fredk

I noticed after posting that the original posting was 6 months ago; so bear that in mind 'quote' part of the original posting and it'll notify chiefjason that this is active

I would tend to agree with Chrisash that its a range finder. With it having an attachment to carry by horse it would be for field artillery

Summer, Northern Ireland, today, my area; 17 - 18 degrees C, [63 F] , 77% humidity - and this is one of our hottest days!! It takes days for leather wetted for carving to dry, it takes weeks for wet moulded items to fully dry out on the mould - both times; unless mildly warm air is circulated over and around them. Big problem keeping mold from growing on the wet leather. I've tried a de-hum machine but they just can't cope I've been varnishing some wood with acrylic water based varnish - supposed to take 1 hour to dry - taking at least 4 to get touch dry, overnight / 8 hours between coats.

Thats good; we now know you have leather. This question is ambiguous; I'll address it in two ways 1. It worries me that you can scratch the surface finish off so easily; I'm guessing it has a sprayed on finish. You can work with this or try to remove it and re-dye it. To remove the top finish try some lacquer thinners [aka cellulose thinners]. Soak a bit of clean rag cloth with the thinners and wipe it over the leather; it will remove it. After this you can re-dye it browns or black, then after re-dyeing you can put on an acrylic finish called Resolene [from Tandy] This Resolene will give the surface a tougher top surface. Usually Resolene will not do much on a commercial sprayed on finish, in fact it will not soak into the leather through some commercial finishes Or just live with the finish that it has 2. Clothing leather is always soft and supple; it can be 'hardened' up a wee bit by soaking in hot water and drying very quickly using heat; but its not a process I'd recommend a first-timer to try as you can easily end up with useless small bits of hard leather It may seem a lot of work on used leather to make it more useable again but leather is expensive, maybe as much as $5 per square foot

My son told me of a customer he had recently. No.1 son rebuilds, refurbishes, repairs and sells modern classic BMW cars. A customer came in, liked a 5 series, wanted to buy it. Went away, came back a few days later; he could not afford the insurance on that car with a big capacity engine. Would my son swop out the big engine for a smaller capacity one then sell him the car at the price of a 5 series with the smaller engine?

to follow on; a photo of 4 coloured leathers I have on-hand From left; 'raspberry crush', [which is more pink than shows in the photo], lavender, Sea Green, red [which is actually a bit on the orangey side] Big companies can order 1000's of square feet of leather in any colour of their choice. Mere me just looks out for the excess on sale at the likes of Le Prevo and I buy it up as best as I can Get friendly with a few tanneries, tell them what you are looking for and maybe, perhaps, they'll let you know when they have some, perhaps excess or 2nd quality from an order. Thats what I did with Le Prevo

I've never used the 'professional' - just their regular acrylic dyes [C30] In my first days of making leather stuff I accidentally made a 'medieval' style belt bag with a 'distressed' look As I've said elsewhere; Never, ever tell a client/customer you messed up What happened was; I made the bag up, then the customer chap [c-c] said he wanted it black. So I started dyeing it. The dye was coming out streaky so I wet a cloth with methylated spirits and started to wipe it off - only it didn't, it thinned the black look on the main front, rear and flap surfaces and the raised surfaces, but it stayed black on most of the gusset and around the sewing and latch. The c-c happened to see it like that and liked it very much

I have leather that is pre-dyed that sort of colour; its called 'raspberry crush' I also have a 'neon pink', various bright greens and bright blues and a lavender. I've used up all my purples; they were popular for a while. I got my coloured leathers from Le Prevo. I'd think most tanneries will have such coloured leathers in stock

The jacket and bag are fashion items; the 'distressed' look is carefully spayed on finish The boots on the other hand [?!} have that look after years of hard use [possibly] You could try using un-dyed veg tanned, and doing a partial dyeing on it, not too heavy

Firstly; check that it is fully leather. Take a small piece, hold with pliers and apply a flame from a match, candle or lighter. If it burns quickly and gives off black sooty smoke its not leather, if it burns and curls up and smells like burnt flesh or burnt meat it is leather

reading what is not there I guess the OP wants to know what to put on next to weather proof the bag Firstly; Remember - it can not be made totally waterproof - it can only be made a bit weather proof Buff the bag, buff it some more, then apply some neatsfootoil, followed by a few coats of diluted Resolene. For most things I find that does the job, along with beeswax polished on. Or use a few coats of Snow Proof Paste Make sure you get plenty of either the beeswax or Snow Proof into the leather joints and the sewing - thats where the rain water will get into the bag

I use a sponge, as a/ It can be guaranteed I have a clean one handy b/ I can squeeze it out easier c/ I only dab it on the leather to apply water, I don't wipe it or swipe it around

