fredk

That is a good run. Happy Annie when it comes There's a cynical joke in there; the first lasted 3 years, the second lasted 6 years, the third lasted 9 years and the fourth has lasted 12 years

Looks nice. Pre-dyed purple leather, or did you dye it? When I dye it comes out really, really dark

Another nice piece from you One thing that stands out, really only because we are studying a photo; front side, bottom right, looks like your border line cuts through the leaf. Anything you can do to hide that? At last, something I have in common with your work - I too have that horse head stamp!

Two different threads on this forum threw up a thought in me. Would it be possible or feasible to print a concho type thing over one half of a Chicago screw so that that part is captive inside the 3D plastic? If it could be done, one could makes unique concho type ornaments or heads for the Chicago screws I know I can use resin and rubber to mould something with the Chicago screw or rivet captive. I can also do it in white metal. But as 3D printing is the new way of things I was wondering.

To get the sheath to carry at an angle you angle the belt loop part Have looky here; Courtesy of Al Stohlman, How to make Custom Knife Sheaths You can either start again or cut off that loop part and sew a new one on at an angle The illustration above shows carrying on the right. For left side, make forward = backward and backward = forward Test on a bit of thin card first tho

Whilst thats all Ryans own work you can download a pack of patterns for making chaps from the Tandy Leathercraft Library. once you have these you can adapt them. The patterns include suggestions for the fancy tooling work too https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/search?searchterm=chaps

I buy a lot of my supplies from China. Before this last January my orders were taking on average 8 to 10 days. After their New Year and with the shipping all awry because of the C-19 some orders have not arrived at all, 2 orders from 16/3 have not arrived yet but one from 4/4 arrived yesterday, one order from 4/4 arrived on the 16th. Contrast, an order from England placed on the 9/4 has not arrived yet. The whole delivery system is up the left. For us in the UK a lot of the Chinese sellers have depots in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin and other places. They send the frequently bought items from one of those depots. I also learnt, and I'm not 100% on this: the Chinese have frequently bought items ready packed on the freight ships and the Silk Train. When I buy something a worker on the ship/train gets an email, prints the address label and it gets posted at the next dock/port/station. I can believe this as a. I've received goods back-stamped by the port of Hamburg and other places, and b. having done some shifts on the Royal Mail Night Train sorting letters and packages I can see how it would work.

Unfortunately a lot of misleading terminology is now used to describe leathers. In the past 'patent' leather was top quality leather dyed, polished and lacquered to a very high shine, It was mainly used for top quality shoes. That was pre-1980s or so. In the more recent past to today, 'patent' leather is any leather sprayed with a resin finish ~ and that is what I believe you have. Something I've said in the past and I'll briefly repeat; under the European rules, Leather is not what we on here expect it to be. Any material which has any amount of animal skin on it can be 'Leather'. Cheap 'leather' couches and chairs have a material with leather dust mixed with resins sprayed on it. We used to call this 'leather cloth'. Now it can be called 'genuine leather', 'real leather' and can be sold and priced as such.

yup, they're the ones. I don't see a price for them. Can you see a price?

Any material would be good, from cotton print, silk or thin pig-skin or Kid leather.

Interesting. I don't go for the voodoo thing. Could the centre portion of the body be replaced with something like cotton duck or canvas to make a regular pin-cushion?

Well that just takes it up another level of most excellent so it does I can hardly follow a drawn pattern never mind trying to do one free-hand

Sorry, no brand name on mine. I got them from a Chinese type seller on ebay. At one time Tandy sold these, but at a very high price, afair £35 per tool eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leather-Stitching-Hole-Punch-Plier-Clamp-Cutter-Hoggard-Diamond-Cut-Punch-L-L4Z2/114160672691?epid=18030599939&hash=item1a94819fb3:g:B3QAAOSwoJ5effY7 Up to about £17 a tool, but I think they are worth that I'll let you into a secret. I bought the 4 tooth and the 2 tooth tools, but the teeth on the 2 weren't hardened and bent going thru 2mm leather! So I bought another 4 tooth tool and ground off the two outer pairs of teeth to make a 2. I could have bought another 2 but I was reckoning if the first one wasn't hardened a second one might be the same.

Still closed but answering email enquiries

30 years ago I was involved with a vehicle restoration company. They specialised in restoring old buses and trucks. One time we had to re-upholster all the seats in a 1934 bus. The customer insisted on leather coverings. As usual we farmed it out to a bus upholstery company. They showed us the 'leather' which had a pattern similar to the OP's. When we got the first seat back, the driver's seat, I noticed that the surface was cracking away, just like the OP's has done. The upholstery company insisted it was top quality leather. I put a ciggie lighter to a piece of their material, to a piece of PVC and to a piece of leather. That proved that their 'leather' was PVC.

