fredk

Neatsfoot oil does get old. Improperly stored it can go rancid - you'll know when it does. Neatsfoot oil is made boiling the feet of cattle [the word Neat = old Middle-English word for cattle] and the lower leg bones to get the fat out of them. This is then refined to remove a lot of the fat and just leave the oils. It sounds like some of the fat has separated out and by heating it up you simply re-melted the fat into the oil

Nice. I reckon you're getting the hang of doing these now

By 'drying' after use of alcohol we mean that it removes the natural oils. Sometime after cleaning, before or after dyeing, apply some neatsfoot oil to replace the lost oils. Use pure neatsfoot oil and not NFO compound which has other additives in it The water will only harden the leather if you soak it and dry it too fast. A mild washing will not overly affect the leather properties. If you use soapy water it will remove some of the oils - again apply some NFO You can wet mould after applying dye, but before sealing the dye

Years ago a friend of mine cleared a load of display boxes from a cancelled order. The boxes were about 6" square base by 10" tall with clear panels on three sides. His selling was, 'quality display box with Free Invisible Man' £xx - he sold the lot, about 250, at just a few craft-fairs. - I kid you not, this is true. It was about the same time the pet rock was the rage

If I may give a similar but reverse situation. N.I. has an average of 80% humidity and 12* C [53* F] I had to make and cover interior panels for a vintage car. The older ones [not vintage, but old] were taken off and I cut new panels out of hardboard exactly to the same size. Then they were covered in upholstery leather using contact glue. At every stage the size of the panels was checked, by measure and by placement. This work was done in the spring. The panels were put into an empty office near the car being rebuilt, adjoining the garage workshop. When it came to fitting the panels early in the winter almost all of them were too big. I measured them, all too big. We put the panels into a heated office for a month and they shrunk back to their original size. In those few months the hardboard had absorbed enough extra atmospheric moisture for them to expand

That looks just grand so it does Just a wee 'but'. . the edge which will be along the fold over looks a bit too fussy

I'm thinking it sounds like water/moisture evaporation shrinkage in an exceptionally dry environment. The boards, before covering, and the leather might have needed a week, or even more, in that environment for them to shrink and stabilise. In they way even dry timber needs to be in its end use environment to stabilise

May I join in? Here in N.I. 'Game of Thrones' has been a big employer for about 10 years. Its also flooded the market with 'medieval' leather goods - items supplied to the extras on the movies, they get several new issues during the filming, so they sell off their 'old' stuff. Problem is, those 'medieval' style leather items from GoT are fantasy designs. I used to make leather goods for the local re-enactors. I have a library full of books written by archaeologists and museums. The items I made were made according to actual period finds - but, more and more, people started telling me my stuff was historically wrong as it was so different to the 'Game of Thrones' items - people insisted that GoT was historically correct and I was wrong, even after I showed them the find example in a museum publication. It wasn't just the style and designs, it was in the quality of the leather, the way the items are sewn together. People would rather believe that medieval people could not make nice looking, robust and well put together leather goods. The buyers of GoT items would rather pay 4x for a 'correct' piece than my modest price for a better constructed item. I stopped doing the 'medieval' fairs and such after a bit too much of this thank you ~ rant mode off

I suppose I should make something fit for purpose rather than cobbling together a stright piece of MDF, supported by the blocks on a Black & Decker workmate thingy, or using a the side of a block of granite for short straps

Problem with bags of 'scrap', you just don't know what you are getting. With larger pieces bought specially, belly leather stretches the most, with back and shoulder stretching the least, ususually none at all. But you need to know what you've bought. With 'scraps', take a piece, cut a long thin piece [5mm x 100mm minimum length] off a bit and pull it in your hands, you'll soon see how much belly will stretch The 'fix' mentioned above is a good one. You can sitll do a 'wet mould' on it. Either with the items for it, wrapped in ceran food wrap, or wood blocks. Soak in warm, but not hot, water and dry quickly using a warm air flow, like from a hair dryer. The leather will shrink a bit and tighten up. But this is risky and should only be done with experience or as a desperate measure. I tighted up the holder on this knife sheath doing the warm water method. It tightened it up so tight that the sheath could not be removed from it, which was required.

gottcha, understand how it fits now. Well thought out then so it is

They look nicely moulded and sewn but wot he asks, its not the tang tho - its the finger guard *the tang is the part of the knife metal which runs up into the handle/grip

I have to 'import' everything, with its associated s&h costs. My nearest Tandy is about 150 miles away, but there is a big bit of water between me and them, its called the Irish Sea. Minimum ferry cost is about £260. So Tandy's s&h of £8 per order is very reasonable. Even Le Prevo's fee of £15.50 per large parcel is reasonable. I factor both into my costs breakdown; ie if I get an order of buckles and hardware from Le Prevo s&h is about £6.50, rolls of leather are £15.50, this is broken down at a pro-rata rate and added to each buckle or square foot of useable leather As a lot of hardware, especially the likes of rapid rivets, are made in China I order from there directly. Some times an order from China has arrived before an order out of England. S&h for a China order is usually £0 or at most £0.99 Most UK sellers changed their wording of 'Free' on their goods after a TV comedian did a skit where he went into a shop and consumed the 'free' portion of packs of biscuits, comfectionery and drinks. This skit prompted other ordinary people to do the same. Most companies now put 'extra ~ % for the same price' I suppose the belt seller should have been saying; 'the buckle of your choice at no extra cost when you buy a belt' ~ but thats kinda long winded, aint it?

This may have something; https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1411/leather-flowers

This. It should - will, have a guarantee. Send them back and ask for good ones. Also ask for repayment of your p&p [s&h] This is a duplicate thread on this subject

Sorry friend but I cannot find the cameras. I may have disposed of them.

You're lucky the 2-tooth makes holes. Very often these tools need sharpening and the edges 'polished'. An afternoon, or evening, doing the sharpening and polishing will transform them

Wrong hammer; a rubber head mallet, a very small one should be sufficient

I may have a couple of these but if so they are in my storage unit which I can't get to until Tuesday. If I have them I'll post up and we can take it from there - OK?

Water based does not always mean water soluble. Most acrylic paints are water based but will not be soluble in water once dry and cured, same for many glues. I use a water based PVA glue which is water and weather resistant when dry.

I'm contrary. I did new bonnet and boot belts for my vintage cars. On the old belts the round holes had ripped the leather into an oval hole and distressed the strap. On the new ones I punched oval holes and after many, many months of use the holes are/were the same shape with no distress to the leather belt strap

All my books are packed away until late spring/summer time. Check out some of the 14th century Books of Hours and Psalters There is a Leatherwork museum in the Midlands of England. Have you contacted them?

yup, thats wot I do, just cut lightly around it and the soft rivet metal soon separates. I got fed up just cutting the rivet shaft then spending ages rounding it again so it'd fit into the head part Depends how many you need to cut but another way is to get some thick copper wire, stuff it into the shaft and cut both the wire and shaft in one, then shake out the short bit of wire

The OP does say he'll be sewing them, the glue is just to hold them whilst he does so

I do hope all you guys do not suffer to much from this unusual adverse cold weather. I live in a very mild weather place and a heavy frost is enough to cause consternation!