fredk

Magnets have a strength rating N35 is about the lowest and not very strong. Look for and buy magnets rated at N50 or N52. These cost a bit more but they are super strong. When I use magnets I put them in place with a dab of contact adhesive and then cover it/them with an extremely thin piece of leather glued to the main piece, pressed down tight around the magnet. The thinner the leather the better as the thickness of the leather reduces the pull of the magnet. And try to avoid chrome tanned leather for the cover. I found that thickness for thickness chrome tan reduced the pull far more than veg tanned leather did In haberdashery you can buy magnets enclosed in small plastic wallets, all ready for sewing into clothes and such. But I've found these magnets are not very strong Also, you can add magnets to each other to increase their pull. But you can only do so many. There is a formula for this but its basically less than 10x the diameter of the first magnet, after this you get a diminishing return, ie the magnet strength actually starts to weaken

Wot he says Its a sales ploy 'it'll sew leather et cetera'. I might sew very thin leather, like 0.5mm or so but really its a no goer. Having said that I use my Singer 99K for punching sewing holes in leather up to about 3mm thick, but I've not used it with thread to sew

Eire has made things worse. In the past goods were trucked from GB and Eu, through Holyhead to Dublin and up the road to N.I. But Eire introduced its own customs checks. A truck carrying an assortment of goods to M&S in N.I. needs, in triplicate, thats 3 copies, of customs forms of 300 pages each for each type of goods, ie boxes of chocolates, one set, ready-meals, one set et cetera. M&S says they employ 14 vets full time just to fill in the customs forms for goods to N.I. All foods need a vets clearance signed off. Now a lot of these trucks go Liverpool - Belfast, but there is still a lot of customs paperwork. A lot of courier companies have given up and won't deliver here anymore. Just the big ones still do. But even before this nonsense a lot of GB businesses would not post or courier to N.I. I used to have a friend in Northants who would accept my parcels and post them on via RM / PF

Here's a wee latest; For the last couple of years I've been buying dyes from a certain company in England with no problems. Just an hour ago they changed to ' we do not deliver to Northern Ireland' If I feel like it I might contact them and ask why the change

Be aware that not all these sets have the same size punches* In my set I have three fat oblongs and three skinny ones. Skinny ones; in mm, 30 x 5, 25 x 5 and 20 x 4 Fat ones; in mm, 25 x 16, 16 x 10 and 13 x 8 * I just check the sizes of mine against the list on the set I linked to; they are different

I use the ones I linked to as well. Under my press but without a magnet A swipe with a diamond sharpening plate keeps an edge on them

I think he's looking for this style of cutter; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254559300541?hash=item3b44eaabbd:g:9PYAAOSwQEtehzRr there are only a few oblong ones in a set though

yes, this line intrigues "This means that we will cease normal trading on 24th December."

'It was all a dream' He was in the shower all this time

Make them, sell them, pocket the money I only got a makers stamp a few years back and still 99% of stuff I make goes out without the stamp on it A makers stamp is good for knowing your work, especially traceability for guarantees and such Something I once did on a different product was to put a secret mark on my items. When I got one back with a complaint I looked and the secret mark was not there, the item was another maker's copy of mine.

Thanks for finding all that out

umm, thats what I do

I cannot give you an answer. They just will not send to N.I. They have their reasons. I've got used to it I'll not go into it too much, just one recent example; I bought a plastic model thru ebay from a seller in England. The seller cancelled the sale - ' I don't send to your country'. We're the same bluddy country!

