fredk

This is sooooooooo entertaining. Its been a while since we had someone with this (Michael222's) attitude. I'm off to my settings to 'ignore' him now

Right. Michael222 stop with this NOW. Stop the personal attacks on members here. The members of this forum are trying to help you but you do not want that help. NO leather worker on here will help anyone copy someone else's designs or products. There is such a thing as 'intellectual copyright' The members above have tried to direct you to patterns for this type of wallet. I bought an acrylic template for that style of wallet pictured. It cost me all of $10. Go you and do the same. You need experience in LEATHER WORKING to be able to make anything in leather. Go get that experience then come back. Leather working is far more involved than nuclear science - I have that opinion from a top scientist, so there. I'm going to ask the moderators to lock this thread

I had noticed the same thing. 3 things I did made a difference 1. dipped the item in a bath of diluted resolene and lay flat to dry. Repeat a few times 2. spray diluted resolene on, again, repeated coats and again lie flat to dry 3 let the antique dry and cure for about 3 weeks before attempting to lightly apply a thinned coat of resolene dabbed on by sponge, not wiped, but dabbed on edited to correct a spelling error

Thats clever. But oddly enough window squeegies are harder to get than rocking horse poo in my area. I've been trying to buy one for regular window cleaning. For the last few months I've tried so many places, many of which don't even know what it is. I reckon its an endangered species

use your standard skiver. either the safety beveler; https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/safety-beveler a super skiver; https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/super-skiver, I think better than the safety beveler for strap end skiving I also have this skiver for straps; bhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Handheld-Skiver-Cutting-Splitter-Cut-Leather-Tools-Skiving-Machine-New-vs-/123067708889?hash=item1ca76835d9 which is a big investment but very useful when doing a number of straps from the same leather as it can be set up to do all the same. a note on the names of things; I call a 'skive' or 'standard skive' skiving leather down say from 4mm to 2mm. There is still some thickness at the end. I call a 'feather skive' is when I skive down so that the edge is as thin as the thinnest tissue paper which has been thinned. It needs the strap to have an allowance for it as when I do it the end might not be straight and needs cut with scissors to tidy it. PS. on the stitching. I'm not constant. When I sew from the D along the strap, sometimes I just do the straight-away, sometimes I take the first stitch over the edge of the strap a couple of times before doing the straight-away. I think Al Stohlman recommended doing it this way. There is a V gouge, but it can be a chance that the one you get actually works. Mine doesn't work well. https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/craftool-adjustable-v-gouge-2 What I used to use was a wood carver's V chisel. Now for handiness I use these, they are edges as well as V groovers; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-5Pcs-Working-Hand-leather-Edge-Skiving-DIY-Tools-Keen-Edge-Beveler-Silver/273261100050 Another thought; if you are not doing it now. Use contact glue on your fold over. Wet the fold area, fold over the D, glue down and tap it down with a mallet then clamp up for a while, then stitch it

Artificial or faux wool fleece works just as well. Easier got too in most material shops. Cheaper too and just a few ££ for a square meter. And if you are fancy-free, available in many colours, such as purple or red as well as brown or cream https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sherpa-Sheep-Skin-Fabric-Material-Shearling-Faux-Fur-110cm-Wide-Soft-By-Meter-UK/163570758205?hash=item261593b23d:m:mMuj715U_IfjDqIkNgAWZUw For Fiebings Antique paste I just use a cloth block. Some old clean rag folded up then another clean rag folded around that. Use that to apply and another clean rag in my hand to wipe it off The wooly is good for getting the paste on ok but I found it could also remove too much from the wee nooks and crannies so wiping it over with a cloth in hand I can be more discerning on how much and where to remove

I would 1. shorten the red. feather skive it and have it end before where the layers meet on the fold, ie if the bit on the back folded over is 1 inch, then have the red end about 1.25 or 1.5 before the fold. That will take away about 2.2 mm 2. feather skive the outer and shorten it to about 3/4 the length of the outer piece, ie if the bit folded over is 1 inch then the outer layer is only about 3/4 inch long. That will make the thickness at about 1/2 inch along most of the thickness of the two outside layers but tapering away to under 1mm at their ends 3. I say 1 inch, but to me that is too short on these sorts of straps I'd have no less than 2 inches, preferably 2.5 inches 4. I think stitching across the leather is not good. I'd have two parallel lines of stitching, each about 5mm in from the edges. Each starting at the D loop, or as close to, and running at least 2 or 3 stitches over and beyond the skived ends of the folded piece

Are you double layering the collars? you only need one layer to fold over for the hardware

