fredk

you're behind the news. Its a bridge betwixt Ulster and Scotland, and work is actually going on - they are looking for a site for our end, actual surveying work not just, 'umm that looks a nice place' But its all on the q. t. right now

yup, shore iz. Nice one. I've had a few days of un-wellness so I've not made mine yet. I need to see if I've got some bamboo

On etsy 1. its a privately owned on-line shopping place. They can put in place any rules they like 2. Like so many other bricks n mortar and on-line places the wimps and idiots set the rules

02.00 here, time for bed but I'll be on it later

you're on! No, I don't know. A fancy 'hand made' real genuine leather and real wood / grass diptera exterminator? N.I. is both IN and Out of both the UK and EU. Confused?, so are we. I no longer do any smuggling, latest smuggling, afaik, has just been fuel, alcohol drinks, tobacco and illegal type drugs. I'm sorry this has hi-jacked your fly swatter thread

Buy a plastic basin. During a session, for a change in colour just a rinse thru with alcohol sprayed through works for me. A full strip down and cleaning after the session is over. I've never taken the airbrush to a sink - too much chance of loosing the small parts down the drain hole. I just dismantle and clean over a small ex-food tray dish.

A small piece of scrap leather glued onto the main piece to form a pocket for the end of the dowel or bamboo, which would look nice, to slip into. Bamboo can be bought from the likes of gardening centres as plant supports. A few years ago I made bamboo cane pens from the plant support canes. 10 x 4ft canes cost me £0.99.

ah, there be the double catch, we are still UK as well so food etc still needs to go through the customs of EU - UK. It has to go through the customs and paperwork which ever place it come from. Thats why there is a row about it and nightly riots on our streets

N.I. still allows EU citizens in to live and work. Post is ok but other items are being held up by customs eg; we now can't get sausages or processed meat in from Britain without it having a veterinary certificate. We are actually running short of certain foods in the shops eg fresh fruit & veggies. Rationing is in place; no more than two or three of certain items. I've problem coming up; Its going to be hard and/or costly to get new leather from my supplier in England. Each hide needs a veterinary certificate, which has to be obtained by the courier. A couple of hides from England are going to cost about £90 in courier fees (used to be £16) and will take up to 2 weeks to go through customs (used to take 2 days & no customs). I can buy the leather from Tandy in USA. Courier fees including customs/taxes is £31 and 48 hour delivery I'm seriously worried about the lack of insects here. Hardly any mosquitos here but we have a big black non-biting midge. One thing about this island is there are no insects or animals that want to injure or kill a person. Even the sharks along the coast are friendly - they are Basking Shark and they only eat plankton

I'll throw one in for youse; it reminds me of a gardener's / farmer's harvesting or slip knife. My B-i-L was both a farmer and a gardener and he had a knife with a similar blade but his was a fold-in knife

Looks well. I bet those colours really show better in person than any photo can show Depends just how far ya wanna go. A cheap airbrush can be bought from the likes of Harbor-wotsit for as little as about $15. But you need a compressor, thats more expensive I use a carboard box as my spray-box chamber in my spare room. I just change to box when it needs changing. I don't get too much over-spay but in case I do I just cover anything in about 2 ft range with old rags

Simple and, I expect, useful The only aspect I'd be worried about are the screws into the dowel. Did you poke or drill a pilot hole for them? In my experience screws driven directly into a dowel will split it. If you have any ready-rivets might I suggest you drill a hole for them and use them to attach the flappy bit Very oddly I've had very few flies around these past few years. Only maybe 3 so far this year.

*speechless* !

