fredk

Thats another nice piece of work. Bestest wishes for the contest

a suggestion, extreme measure - have you tried steaming it? get it into a sauna type place, let it steam for a while and whilst in there apply nfo by the sponge full I use to do this with my motorcycle boots about once every spring to soften them up after the wetting and salting they got over the winter months, although I used leather feed and olive oil

This is not the case in the UK or Europe. Unless the originator of the pattern has given you permission to make items for commercial sale from the pattern then you may use the pattern only for personal use, you may not make multiples of the item and sell them, but you may give those items away as gifts

For small size thread: 0.5 or 0.65mm pre-waxed polyester. It is available in a great variety of colours and even shades of those colours With 2oz or so I don't mark a stitch groove. I just draw a line with a pencil then use a 'pounce' wheel stitch marker to mark where the stitch holes will be. I can then sew up to four thicknesses of 2oz by hand without pre-punching or using an awl for making holes.

very nice indeedy

a. There are/were a great many different styles (fonts) of letters in 3/4 inch. Which font do you need? * b. Was there ever a lower case set made for the type you have? as far as I can find out very few lower case sets were made to match certain type sets c. Presuming there was a set. Start checking every Tandy re-seller around the world to see if they have them. No. I'm not joking. It took me over a year contacting Tandy re-sellers in Europe, Asia, Australia and US to find one set of 1/2 inch lower case**. They had it as NOS, on a dusty shelf d. consider getting one of the Tandy Craftaids or books of designs and cut & carve the lower case letters - in fact do all the letters that way for consistency. e. if you think you're gonna use them often, consider getting them made. I went that way. I sent the lower case alphabet for a 3/4 inch type, with some repeat letters, to Le Prevo in England and they made me a sheet of the letters. I have to cut them out as blocks yet. They use a photo-etch system. I got the letters done as well as some designs for stamping. The lot cost me about £90. The letters are about 1/3 share of that f. * & ** I bought the lower case set first then bought the more readily available upper case set

Bestest I can find is the Tandy on-line library https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1411/leather-flowers Adjust the pattern and dye 'em pink and you got roses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-51176409 Quote from the article linked to " Can the coronavirus be transferred through items bought from Wuhan and posted to UK? - Stefan There is no evidence this is a risk. Some diseases - including the coronavirus that causes Sars - can spread through surfaces contaminated by people coughing or sneezing on them. It has not been shown this new coronavirus can do that. Even if it could, there would still be questions about whether international shipping would be a major problem. Cold viruses tend to survive less than 24 hours outside the human body although norovirus (a severe stomach bug) can last months outside the body. The most reassuring fact so far is that cases seem to require close contact with another person - say, a family member or healthcare worker - in order to spread." (end quote) I've checked the addresses of the suppliers I buy from and none are in Wuhan nor even close. Most are close to Hong Kong

Dilute your PVA with something 'Astonish' floor 'polish' which is a thin acrylic varnish. It makes the PVA totally waterproof when dry. I put about an egg-cup full in about 500ml of PVA. It dilutes it only a bit but still makes it water-proof when dry.

In a life in another universe a long time ago I was a postie for the Royal Mail. This question came up once when there was a massive flu outbreak in the UK. We were told not to worry about it, no virus could live for any length of time on any package. A virus is not like bacteria or a germ which can live on certain items

a. 3mm = 1/8 inch, 6mm = 1/4 inch - close enough for government work, b. I use a big heavy weight on the template to hold it down c. I suggest you use a rotary knife on thin material

a. I use both 3mm clear acrylic, which is cut to my requirements by a company, and 3mm MDF also cut by them or me b. Most times I just trace around the template and cut with a knife or shears along the marked line. If I have to I will cut using the edge of the template as a guide and with care I've never taken any slices out of a template yet c. I think to be totally free of that threat you'd need a template made of hard metal, like steel, as you can still take a slice from the edge of aluminium d. Unless you need to see through the template I'd recommend 3mm or 6mm MDF. Its much cheaper and easier to get

What do you mean Chris? I've been placing my orders with Le Prevo on-line for about 8 years and they answer my emails pretty speedily. Only rarely do I need to phone them or them me

Does it have to be plastic? I find 3mm MDF good for pattern shapes. I can cut it with a heavy duty craft knife. If it needs to be plastic, corrugated poster plastic. Here its used for politicians pre-election posters. Shops use it as well and it can be got cheaply from them (usually it is thrown away after use) or directly from a printer of posters.

ah, this is an old chestnut. Assuming you are doing saddle stitching, you need twice the length to be sewn plus more for the thickness at each hole. On light leather (2 to 3.5mm) your length will be 2x to be sewn plus 1.5 to 2 x of that = about 3.5 to 4 times the length to be sewn. On thicker leather (4mm and above)your total will be 2x ltbs + 2 to 3 x = 4 to 5 x length to be sewn.. Thicker the leather the greater that extra needs to be. Best practice is not to use more than 2 m at a time but I often go beyond that and wax my thread often hth

