fredk

afaik the man-made threads can be affected by UV light rays but linen is not. Linen goes slack when it gets wet, this may be beneficial in that leather swells when wet, so the linen thread wont cut into the leather whereas the man-made thread will Also its more 'traditional' so that be important to some people I have a queue building up of around 400 steering wheels to recover. A lot of them have the threads broken or weakened due to UV light and not wear & tear

Nice So will I once this moves up to the 'I got to really, really, really finish . . . ' pile. At the mo its only in the ' . . .really finish. . . 'pile

One thin coat will seal but not be heavy enuf to crack You can 'Mop and Glo' Its meant for wood floors but its a thin acrylic varnish. I use a local version of it regularly, Others on here also use it

Have you tried a coating of varnish?

This is one, I bought it, its only cut out as yet

Main question Where are you based? This is an International Forum and we have members all over the world PS. I don't think Guests can receive or send PMs

Inches, foot and yard are interesting Edward 1st was regulating measurements. On your fingers the first section, from knuckle to the first joint, was called a hinch. Eddy ruled that the hinch of his finger was the standard measurement to be used. And 12 hinches was the length of his foot, thus it was the be the standard. To be used during his lifetime. The h was soon dropped as it was a nearly silent letter. You'll find your hinch more or less equal to 1 inch btw when the French used inches, their inch was about 1.25 inches, longer. So when they say Napoleon was short at 56 inches tall thats French inches which is actually 70 inches which is 5 ft 10, not short at all (proven) You often see the medieval longbow arrow called cloth-yard shaft long. Edward 1st was constantly at war. When he took up using Welsh long bow archers he found there was great variation in the length of supplied arrows. The width of the standard weaving loom at the time worked out at 34 to 37 inches wide. In setting his standards the looms were to be 36 inches wide, thus it was ruled the supplied arrow shafts were to be no less than the width of a cloth loom. Commercial weavers worked together in a weaving yard. As usual everything got contracted and simplified Next lesson will be . . . .

That was true but it was cleared up many years ago with law. Fresh foods may be sold either in Imperial or metric measures. Its up to the vendor to choose. Most price their foods for both

From mid-medieval period the weights and measures were set down by Edward 1st and Edward III The British Ton is based on the wine barrel the Tun. The odd weight is 2000lb plus 240lb for the barrel weight. And this carries on down; the hundred-weight is 100lb plus 12 lb for the barrel =112lb Ships were measured as to how many Tuns of wine barrels they could fit in their cargo hold thus a 150 Ton/Tun ship actually does does not weigh that

About 8 years ago I did a series of beginners classes. Very poorly attended, Any way, My plan was to have and show examples of veg tan and chrome tan leather. I made up bags for each person. Each bag had the two types of leather, twice, a length of flat and round lace, a length of 1/2 mil & 1 mil thread. I also made up bags containing the parts for a simple coin purse. The bag of leather was given out at the first meeting but the coin purse kit was shown to them but not given out until needed. Showing the kit and few finished examples keep their interest I made up tool kits for every person. For months before hand I scoured ebay and the shops. The kits cost about £15. These were given to each person but left at the venue until so many classes then they could take them home. My classes were being funded by a community type body and wanted the tool kits One important thing, for me anyway, was my 'assistant' and the main organiser was an experienced teaching lecturer, for I am no teacher. She was able to guide me and the classes smoothly and make it fun If I remember I'll be back I was supposed to do a few classes with the ladies of my Knit & Natter group at Easter but I ended up in hospital instead. I was going to show them and have them make a key-ring coin purse. I have 18 kits prepared Something like this And then I was to show them how I made the pen cases I gave them one Christmas. I may be able to pre-mould a case or something and do a kit

Magnetic Book Markers? Eh? was ee on about? Book pages aren't magnetic Let me explain This is the latest craze here. Has been for several months now but I was only able to tackle it this past week Do you use scrap leather to make key ring fobs? Then you can make Magnetic Book Markers I used my die for key fobs I punched out two I have two identical pieces complete with sewing holes Using contact adhesive I stuck on two powerful magnets. They are 12 mm x 3 mm N52 strength. Placement doesn't have to be exact, an approx will do I mark the magnets to make sure I have them the right way up. Sometimes with really thin and floppy leather you can cut thin cardboard to go around the magnet to make the leather firmer/stiffer The two pieces are all sewn up and in use, the book mark is folded over the page and the two magnets attract holding it in place One side; It doesn't matter which way you fold it, the magnets will always attract The leather has to be as thin as possible and the magnets strong, I recommend N50 or N52. The orange leather is thicker than what I'd prefer. Scrap leather; the two sides can be different, dyed or un-dyed veg tan & coloured chrome tan together, two different coloured chrome tan et cetera. Maybe stamped with an initial, or other 3D stamps, . . . . .the only limit is your own imagination On-line these sell for £/$4.99, in the shops - £/$10 to 15 The biggest expense are the magnets. £/$1 to 1.50 each, = £/$2 to 3 per book mark. Maybe you can get the magnets cheaper Something else to make for selling at your market places

