fredk

Sorry, I was only joshin ya. Shud've used a smiley thingy

*snigger* old?! I used to live on an old farm, the house was built about 1883, the out-houses, in which I had my first leather workshop, were built in the early 1720s. One of those buildings which I used for storage was built in 1711-1712

On your internet browser there should be a browser menu, usually at very top right of the browser menu bar. Open that menu and you should have within it a 'zoom' control which you can use to resize the main window tab. You can enlarge the contents of the screen to see the content at larger sizes. I do this sometimes to see details in pictures

I'm enjoying this thread immensely. I'm currently re-fitting/remodeling my work space and there are so many good ideas on here which I shall blatantly steal and adapt to my own set up. Thank you every one for sharing your work spaces set up

Go on then. Keep it rolling....................rolling, rolling.... rawhide....RAWHIDE!

naw, its just shows that folk on here vary from business' like you to one person working on a old table in a spare room, storing their leather under their bed. Besides the art of leathercraft what we all have in common is the willingness to share information and help each other

The item and word is Aglet/Aiguillette. Two words mean the same thing. Its the decorative or functional hard piece added to the end of a cord or lace The small metal or plastic end on a shoe/boot lace is one version. A more elaborate decorative version is worn on a cord by senior military persons, eg aides-de-camp to Presidents or Prime Ministers. The word aiguillette has transferred from meaning just the attachment at the end of the cord to meaning the whole cord. This cord is not to be confused with the 'lanyard' which is a functional cord worn by military personel

I'll leave my question open for a while longer As for wine, many old practices have dropped away from lack of use. One was wine was to be poured into a decanter, then from that to a glass, whilst pouring into a decanter the wine was to be poured through a fine sieve to remove any lees [the sediment] Also, your host was to offer you the use of a tongue scraper, if you had not brought your own. There are various explanations for the concave base of a wine bottle. Most do not stand up to study eg; it was done by glass blowers so that bottles could stand up-right. 1. At the time the concave bottom on glass bottles was introduced carbonated soft drinks were in favour and they had a pointed bottom end. 2. both wine and the early carbonated drinks were meant to be stored laying down. Wine should still be kept this way if it has a natural cork stopper; its to keep the cork wet to stop air getting into the bottle and spoiling the wine. 3. laying flat the lees cannot collect in the ring around the concave part. 4. see above, in 'proper' use wine should be decanted through a filter before it goes to a glass; modern drinkers take the wine straight from the bottle. 5. At the time the glass wine bottle was introduced the glass blowers were blowing their glass into moulds for the bottles so they had no opportunity to manually push the base of the bottle inwards. 6. There is evidence that clay/pottery wine bottles made in Flanders in the 18thC had a modest concave bottom. These clay bottles were to be stored laying down as well, many of them had a flat along the side so they could lay down and not roll. A wine with lees is a fresh wine; lees is the dead yeast after fermentation. Its not harmful to drink them, but they don't taste nice. I make my own wine and I have wine over 10 years old which is still fermenting slightly and dropping lees. The older the wine the less lees. During the aging fermentation a wine should be decanted regularly into a fresh fermentation container to take it off the old lees.

Ok, since I won that round its my turn. What is the common link between a boot/shoe lace and something which denotes a military rank?

Have you a free community newspaper sort of thing? An advert that you have excess small pieces of leather to go free to any school/kids group. Word the ad so it doesn't sound like you are giving away garbage. Limit the amount per group. Just a thought

The concave bottom is to counter the pressure of the fermentation gases within the bottle

Rules and regulations I suppose. Its different where I am. We have 'Play Resource Centres' which thrive on useable waste from businesses. Every so often I take my scrap over to one of their places. The scrap/waste goes into big bins and teachers etc come and get some for craft/art at their school.

Well, no one has jumped in with help or advice. I reckon, by experience, you can do that but you'll have to face-up to the deglazer removing some of the dye as well. Resolene can be removed with alcohol as well; methylated spirits, vodka.... A more aggressive cleaner is lacquer thinners, aka cellulose thinners I would; reckon on going over the whole piece to remove all the resolene, this will probably remove some dye as well. Depending on how I [you] want the final look; continue to remove dye to even it out, or leave it patchy. Patchy, as long as it doesn't look a mess, can add interest to a plain coloured surface

Definitely not. The pure beeswax is best. Yellow beeswax is fine but if you can get the white cappings wax its even better

It does look like a home-made stitching groover

Not been asked yet; what type of leather is it and how did you prepare it for the dyeing?

