fredk

I also have this jig. Its made of 4 pieces of 3mm thick clear acrylic. Three bolts are not full tightened, the one on top right is a wing nut, or butterfly nut. Loosen that to pull the four pieces of acrylic to the size of the letter stamps - in the picture they are 1/2 inch size. Tighten the wingnut and its all solid. afair this cost me about £3.50 to make.

I also have this jig. Its made of 4 pieces of 3mm thick clear acrylic. Three bolts are not full tightened, the one on top right is a wing nut, or butterfly nut. Loosen that to pull the four pieces of acrylic to the size of the letter stamps - in the picture they are 1/2 inch size. Tighten the wingnut and its all solid.

You'll need to sew the seams

I had a sort-of similar problem. When I had a small-holding I cleared a field that had been used as a metal dump. I went to a few scrap metal merchants and said - 'free if you take it away' No one showed. A few months later one of the drivers from one of the dealers turned up on the look out. I told him £50 per ton. I got £250 out of it. Go figure! as is said by some

very nice indeedy

I've bought a few springs from this company (below). Perhaps they have something in their range https://www.eurosprings.co.uk/

Nice Just be sure to remind him to use it. He may think its 'too nice' to use daily

very excellent find

It looks like thin leather, tooled and laminated with a bit of card* in the middle and some sort of material for the insides. *Is that white card showing in the bottom left of the 2nd picture? Looks like stitching up the left edge in the top picture, maybe across the top and whats left of stitching holes across the bottom of it (where the leather is curved) I think whoever takes this on needs to have it in their hands whilst doing it

Build up the features with scrap leather and duck tape. Exaggerate them. Then when the leather is moulded over them the exaggeration is lost due to the thickness of the leather

I'm thinking that was made by a Navajo craftsman

I think visitors are not allowed to post photos nor send PMs. But you are signed in as a member. You may need to reduce the size of your photo. If you are using a phone send the photo to yourself first then try putting it on here.

I keep my spare spools in a couple of plastic boxes on a shelf unit. Thread for ready use is kept in the top part of my 'sewing' tool box along with my plastic box containing needles and other sewing needs

or. . . . a rare thing but you can get leather that has coloured metal foil bonded to it. I have some 'crinkly' gold & silver. afaik its available in smooth versions a well. If you can get this perhaps you can glue it on. Le Prevo usually has some Main page - look down for Metallic Leather : http://www.leprevo.co.uk/hides.htm colour example page: http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/metallic-colours.htm It is very thin and the plain gold is quite bright and shiney

Generally I find the spacing on the letter blocks are pretty much what the spacing should be, as in sign writing or printing. On either a few letters or a full name/word I write it out then mark where the centre looks best visually. eg name William. The visual centre is not the second L - the middle letter, but on the right edge of the first L, allowing for the width of the uppercase W and the width of the lower case a & m In your case it looks like you are aligning the edges of each stamp to your centre line (bottom set) but you tried to align the visual middle to your centre line (first set of large letters). That first set looks close. I would move the two stamps over to the right just a tad more. The visual centering of these two letters lies in the waste of the S stamp, almost but not quite in the centre of that waste As you have done, so I do, I test out on a bit of scrap leather how the stamping will look and I adjust till I get it the way I want it. After a bit of experience with certain letters I find I only need to do maybe one test stamping. With an awkward spacing such as yours I then use a marker pen to make an index line on one of the stamps - in this case it would be on the S stamp - to tell me where to centre it.

Where abouts are you located? Which 'Orange County'?

I don't know what you are thinking of when you think of 'diamond' shaped holes. The diamond shape has been long proven to be about the best hole for straight stitching. The shape allows the thread to be sewn close but the holes are unlikely to tear out Here is a run of holes made with my pliers As you can see they are in a straight line, thus the sewing will be as well.

Sometimes you just gotta get it made for yer self. I get stamps made by a guy in China. I send him a jpeg image and about 12 days later I get my stamp. For a 1" square size it costs about £14 and I've seen Midas stamps selling for 3 x that price

I use that mix, and a mix of super glue & talc as a gap filler in my plastic models. But for casting I have numerous types of resin handy to me I'm thinking - stamp a regularly used word into polymer clay, turn that into a mould then cast a copy of the complete word eg. my son's car parts business is called 'willswheels', Too many letters to keep stamping on a number of things, not enough items to get a brass cut, but maybe a resin one.

I only did some 'worn' look by accident then had to cover it up. It was with my old favourite - cellulose thinners. I'd dyed a strap then put resolene on. But the top wasn't looking good so I wiped it down with a rag soaked in thinners. I was only wanting to remove the resolene but the thinners removed some of the dye colour as well. The strap looked like a cross between the two dark ones in your photos. Then I re-dyed it and finished it off

Those pliers are the same ones I posted above. There are just two types of these available now; one with small diamond teeth for stitching and a larger set with wider teeth for lacing. There is no choice on the stitching type per teeth size and spacing, there is on the lacing type, one for 3mm and one for 4mm wide lace I've used mine for many years now. The latest jobs is through 3.6mm +2mm with the 3.6 skived and the combo is about 3.2mm, about 8 oz (1 oz = 0.4mm). The pliers had no problem going thru that. I saddle stitch with 1mm flat profile thread which fills the holes. Just now using my digital calipers the tooth size is 1.17mm along one long side of the diamond, or about 1.2mm overall. All chisels need sharpening at some point in their use. I've not sharpened mine for a while now and I've just done 6 runs each of 84cm (33 inches) = about 504cm, over 5 m and nary a problem Whatever you choose you need to match the thread to the hole. Ideally a thread 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the hole if saddle stitching, or about 3/4 if single stitching

This sounds like separation of the top layer of the leather. It sometimes happens and nothing can be done to rectify it. Just use that leather for bag making where it will not be subject to bending If you have more of that leather, lay it out all flat and wet it, not soaking wet, just a wet cloth wiped over it to get some even wetness. Leave it for a while, say 1/2 hour, then get your eye down level with the surface. You may see ripples in the surface - thats where the top layer of the leather is separating from the main body

Can you get a finger nail under the surface of the leather at the crack?

Small rubber head mallet, might be available in a $ store or similar. Mine was bought in a £ shop Once upon a time, in a galaxy far away Tandy used to sell them. You might find them as NOS in a Tandy re-seller or - I got mine off ebay direct from China. Available in 4 tooth and 2 tooth example of 4 tooth on ebay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1X-Leather-Stitching-Hole-Punch-Plier-Clamp-Cutter-Hoggard-Diamond-Cut-Punc-2R4/303149521011?epid=18030599939&hash=item46951e9873:g:82UAAOSwBCdc1KRI

After sewing the usual practice is to use a small mallet to tap down the stitching. If you use the second type there is leather to close up the hole as you tap it down. With the first type there is no leather left to close up the hole. Have you tried stitching punches with flat angled teeth, as on these pliers type?