fredk

Is this the one you know of? Its the chappie I've bought from. A good & helpful chap. Currently, toolmaniac https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/toolmaniac/m.html?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEFSXS%3AMESOI&_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2654 I've bought two items from him. 1. a single short Celtic lace: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Celtic-Style-Leather-Belts-Embossing-Stamp-For-embossing-VegTan-Tooling-Leather/224174510639?hash=item3431d7922f:g:KMoAAOSww5hZNZki 2. a 4 piece Celtic lace: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stamp-Set-4-for-Embossing-Vegetable-Tannned-Tooling-Leather-Belt-Blanks/224174509535?hash=item3431d78ddf:g:KPAAAOSwEHpZNZkh edited, to add. A few years ago a friend jokingly suggested I get a table top old fashioned clothes wringer for embossing larger areas, eg book cover fronts. I've considered them but they go for top ££

The roller machines for die cutting card for card making have a small limit on what can go through them, max is about 4mm (thin aluminium sheet, card stock of max 200gsm, metal die of 2 mm and another aluminium sheet). I have a set of the acrylic embossing stamps by that Russian chappie. The stamps are about 4mm. Then add your belt leather, minimum of 3mm. I'll have another look at these machines when I'm at Hobbycraft next

Have you got any beeswax & nfo mix? rub some of that in. Let it rest in a warm place for a while then work the leather. You might have to repeat this, but that should do the necessary

Extreme measure; get some lacquer thinners (aka cellulose thinners). Soak a clean rag with it and apply to the spot. Get that spot really wet with the thinners and rub vigorously with the clean rag, turn the rag to a clean section as you go. The thinners should dilute and lift a lot of the dye out. You'll need to feed the leather with nfo later as the thinners will remove the oils and dry out the leather

To me that is not acceptable, unless you are getting it at 50c a sq ft. I've bought 'distressed' leather from Le Prevo and its quality has been not far off 1st quality with only the occasional scar or mark on it. Even their very most poor quality hides are better than that. I'd send it back for replacement or refund

You should have about 3mm of the stem above the leather. Actually that silver one looks just about right When I do rivet holes in multiple layers I punch the first main hole accurately, glue the layers together then use that first hole as guide for the others, first pushing the point of a scratch awl through to make sure the punched hole will still be where I want it. I rarely use a setting bar for flat head rivets. I just put one end on my anvil and whack the other end with my hammer. They end up very flat and no marks from a setting bar.

WIN! It'll be a real one-of-a-kind! Nothing is a total failure in this lark. We are creating art. It may not turn out the way we planned but its still all good

yeah, I'm offended. . . . . . . . . . . . not! I was just curious

1. brass stamp. can be hammered or pressed into cased veg tan leather 2. can be heated, via a soldering iron or pyrogravure for pressing or stamping into chrome tan leather. Mine came with a M5 tapped hole on the back and a short stud which goes into either a soldering iron or pyrogravure 3. I got mine made in China for £14. size is 3cm across x 2 cm high, other sizes pro rata roughly

That is nice work, very colourful But why the 'color blind' in your title? I'm colour blind but I see those colours as a nice mix

The Scots never had the Guilds that England had. Look also to the Ulster-Scots of that era. A great many of the Scots who went to the North American Colonies did not go direct from Scotland but from Ulster. The Scots settlers in Ulster, from approx 1605 to 1845 were known as the New Scots. They were, and still are, very Scottish in speech, habit and tradition. The point of a cobbler not knowing how to make a saddle is not true in this case. Scots, Ulster-Scots, and Ulster-Irish could, did and still do, turn their hand to whatever is required by their community. The blacksmiths would make knives, swords, shears, pikes as soon as make farm gate fittings. The farrier would make his own horse/ass/donkey shoes and fit them - they are not made by blacksmiths. Leatherworkers, even up to the 1970s, made shoes, horse tack, school bags, brief cases, and more.

If you don't want to wire it, sew on an edge piece, folded over top to bottom, made of thin veg tan. Wet it after its sewn on, then let it dry with weights on it to keep if flat, or any shape you want. When dry seal it well. That should stiffen the brim and make it keep its shape but also be very flexible

