fredk

That hat is a standard cotton wide-brim fedora. You can just make out the stitching under the brim. Its the shaping of it and the hat band which makes it different https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adults-Summer-Hats-Wide-Brim-Light-weight-Green-Blue-Natural-or-Black-Fedora/293579791476?hash=item445ab81c74:g:124AAOSwnuJevTOZ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Hat-Company-Mens-Classic-Summer-Cotton-Fedora-Hat-A232/163518106314?hash=item2612704aca:g:jyUAAOSw5pRcUydv https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fedora-Hat-Cotton-Hawkins-Wide-Brim-Band-BEIGE-WHITE-4-Sizes-Trilby/291643915961?hash=item43e754feb9:g:-JgAAOSwhfxZbOAO

What did you use as an anvil to hit against? You should have used a small round anvil with a dished head. The dished head preserves the curved head of the snap Also hitting too hard can cause this. A few medium taps is better that one great whack to set the snap rivet

An old thread, recently added to and I'll add some more. Re-reading through my old books I found some information which may be relevant. From about 1730 to about 1820 British Army soldiers and some other European soldiers wore a special leather collar called a 'stock'. It was made of very thick stiffened leather meant to make the soldier keep his chin upwards, and by doing this he kept his back straight and did not slouch. The edges of the leather were known to be sharp, they cut the soldier's flesh under his chin, they left weals where the cuts healed. Period advice given to the patrols sent out to find deserters was to look under the chin of any suspect for these weals and if he could not produce his discharge papers he was a deserter Hard or semi-hard leather can have a cut edge sharp enough to cut flesh. I have often enough got a 'paper' type cut from fresh cut leather. If the edges of the stock had been bevelled they would not have cut Afaik, Armies in the US & Canada wore the stock from about 1730 to about 1815 and again some regiments wore them in the WBTS but it was not exactly the same then but a shorter collar 'stiffener'

That is a very ambiguous statement. How far back do you want to go? Bees' wax, lanolin oils and beeves fat, now known to us as neetsfoot oil, was used by the Saxons and 'Vikings', (400 AD and after). The Romans (350 BC to 600 AD) used bees' wax and lanolin oils. Carnauba, being from South America is from after the 1500s, and seems to being used on furniture by the 1750s. Not all threads were linen. There was also thread made from nettles and birch bark

I use my beeswax/carnuaba wax/nfo mix. I use my harder version. I apply it with a cloth and rub it in. Takes some work but I can get a nice smooth and shiney surface, almost as good as the grain side. I do it on all belts and straps I make.

Spotted this on ebay UK 6 sqft of white leather, about 0.55 mm* thick for £10 per (* about 1.4 oz?) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pittards-High-Quality-Glove-Making-Leather-55mm/324201584439?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Pick-up only from Woking area but I'm in discussion with the seller to post some to me in N.I. Ideal for lining those projects methinks

I might try it soon-ish as I have a couple of items I need to do and this might work on them Can you send me a scan of It?

That looks like a most excellent strong bag. It should last a wee while An excellent idea. I'm supposed to be making a bag, in this sort of style, for my dottir for her going to Uni. I think I'll use your idea for the strap.

Apply Ockam's razor to your problem

btw, Le Prevo has been open again the last few weeks and are looking your orders

When I made wood toys we often had to make dowels rounded over at the ends. We started them by using a pencil sharpener. The one we had was an old office one, with a crank handle. After this we held the end of the dowel on a belt sander clamped up-side down on the work bench and rotated the dowel. We would do a few hundred at a time in stages. One day I'd put the dowels thru the pencil sharpener, afair I got it down to 1 every 10 seconds. The next day I'd do the rounding on the belt sander, again afair 1 every 20 seconds. Thus a few hundred were done in a couple of days, enough for a few weeks output. I usually had to do the rounding as the other 2 workers were too impatient to stand/sit and do them. Sometimes if I felt the urge I'd do a small stock, well in advance of requirements, just a couple of hours and I could do several dozen dowels. We were using dowels in 3mm to 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, 19mm and 24mm diameters, all but the 19 and 24 could go in the pencil sharpener.

