fredk

Even if you have a million quad zillion holsters made there will always be someone who will try to blame you and your holster on their failing. People do not want to accept their own failing and always want to blame others and in doing so go to law and sue. But its rare, very rare. If you read it in a newspaper, its because its rare. Here in the UK, for a small amount, like a few ££ we can buy 'product liability insurance' which gives cover up to £5 mill. No, I've not bought the insurance cos I'm not worried about any claim. I did have an incident which reflects on this. I used to make battle-ready medieval type shields. One day I got a letter from a lawyer type going to sue me cos a guige strap on a shield had broken and his client had got hurt. Through a friend I got a video of the incident. A. the client was not someone I'd sold the shield to b. he was through it around holding by the guige. c. I got a piece of the guige strap which had broken. Answer to lawyer; a. client was not my customer, guarantee of goods not transferable, b. his client was using the shield in a manner it was not designed for, ie the guige is only for carrying the shield. c. the bit of strap was PVC not leather, the client had replaced the leather strap with a bit of old handbag strap. Never heard another word about it but I heard that that 'client' was banned from numerous societies for trying to make stupid claims.

Put up a length of washing-line. Before you do thread it though the finger parts of bulldog clips so the jaws of the clips are a right-angle to the line. Then you just use the bulldog clip to hold the belt strap by one end, hanging down. Easy to get the strap on and off. Assuming each bulldog clip is about 1/2 inch wide then you can get about 24 straps hanging to the linear foot.

@Professor Well. thank you for finding that and sharing it

I do just about the same as LatigoAmigo but I use tray. Actually a stainless steel oven tray. I should point out that I thin my dye, about 2 water to 1 dye, or 1 water to 1 dye. ~ I'm not very consistent I wet the leather, not too much, before placing it in the dye. As you're doing straps, they can be loosely coiled and put into a small bucket or large jar of diluted dye.

naff = not good at all. or very poor

Thats the main reason I say to make the rubber negative first. I recently spilt some moulding resin on a well sealed and waxed scrap piece of leather. The resin stuck to the leather like it was part of it.

Dip dye. Not individual straps, but do a piece wide enough to cut several from, say 6 inches wide. Dip dye and let soak, then afterwards cut into 3/4" strips

I would 1. apply plenty of wax to the tooling 2.build a dam around it using something like blue-tac 3. pour in a moulding silicon rubber 4 . this will give a negative of the tooling but is too soft to use 5. Make a moulding rubber copy of the negative, this should look the same as the original tooling 6. use that second rubber copy to make a resin negative of the tooling. Use polyurethane moulding resin. Make it about 20 to 25 mm thick with some glass-fiber, aka fibreglass, in through the resin

The latest Copydex I've bought has no smell at all. I miss that fishy smell ml for ml Copydex has got really expensive

Although this guide is aimed at what is the current tool versus an old tool which has maybe been discontinued it does show the tool pattern and its number. Other makers usually follow these same numbers https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1416/craftool-conversion-chart

That looks most excellent

just a question first - is this style you are looking for? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leather-Craft-Skiving-Sharp-Handle-Knife-Leathercraft-Handwork-DIY-Tool-New/283394645450?hash=item41fba31dca:g:~jAAAOSwBz1cc0LX

a. the brass cut matches my drawings exactly in all aspects b. wet stamped using a Tandy press, of 1.25 ton

Here are a couple of stamps. I had to look through my stamps to find which ones to show you as examples 1. Made in U.K. Width is 30mm, the height of the upper case letters is 4mm. I chose the font, sent it as a jpeg and I got back what I wanted 2. This one is chosen to show the fineness of their cutting. Overall width is 50mm 2a. a close up of the car's grill area to show you the fine lines

I got my materials mixed up. The nylon goes into the knife and into a hole in the delrin. The delrin is carved to the profile. tbh I've only used these a couple of times as I don't do hardly any tooling or swivel knife work 1. this has one straight cliff edge and a slope to bevel 2. this has a centre bar, about 1 mm high by 1.5 mm wide and a slope on each side to bevel both sides of a line B. The two together so you can see how I made them. Others could make them far better using a lathe and power tools but I don't have those things so I need to do it by hand With these materials I can make any profile which suits me

I asked Joanna about this a couple of years ago. Its been going on for years now Its a computer thing. As the computer server regularly updates it 'renews' these peoples profiles. PS. don't trust that 'last visited' date. Mine says I've not been on here since January 8th !

