fredk

Ask for a Back and tell the supplier that you need to cut some 78 inch straps*. A good supplier will try to meet your needs. * go longer than needed cos the ends might not be very good and you'll need to trim them, also asking for longer the supplier might have slightly shorter but still longer than what you actually need. The other sections you mention will not give you 72 inches. Buying individual straps is handy but not cost effective; they work out at about 10 times what you can cut them for

I'd go with bikermutt's suggestion; try to get more bleed through. if that doesn't work you're no worse off Over-all thats a nice bit of stamping etcetera - its worth trying everything to save it

You may not need to keep completed areas as wet as needed for tooling but you need to keep it somewhat wet otherwise you'll have tide marks on your leather ie where an area dried differently to another because it dried sooner I've never had properly stamped or tooled areas rise up again. Yes, you can keep the piece damp that way. If its going to take a few days or more put some mold retarder into the casing water. I use just a few drops of baby bottle steriliser

1a. I've never heard of a Husky Razor Knife; but by the sound of it its too light duty for the job. A heavier knife with a thicker/wider blade is needed. A handy one would be a box-cutter type with 18mm wide snap off blades 1b, run over your tracing with a blunt awl first; even wetting the leather then following the tracing with an inked-out ball-point pen, to mark your cutting line first. Cut slowly and steadily. Cut away from corners, not into them. Cut half-way around a curve, then cut from the other end towards that half-way point, finishing the cut. Do it in small stages, try not to do it all in one big cut 2. you may need to sand the edges to even them up before using a slicker

Reading thru this it reminds me of the sheets of mounting adhesive I used to use to mount photographs to mount boards and canvas and other flat surfaces, whatever would fit in my 20 x 32 inch mounting press. Similar temperatures and procedures. I once mounted some b&w photos onto canvas duck for an artist who then wrapped them around columns and posts in her display venue.

Happy to know you're happy We're a strange lot aren't we? Happy to have a nice, high quality working knife..........

wot he says;

I think you've answered yourself remembering back when I did a stint helping at a charity shop, we threw away a lot of decent looking women's shoes only because the ankle strap was ripping away. I reckon a bit of kevlar between the leathers would be the way to go right enough. I'd glue the two leathers for the straps then sew, but not cut too close to the thread when trimming. How close is too close? maybe less than 2mm is too close

Yes; I have had to do it too. If I'm still sewing and the needles are attached I just reverse stitch back to the error and then stitch forwards again. But if all is done, eg on a repair job I have three tools in my armoury for cutting the sewn threads. Two have been mentioned already; the dress-makers seam ripper [on the left] - mostly for fine threads, a Swann Morton #12 scalpel blade in a SM handle - good for regular leather thread and even lacing up to 2mm thick [centre] and on the right, a dental pick, as it comes the point is sharp but I blunted it so it doesn't dig into the leather - its handy for loosening threads or lacing amongst other jobs

May I throw in; if you need brass pin nails, try buying from a hobby shop which caters to wooden model ship builders. More variety in sizes, in larger quantities and cheaper. Thats where I buy mine from now

Interesting. But without a dedicated Leatherwork section I'll pass. I've joined such before and the leatherwork gets muddled in with jewelry or pottery etcetera as 'arts and crafts' and gets lost and at worst on one was put into 'lifestyle' - I don't do that type of leather

Sorry; I may have mis-led - heat just to get the wax into the surface, burnish when its hard, the heat generated by burnishing will be enough to work any wax on the surface into the leather and to even it out

All the alpahbet stamps I've ever seen are fancy shaped Two ways you can go a/ if you have a lot of stamping to do get brass or delrin stamps made; cheaper than buying a whole alphabet for just two letters b/ for just a few stampings; use a bit of tubing for the O and a straight bar for the arms of the X

Two thinned coats of Resolene followed by a beeswax/carnuba wax mix rubbed well in, both sides, and then buffed to a shine. Sometimes a beeswax /neetsfoot oil mix rubbed in [both sides] before the waxes, if I think the leather needs extra feeding

Brill = short for brilliant = an expression of approval for just about anything, eg; brill idea = a good/clever idea Yeah, we use real money here British Pounds £ ; none of your monopoly play money or Early Learning Centre play Euros

No kitchen making places round my way use real granite or marble. They use very thick chipboard with a plastic surface which looks like granite or marble We export tons of high quality granite and import low quality granite from India when its needed I can't decide on the best Doctor; I watched from Harkness to Davison or Colin Baker. Haven't seen much after that. I liked Pertwee, had an affinity with Tom Baker as I like jelly babies and we had to wear a very long scarf at college - compulsory to wear during winter, it had to be worn a certain way too.