Yeah, but I beat ya to it! Now, what the devil is it doing in with cobbler's tools? Amongst a saddler's I can reckon cos these are used on horses too sometimes BTW, very miniature ones are used on humans to relieve certain ailments

Its a vetinary tool. Its for letting the gases out of a cows stomach to relieve colic. Its called a trocar and cannula You use it to puncture through the side of a cow and leave the tube in place for a while to let the gas escape see here; https://www.surgicalholdings.co.uk/veterinary/index.php?content=catalogue&category_id=15&sub_id=247 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJpLhXILyAg

On soft and/or thinish leather I use a Glovers needle. I sew at approx 3mm intervals; about 8spi. I sew one way round the project then double back, going through the same holes. If I remember I swop the Glovers needle for a Saddlers needle so I don't make fresh holes or cut the first thread, but most often I don't bother, I just be careful. When sewing this way I don't use a pricker at all.

I was ignoring this topic until now. When I'm sewing - all by hand - I'm too busy to count stitches. I thunked me a think and its surprising just how many stitches I'd do in a run. Not 800, but maybe 400 or so. -or sew? So 600, 700, 800 could be achieved quickly without realising it I only make bags with gussets. I usually sew the front of a bag to the gusset first then the gusset/front to the back. Usually I use a linen/ploymer pre-waxed thread. Most times I use a separate thread for front and back sewing but on occasion have used a single length. By my maths. Assume I make a bag 9 inches across by 7 inches high. I sew at 3mm, but we'll convert that to 3.175= 1/8 inch for this maths. That 8 stitches per inch. so the first sum is 8x (7 + 9 + 7) = 184. And as I do a saddle stitch thats x2 = 368, and if I use the one length for front and back thats x 2 again = 736 stitches approximately Lets take a 40 inch belt saddle stitched at 8 per, thats (8 x 40) x 2 = 320 x 2 = 640 stitches. Even at 5 per its still 400 stitches. Down one side. Its feasible to start sewing at the buckle end to the tip and back up to the buckle in one sewing, so that makes it 1280 and 800 stitches approximately Soon adds up to a lot of stitching On other points; I always cut more thread than I reckon I'll need. The thread is the cheapest part of your work. Even tho my thread is pre-waxed I wax the thread before and at regular sewing time intervals. The part attached to the needles soon shows wear, when it gets too bad I cut off the needles and some worn thread and re-attach the needles and continue. I've learnt that the key to keep it going smoothly is to wax the thread well and often. But I'm still trying to get a beeswax mix at the right stickiness and softness/hardness for sewing. Never yet had to make a join in a sewing due to thread breakage or lack of thread

Work slowly and carefully. Try out different ways of stamping on test pieces. Test your sewing and the dyes the same way. If things don't work out, don't be afraid of starting again; but keep that 'wronged' piece to remind you where you went wrong. I have a plastic box full of such pieces. Depending on the attitude of the FiL; he might one to show off what his SiL made him. Personal approval is worth a thousand hundred dollar adverts His plain holster will be his 'everyday' holster, your fancy one will be his 'Saturday, going to the shootin range' one

Up until recently a friend used an old microwave as his spray painting booth. He knows his electrics so he disconnected the heating element so he could have it on with the door open and the turntable turning slowly. His micro had a vent which he connected to a pipe leading outside to take fumes away. I've thought of doing the same, for spraying small leather goods

As Matt says; All 4 home countries of the UK have banned or limited the use of throw-away plastic bags. In each country shops charge for what used to be free. In England/Scotland/Wales the shops charge about 15p [22c] a bag. But in N.I. we pay more for the plastic bags. In N.I. most shops charge between 30p - 75p [42c - $1] per bag. So we buy other bags to last longer. We've reduced the use of throw-away plastic bags by about 98%. I'm thinking of branching out and making 'life-time'* shopping bags out of upholstery leather I have * re-useable shopping bags are known as 'a bag for life' in the UK; but I have a swmbo Sorry - wandered of topic there

It can be sewn on; using a curved needle. I've sewn an applique piece onto a sgian-dubh scabbard. Pierce sewing holes on the applique panel, glue onto the scabbard [in my case] then use a curved sharp glovers needle to go in and up thru the next hole, continue all round, then back again to the starting point. Both the first stitch starts and last stitch ends between scabbard and panel.

Don't with the car wax; it usually contains additives like silicon which are not good for leather. Beeswax, carnuba, neetsfoot oil mix feeds the leather and gets right into it. Car wax doesn't and remains on the surface >>> Plastic bags are too expensive here [yes, really, about $1 each for a small bag for a few groceries and they fall apart as soon as you use them] I use the free newspapers that come thru my letter box Same as Matt; cheap sponges from supermarket shop