fredk

What I found out recently is that a lot of airplanes are still grounded, airlines have gone out of business and a lot of airports are still closed and others are working at reduced capacity. What this means is that space for international airmail is very limited. Some countries are down to 0 capacity whilst most are running at about 25%. Priority is being given to items declared essential, non essential items are being sent onwards by sea freight.

That passes scrutiny. Its just grand so it is remember; we are own worst critics. When I have to do a fold in leather I first gouge a line then I use a ball-head modelling tool back and forth over the groove in the dampened leather. This usually helps, but not always,

?? Subscriber Trunk Dialling ?? I thought that was done away with years ago

neetsfoot oil, aka nfo, = oil made from the feet and lower legs of cattle. Neet is an old English word for cattle. Use pure nfo, not compound. NFO keeps the leather fed with necessary oils beeswax = bee processed honey. A bee is fed honey which it turns into wax. Its water soluble at high temperatures but at normal temperatures its a solid. Beeswax helps waterproof (slightly) and keeps the nfo in the leather carnauba wax = from the palm tree, helps add hardness to the soft beeswax Mix the three together. Beeswax & nfo in almost equal amounts and about a teaspoon full (about 5 ml) of carnauba wax to 4 oz of beeswax yup, there is a lot of that. Tales told but these are all tales told over and over again with no proof of their truth or not . . . . 'oh, I was told by my wife that her cousin was told that the friend of one of her workfriend's brother's bowling team said that putting olive oil on his leather gloves rotted them away in a week' Vegetable oils may be detrimental to linen thread but today almost everything is sewn using nylon or polyester which are not affected by these oils. I have experienced leather that someone was treating with olive oil and after a period the oil was going rancid.

Back to your gaiters. I presume all the straps pull it closed up right around so there is not much gap? My father was wearing gaiters whilst in a great-uncle's Florida orange grove when he got struck by a (rattler?) snake. They had to lop the snake head off as the fangs were so locked into the leather. This is what he told me. Possible, or was he spinning the tale?

I'm feeling in the dark here. Would a B997 beveler do the job? https://tandyleather.world/collections/tools/products/b997-craftool-beveler-stamp

I congratulate you. You are one of the very few people who know of these things Its bad luck to be superstitious, but why take a chance?

Actually thats easy to do. We were given a large canvas bag and that was it. The bag had been designed in the 1890s, and was still made by guests of Her Majesty in the 1970s. We filled it and then emptied it. Never any interest in its design

yeah, right, and spiders, roos, frogs, crocs. . . . The most dangerous thing here (other than terrorists) is the wasp Mind you, I could have done with anti-wasp anklet gaiters when I was a postie. The wasps like to sting ankles

afair a kilt doesn't need a hem cos its the width of the loom so both edges have a selvage - a self-edge

Excellent. Thank you. I've just started to wet mould a mask. I'm using a polystyrene head to shape it on. I'll be using elastic to hold in on me

That looks grand I'd like to see more photos. Maybe some of it on a face? a polystyrene head maybe?

Aye, and a little known fact is that tens of thousands, from the Highland Clearance mainly, went as slaves. My town was a major port then and the slave ships called in for provisions before heading to the Atlantic. But this be a deviation. I'm just keeping up with following this thread and the construction of this sporran edit to add, btw do you know there are various superstitions related to bags, purses and sporrans? mmmm, thought not. With sporrans you are supposed to give it to the new owner and indeed keep it yourself with a small leather drawstring bag containing a handful of dried oats. This is to ensure you or the other person will never go hungry. Superstition is that if you don't have or give that wee bag you'll starve to death within 6 months

Search out 'Irish Arms' ~~ I don't have any contact details for them. Its been many years since I dealt with them. Last I knew they were based on Co. Louth, but may have moved from there They've made leather items as well as swords, soft clothing and more for many of the top films. Owner is (was? RIP?) Boyd Rankin, a top guy in the way of making things, especially pedantic about it being historically accurate

Most definitely YES, it can be to some people

Try searching for 'airbrush spray booth' for plastic modellers. They are small, sometimes portable. One of these would do your job example; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hobby-Airbrush-Spray-Booth-Kit-Craft-Spray-Booth-Extractor-Filter-100-240V/193475341465?hash=item2d0c076c99:g:DN0AAOSwARpdOBpc

