fredk

yes, I keep a a sewing needle in a pin drill chuck just for the purpose of clearing that hole

Drill it out to M7 and fit M6 helicoils

@maxdaddy, thanks

I've been watching old episodes of the TV show 'Highway Patrol' I've noticed that in some episodes the officers use an unusual holster. It looks like a regular revolver holster, but it has the ability to hinge open, the hinge being at the trigger guard side and the opening on the barrel side. I thought it might be a special made just for one actor for this show but this type of holster appears in many scenes across the 4 years of the show and many of the officers, even the small part ones use it. I've linked a bit of a Highway Patrol episode on youtube where the opening of the holster can be seen clearly, between 22.05 and 22.20 mainly. btw, all the leather work on this programme has loverly basketweave tooling Not being a holster maker I thought to put it here and get comments from those of you who do make holsters. Like, how do you think its made?, have you ever come across this type of holster before?

Considering the OP hasn't been on here since September 20th 2020 and only made the one posting I doubt she's really interested

a quick fix to reduce the plasticky look. get some blocks of pure bees' wax. From a hardware store. Just the blocks of wax, no fancy 'leather finish' stuff. Put the wax in or on a heat proof bowl/plate. Warm it up until its soft. Then use a cloth to apply the beeswax to the leather and rub it in. Allow to cool down and harden, then use another clean cloth to buff the wax. If you have any, apply pure neetsfoot oil, aka NFO, to the leather, Work the leather in your hands for a while, this should soften it up a bit. A better solution, for later, is to make a beeswax, carnauba wax and neetsfoot oil mix and apply that as a top finish Why Olive Oil? Long term it does nothing good to the leather. Leather is an animal product, olive oil comes from plants, Use neetsfoot oil, (aka NFO) which is made from the oils and fats in the feet and lower legs of cattle. Animal product to animal product. When you tool leather et cetera you remove some of the natural oils from the leather. Replace them with NFO. Olive oil doesn't replace those natural oils. btw, on here we usually recommend you use pure NFO and not compound. The compound has petroleum distillates in it which may be detrimental to the leather. Stitching holes; as early in the project as I can, sometimes before dyeing if its possible. Sometimes its almost the last stage in a construction, It all comes down to the project. Experience will help tell you when. But, at almost all times, consider where your stitching will be and mark a line for that, it can be a pencil line or a stitching-groove. On your first skull picture it looks like you punched holes after the tooling (?) On the second skull it looks like you have not made allowance for any stitching, but you could stitch in the groove which is the skull outline. Edge finishing; again depends on the project. On your belt, it would be the last thing I would do just before fitting the buckle. If the skull pieces are to be applied to something, like a bag flap, then they need dyed, top-coated and edges done before applying to the bag. If you were to make a bag with a front piece, a gusset and a back piece, finish the edges when all three pieces are stitched together hth

Those are really beautiful. Most excellent tooling work All my knitting belts so far have been plain. Inspired by this, your fine work, I may attempt some 'special' ones

If no-one can give you an answer here's a wee trick I used to use. Used both on ebay and live auctions. Put the item up for sale, but with a ridiculously high 'reserve; price, like $1 million. People will bid to the highest they think its worth, most likely well below your reserve. Then you'll have a guide price to what its worth. There is a chance that someone will meet your reserve price and you may need to sell

oh, that is just beautiful echo; how did you do the Tree? Nosey, err . . . enquiring minds want to know these things

off-topic. yes there was. It says something like, 'fit that suicide-jockey behind that micro-bus full of friends of Jesus, he's hauling dynamite and can use all the help he can get' In N.I. we used our own lingo. Suicide-jockey = a mad motorcyclist

Thanks. My cb handle was 'suicide-jockey'. Try getting an image to represent that!

Thats nice. It looks well thought out, plenty of pockets. Any special reason for the chess knight design? #I keep meaning to make a cover for my KOBO. Someday, maybe, perhaps. . .

I see that as a personal choice Do you want an 'historically' accurate holster? or a holster with a modern safety feature?

I've not come across a self-healing cutting mat without the grid lines But do shop around. You'll pay for the 'name' on the mat, eg I can buy an Olfa 'named' mat for about £25 or a 'no name' one from my resins suppliers for £7. Yes, they do have slightly different construction but in the end they work just the same As said above, buy to suit what you make, not too big nor too small. I have ones 3 inches square for trimming corners on and up to A0 size, approx 33 x 47 inches, but my most used size is 45 x 60cm approx 17 x 24 inches. If you are making just small things you can get an A4 size, approx 8 x 11 inches for as little as a couple of $$

no, that doesn't work for us mortals

That looks just grand so it does Does that lower strap arrangement give good support? I imagine it does, looks better than straps coming up off the bottom

1. Its worth what anyone is willing to pay 2. as a bit of a guide. About 4 years, maybe 5 years now, I bought a 1950s 99K with fitted electric motor. Its in near mint condition, lower wood case but no top cover. I paid about £180 for it, fully serviced & rebuilt with a 1 year guarantee and servicing/repair deal. Old 99Ks without electric motors generally sell for as low as £15, with a full wood case

If you want to go tubes Go to a carpet shop and ask for their card tube inners. They have to dump them so they may give them to you for the taking away The tubes are often about 4 to 6 inches inside diameter and 12 to 14 feet long, so take a saw with you . You can cut them down to suit whatever length you want them to be. Before I switched to the plastic boxes thats what I used. I got a load of long tubes and spent ages in the carpet shop carpark cutting the tubes down just to fit in my car. The deal on the day was, take them all or none. I took about half the load to the recycling, half of what was left to a friend for packaging and I still had more than enough for my needs easy ways to know whats in the tube 1. make the tube shorter than the roll, or don't push it all the way in 2. write on the tube whats in it. and up-date that note every time you use some of that leather

Currently almost all my heavy leather is rolled and stored in plastic 'Christmas tree boxes' stacked in my back hallways. Thin soft leather is folded and stored in plastic or card boxes, stacked where there is somewhere to stack them

They are called 'lift-the-dot' One place; https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/category/58/lift-the-dot Now you know the name you may find them more local to you

As above clever and easy

current information is that all of these companies have stopped deliveries into NI and may not resume due the extra paperwork required. Where else in the world does a sender need to fill in multiple customs form for a letter / package / parcel going to an address within their own country?

I'd say yes there is. Hats are culture influenced though. A hat that sells well in one place may not sell in another

yeah, just because NI stays in the EU trading union, but also in the UK trading I didn't vote

My methods and hardware 1. I use an old Fujipix S5600 camera, permanently set up for close-up pictures 1a. The camera takes at 5 mp. ISO/ASA is adjusted according to available lighting but its generally at 100 or 200 2. I use an old photo processing program, Paint Shop Pro. I got it free on a give-away disc back in about 1994 3. I put the photos through the PSP and initially save the original photo to my computer using the suffix 01 eg, Dice Cup, 01. This is backed up on a DVD disc 3a then I edit the photo, cropping it, adjusting contrast etc. This is saved as 01a (eg; Dice Cup, 01a) 3b. If I want the photo for this forum I resize the photo to about 360 pixies width and save that as 01LWs (eg; Dice Cup, 01LWs) 4. When I want to put the photo on this form I just use the 'choose files' option, and search out that 01LWs photo. I preview my posting and if the photo is too large or too small I go back to PSP, bring in the 01LWs, resize it and rename it 01LWss or 01LWsl. That way I have multiple copies of the same photo, in case any get corrupted or something 5. hit 'submit reply' when ready and jobs done I've been doing it this way for over 20 years (tho not on LW, but other forums) and I ain't gonna change now no how