fredk

Its ok. We use a £1 coin or a token the same size just to release the lock on the shopping trolley. Each trolley has a short chain which locks into another trolley when they are pushed together. We get the £1 or token back when we return the trolley to the trolley parking bay. Some shops use it to stop people stealing the trolleys. Some shops use a special wheel lock which automatically locks one or more of the trolley wheels if you take it too far from the shop.

Ingots are possible but prior to the heavy Industrial Revolution (about 1740) blacksmiths in Britain used 'bog iron'. Iron ore rocks found on the ground surface in boggy areas. They smelted them in their own small furnaces using charcoal. The quality of the iron and steel varied quite a bit and it was regional, ie the iron a blacksmith in the north of England used was quite different to the iron just 20 miles away in Scotland. Archaeologist specialists can place an iron/steel blade to a region by its iron compound.

We use a coin for the £1. A couple of years ago the Royal Mint introduced a new one. Supposed to be un-forgeable. yeah, right, the first forgeries were detected less than a week after the new ones entered circulation. The forgeries use a different metal mix which makes them a fraction of a gram underweight, which is only detected by machines which recognise coins by their weight, but you or me or the shopping trolley can't tell the difference. Yup, our bank notes have all those hologram thingies on them

I believe the likes of Louis Vuitton uses a heat embossing method. A special metal foil is used and the letter stamp is heated and pressed into the leather with the metal foil between the stamp and leather. Then the part of the metal foil not used is peeled away leaving just the letter foiled. One of our Australian members uses this method on things he makes and on their packages

ah, but one must be wary of forged bank notes too. Allegedly there are more forged £20 notes in UK circulation than there are real ones. And the same for 10p and £1 coins. My #1 son checks every note he gets in payment. He says he's never found a forged note but he's had a few customers change their minds and took back their cash before he could check it all. One of the last scams I got was for a speeding ticket. I was caught speeding by a road-side camera in up-State New York. Pay now or be taken to court and then loose my licence. They kindly gave me a link to be able to pay. Very worrying as the last time I was in New York was for a few days about 13 years ago. Enforced lay-over because of flights. I don't remember speeding at all. I don't even remember having a car there.

A. Its not actually the oxygen which is making the glue set. Its the release of the solvent into the atmosphere. With the carbon-dioxide treatment the CO2 keeps the solvent vapour in the glue. b. you can buy small empty tins and jars with screw thread lids. Use the beeswax on the threads. c. consider decanting into a small container just the amount of glue you need for the job at hand

1. get a small tin of the glue, eg 250ml or 125ml. Use that up first then refill that tin with glue from a bigger tin. 2. when closing up the tins, if they have press on lids, take a few deep breaths, then blow into the tin as you close it. This replaces the oxygen with mostly carbon-dioxide. We used to do this all the time with photographic chemical mixes to keep them from going off too fast. 3. On tins with a screw lid, as well as blowing, wipe some bees wax, a lot of it on the tin lid threads each time you open and close it. If you don't have beeswax use vaseline 4. on your bulk supply tin pour a little solvent on the top of it before closing up. Don't mix it in, just let it lie as a barrier. Fumes from that will exclude the oxygen as well and make the tin glue friendly

a. check the needle tip. rub it down with some fine grade wet & dry paper. it may not be needle sharp, it may have a slight kink in the very tip b. clean out the nozzle cups, there maybe a speck in there. It doesn't take much to make a spray brush go wonky.

Its possible that the original ones were formed around wood formers. afair in finds of 'Viking Dublin' several knife sheaths were found which were all about the same size and shape but the work on them was different, suggesting that some sheaths were pre-made and you bought the one which fitted your knife the bestest

am I sooooo obvious??

ah, you can't beat an honest green-back, unless it a $4 bill. Just don't take any wood nickels

I think you were wise. You were on to them. If I may I'll relate a story which came up in my area about 6 years ago. A woman puts a diamond ring on ebay. A person buys it. Arranges to send a 'bank draft' from a UK bank (like your cashiers check). Buyer pays extra because he wants the ring sent to Nigeria by special delivery. Woman banks cheque, doesn't wait and sends ring. Cheque bounces. Also police contact woman for money laundering. She's cleared of that but has lost the ring. Value of ring? over £15,000. Ebay says not our problem, insurance and police say the same. That was a big amount. Very often these scammers get people on the smaller amounts, like yours. But usually they have some clever story to go with it and carry it along

naw, you missed it. I wrote up a to-do but the o/p rejected it so I deleted it.

Its a most unusual one indeed. Is a 'cashier's' cheque like a ready cash payment? I mean, can you go into a bank and instantly get it cashed or does it need to go thru your bank account and the bank system before you get the money? I'd guess it ain't gonna cost $2650 to crate and send a sewing machine half-way across the country. Is it possible the buyer mis-understood the price? eg thought it was $1250, then plus $80 = $1330 ~ but that still leaves $1525, still too much I know of two deals that were just a little bit the same, both became mysteries

x

A very good question I should have thought of that one

If you look at the set on the left of this picture, back row, light brown handles, the small narrow blade is the ancestor of the fork

That is nice. Loverly colour combo. Is that front section zipped? and is this your own clever design?

a. thanks for those pictures. I like how you look after the details, as on the sheath in the last photo with the double twist to the hanging thong b. afair the pieces were mostly from La Trinidad Valencera. There were some survivors of this ship and the local legends are that these men bartered their goods for food and safe passage. What I saw included a Missal book cover, a few cases for instruments, long gone, and a few other scraps of leather. Allowing for the 400 years, the leather was quite thin. I reckon it would have originally been about 2 to 3mm thick, about the same as you used. I saw these things in 1988, long before I took up leatherwork, at a special Spanish Armada Anniversary event. Whilst everyone else was looking at the Girona jewels, and the guns, I'm looking at wee scraps of leather! c. I think you are correct on that, that the design was just pressed into the leather with a tool, but certainly a 'back grounder' stamp type tool was used as well. d. ach, they're no so bad. At least your steel is better than the samples tested in that book. And you've not gone for the 'fantasy' medieval look on your knives. That really makes me ........

Those are mighty beautiful - an understatement. That is sure one amount of work there. The photography of them is excellent too, highlighting and showing off the stamping very well indeed. I have that book and your scabbards/sheaths really bring the archaeologists drawings (and remains pieces) to life One question: can I please see some of the seams on the back, just to see how you tackled them. As an aside: I was able to see and handle some leather work from a Spanish Armada ship and found that the stamping was very shallow, even for allowing 400 years of age

That is very nice indeedy.

I think its all very nice indeedy. When I see that stamping my mind is drawn to 'stone-age' - Fred Flintstone

To cover the raw back of the snap rivet. Either for decorative reason or to prevent the raw base cutting either material or person They can also be used on the base of the rivet post part of single head ready-rivets

A 'creaser' puts a pressed in groove near the edge of your item. It doesn't cut the leather as a groover does, it just presses it into the leather. You can get creasers with different sizes, the distance from the edge, from 0.5mm to about 3.5mm. The pressed in groove is both decorative and can add a bit of stiffness to the leather along the edge. You can get hot creasers like this one, or ones that need heat with a blow-lamp, and you can get cold ones which just needs a bit of muscle to press the groove

Thanks. I doubt I'll ever buy but one should never say never