1. for medieval type stuff and also for small modern items I sew up a leather draw-string bag. I have absolutely loads of off-cuts of upholstery leather which is suitable for these bags 2. for some modern items I buy in cotton material draw string bags, like these, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-Plain-Drawstring-Cotton-Bags-Xmas-Sack-Stocking-Storage-Laundry-Bag/143068706266?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 I have a stock of these in sizes from 8 x 10cm up to 40 x 50 cm. In these usually go my board games. Playing pieces in the very small bag and the boards fit into the larger bags Most shoulder type bags I've done have been for medieval history presenters and they've either collected from me or not required extra bagging. Only a few times I've wrapped a bag in tissue paper then boxed it. Getting a suitable sized box is a real nightmare so I prefer the cotton drawstring bags Although I've just mentioned bags, hat et al go into these cotton bags if the buyer is not going to wear or use the item. When I did some market stall selling I never once used any packaging for main leather goods. Small items like beads or card wallets occasionally went into a small paper bag, like the ones used in sweetie shops. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/White-Kraft-Food-Paper-Bags-White-Paper-Bags-Market-Sandwich-Food-Paper-Bags/392504666365?hash=item5b6319e8fd:g:jS0AAOSwGLZcctWy I keep a small stock of these plus some better ones with handles on them https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kraft-Paper-SOS-Carrier-Bags-Brown-or-White-with-Flat-Handles-Takeaway-Gifts/152603517592?hash=item2387e0e298:g:Z6gAAOSwBPNXSG-c Although that link will hi-lite brown bags, white ones are better looking for our stuff hth

Please give me more info on your actual requirements and I can suggest certain bags in better detail

'Astonish' is available in most Home Bargains shops. About £1 for 750ml. Its a water thin acrylic varnish meant for floors. Its exactly the same as 'K;ear', Future' and 'Pledge with Future shine', only a lot cheaper. I use it as sealer on leather now as well as a varnish on a lot of hobby/craft items

Both are good but I prefer polyester. Mainly Gutermanns Top Stitch thread. Gutermanns because they've been supplying thread to the auto industry for over 100 years. If its good enough for BMW, Mercedes et al its good enough for me.

To me thats even more reason to just have about 5 sq feet of thin leather on hand. Two pieces for a sheath would be 1/2 sq ft, so 5 sq ft would do 8 to 10 sheaths, 5 sq ft would cost $20 to $25 or so, a recoverable cost.

My thoughts again. Time is money. If doing just the very occasional inlay its ok to take the time to just skive a piece of leather down. If its going to be a regular offering, let the tannery do the work. Buy in thin leather. Have it on hand. Laminate the inlay within the thinner leather. The thinner leather is often a good bit cheaper than the thicker, even when using two pieces of the thinner to one of the thicker All these Heath-Robinson set ups to skive a piece of leather can't beat a skiver built for the purpose. A 6 inch wide bench mount skiver costs as little as £100.($130) At $15 per hour pay say, it works out cheap. By the time you've mounted a piece of leather up safely, set up your planer you can have had several pieces of leather thru that bench skiver or have cut a year's worth from a thin leather Do you buy in 3/4 inch thick steel to reduce it to 1/8 inch for blades? (just sizes to illustrate the point), No, you buy in 1/8 inch. So you'll buy in to use 2.4 to 3 mm for the sheaths. For inlay laminations you'll use 1.2 to 1.6 mm, buy that and have it on hand, Stored carefully the leather lasts a long time. I'm currently using some 3.5mm Water Buffalo hide I bought about 15 years ago. Its darkened slightly over the years but its still perfectly good Edited to add PS. In the picture above for the video imo that is the wrong use for a French Skiver. Its for edges and small areas. For larger areas the Super Skiver is the better tool https://tandyleather.world/products/super-skiver?_pos=1&_sid=685be2ee6&_ss=r

If this is the type you are looking for; I made my own basic one over 20 years ago but I bought a smaller one a couple of years ago. It cost me all of about £10 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leather-Working-Desktop-Vise-Hand-Lacing-Stitching-Sewing-Pony-Horse-Wood-Clamp/133093839308?epid=5029623263&hash=item1efd02d1cc:g:mB0AAOSwES1cowY6

I use this for skiving the ends of belt straps. It will cope with up to about 60mm wide This might do strips wide enough for sheaths. You can buy it from about £25 to £95 depending on the seller. Mine cost me £28

I agree. Black is one of the hardest of dyes to get right and not get it rubbing off

First thing to tell us is, where in the world you are. With hat info we can gear our answers to you

a most excellent idea. I have that set you speak of and have the same problem as you, getting enough pressure for it to make a decent impression I'll have to think a thunk to see if this idea can be adapted to my press Just a thought; if you bend the mounting bar at a slight angle it will make the roller fitting at an angle and I think the leather will feed easier under it

Now with improvements I used the divider point to scribe a line at about 12mm ( 1/2 inch) and 20mm ( 3/4 inch) from the centre. I went over the lines a few times to make it deep enough to take some black paint. I painted the whole line then wet sanded the excess off. Its on a 40mm wide strap in the picture. It doesn't look even because of its angle in the photo but in the hand the 20mm circle touches both sides of the strap. The black lines are neat too but show kinda broken up due it being a digital photo Thanks, @chuck123wapati, I was over thinking the problem. A simple scribed line does the job well. K.I.S.S. it is

I was thinking - I used a small sized drawing compass to mark the distance of the centre hole from the outer ones, then I drilled a 0.8mm pilot hole. I could put one compass point in that small hole and scribe a line, or lines, with the the other compass point ? Would that work? Actually, that compass point may fit tight in that centre hole now. I'll maybe try it out later