Normally, just an application of a shop bought leather conditioner. On the rare occasion the customer has asked me for some of what I use; ie the beeswax/nfo mix. Applied as and when needed, or before, not years later. eg, a shoulder bag used regularly, in dry or wet conditions, should be seen to at least once a month, a saddle, about once a week If the item gets used in a dirty environment a wash down with soapy water and a rag then an application of a conditioner would be sufficient, if done on a regular basis, before it gets too dirty and/or dried out. As I said earlier I've had no problem with an item sealed with resolene accepting and benefiting from my beeswax/nfo mix. at any time, even years after

It depends on how far the distortion has gone that you can correct it - mostly. How sound is your ply? here any ply less than 1" thick is unstable and will twist and warp. Can you glue two layers of ply together, following ply rules? Reason for using dbl side tape is a, the lower tack and b. easier to separate c. wet leather will stick to tape better than glue What I would do is; 1. mark area about 23 x 23 inches on board, draw the lines for the square 2. apply dbl sided tape to board 3. wet leather, not dripping wet but wetter than for tooling 4. apply leather to the wood, inside the marked square using the marked lines as guide for the sides of the leather 5. work around the leather, laying it straight and pushing it down. 6. use a brayer or rolling pin to press the edges only flat, trying not to push the leather out of a straight edge. Don't press it down from the centre to the edges - this will exacerbate the problem 7. when it seems satisfactory, cover with sheets of clean white paper, then put another board on top, then put lots of weight, eg books, anvils on the board, concentrating on where the edges of the leather are. 8. leave for a couple hours, check lay of leather, press down any areas still not laying flat 9. = 7 10 = 8 11. leave to dry 12. continue working on piece as it is, stuck to the board with some perseverance it might flatten out alright, you may be left with some wrinkles alternative; scrap this piece and start afresh on a piece taped or glued to MDF (or ply) Just my thoughts, and some little experience of flattening reticent leather

a. 22 x 22 what? b. do you intend to just have the chess board leather so you can roll it up? c. 2 to 2.4mm is on the thin size for that. 3.5mm plus would have been better d. use double sided tape to mount the leather to a piece of MDF no less than 6mm thick preferably 12mm thick

For you, I can do a deal. . . .free.

There doesn't seem to be a 'Free' site on here so here it will have to be. Sorting out my odd boxes of oddments. All the following are FREE, but to UK people only cos of postage rates. Free, as in I will pay the postage to you except a contribution would be welcome towards postage, if you desire, especially on item number 4 What you see in the photos is what you'll get. 1st up. A bag of Hobnails, totally new, unused, bought from Le Prevo years ago. I needed only about 10!. (F/p) 2. some mixed lightweight buckles (f/p) (if I come across any other odd buckles I'll add them to this pile) 3. some odd O and D rings, the 'gold' coloured ones on the left are aluminium I think, but not brass, (f/p) 4. 975g of an odd looking nail. Thats almost 1kg or 2 lb in proper money. The nails have a square shank and are about 1/2 inch long. Postage will be about £3 so a contribution towards that would be welcome This is Round 1. I have some other fittings which I need to check and count before I put them up. If there are no takers for any of this it will be heading to the odd scrap metal bin at my No.1's garage If interested in anything just PM me an address to post it to and I'll get it away asap. Remember; 1. Free 2. UK only!

Inspired by another thread about Tandy stores I thought I'd write up my recent experience of ordering direct on-line. A few months ago, middle of February actually, I ordered some things from a London based Tandy reseller. Their delivery time was to be by end of March. After waiting until then and more, no delivery so when I emailed them I got an auto response that they were closed from 7th March until 31st December 2020! So, I built up an order on-line with Tandy. First thing was I had a $50 voucher but the new website wouldn't recognise it. I emailed Tandy HQ late Sunday night my time. Within a few hours a chap called Cameron Goodpaster came back to me, he had sorted it out for me. I finalised and placed my order on the evening of 21st April Mr Goodpaster emailed me to tell me that due to a large amount of orders mine might be delayed by a few days. No problem for me. I received an email from Tandy late afternoon on the 22nd that my order was on its way, via DHL DHL informed me that my parcel would be delivered on 27th. It arrived mid afternoon on the 24th. The bad bit then the good bit; I had ordered some fancy conchos. The order was shy by two of them. I immediately emailed Tandy. I got no response to that email but just a few days later I got an email from DHL that my parcel would arrive on 4th May. I was confused, I already had my parcel from Tandy. But on 4th May DHL delivered a large envelope containing the two missing conchos. The Tandy order went through UK customs but no charges were made on it as afaik Tandy pays the needful at their end. This was my second order done out of Tandy, Texas. Last year was the first for both of us and it did not go totally smoothly, this year it was totally fine. I don't consider a couple of conchos left out of a big order any big deal. I was prepared to 'write' them off, not worth blowing a haystack over them. I hope Tandy can keep going. They have certain items I use repeatedly and I would like to continue getting them.

Cost of materials x 3 plus time at $20 per hour minimum, add in another $10 minimum for 'tool use'

I have no ratios. I melt beeswax, put in some carnauba wax and add nfo until I get a creamy mixture. I have 2 grades; soft and hard. Hard is used as a final finish. Its put on with a cloth, rubbed in, left for a while then buffed off. The Soft is used when I think the leather needs more nfo feeding and also along stitching as its easier to rub into the stitch holes and thread. I made several pounds of each mix years ago and even when I'm generous in application I don't use much of it

Now that you brought this up again; earlier this evening I ordered from my chap in Hong Kong a stamp for a border type pattern. Its costing me £16. We'll now see how long it takes to get to me, PS. I have to buy by import. There is no-one on the island of Ireland either willing or capable of making a brass stamp, at any cost