fredk

Well, things I would do differently; 1. looks like the sewing was through punched out round holes; I would use a diamond hole, punched thru but not out 2. Stitching is heavier than need to be; I'd use a much lighter/thinner thread 3. the stitches lay on top of the leather; I'd have a groove cut or run for the stitches to lay into 4. I don't like the way the stitching goes over the edge at the top 5. I'd prefer a brown thread rather than a stark white 6. no edge finish at all. I'd slick and burnish that edge

afair I put a piece of spring steel strapping in a chap's sword belt to stop in twisting under the weight of a sword. It worked well. But as it was only a length of about 12 to 15 inches he had no problem folding up the belt. Being spring steel I couldn't bend it without tools so this chap never bent it

echo, me too. The pills are in aluminium & plastic vac packs. Some are nigh on impossible to break out. I have little felling in my fingers and thumbs but I still gotta break these damn pills out

You could use sail eyelets and run the cord through them

Welcome to the mad-house, er. . . the forum Patterns; Tandy library has plenty of free patterns, or put a shout on here and I can maybe send you a PDF of a suitable Tandy pattern Tools; tell us what you have and we'll help you spend your money

It rarely snows here but when it does its usually 1 inch deep. But in '81 I was snowed in on a Mountain for 4 days. It was a bad winter here, the petrol and diesel in the post vans froze solid. I was a postie and was delivering a telegram to a mountain farm. Getting there was no problem. I had a hot whiskey then found my van was snowed in. Stayed overnight at the farm and next day took to getting back to base. I only got so far. I abandoned the van and found a shepherds hide, a stone built shelter. It was fully equipped with survival gear - tins of soup, tins of beans, tea, coffee, the means of a fire and lighting it a few old wool blankets. I spent the night in there. The next day an army helicopter, out looking for me, spotted me but blizzard conditions were too bad for them to land so they dropped me more supplies. Two more days in the shelter then a bit of a thaw and I could get away. I left the extra supplies the army dropped in the shelter for the next person. I reckon my survival training in the RAF kept me alive I often take an 'emergency supply' of food and things in my car yet. And my #1 son used to laugh at it until one dark night. . . . but thats another story!

Torrential rain almost everyday. And when its not raining its drizzling with precipitation. We seem to go from one storm to another with just a couple of days between each with moderately strong winds - 25 to 35 mph, storms are 65 plus mph getting up to 100 mph. I have such a small apartment I have to go outside to cut pieces from large hides, Even pieces like belts are cut on my temporary table outside. I've not been able to get on with any large-ish projects since the beginning of last November.

Pity I can't send you some of ours. Torrential rain almost everyday. And when its not raining its drizzling with precipitation.

Last year or so I made my #1 son some belts. He wanted some dress belts and some work belts One of the work belts was nearly 2 inches wide made of laminated 3 mm (7-8 ounce?) veg tan, so it worked out at about 6 mm (15 ounce?) Last week he gave it back to me He didn't like it. Too heavy, too thick He wants me to make him another work belt like the one he showed me.* Single layer of 2.8 mm (6-7 ounce?) v/t On here I read of US customers wanting thick belts but thats not for #1 Oh, just to say, he has a car-breakers yard and is lifting heavy weights all the time so he's not in an office very much A difference in cultures (*that belt needs a new buckle)

I'll play with you

Yes, you can still get them in brass. Oddly enuf, my #1 son's belt needs a new buckle and all he finds are brass ones, which he doesn't like Shame to say it but try Temu

I must awa agin tae the meet shoppe an git me a haggis for Burns Night is nearly oun us

When I wuz a postie I delivered to a house which had about 6 guard geese. They were really vicious. More than any dog. Here posties bring the mail right to your door. I had to climb the 5 ft high gate and sprint to the door, put mail through, then sprint back to the gate and leap over it before the geese spotted me One week a new driver was on as my relief, I warned him about the geese, as did the supervisor. His attitude was 'yeah, right, I believe you, you're winding me up'. Later the office got a call to come and rescue this driver. I had to take him to the emergency dept at the hospital as he lay in the back of a small post van. A goose got him and had taken a lump the size of your hand out of his ass. The doc asked what had happened, at first he didn't believe me then he burst out laughing as he stitched the flap of ass skin back in place. That driver came back to work at the P.O.* As a note; the Post Office can invoke a law for people to keep their animals under control so not endangering posties. But we looked at the list of animals and geese weren't on it! * I just remembered that driver's name, It was Rodger. And some wit in work made up wee ditty about this incident. Wish I could remember it now

In my experience, if the stitches are too close together and pulled too tight they can cut through the suede

I would use contact adhesive just along the parts the eyelets will go suede doesn't burnish well at all if its good quality suede, and you use medium sized and spaced stitching holes withmedium thick thread I reckon on 3 mm or 1/8 inch, I'd glue the very edge, that 3 mm, to the other leather

They burn all of them here every July 11th Just one example of the many here

yes, its nice piece, I would have laced the front panel on as well for continuity . More Viking designs on front panel, back panel and flap. The Vikings did not leave any surface undecorated

So, you'll sew the bullet loops on first, then the suede, and then the eyelets?

if it was good enuf for the Vikings its good enuf for me

Just about everyone on here uses glue. Usually a good contact glue. The make depends on where you live. the brands I use are UHU and Evostick. I also use PVA glue

Skive about 10 pr 12 mm from each edge

True or not its a well told fun story I once had a fight with a seagull whilst motorcycling to work early one morning. Them gulls have a big wingspan and razor sharp beak, I won the fight eventually but was covered in white feathers

My #1 son and I do the occasional toy car faires. We are usually first to set up and last to leave. Other traders take their time getting in and are usually packed up about 45 minutes before the show ends. We do a ton of trade before the rest arrive & after the other traders are packed up It has been known for us to be still selling an hour after the show closed with the toy collectors coming out to our cars to see what we have We can't understand why the other traders pay a heap of money for a stand and don't stay to the death Our stuff is easily arranged in several plastic boxes; one box is all £1, another is £2 et cetera. Everything is secretly marked to show which box it came from. No sly ones get past us

@hansgruber you can get paint pens with an 0.8 mm point. The paint in them can either be acrylic or oil. They are meant for detailing automobiles. I use them on my game boards. I'd use deer skin rather than sheep

Its too thin to tool but it takes dye nicely