I only use acrylic paint for colouring-in details. As acrylic paint only stays on the surface of the leather I don't consider it best for over-all colouring. For a coloured bag I use dye or pre-dyed coloured leather

to re-inforce what has been said already; I have some 1.5mm/2mm cow veg tan which I can rip apart like cloth, but I also have some 0.6mm/0.8mm deer skin leather which I cannot rip apart at all

Never Ever tell a customer/client you messed up! Bluff it out and say you are thinking of this design, ask his opinion; if he says he doesn't like it then offer to do it differently In leather work, as in Art, things don't always work out how we intended them to; they're not wrong, they're not failures -they're just different I think; not only should all the tapers match but the ends of the inner should be a lot shorter, cut back to between the third and fourth hole from the left, or to the fourth hole, and the other side to match

>> a one-card wallet with a key chain attached. Sew two pieces of soft thin leather together; each just slightly larger than a standard credit/debit bank card. Cut one top corner off at an angle on one piece of leather only, on the opposite top corner attach a chain or something with a split ring attached to that - or use a sail eyelet and attach the split ring right to the wallet. You'll need to fettle the design to get it to work out >> more coin purses, and more coin purses. if your price is right you'll sell plenty. I have the plans for a simple semi-circular coin purse. One piece is circular, another piece is semi-circular; sew or lace together. A simple popper holds the unused semi-c to the attached semi-c for closure >> hot cup wraps. a patterned or worked leather piece for a disposable coffee or tea cup [the type you get in Starbucks or McD] to sit in

Try LePrevo in Newcastle, England. Email them, they're very helpful http://www.leprevo.co.uk/ 2/3rd down are the solid rivets; [Saddler's Copper Rivets] http://www.leprevo.co.uk/rivets.htm

I disagree on the strength of rapid rivets. The guige strap of this shield is held at each end by a rapid rivet thru the wood holding a short strap, then the main strap itself is held to that via a brass loop, that strap is closed by a rapid rivet. The shield weighs about 7 kilos [15.5 lbs approx]. Under test one of my team whirled this shield around his head by the guige strap; he did this for several minutes using great force. The test lasted nearly an hour, testing the security of all the straps. After this the rivets were inspected - they were still holding solid, and they continue to do so. All my shields have been in full contact battles and not one has failed in any way, and certainly not the ready rivets

With rapid rivets the stem should be 3mm to 4mm above the leather, eg on 3mm leather the stem should be 6mm long. Any longer than this and the head will want to go sideways as you blatter it down tight. You can get away with only 2mm beyond the thickness of the leather if you blatter it down real good and hard

We just call it - 'elastic, the flat stuff'. aka 'Flat Woven Elastic' available by the yard in many widths in any haberdashery

Exactly, no need to copy the pattern - in fact do not copy it. Adjust your stitch length for the thickness of your thread eg, a 1mm thread looks ok at 6 stitches per inch, 0.5mm thread looks better at 8 or 10 spi A stitching groove is handy, but only really necessary where the object will get wear on the thread area, eg on the soles of shoes. You can get stitching hole markers in various stitches-per-inch. Some tools have a handle with changeable spi wheels

The green handled shears are tin-smiths shears Another picture 'unknown' ; and adjustable edger, loosen the knurled ring, the other part should screw up into, and down from, the handle, then use knurled ring to lock it in place

The only way I know is to skive the end of the piping until it is paper thin

1. yes, it will darken it 2. Drill a hole in a bit of metal eg steel plate, counter sink if you can. Lace larger than hole. Wet leather and pull thru hole. Lace gets rounded 3. like this; IUI or InI, where the top of these is the outside 4. okee-doakly

1. Smoother lacing; pull the lace thru a cloth with very soft beeswax/neetsfoot oil on it. That will slick the lace. Not only improves the look, it makes it easier to pull thru the holes 2. Smaller lacing holes; match lacing to hole - round lace thru a round hole, flat lacing thru a slit hole. For a slit hole consider using an oval hole punch, they can be bought a : cheaply, b : in sizes to match flat lacing, eg 3mm x 2 mm A small selection of these covers most usual lace sizes 3. A wider gusset with the edges beveled and folded to meet the sides; either an outwards fold so there is a ridge line, or inwards bringing the gusset flush to the sides on the out side - a bit more fiddly to lace together tho 4. Smooth all cut edges of leather which is over 0.8 mm thick - that is, all cut edges. Even just a rub over with beeswax and burnished using a piece of denim or linen type cloth can make a real difference. 5. Try to cut lines in one cut; less likely to get stop-offs as can be seen top centre, forward. If you do get these a few swipes with 'sand' paper to take out the change in the cut-line, then slick. hth