fredk

I've given some thought to this; Its a nice bit of hardware but is totally inefficient to its purpose if it keeps coming off Simply; it needs replacing. I would replace the hardware completly with a leather loop tab sewn on and incorporating a lobster crab bag loop/link

and skive the long edges and one end of the gusset piece and the corresponding length of the main piece. Make the bottom corners rounded, not too much, just a bit to ease the the front/bottom/back piece around without any tight corners I like to make my gussets longer than needed, then skive and fold over the top end; give a neat finish

I have a few duplicate Tandy 3D stamps. Can't just remember what they are. Can I send them on to you? Might have a few other odd duplicate tools as well

I'll not be doing that; I prefer to keep my blades covered up where they don't need to be for cutting

you can make a maul out of old [uk] milk jugs, ie hdpe its easy; one of my 'winter' projects

That looks just grand so it does.

I use a photo hosting site. I resize my photos to under 800 x 600 pixels in a very basic photograph program; save them to the photo-host site, then copy and paste into the forum Some photo-hosting sites such as smugmug allow you to choose the smaller size there before copying

The helmet in the above photo may or may not have actually existed. Its more of a fantasy medieval helmet. I have never seen one like it in any of my research books. This leads to; make yours like it but don't slavishly copy it. Just do the sides staight down*, but bring it down past your ears. As for the Tandy one; Helms/Helmets were made in hundred of ways, it depended on the skill of the armourer and the blacksmith who had to mend it. I've seen helms made by riveting pieces together, joining by hammer welding and even the remains of a Great Helm which had been cast in one piece * if you really want to do a tapered side; think of a hot-cup holder - its long sides are curved so that when the ends are joined the top and bottom long sides are parallel. Take piece of card, draw a line, a curved line. Make this central line the length I told you, make the top line about 4 inches away about 1.5 inches longer, make the bottom line about 4 inches away 1 inch less. Cut this strip out of thin card. You need to cut it so it curves. Try this against your head and by trial-and-error you'll find the right curve

Very artistic, very eye catching thank you for sharing that

Yes, each helm/helmet needs its own suspension inside. You could make yourself an 'arming cap' with the padding attached to it. Then each helm won't need the padding inside A basic 'arming cap' is dead easy to make up in leather. Just three pieces of leather sewn together.

1. Tandy does a pattern for a Great helm. With care it can be adjusted to make the face pot helm above, https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/p-1877-crusader-helmet-pattern.aspx? 2. History lesson; A; Helm padding was attached to the wearers arming cap or maille coif. It was no less than 2 inches [5 cm] thick. Modern repro are about 3/4 inch [2 cm] thick. The padding was a linen tube stuffed with sheeps wool and/or straw. This was tied or sewn to the cap or coife at about upper brow level B. The suspension system in medieval times was as used now; a strip of leather sewn or riveted round the inside of the helm, at about high brow level. Then six/eight/ten/twelve straps of leather or heavy cord attached to this crossed from one side, thru the centre to the other side. 3 of these gives 6, 4 gives 8 etcetera. Sometimes these straps, or a few of them at right angles went through a centre leather disc. On a WW2 helmet I have adjustment of the cords is just by untying a couple of cords, retying at a different length and pushing the central disc back into the centre. On a medieval helm I inspected it looked like there was no adjustment provsion. Possibly it was made exactly for one head or adjustment was through the amount of padding at the top of the head. The chin strap attaches to the inner leather strap as well. Adjustment of the strapping not only adjusts how high or low the helm sits on the head but it can bias the sit to front or rear or to either side. 3. Having worn different styles of medieval helm in anger I would suggest that you have an absolute minimum of 1.5 inches padding at the sides and rear and 2.5 inches minimum at the front. You will not be wearing a leather helm to fight in so its not for protection, but the padding keeps the helm away from your ears and nose. You could attach the padding to the inner support strap running around the inside. Make it thick and it'll crush down to a tight supportive fit. 4. If your head circumference is 58.4cm then it has an average of 9.3 cm radius; add 4cm average for padding = 13.3 r = 83.5cm [32.9 inches] circumference. Note; the human head is not a perfect circle. Depending on your genetic origins in might be an egg shape, flatish at the rear, flatish at the front, etcetera 5. For hat making I use the polystyrene heads hairdressers use for wigs. Available in most normal sizes, both male and female. If you shop around you can get them for less than $5 and are really useful