When I started in this crazy lark about 21 years ago I searched out and contacted many places. Some never answered, some just said they didn't "export to 'Ireland' " or didn't send to N.I. Only Le Prevo, Stu himself, replied with, 'What do you want?' and I've been buying from them ever since afair I did contact Abbey a couple of years ago about buying a round knife but their answer was 'we don't send to Ireland' There are many, many companies, not only leather suppliers but in other things as well, in GB who will just not send to N.I. Sometimes we are just a pariah

Seeing this I just went to their website. Stu told me back in January he was thinking of retiring but I thought he was joking I've been buying from them for over 20 years. They were the only place who would send to N.I. If they close my only other option is to buy from Tandy in Texas

No, each element needs 2mm added to each side Lets say you have a straight line 3mm wide and 2mm deep on the male plate. The female accepting that would need to be 2 + 3 + 2 wide = 7mm wide and 2 +2mm deep = 4 mm to allow 2mm leather to fit in between

I think this is not really too new Swarovski do a range of wee glass animals. They are very, very expensive. I knew people who collected them. Then one day, ok, really, over a short time the word 'Swarovski' was removed from the description. No longer a 'Swarovski' crystal glass (name of animal). They became just a 'Crystal glass (name of animal) and the shop in Dungannon which sold these animals got a visit from an aggressive Swarovski rep who removed all the Swarovski signs and told the shop owner in the strongest terms not sell the animals using the brand name again. This was nigh on 25 years ago

May I suggest you try to find a local electronics geek and take the board to him/her? A story. Years ago my photo-processor's main developing machine broke down. A board in it had gone faulty. No replacement readily available. Would take several months to replace if at all. With the processor doing several hundred films per hour on 3 machines he was looking at buying a new main machine at tens of thousands of ££. One of our friends, who was a bit of geek and weirdo, came by. Disappeared in to the room with the machine. Then cleared off. Two hours he was back. Back into the machine room, came out and declared the film processing machine was fixed. And it was. Cost? was a small component at 25 pence (I kid you not). Our geek had looked at the boards, saw the problem, took the board out and home, soldered in a replacement component from his stock of bits. His payment? was 'will you give me a ten pack of xxxx film?' He got more than ten films and free film processing & printing for several months

Thats why we make so much, have more distilleries per head of population and so many Beta-tasters checking it out in all the pubs. But a Black Bushe will beat any other pretend whisky any day of the week

The Irish invented WHISKEY (note spelling with an E) Then they shared it with the Scots who cannot do it right and have to blend it to make it drinkable and they can't even spell the word the correct way - WHISKY - note, no E

yeah but its fun, interesting and satisfying when its done edit: umm, do I see another chewed up screw head? 3rd photo, bottom right,

It is an interesting piece Having both mm and oz on the scale might it be post-WW2? Maybe 1960s? I have a few old English leather work books of WW2 and immediate post-WW2 era and they measure leather in ounces. Its not till the 1970s books I see leather measured in millimetres edit to add; btw that chewed up screw head above the MM annoys me. I'd take a fine file to it and smooth it out

When I attach the the thin leather lining I 1. cut the lining close to the size needed 2. on the inside of my main piece I draw a line where my stitching will be, allowing for a trim cut - lets say, 6mm in from the edge, allowing 1 or 2mm trim 3. I draw a line between the stitching line and the edge, in this pretend case it would be about 3 or 4mm from the edge / 3 or 2mm from the stitching line 4. after I glue the lining on and before the glue has fully cured I use a very sharp knife to trim the lining leather to that intermediate line and peel away the excess 5. if or when I skive the edge before sewing the lining leather just gets a touch. 6. I glue and sew the next piece to the first. The edge of the lining is hidden but caught in the sewing 7. at an edge where there is no other piece to be sewn on, like the outer edge of a bag flap, I skive the edge of the main piece back about 10mm then just glue the lining leather to it. making sure that the edge is full glued down, then I trim it to tidy it

Sprat can adhesive. Has the main advantage of being able to cover a large area very quickly 1. a light spray coat of adhesive. 2. let it 'flash' off, ie let the solvent evaporate, takes just a minute 3. check tacky of adhesive, not wet just sticky 4. lay material on 5. use a brayer to press and flatten the lining material Only a light coat of adhesive is needed. It just needs to hold the liner in place, there is no stress on it

It was the best part of 30 years ago, before I started leather working/crafting but I'm 99% sure it was a veg tan. The care instructions were for a veg tan leather afair