fredk

Use of the pipe for a strop is a good idea Not to blow cold air on your good idea, tube shaped whetstones for sharpening scythes and gardeners' curved blade knives have been around for centuries. But they are coarse sharpening stones not strops Edited; to add a thought. If a piece of pipe was to be sectioned and leather stuck to the inside curve, could it be used for a strop on blades like round knives?

You need to give folk more time. Theres a lot of members who do not visit the forum everyday.

Its because it is a phone. It auto-rotates the image as you turn the phone to look at the picture then when you post the image the image is aligned according to the rotation of the phone

Any motorcycle or car accessory/parts places near you? you'll find a suitable nut there Those nuts have numerous names. One common name here for them is 'acorn nut' T'is a very nice looking handle

On the matter of a cork block ~ go to a hardware store and look for a sanding block. Cork blocks sized about 4 inch x 2 inch x 1 inch are sold for use by wrapping sandpaper around. They cost just a couple of $$ at most. You can easily cut this block into smaller blocks as needed to suit a project.

In the UK some business' show the price of goods including tax, and some don't, eg Le Prevo Leather. But in the end everyone pays that same VAT [tax] and no extra. Some business' can reclaim VAT paid on the stuff they bought. An example; one of the business I owned published magazines and booklets. We paid VAT [tax] on film, processing, cameras, computers et cetera, but magazines are 0 rated so I could claim back all the VAT I'd paid out. When I sold the magazines into other European Union countries they did not [with one exception] impose any tax on the magazine even tho they had a tax on mags produced in their country What I'm reading here is the US States are acting like individual countries, not as members of one great big country, with free-trade between States but imposing 'import & export' tariffs. Whereas the individual countries of Europe are acting like they are part of one country with free flow of trade and recognising that VAT paid in one member country is tax paid All this must really stifle any growth in any small business. It sounds like the amount of paperwork needed just to sell to someone in another state is a real burden and I guess the IRS is rather unforgiving of mistakes. We joke that our IR&C are hard nosed and bandits but they aren't bad really

aye, you could be right. Its still well above what most small business' make though and I forgot, you lot have local council taxes, which we don't have,

We have basically one tax. Called V.A.T. - Value Added Tax. Four rates in UK, 20% on nearly everything, 5% on fuels like coal, electricity, 0% on books and such and 'exempt' on things like food and baby clothes. Business' only levies and collects VAT when their turnover is above a certain amount = about £35,000 p/a afair Big Limited companies pay a Corporation Tax on profits but small business' like your 'mom & pop' shops do not. Brick and mortar business also pay 'rates' a local tax for town/city services As a small business working from home the only tax I have to pay is on my earned income. I remember being stuck in an area of New York [called Jamaica !] years ago. I was in-between flights and for reasons I was down to my last $10. I went to a McD for a meal. Most everything was priced at 99c. Great, I thought. So I worked out a meal costing about $6 - as I thought, but it cost me $9.80 or so with all the local, city and state taxes added!

Probably not what they actually are and depending on their size, they look like the hooks we used to use to carry a brace of shot game birds home. Tied the legs of the birds together, hook that tie over the metal hook and the whole lot could be hung from a belt, shot bag or off a hook in the back of the the Landy

Two things; 1. use a block of cork on the inside and push the awl thru into that 2. use an auto-awl, like this one: https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/sewing-awl-kit Edited to add, the auto-awl can be bought a great deal cheaper than the Tandy price. eg; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leather-Hand-Single-Stitch-Sew-Sewing-Awl-Tool-Needle-Stitching-With-Thread-LS/223290518779?hash=item33fd26ecfb:g:HmIAAOSwyupa3sNz

and here its most commonly available in small sizes, under 3mm i/d afair

Done, I PM'd you a copy

yeah, like I can see you're no good at this 'ere stamping & carving work, ah, it looks grand anyhows

Thanks. I'd try making a milk-bottle-maul but I don't have any of the tools for finishing it off, nor access to the tools

what I really wanna know is, how many milk jugs are needed!?!

seems to be a dead link. I PM'd you a copy

May I plead - lets cool it folks, before this may escalate into personal attacks

Other than having two sets of letters A few methods, using word BOOK 1. Do B, then O, use a Q as a spacer, do K, leave K in place, remove Q and replace with O, and if necessary place Q over first O 2. Use an alignment frame, like this; https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/leather-stamp-guide Mark where the side of the first O block would be against the second O. Hand stamp each letter, move O over to the marks and stamp. I use a jig like this or one made of thick card for use under my press. I align all the letters needed, for a duplicate letter I put in a letter block the same size. I remove that letter block, cover the rest with a piece of steel plate and press. I then move the duplicate letter into place and press again. Thats how I did something with the name ROGER on it ~ although the R is on the ends the name had to be aligned and set inside a design so I needed to use a letter blank on the end

Dunno bout you, I plan to be around for a looooong time yet!

Here in N.I. car electricians use a heat shrink with heat activated glue inside. Its rather the standard h/s at suppliers now.

I have. But you need to go back about 1000 years to find out how its made. It was used on some Viking leather items found in excavations in Dublin. It wasn't in the remit of the arckies to discover what the glue is/was, all they could say was it seemed to be pine tree tar and propolis and 'other' constituents btw, I agree that felt is wrong for the lining

Perhaps your heat shrink didn't shrink down far enough? I use h/s which has an i/d close to the o/d of the tool, that way it shrinks down real tight

Rather than glue, use double sided adhesive tape. It will hold the leather securely and after peeling the leather off the remains of the adhesive tape can be removed with WD40. WD40 will dissolve the adhesive without damaging the laptop case

Have you tried thinning it waaaaaaaaaaay down, like 5 or 6 water to 1 dye. Then dipping, if you can, and building up the colour by successive dips, allowing the item to dry a bit in between dips?

Mark a set of lines across using a pointed marker pen then cut with a jewellers 3-square file. Then mark the counter lines and cut again with the 3-square