Contact Le Prevo in Newcastle and ask them. They just might know something

Hi, You'll find lots of good stuff on here and get good advice from friendly [mostly] [ok, I jest] folk with loads of experience Whereabouts are you located?

Very nicely done

Its similar but not quite the same. Our version of 'Pledge with Future Shine', formerly called Future or Kleer is as thin as water. Its is really like painting with water. I have used it on a couple of stiff knife sheaths. Only to lock some hand painted designs the colours of which I found would run with Resolene put on them. On one I put two coats, on another I used three. I would not go any more than that. None of the sheaths have shown any sign of varnish cracking or crazing I've used it a couple of times on flexible items, but only one coat. No adverse affects. All applications were by broad brush

Very nice indeedy Any more photos available?

I think you try to belittle me The word in the definition is CASE. In the UK that belt would not pass selling legislation as being described as a 'holster'

Basic Question; did you trim the copper stud to about 5mm above the leather? Trim to length first; about 5 or 6mm above leather, put on washer, drive down the washer, then burr the rivet. Trim the rivet stud even shorter if necessary; it only needs about 3mm to get a nice round top

Does this even qualify being called a holster? Its just a belt with an extra layer piece riveted on Webster Dictionary; Definition of a holster : a leather or fabric case for carrying a firearm on the person (as on the hip or chest), on a saddle, or in a vehicle; broadly : a case for carrying a usually small item on the person a knife holster a heart monitor carried in a hip holster

A sheath, or anything, is an un-even shape which needs cutting out. Even with a perfect 12 x 24 inch rectangle you will be cutting away some leather you cannot use. With a bigger piece, a half hide, you can twist and turn your patterns around so you can cut out many more of them with much less waste Homework for you; cut out, in paper, some knife sheath patterns. Lay them out on a 12 x 24 board/paper. See how much waste there is? Increase your base bit of board/paper, the bigger you make it the more sheaths you can put on it and the wastage becomes a smaller percentage

To add my 2p worth. Some Ebay 'rules' do not match UK laws. Me and #1 son got banned from selling on Ebay 3 years ago. In short we were returning buyers money per UK distance selling law, which wasn't the same as Ebays rules Ebay owns Paypal and between them they were getting about 14% of our sales. By cutting us off they were no longer getting £5,500 plus per year from our sales Tried talking with them but the people only had one script I joined an on-line auction site called ebid : https://www.ebid.net/uk/ Its still growing and as yet I've not sold anything thru it, but there again I haven't really tried. I took a punt on it and signed up for the lifetime jobbie at £49.99. No fees at all with that deal, just a couple [at pence rate] if you want 'gallery' pictures, that sort of thing. And at the lifetime membership you can link to your ebay feedback and to payment via paypal.

Even an engraver will pull the leather. Both those work best on very hard material I would suggest a pyrogravure; even just a soldering iron with a short line tip could be used in the manner of a pen

As long as you really cut through the top glaze Feibling should be ok. On jobs such as this I use cellulose thinners to really remove the top glaze, especially in any nooks and crannies. And give it a really good sealing afterwards

You can pay a lot less for your stones. Which ones? All of them, plus a couple of stropping leathers; one coarse & one fine I start off on a coarse grade water stone, then work finer on a couple of oil stones finishing off on a strop, keeping a fine grade diamond for quick swipes to keep the edge keen whilst working

Anyone tried saffron for orange-to-red?