fredk

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

Very nice. You asked for it - I presume the bumps on the rear are due to the bells' mountings. I think those areas will show wear eventually. I think a third layer, sandwiched, with cutouts for the bell mountings. It need not be full width and length but skived to feather edge and glue onto the front piece then the rear piece sewn on over.

3rd photo of 1st set. the scissors - left set are tailors or dressmakers scissors, the large ones on the right are tailors shears. Small ones in the centre - are the blades bent slightly? if so, they are tailors snips

I agree it looks like a printing block. There is nowt to indicate the size but it looks large 4 x 8 or 6 x 10 inches? afair they are made from a magnesium alloy so would be pretty light weight and not really feel like metal. They need attached to a solid wood block, about 1/4 inch minimum. It really needs to be used in a press. Use a bit of plate steel or aluminium, about 3 or 4 mm thick, on the back to take the press pressure. Without a press you could cobble up a pressing arrangement with C clamps and that piece of steel plate

from me too. But it may be the print of the book. Not all printings are the same. Mike's book may have a clearer print than ours

afair You say you like the look of the larger spaced stitching - this could be 'you', your look, so go for a 6, its a good all-rounder as well. But also get a finer one, like 8 or 10 spi, small subjects like watch straps look better with a finer spi

I would make it a double fronted book cover. This a cheap version of a book cover I do. The book covers slip into pockets front and back I would have the back cover of one book slip into the right side pocket and the back cover of the other book into the left pocket; the whole thing has to be turned upside down so that the second book can be used This folds closed ok and that strap pops closed ok too

Ideally you would want about 3mm or slightly more available to peen over - thats about 1/8 inch

Those nippers are kinda expensive. I bought mine for under £10. They've gone up in price but can still be bought for under £15 ($18 or so?)

Top set of photos: 3rd photo - Lower left are 3 sets of feeler gauges, usually found in automotive work for setting points and spark plug gaps, above them is a compound-lever bolt cutter, not common to wood workers but more-so in automotive work Last photo - those are tin smiths metal shears

not so, if you look at the rivet, it is hollow and the edge has cracked as it was crimped over - this can be seen more clearly in the photo in the book. Also, hardware like this was being turned out by machines since the 1780s. No smith would bother with making anything so small as a rivet - its too fiddly, too time consuming

Too much work. Like us, back then the maker didn't want too much extra work. He would have used something handy and commonly available. I'm thinking a small calibre bullet shell, maybe a .22 or .177? Punched thru the leather the empty tube of the shell would have filled with the waste of the belt rather than removing it.

I like to use a multi-pronged chisel which will punch many holes at a time. They can be bought with 1 prong, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. I only use an awl now to open up the punched holes if I need to. Another tool I use more frequently is a pliers type with four teeth which punches 4 holes at a time, from both sides. Whichever you use, with a multi-pronged/toothed punch, put the first 1 or 2 teeth into the last 1 or 2 punched, this will help keep the line straight. Pliers type; Stitching punches

Here is what is being discussed; The page 93 of 'Packing Iron' book. As said by the OP the holster is dated 1875 to 1880. Maker unknown A close up of the belt showing on the right The caption for the photo says the bullet loops are individually riveted to the main belt. The way the rivets are split where they are crimped over certainly makes them look like hollow rivets. I can't make out any rivet heads on the front side and it looks like rivets are filled with something - this could be just a century worth of grime and wax polish. Sometimes, fittings can be found on things made much earlier than we reckon. eg. I was told that the 'Sam Browne' stud was invented about 1850 but I have seen them on equipment made in about 1812 - 1814 and a version of it on equipment from about 1646 -1650

On hand stitching I go back over the stitches, using the same holes. I go back about 3 stitches. This locks the thread, then I cut it off neat to the leather surface and rub in a wee bit of wax. I think the same can be done with machine stitching.

As long as the picture put here is clear that is from the book and says it comes from it then it would be allowed as it is bring used for 'reference or research'.