Use MDF. Laminate it to the thickness you want if its not available. Sand the cut edges smooth. Coat all with two thinned coats of waterproof PVA glue, then three coats of a gloss varnish, sanding smooth between coats.

yes, but for small items an arbor press will do the job. I use my Tandy press and metal dies to punch out the bases for game playing pieces from thin suede pig skin neither would I

About 6 years ago we had a very heavy snowfall. About 5ft in rural areas, 3 ft in cities. Local airport spent £150,000 on a snow plough/blower for the runways. By the time they got it the snow was gone. The airport has not needed it since. This past winter we had 1 inch of snow for all of 36 hours. That picture of a 'traffic jam'; if that was here, the double line would be white and all those drivers would get a fine for crossing them Here is my letter aligning frame; I posted up about this some time ago, here https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/88027-some-ideas-for-your-letter-stamping/?tab=comments#comment-601367 Here, there was a man who did that. No longer. Don't know what happened to him. But through him a lot of less-well off people could buy bikes for themselves and children. Now you can't touch a basic bike for less than £300

a. Those come in a variety, with different messages b. I saw a live one in Belfast, about New Year time afair. By the feel of the lettering and the smell it certainly felt and smelt like it was burnt in using a laser

Try Le Prevo in Newcastle. England. Their tool prices are very easy on the wallet and I think the tools are made by Ivan. Scroll down to 'Embossing Stamps' http://www.leprevo.co.uk/carving-tools.htm I got about 90% of my stamping tools from Le Prevo.

ach, just a glitch of a deviation. Another deviation. A while back I was reading on shipping out of Ulster. From the late 1600s to pre-WW1 just one port in Ulster was sending between 7 and 10 ships a day, 6 days of the week, each with around 100 tons of leather hides. At the time Ireland was forbidden to export live animals to Britain, so they sent dead ones in bits. Ulster still exports a vast amount of beef to Britain. But I've not found a tannery in Ulster at all. Every time I go asking about buying hides I get directed to 'leather' furniture shops. Nor can I find out what happens to all the hides. A friend who was once a butcher asked an abattoir for me. He got a non-answer that the 'skins' were mulched and went to a dog food factory and the bones were crushed and went to a plant (garden type) food factory. From once having a very big leather industry Ulster - Northern Ireland, appears to have zilch now. How does this meet the o/p remark/question? If there is no local leather industry its hard to get any new people interested in leather at any stage of its life (well, other than beeves on the hoof)

On the handles of the tools there should be a number. List that number here and if you can, a photo of the working end of each tool. When we know what you have we can advise better on what else you may need. But be aware; getting these tools is habit forming. I started with a 7 tool starter set and I've now got over 130 of these tools!

I do not know the Tandy Carnauba cream. I have some made by Le Prevo. I do not know what else is in it The cream might work alright. I started making my mix before I ever bought the carnauba cream. Without knowing what else is in it I would not use it. oh, more that that, start with about 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of wax, by volume edit. you can probably get yellow bees wax in a local hardware store. If you can find some local bee keepers, and I know there are a great many in Croatia, ask them for the white 'cappings' wax. You'll pay a little more for it but its the purest, cleanest wax out of a hive.

As good as a commercial option might be, they can be expensive for a small tin and they have other additives which I do not want. I have two grades of beeswax/carnauba/nfo mix which I use all the time. A soft grade, like soft butter for applying after dyeing which feeds nfo into the leather to replace oils lost and a hard grade, which I use for edge burnishing and end finish polishing. After dyeing the leather should be given a feed of nfo. Getting the amount just right is a problem, too much can ruin a project. But with my soft mix I can get just about the correct amount of nfo into the leather. A precise recipe? ha, ha, I make it by - umm, 'I think that will do' or 'that is about right' Metal bowl. Heat some beeswax in the bowl until the wax is totally melted, add about a spoon full or two of white carnauba wax flakes, then add nfo. Stir well. Let the mix cool and see how soft or hard it is. Too soft - remelt and add more beeswax. Too Hard - remelt and add more nfo. If you use about 100g of besswax add about 5 or 10ml (a teaspoon or two) of Carnauba wax flakes, use white flakes and not the brown. Then just add nfo until you get the mix as you want it. This 100g/10ml/? mix will last you a lot of projects.