Thank you

Loverly job. However you are breaking Rule 68 A, sub clause 37. That states, you have to tell us what leather you used, what thickness, what dye, thread, stitches per inch, final finish coating . . . . all that and more

thats one negative look at it. . . . however, in my experience, there are not enough leather workers, or just workers who are willing to do repairs. When I was involved in Historical Presentation I did a lot of repairs on kit. Even though I "don't do" shoes or horse tack re-enactor types from all over the island of Ireland would search me out to get repairs done to everything including shoes and some horse tack. Prior to me taking on repairs there was no-one willing to do it so expensive kit was trashed just because some stitching had ripped out/worn away. I charged by the hour rate plus materials. The folk were happy. I once sat at a show and did some repairs on a pair of riding boots. About 1.5 hours work, charge was about £20, guy was happy cos a new pair of boots would have been about £250 and until I did the repair the boots were unwearable. The chap said that no-one in Ireland or the UK would even consider the repair and some even told him the boots weren't repairable' Another; a woman picked up a nice handbag at a car-boot sale. She said it cost about £2 - because a lot of the stitching was parting. She asked me to fix it. I told her my rates. It cost her about £45 in my fees, but she was happy as that bag was a 'named' one worth about £500 in decent nick. I'll stop with examples Point is, I believe doing repairs, good repairs is part of our craft. It should be a skill to offer to customers

Thank you for letting me know. I'm pleased to hear that it all worked out fine for you I hope you'll hang around this 'ere forum now and we'll see some of your work in the future

aye, it may cost less to make a complete new belt but there are times that, for whatever reason, we will pay more for something to be refurbished or rebuilt

I would, and have, extended a belt by cutting back the hole end to leave about 3 holes. Skive the belt and the new piece. Glue to each other and use the holes for ready rivets [which I used] or for Chicago screws, on the other end of the belt, the same distance from the buckle as the new join would lie I put in three matching rivets; to make a feature rather than a visible 'repair'. I did the joining end of the new piece in a blunted V and it was fitted about 1 inch beyond the last [or first] hole in the old belt 2. scrub the old leather with dye prep and or cellulose thinners. Apply dye to the new piece to start bringing it up to the look of the washed belt, then start to dye both together. This should get the new piece looking close to the old belt

The one on the right is for carpet making, for pushing or pulling wool tufts through the weave work The one on the left looks like a mis-placed awl needle, normally used in one of these; https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/sewing-awl-kit

Its a very special offer by Tandy to celebrate their 100th Anniversary and the 100th anniversary year of Al Stohlman's birth

I give my true email address when I want to hear back. Never had any problem.Never been hacked. I've used the same email addy for 20 years now. I only get a few spams every few days and they are from companies I no longer do business with. Main problem with the 'spam' is my email filter sometimes puts non-spam into the spam box. Same with my phone numbers, no problems, give them out only when I want to hear back. I just don't give email addy or ph numbers unless. I'm not that neurotic about it all

wot he says, JLS knows what he's talking about here Send it back

I find that thin leathers, up to about 2.3mm, will shrink upon drying after being dyed and lacquered. With a general bag or belt the shrinkage is hardly noticeable but on something which is made to fit tightly round something this shrinkage can hurt or aid ~ eg, I have fit quite tightly some leather over a knife sheath then dyed it, it then shrank to make it so tight it was impossible to remove, on t'other hand I dyed two halves of a case, let them dry and then they would not fit around the object they were for, now for that case I form and sew up in situ and then dye, as the leather dries it tightens up, I can then cut the case open I always dampen my leather before dyeing. NFO goes on at the end

That is pretty much normal A true belt making expert can make a belt in which this hardly happens but those experts are hard to find PS. I'm assuming that is the inside. If its the outside then, no it shouldn't look like that

Is that line of stitching by your finger-tip the stitching for the lining? If it is, I would cut that stitching with a scalpel, just enough to slip a leather repair patch in past, then use fine thread to re-sew the lining. I would make the repair patch from about 3 holes to the right thru to about 6 holes to the left of the ripped double

I just got an email from Tandy telling me that everything in the Tandy Library is Free Who would have thought?

Even debit/credit card is old skool now. In some areas of Belfast you can only pay for on-street parking or in car parks using a 'smart phone' and I've heard that at least two 'posh' restaurants are the same, pay with your 'smart phone' My son takes cash or bank transfer for payment. He's had customers arrive with no cash and they have done a bank transfer right there using their ipad thingies

My orders from Le Prevo always come rolled up. It would be impractical to send it flat. I keep it rolled up and only unroll it just before I need it. Usually it just flattens out itself, sometimes it needs a bit of dampening to encourage it

A very functional item made extremely nice looking. It'll be a pleasure to the owners to have these