In 30 years of working with leather (only 20 properly) I've only seen this on fabric backed PVC. The material was sold to us as 'real leather' and top ££ paid. A simple burn test proved it was PVC as for a glue, I would use UHU or Bostick

them shore luk pritty Just shows Tandy stuff ain't all that bad

This sort of question comes up all the time. With no offence directed at you. 1. think ahead on your stitches. 2. Its inevitable and most likely that your stitch lengths will not match the length you have to sew 3. on your wallet T pieces its usual to have a stitch going over the edge of the material; make the holes for these first. If you are using a 4-tooth sewing punch, put two teeth either side of the top of the T. 4. Work away from the top of the T, to the bottom and top corners, but stop short about the 3/4 distance. 5. punch the corner sewing holes 6. continue the rows of holes from the T towards the corner hole, adjust the spacing of the final few holes 7. work from the corner holes towards each other, across the top and bottom of the wallet. Work towards the centre alternately from each end. 8. stop punching as you near the centre 9. Adjust the final few holes for even spacing This sounds long and difficult but its very quick in practice and once you've done it a few times it becomes the natural way to do it. Very often the adjustment of spacing of some of the stitches is only a fraction of a millimetre which is hardly noticeable An alternative to 4-5-6 is 4. punch the corner sewing holes 5. punch the holes from the corner holes towards the holes punched in #3 6. either adjust the spacing of the last few holes as you approach the T piece, or adjust the spacing as you go along

That looks nice. Nowt in Art needs to be perfect

Not that exact version, but I do use my version almost all the time. These are mine; I have these with 4 teeth and a set with 2 teeth They certainly speed up the making of stitching holes plus they are quiet. I live in a ground floor flat (apartment) so usually I cannot do any hammering before 09.00 or after 21.00 without complaints, but with these I can make stitching holes at 02.00 and do some sewing. I recently (OK, so it was before Christmas) made some book covers. It took me under 5 minutes to go around the edges to make the stitching holes in each one I prefer my version as the teeth can get right tight into raised, formed edge. Shop around for them though as I bought mine for under £10 a tool but I've seen them for sale as much as $85 a tool and those you've shown for as much as $65 a tool

yup an Interesting idea. In my experience the magnets need to be very strong, eg N52 minimum, to hold through leather, but if the magnets are outside the leather area N36 or so would possibly do

Contrary to common belief, mistakes were allowed for and accepted in these books. Obviously the fewer the better but its a myth that a writer had to start again if they made a mistake, they could and did alter a drip into a picture, or scrub out an error carefully using pumice stone. Until the 1950s people had a lower acceptance level of 'perfect' - I can give you a whole discourse on that, but I will not

The most obvious answer to why is there aren't many around; the nature of leather, it rots away. Especially in damp or wet conditions. Early leather was not tanned extremely well and even today's leather will rot away eventually Second reason is, up to the start of the Industrial Period (late 1700s) anything made of iron, especially fripperies, were considered prestigious and thinks made of leather, wood or pottery were replaced with iron. Then after the I.P. iron and steel gradually became cheaper and it was easier and cheaper to make things like hinges in factories In some museums you can still find travelling trunks and such from the Napoleonic Wars era and before with leather hinges. The hinges go un-noticed as they are 'just hinges'. In most cases the hinges are two-part over-lap with a wood dowel pin, unlike your multi-part butt, or 'piano' hinge. I'm kinda worried that the leather will soften up too much with use. Perhaps a brass rod as a pin rather than C.F. in the briefcase one?

Looking at that photo I've just realised somat. I used to come across stools like that seen in the lower right. Cast iron with a circular wood seat. Most had Simanco cast into them. Just about every home had one or two, junk / 2nd hand shops had them by the tens. I had 3 in my photo studio for portrait sitting seats and general use. I got them given to me. Here they were usually used and called 'piano' stools, now I know what they really were. Its only recently that I learnt that Simanco is/was Singer Manufacturing Company. PS. I like my 15k models, my oldest is of 1913

No reason it won't work. I think two parts will work better than just a plain one piece hinge. Its a variation on the steel butt hinge. Lubrication is necessary on any hinge, and the use of carbon fibre rod is a good idea. A type of over-lap hinge has been in use since early medieval times. Some are still in place on doors. They've hardened up so much over the centuries they are like iron now and often mistaken for iron hinges