fredk

I've been watching 'Rawhide'. Its sort of set about 1870 They too use the SAA. And the '73 Winchester. Sometimes you see a character using an older style Colt pistol

I've been using a metric centre-finder ruler for several years I don't really bother with the actual measurement; I just get the ruler onto the line, get the same distance number on each side and voila, the centre be found

Same, I use a small brass brush followed by metal polish

Don't use any mallet directly on the die. Thats a sure way of ruining the mallet and possibly damaging the die. I lay the die on a hard surface with the blade upwards. Find my leather and press it into place with my thumbs. That sort of 'locks' it in place then I use piece of off-cut wood or a piece of round nylon I have and hit that with my mallet. About a minute later I have the cut out. Pop it out of the die are start again. In about 10 minutes I have a dozen or so pieces to make key fobs If you cut 2 key fob pieces, glue a magnet on each end and sew the leather fob pieces together you have made a magnetic book mark! Two of these sewn together with a magnet at each end Make one book mark They are mildly popular at the moment

Here there are different levels of Spam; from the downright awful you wouldn't feed to your dog to the quite tasty stuff. All come in tins. The awful kind has loads of jelliefied fats but the nice stuff has minimal fat. I mostly avoid eating it as it reminds me of taking a packed sandwiches lunch to primary school This may be a measure of how it is disliked here; In the 1970s we had a national strike for 3 months. Everything became near impossible to buy due to shortages. But not spam. The shops always had plenty of stock of that!

Two boards and some C clamps or a solid surface, a mallet and a sacrificial piece of wood

Been thinking on this You have a sewing machine? put a 'leather' needle in, put leather under needle and turn machine manually, without thread. That will punch your holes

You don't need a proper leather working awl but could use one of these pokey-hole tools They can be bought cheaply. Put your leather over a plastic cutting board and push the pokey-hole tool through

It does cuir bouilli, literally Boiled Leather, sometimes using a hot wax bath

Only hot water from the tap, and not too hot at that Boiling hot water will really harden the leather but will make it shrink by as much as 20%, in uncontrolled directions

Dilute either the Future or Resolene 1:1 with water. Use several thinned coats, maybe 3. I prefer to use a version of 'Future' which I can get The paint won't help stiffen the leather Thin the paint and apply thin coats to build up the colour This knife scabbard was made in 2007, painted with acrylic model paints with no varnish to protect it. It was used regularly at events, tossed into a kit bag, generally neglected. It came back to me for repainting late 2016. After 10 years;

When moulding it; give it a good soaking and a little bit of stretching. Clamp it up and let it dry. Resolene will work if can soak in, so usually not chrome tan Floor wax ? do you men 'Mop & Glo'? despite what it says that is not a wax but an acrylic varnish You can use acrylic paints on leather. Any paints. Don't go buying expensive ones. I use paints meant for plastic models. They're cheap. They'll only crack off if you put the paint on really thick, which you won't have to do

Basically you have veg tan and chrome tan. Chrome tan is used on furniture are rarely can it be wet moulded to hold a shape. Chrome usually shows a blue line in centre when its cut. I see from your photos your leather is not showing this blue Veg tan can usually be wet moulded and when dry will hold its shape

1. If its veg tan leather you are molding it will hold its shape 2. Several coats of thinned water resistant PVA glue, or varnish 3. Try bees wax, rubbed in, it will protect the edge, not turn it too dark