1/12/17 update 1. Granite chopping board. From Home Bargains = £4.99, exactly the same one sold by Argos is £9.99. Size is 40 x 30 x 1.3 cm. It may be thin but I've been stamping on it and it hasn't cracked yet. Certainly good enough for edge skiving if you don't want to chance the stamping on it This was working out ok until I gave it to one of No.1's workmen. I wanted 10 cm cut off one end for use on another table. I told him I needed that but I forgot to say I wanted the remainder too. He's Latvian with a very basic understanding of English language nuances. He cut off and kept the 10 cm bit but broke the other bit up! 10 Another bargain. I'm currently 'remodelling' [ahem....clearing out, tidying, sorting the mess of, or as we say here 'redding it out' ] the room I do leather work in. I went to Homebase to look for another tool box and got this; £40, discounted from £160. It was a stock clearance sale. It pays just to keep yours eyes and ears open. I already have two drawer units [the top bit of this] from Halfords for my tools. Sometimes they discount the tool boxes too. I was in a local Halfords last week and saw a set like this but larger for £120, marked down from £200 for a 'Black Friday' sale 11: More storage boxes. all from Poundland/World A. Clippy box, a nice size. Two variations of lid; this one with handle clips on, another has two captive flaps which interlock for the lid. If getting this one check the end latches actually work, I've checked out some and 7 out of 10 do not latch properly B. Actually a two level sandwich lunch box. C. Costing £2, this box comes free with a filling of chocolate brownies or strawberry cupcakes or other treats. Box shapes and sizes vary 12: For thread or lacing. Have you got a load of lacing which is not on a spool and keeps getting tangled? Three options; the first two on the left are out of Poundland had garden string, the glass cost 69p in Home Bargains, using the straw is optional. Put lace or thread in one of these, draw up through the hole, lace/thread stays clean and helps keep it from tangling

Minimum order from Le Prevo is £10, before vat & postage

Quartz. marble, granite are solid, they have no compression. Even the hardest of woods and plastics will compress a bit when a a thin tool is whacked by a large mallet on it. For sharper and better impressions of stamps the harder the surface the better. For hole punching with single punches I use a block of wood with the end grain as the surface - hard enough to allow the punch to make a hole, the end grain doesn't compress and it doesn't damage the hole punch cutting edge,. For general cutting etcetera a self-healing cutting mat is good

Tandy; https://www.tandyleather.eu/en/product/squeeze-frame or try on your ebay. I got 10 from a chinese seller for slightly more than one from Tandy

Very nice apron, both in looks and in the making

With a piece of denim or linen in your fingers you can rub the wax right into the leather, into any pattern you have engraved. Heat from the friction on the cloth and from your fingers will keep that wax soft and help to get it right into the depths of the leather. Afair bees' wax melts at about 65 degrees C, so friction heat melts it well. Using wax cold, with a cold burnisher the wax will just stay on the surface and be reduced to very little first time its buffed up. I use bees'wax & neetsfoot oil mix on the flesh side, rubbing it in with a bit of linen cloth, then its bees' wax on its own on the grain side. Heating it with a hairdryer if necessary. After a day or so I buff up both sides using a soft cloth and a soft shoe polish brush Its not so much that wax/nfo on the front/grain side is bad, if you use it on the flesh side you'll not need it on the front, without the nfo you can use much more wax without fear of using too much nfo. Too much nfo is not nice in a project, it leaches out onto everything it touches. If your pieces were for display or modest use; eg outside part of a handbag or a briefcase, then sanding and waxing the surface would not be much of a problem but you said so extra needs to be taken to make sure your piece is fit for purpose

Leather has a grain, it has fibres. The fibres run everywhich way. At the hair side they are compacted together and get looser as you get into the flesh side. The strength of the leather relies on that tight fibre network. If you sand away the hair side, the grain side, you start to remove that strength; thats why when we need to reduce the leather thickness we skive off from the flesh side. A little bit of sanding might not show any reduction in the strength, but sand as much a 0.5mm and you weaken the integrity. The inner loose fibres no longer have the tighter packed fibres protecting and re-enforcing them. It may not show for months but it will eventually. If you sand away too much of the top grain you are making suede. Ask a saddler if he/she would make a stirrup strap from suede or top grain leather You have bees'wax and neetsfoot oil mix; thats fine for feeding the leather and smoothing the flesh side. To smooth the front grain side after sanding use plenty of bees' wax* on its own. Heat the wax, heat the leather, rub the soft wax into the leather, rub it well in and burnish up with a piece of denim or linen one the wax has cooled >>* not with NFO as you don't want too much in the leather OOAK = One Of A Kind = any hand made article

Unlike wood, once you break through that tight grain of the hair side of leather its impossible to get it smooth and like its surrounds again. It will always stand out and be noticeable. It won't take dye and finishers like the rest of the surface Basically; yes, if a mistake is bad enough the piece is scrap - a reminder to take more care. When carving leather we take extra care, extra time. A small mistake can be ignored, [eg; a line not straight, a letter not equal to the others, ] a bit bigger it can become part of the work, or a feature in its own right. Small mistakes are a feature of OOAK works. Some buyers look for the imperfections which says; this is hand made

Use large headed - at least 11mm - ready rivets. Make a piece of metal U shaped with a L tang at the bottom of the U, make it about 0.5 to 1mm thick. Place the U over the hole, whack the ready rivet to set it, but not absolutely tight. Pull U out and the rivet is loose. Discover which way the pieces need to move relative to each other; one piece can have a round hole for the rivet and its match needs to be an oval hole You could also lace the sections together