I didn't make a complete belt; I had to strengthen a length of belt for a client. His favourite sword belt, but it twisted where he carried the sword. I glued on a piece of thick brass plate then sewed a thin lining leather over it. afair I put a piece of brass about 10 or 12 inches long, about 1.25 inches wide and 1mm thick. Glueing it was just to hold the brass in place until I sewed the leather cover piece on

In the ebay listing both the label and the seller says its made from horse hide No, its meant to be a bear. Close-up of the label on ebay - see link by OP

You are still misinterpreting his 'folding'; His folding is bringing the front side of the holster over to the back side - the normal way you do to make a holster

Nice work on those wallets Morse is still very useful. Year before last was talking to a soldier. He'd been sent into an African country to help local LEO to rescue some hostages. The patrol was going thru a remote village when they heard some banging. All the patrol but him ignored the banging but he recognised it as Morse. Long story short - communication was made, one of the hostages was able to tell the patrol where they were and how many baddies there were. After a gun fight, result was 8 hostages freed, 12 baddies dead and another 3 taken prisoner.

I think there may be 'The Guild of Master Craftsmen' and 'The Guild of Master Craftsmen' A long time ago, when I had a business making wooden toys, all 'hand made' by craftsmen I was contacted by a 'The Guild of Master Craftsmen' and invited to join them. Basically they wanted £1500 per year as a member so I could use their logo and say I was a member, but there was absolutely no need to prove our quality or standards. Just sign up and pay the fee. It had, generally, the same aims as set out above.

I was told. An expert is someone who knows all about how you should do your job, but cannot do it himself

1. I think you need to look at your awl work. In 21 years of leatherworking I've never broken an awl, never even so much as bent a tip. Try using cork, a block or sheet, to poke your awl thru the leather into. If you can afford them, buy two* pair of these special pliers for making sewing holes; * 4-tooth as per the picture and a 2-tooth for going around corners and tight curves 2. If you have the holes prepared its better to use blunt saddlers, aka harness, needles for saddle stitching. Less chance of piercing the thread or cutting it with the needle 3. Contact glue really only stays on the surface or near the surface of the leather fibres, it also keeps the two leathers apart, very minutely. The hammering forces the glue deeper and forces the leather closer together. Just use a small nylon or rubber mallet to tap the leather along the glue line after joining the two pieces together, then clamp up till the glue sets 3a. We are assuming you are joining the leathers flesh to flesh. If you join a piece grain to flesh you need to roughen up the grain side otherwise the glue won't work very well 4. Here is how I'd tackle it. Cut the main piece very slightly over size. Cut the liner very slightly bigger than the main piece. Glue the liner to main piece. Plenty of glue along the edge joint of the two pieces. Tap/hammer around the edge Clamp the edges good and tight. Leave to let the glue set. Then trim the main piece down to correct size. Run a groover or wing dividers along the edge to mark the stitching line. Then mark and make the sewing holes on the front half of the holster. Fold holster over. From here, three or more options, 1. Glue the edges of the front & back halves together and make sewing hols in back side. 2. use double sided adhesive tape and make the holes or 3, hold together with temporary clamps, make just a few holes and use wire, thread or lace in those holes to hold the two halves together making other holes and for sewing

Good point, humidity here today is at 75% average, ie its raining somewhere here today

It would, if the leather needs nfo. I store my leather in large plastic boxes mostly, never applied nfo, never needed to

1. the Vasa was built in 1623, about 20 years after Lizzy 1 died 2. Standardisation and mass production of naval ships types did not come till the true Royal Navy under Charles II, 1660 to 1685. Lizzy still held to 'hiring' the private ships, then refused to pay them. She seized the Ark Rawleigh from Walter Rawleigh as she thought it was too powerful a ship for a privateer. She renamed it Ark Royal

Possibly the researchers looking thru old documents, newspapers, hand-bills have identified the words being used in the 17thC (= 1600s, not 1700s = 18th century) An example; 'square meal' - often thought to be of Royal Navy of about early 1800s, now known to have been used as far back as 1580s

I don't know those leathers, I have no experience of them If they are veg tanned; cased, veg tanned hand stamps easily, arbor pressed the stamp can make a good impression in dry or cased, cased is better but it can be done dry as well