you could start off the rounding using an electric/battery powered pencil sharpener https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Multi-functional-Automatic-Electric-Pencil-Sharpener-Battery-Operated-Home-Study/363032086113?hash=item5486660661:g:fekAAOSwNpZe9gUZ

There is a tool for drills. Its called a 'Plug Cutter' Its man use is for cutting a barrel shaped piece out of wood. The barrel shaped plug is later refitted into its hole to cover a screw or nail head, or to replace a damaged section. Usually the plug is straight sided and flat topped, but you can get cutters that make a rounded end. But whether you can a. find one of these types, b get one in the size you need is another set of questions

I'll add, sometimes, sometimes, a leather supplier will let you have a 1/2 postcard sized sample of the leather you're after. I did sometimes ask Le Prevo for a sample, but its not something I ask for very often After using them for 20 years I trust them to send me what I require

If you use variable quality leather you won't know when its you or the leather at fault. With good leather and good tools then you know its you when it goes awry, but also you'll know you can repeat what you did right Adapt your needs to what they can supply. They are a vital source of help and information and by buying some from them you'll work up a very useful contact

a. Tandy leather is quite notorious for not being of high quality nor being consistent. One time when I visited a Tandy and was tempted to buy some leather, checking thru the stock on the shelf I found leather soft & supple as well as hard as plywood with various grades in between. I did not buy any leather from them b. if you can, use another supplier. Others on here will recommend ones local to you. Get to know them, let them know you and you'll get what you need.

OK. Usually the hole for the SB stud is O-- shaped, with the O the size of the column under the ball head. Have you done it this way?

I just check my suppliers prices. 5 off 4 inch zips, brown in colour, £3. Thats £12 for 20, or 60p each Cost of zip length, stops, etc and the time to cut and assemble 20 doesn't compare at all well at that price.

Where you are located would help us inform you where to buy. My supplier measures zips by the actual zip, therefore a 4 inch will be 4 inch zip plus about 1/2 inch extra material on each end. I believe most haberdashers measure zips the same way

One thing to check for is wood-worm. I was once given an old saddle. Someone thought I'd be interested in restoring it. But it was absolutely full of wood worm holes right through the leather. Just some shoving and pulling proved that the wood tree was only being held together by the remains of the leather. I did strip part of it back and the tree just crumbled away. I dumped it all. With mild word worm wood can be infused with polyester resin to fill the holes, pores and strengthen it.

For one thing; I'd turn the shears over so the handles/grips sit on the back piece, then the blades will not sit too far out.

I'm interested on how you've got on as well

This may help with ideas. I make a cheap version of notebook cover using chrome tan upholstery grade leather. I got a great lot of this leather from my usual supplier. It was off-cuts from them recovering leather furniture. It cost me then about £1 per kilo, works out at about £0.50 sqft. I just glue the leather together, and use ready-rivets where needed. Cheap corner protectors added. I supply a note book in it. The books can be bought here in the local £1-shop, (dollar shop to you) so replacements are easy to get. This cover costs about £2.75 ($3.50 ?) to make in materials which includes £0.50 for the notebook The chrome tan leather can't be tooled but I've made these with an applique veg tan panel sewn on which had a person's name stamped on it. That added all of, maybe, another £0.10 as I just used a bit of scrap leather trimmed to size, stamped and dyed. In a way that is quite handy as I have a number of these ready-made in a box and just need to add the applique panel for personalisation The pattern for this is real simple. One large rectangle about 25 x 17 cm, and two rectangles of 9 x 17 cm for the insides. Two pieces about 3 cm x 14 cm glued flesh to flesh for the closing strap. On the reverse this strap goes thru a slot into the main piece. It has two rivets to hold it there. By going into the cover the strap looks neater and its ends do not catch on anything and they do not really interfere with the book slipping in hth

1. wet your leather first. wet enough as if for tooling, but not as wet as for moulding

Your location is important to us. But Birmingham where? There are several around the world. However, I see from another posting you made you may be in Birmingham, UK My first stop is Le Prevo, Newcastle, http://www.leprevo.co.uk/hides.htm others would go to Abbey https://www.abbeyengland.com/leather-and-materials.html