up in court. What's the problem - it all makes sense to the lawyers. An attempt to improve the patent system in Australia by introducing "innovation patents" resulted in an approved filing for "circular transportation device"....... Cheers!

Definitely sounds like a troll. You'll find the cost of settlement is less than the cost of getting a lawyer involved(at which point the troll often walks away). I think someone should do a bit of community service and take it to Tandy - let them know that their customers could be sued for using their products and they may be infringing by continuing to promote use of their products in this way(they have videos on leathercraftlibrary for steampunk wristbands using bullet/shotshell conchos). Perhaps I should patent "use of braided, twisted or woven material, natural or artificial, to attach two pieces of leather by a method of interweaving or knotting said material through holes in the leather". I'm willing to start taking settlement payments at $1000..... I'm thinking perhaps it might be worth it having a look at fightcopyrighttrolls.com or dietrolldie.com - the guys over there are a bit more familiar with the issues, can tell you if you've got a problem and ways to deal with it. Unfortunately, from what I've heard, the best way to deal with these sorts of things is to not respond in the first place..... The whole thing works by having reasonable people try to sort things out like reasonable people.... Cheers!

The awl blade on the left has not been sharpened, the one on the right has had the point taken down to a more rounded tip and sharpened. Side-by-side you can see how less of the blade on the right needs to pass through the leather to make the same size stitch hole. I use a series of sharpening stones to set up the edges and strop every now and then while using it - it's really just a specialised knife. It isn't much work to do this by hand - the edges aren't complex curves or anything so you can feel when the edge is lying on the stone at the correct angle...... Cheers!

There's a knife for every purpose. Long blades(which includes your rotary cutter) are great for long, straight cuts. Tools with less of the blade in the material beign cut are better for tight curves - good example is a clicker knife or paris knife.... eg First hit on google with a piccie is http://www.sterlingtools.com.au/DSK_dash_250/Clicker-Style-Shoe-Knife-with/pd.php I tend to change knives depending on what I'm cutting...... Cheers!

Not sure what difference wth a Douglass specifically, but I just use a very fine stone to reset the edge every now and then and keep it sharp with a strop and polishing compound(actually optical polishing abrasive, but everyone uses what suits them) between times....... Just strop each of the four sides and maybe once or twice across the top. Occasionally use a knife steel..... FWIW - do people take the points off their awls to give a rounded "bayonet" tip? It means less of the awl has to go through the leather for the same size hole on the other side(less effort) and it doesn't go as deep into your finger (less blood when you make a whoopsie) Cheers!

I've seen these guys advertised a bit: http://www.antik-group.com/epages/es122041.sf/en_US/?ViewObjectID=85633 Cheers!

Ummmm......yeah - not my personal choice of colours, but very well done and very very girly in a "Hello Kitty" kind of way.... Nice work! Cheers!

Nicely done - looks like all the edges were skived right down (as in paper-thin at the end) so they meet up nicely. It's an irregular object and rounded surfaces, so as long as you've skived down properly there won't be any edge or extra thickness to feel where they overlap. Cheers!

Hot water works - you just have to be careful with temperatures, different tannages will react differently with the same heat. Sometimes you want the leather to harden, but you will also turn the leather brittle(as you discovered). Put the leather in too hot water and bad things will happen. One technique is to form the leather over a mould, tack it down and then pour hot water over it - the leather will stretch, deform and harden. Experimentation is needed. For what you're doing, I would just soak the leather in cold/room temp water and work away at it with a bone folder, stretching it around the corners, then clamping or clipping the sides down before letting it dry. You'll discover that this will also harden the leather a little. Cheers!

I keep looking at this and trying to see the problem...... The stitch doesn't look the same on both sides and the difference between the three lines of stitching you have shown has more to do with the spacing than anything else. The thread will lay differently as it has to sit at a different angle to get to the next awl hole - the reason the third line looks different is because the holes are closer resulting in the thread in each stitch laying closer (on top of, or beside) to the thread in the previous and next stitch...... Does this help at all? Cheers!

BTW - at that price for brass plates, you got a bargain....... Cheers!

Are you sure they're stamps? I get the impression they may have been set up for printing or gold tooling - brass isn't the best material for taking a hit, but it does conduct heat well. I'd suspect they may have been intended for putting different "branch"(?) logos on stuff like notebooks - could be either blind impressions(just stamped using heat and pressure) or foiled(as above, but with gold/silver material in the impressions). Be interesting to see what the back of the stamps is like - if it's flat, I'd suspect that they are more correctly "plates"..... Try not to hit them - better to place them and use some sort of press to avoid damage. Nice find! Cheers! [Duh - just looked at the ebay link again - they're flat backed and the description says "printing plates"]

Good point - shouldn't be using sharp needles anyway, you already have the holes cut and there's less potential for staining the leather. Blunt needles will still pierce a thread though....... Cheers!

Birdsalls tan their own roo (you can look into the tannery from the shop). Packers at Nerangba also tan their own roo(the shop is small thing next to their tannery). Lefflers in Melbourne don't have their own tannery, but should be able to help you also. I think(could be wrong) a lot of the cow you get here is imported - the USA "branded" stuff is more the premium stuff, a fair bit of the rest comes from NZ or is processed there. Easiest thing is to give them a call or visit and ask. About the only other place that roo could come from is NZ and they just want to be rid of them....... Cheers!

Definitely use a stiching pony or a saddlers clamp or whatever fits the work. Particularly needed when you're cutting the holes with an awl while you stitch(running out of hands + keeps the work in a consistent place so the awl holes end up parrallel). I think it also goes a way to achieving consistency in the tension when you pull the thread tight. Cheers!

Trying to think how I do it(become nearly automagic)..... - Needle from the back side goes through the stitch hole - pull the needle through, but don't pull all the thread through - *** use the slack to pull the thread on the back side back slightly as the "front" needle goes through the hole *** - both sides then get pulled tight..... I've seen stuff where people have both needles passing through the leather at the same time, but that's not the way I was taught..... Essentially the thread from the back is travelling in the same direction as the needle from the front(running away from it) so doesn't get pierced...... Does this help at all? Cheers!

It's one of my most used tools - I have about three knives that I use depending on what needs to be done. It's generally a toss up between this knife and a snap-blade knife for general cutting, and it also gets a run at skiving every now and then. I reckon you can keep the Japanese knife sharper that the snap-offs, but sometimes I get lazy and the snap-blade gets used. It's a bit less intimidating to use than a round kife - when you first pick those up it seems everything is either an edge or a point - and the straight edge is easier to sharpen. Like any knife - keep it sharp! One of the things it doesn't do well is tight inside corners due to the blade width - I have a different knife for that. Does that help? Cheers!

The handle on the stanleys seems to get in the way for skiving and they don't have the flex to make up for it. I thought the first knife in that video was similar to my Japanese utility knife - edge is straight rather than angled. The japanese knife can be used for skiving as there is a bit of distance between the hand/le and edge to allow you a good angle. The knife I usually use for skiving is made from a power hacksaw blade - again, slim so lets you get a good angle for skiving. I've got a couple of round knives but don't have the practice to be proficient in their use......otherwise they can do nearly everything.... Cheers!