A wee story. About 2006/7 the Irish police, known locally as 'The Guards' went on a man-hunt for a Polish driver who was racking up fines for speeding, careless driving, not appearing in court for dangerous driving, parking tickets. He moved about a lot. they had over 50 addresses for him His name, which was given out to the public via radio, TV and newspapers was Prawo Jazdy. Hundreds of Guards were allegedly on the look for this driver. Then it was pointed out to the Guards that prawo jazdy is Polish for . . . . . .Driving Licence! Every time the Guards stopped a Polish diver they took down Prawo Jazdy as his name as a certain yellow character would say 'Doh!'

A further daft bit to this was the police driver, who stayed in the car, was one of my son's old school chums. But he was too far away to take part so didn't know

I'll tell you my last name is Kullas, it came from Bohemia to Chicago where I was born and lived until we moved to NI. Over the years my name has been; McCullan, Cullis, McKullick and more as the locals thought. As I always say, I don't care what you call me as long as you don't call me late for lunch! In the recent past we have seen a large number of Eastern Europeans moving here to work at the Meat and cheese factories. When somebody we don't know, eg a doctor or police officer sees the last name they assume Eastern European. Example; My son has a car dismantling and 2nd hand parts business. Recently the police called to advise on a situation. They read the last name and brought an interpreter with them. He started talking Polish. Seeing no reaction he worked through Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Czech, Serbian. Then my son turned to the police officers and in a broad local accent said 'I cannot understand a word this guy is saying. Why did you bring him here?' As my son told me, their reaction was 'priceless'

It was normal in the UK until at least the mid-1960s. Then it petered out until there was just 'a woman who does'* - a semi-maid who called in on a daily basis, then it became weekly, to tidy up and do a bit of shopping * that was she was called; When asked the employer would say ' I have a woman who does' and the woman when asked would say, 'oh, I do for Mrs xx and Mrs yy' Such are foibles of British society We (then my ex-) had a 'woman who does' up to 2017

Ethnic Minorities are call BAME in the UK. And in NI they are a rarity. Some move here and soon leave, not to prejudice but basically 'loneliness'. When there are so few its hard for them for their special events an cultural things, eg, in whole island of Ireland, (population, 5.1 million + 1.9 million = 7 mil) there only 800 Jews, but some will say there are up to 2400. They have to get a Rabbi over from Scotland, their special foods have to be specially imported. And its much the same for Muslims

We are currently testing Vaseline

My 1930 Austin 7 Ulster has 15 different types of bolt threads on it. Just to do minor servicing on it we have to have a mahoosive tool box with every type of spanner you never heard of. I owned a Cadillac Coupe DeVille, it had, afair, 7 different bolt threads on it. It was built in Lynden, (spelling?) New Jersey

yes, I bought some pattern of etsy. Cut them out, punched the sewing holes where the pattern said. Impossible to sew up

Although we adopted the metric system we still buy fresh food by the pound & ounces. Pre-packaged foods are in kilograms and grams. Fuel and most other liquids are in litres, but down in pub you buy a pint. We're bi-lingual Last week I asked my butcher for about 1/2 a kilogram of mince beef. He gave me a blank stare. I said - about 500 grams. Blank stare. Give me a pound of mince. Instant action

I was of a generation that changed how our school did things. We boys campaigned and won the right to do Home Ec and for girls to do Engineering. An older sister taught me how to sew when I was 9. An older bro-in-law who had been in the army showed me a special way to sew on buttons. So when I went into the RAF training at 12 I knew how to sew, polish shoes to a high shine, how to get a knife-edge crease in my trousers, how to open tins without a tin opener and more. It gave me instant promotion, and a position of training other cadets

I used to get timber at certain builder merchants. You had to order the timber by the 'metric foot' (= 30cm) so you/I always ordered slightly more than needed to make up for the lost 5mm. But when the office worked out the bill it was always in imperial feet!

mea culpa I'm colour blind. Honestly

Now that is blue! What blue did you use? If you want to keep the brim flat or curved the way you want it; sew a thin strip of leather to the edge of the brim and over it, then slip a 2mm aluminium wire in it