I'll add, what Rocky says about time to do work vrs dealing with customers. I've been asked (too frequently) to make leather 'life style' items - you know what I mean. I don't make that stuff and never will so I refuse. Here in the UK if I was a proper business I cannot refuse to do so, It is illegal*. I've been threatened with court action but because I'm only a 'hobbyist' the legal action fell at the first hurdle. Thus I'm safer not having a shop. * In the UK it is illegal to refuse to supply or make anything for anyone based on their colour, ethinicity, disablement or sexuality - even if I tell them I don't make that item its seen as a refusal

I've dreamt of it. Even found a few places which would have been my ideal, they are old Georgian shops, very Dickensian. Also looked at more modern small shop units. But I'd need to sell about £1000 per week to afford any of them, and thats before I took any wages. Any saddlers I knew worked in old converted stables at a riding school. Some even had places in several riding schools and spent a month or so in each. They sold new saddles and tack through the riding school tack shop. There is a tack shop in a town near me but its been closed up for about 10 years. All the tack and outdoor clothing still in there. They used to have a leatherworker who worked their about 4 days per week, on and off. Casual enquires seem to indicate he died.

May you each enjoy your festival in peace and harmony A joke for you on Robert Burns Day: Prince Charles is being shown around a Scottish hospital. At the end of his visit, he is shown into a ward with a number of patients who show no obvious signs of injury. He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims: Fair fa' yer honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain e' the puddin' race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, painch tripe or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace as lang's my arm. The Prince, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, and immediately the patient launches into: Some hae meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit. This continues with the next patient: Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, wi' bickering brattle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, wi' murdering prattle!" "Well," Prince Charles says to his Scottish colleague, "I see you saved the psychiatric ward for the last." "Nay, nay," the Scottish doctor corrected him, "this is the Serious Burns unit."

Take them with you. Freight need not be expensive. My son sends heavy car parts around the world and its surprising just how cheap it can be. Buy Canadian spec motors for them when you get there. 5 mins to change them over

Never tried one but I had occasion to investigate the claims by a number of them. Basically, the only people who they help and make money are themselves. Like pyramid schemes I suggest you keep clear of them. As you are asking about them I presume you are not the gullible type to fall for their hype. How you can set up as a business in your area is vastly different to me in my country, to someone in Oz or in France, Denmark, Norway, yet these bods claim their way suits everyone It used to be said; Put 'easy' and 'make money' in the title of any book and it'll be a best seller making you millions - same now for internety things. People fall for the 'easy' and 'make money' spiel. In your life circle there are numerous people who are self employed or have small companies. Get to know them and ask them questions. Most will respond positively as long as they don't see you as a rival. This will be cheaper and much more effective.

tbh, for this I would get a brass stamp made. I can get a 8 x 8 cm brass stamp cut for under £30, smaller sizes pro rata. At £10 per hour labour thats 3 hours work - it'll take far more than that to tool this design, once. If you intend repeating the design then a stamp will give consistent results quicker.

points, quick answers 2. I've been doing this crazee leatherwork for a long time. I don't own a bone folder. Never have. I use an antler tip and a piece of sheep's rib I found. What ever works works 3. my favourite tool for making stitching holes; these pliers type. You can push the jaws right up close to the enclosed object and punch the holes. On something like your pouch it would take about 10 minutes or less to punch the sewing holes with these. I know cos I've done it. They can be bought for about £15 per pair if you search them out. 5. With a lot of cases the back extends longer than the front, to fold over the top and attach at the front; Reverse this, extend the front longer than the back, take it over the top to attach at the rear 1. you got the bottom corners good. To do a front only wet mould you'll need a board and to staple or nail the front leather to it until it dries (over the object of course). If you do any tooling the wet moulding will soften the tooling and may even remove it whilst moulding over the object. A way round this is to make a wood copy of the subject, aka a buck, and do the tooling on the leather as it is around the buck 4. I reckon you now realise that glueing the two parts together really helps keep them aligned for punching holes and sewing. An alternative to glue is double sided tape, but in this case glue would be best of course be proud of it, not many try wet moulding as their first subject. I sketch things out on paper before I make anything I do not have a pattern for. I spend weeks sketching, the parts, notes on order of assembly until I'm satisfied it will turn out, or nearly, as I have planned.

a. you say its to train dogs - remember dogs hear higher pitches better than we do and lower pitches worse than we do b. Its a fine bit o work, it'll last well, we are just super critical cos thats us!

very nice indeedy. loverly tooling work

Almost. Its too clean around some of the rivet heads. Dirt, grime and polish builds up around these and that area is hard to clean and thus it is much darker. The rivet heads need a bit of work as well. I light sanding with a coarse grit emery paper - just a touch on the edges and a bit on their centres - drag the emery in one direction only