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fredk

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Everything posted by fredk

  1. fredk

    Beer Mug

    Bees wax on its own melts at a low temperature and dissolves easily in many drinks, such as beer. I suggest a mix of food-grade carnauba and bees wax
  2. If its anything like the UK's Dylon dye, the liquid form is just a pre-mixed version of the powder, for convenience
  3. Your choice of leather will determine your comfort ie, upholstery leather will have more stretch to it so it'll be a 'softer' seat, stiff veg tan will give a stiffer seat you could use upholsters webbing stretcher pliers to pull the strips, or use a framer's stretching pliers
  4. No problem with that, no need for webbing insert
  5. From my experience of trying to split heavy thread down - it ain't worth the effort. I could never get any but a good few inches even. I just keep it for where the heavy thick thread is useful. Good thread that I buy is only a few cents/pence per yard, my time is worth more even though I'm a cheappy per hour type
  6. Will your blue gun withstand the 130 to 150 degrees needed to bake the polymer clay? [aka Sculpey and FIMO]
  7. I do not think so. In fermentation of alcohol you want to exclude oxygen and allow the carbon dioxide to escape through the water trap. The CO2 is pushed out due to pressure build up in the jars. O2 cannot get into the jars through the water trap. I think a top with holes, with or without short pipes attached, in a well ventilated area is the way to go
  8. umm, these are fancy but I use map pins into a piece of cork. The map pins cost about £/$1 for about 25 and the small blocks of cork are sliced off a larger block which cost me about £1.50. The cork pieces do need changing after much use though. Biggest problem I have with them is I keep mis-laying the wee box I keep them in
  9. The paint will mostly flake off after minimal use. Chrome tan is not very good at holding a carved design.
  10. 1.are they along the line you'll be sewing? they'll go awol under saddle stitching 2. you can use a modelling tool to burnish the leather around them to press the surrounding leather in towards the hole to make it less visible. A little bit of water dropped into the hole will help make the hole close up as well
  11. fredk

    Liquid steel!

    I'll second JB Weld. I used some as a 'temporary' repair on a valve cover and on a water outlet on my 1930 Austin 7, that was 20 years ago and the JB is still holding. The valve cover is under the exhaust so it gets really hot there. The water through the outlet only gets to about 90 degrees.
  12. When I used to repair medieval type shoes for medieval type re-enactors I used to glue on a modern rubber shoe sole repair patch. It was just big enough to cover just where the ball of the foot made contact with the ground. It was enough to about water proof the sole and add extra grip, especially on wet grass.
  13. posting that way imo is just spamming No
  14. other sellers pay to advertise and sell
  15. That may be true in the US but the mink oil I buy is pure mink oil with no additives.
  16. ethics. In the UK and some parts of Europe mink are not only no longer farmed but it is forbidden to farm them thus its very hard to get mink oil. I get mine from China. Neets foot oil is a by-product of the beef meat industry so it ethically easier to obtain Neets foot oil (NFO), beeswax and some carnauba wax mix is what I use
  17. 1.thats a nice looking bag 2. recently a client didn't want my logo too prominent. I couldn't put it on anyways as I was using chrome tan leather to make some drawstring bags. So I stamped some 4cm x 3cm veg tan with my logo, its 3cm x 1.7cm, and sewed them into the seam at the bottom of the bag.
  18. make sure the replacement gasket is the same thickness as the original. any difference can throw tolerances out
  19. Two suggestions; 1. get a bit of dowel, drill a small hole in one end, push the square-ish shank of a large size sewing machine needle into the hole. you have one pokey-hole tool. 2 one of these might work for you; and a cork block to push the pokey or needle into as it goes through the leather. you can get one for about a $ or two in a hardware store, as a 'sanding' block. keep to the large size or simply cut it down to a handy size for use
  20. I use pre-waxed polyester thread in different thicknesses and colours, but mainly dark brown, light brown or black. Either pre-waxed or waxing during sewing is a must
  21. fredk

    Cracked clay stone

    Interesting A very different look
  22. A woman's bag too 'out there' for any blokes I know, and I know some real weirdos
  23. A number of years ago I got some python and croc embossed cow hide from Tandy in Manchester, England N.I. has its own animal & plants products import controls. My leather was stopped and checked and I was threatened with prosecution for importing skins of endangered species. It took a number of emails back and forth until them uns did a DNA test on the leather and found it was bovine, but they didn't back down and admit defeat, they left me with a 'warning', like 'we are watching you' A couple of years later I got some more embossed from Tandy, This time I asked Tandy to include a copy of their info sheet saying it was cow hide. The hides went through control and the packaging note was stamped by importation control as leather checked and ok. They missed the snakeskins in the box of hardware in the centre of the roll, There is just one way, possibly, to use really exotic leather. If its at least 100 years old and certified as such. I know of a museum restorer who used the hide of an old 18th century stuffed Bengal tiger to fix an old Zulu shield. The tiger was real mangy and only fit for burning.
  24. No elephant, no tiger, no real croc, no real alligator, no pangolin, no rattlesnake yes for, ostrich, emu, kangaroo Check out the World Wildlife organisation lists for endangered species. If its on their list then avoid https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory List not exhaustive https://awionline.org/content/list-endangered-species#reptiles
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