fredk

Not something I need to do very often but a couple of clean socks filled with sand and sealed up, placed either side and into your stitching clamp should hold the tube in place. Or a couple of lengths of timber with a large V groove cut into the length of each. Use one either side of the tube in your stitching clamp

I'm assuming your pouch will be a row of pockets for the tools to slide into. I would use the Chicago screws at the open end join only. Stitching from the hole, with part of the first [or last] stitch just under the head of the screw. A dab of varnish or CA on the screw thread will lock it together for just about forever. An aesthetic point; make sure the slot in the screws are all aligned the same way

The work and technique look grand Just a wee bit of criticism; a pictorial balance thing. The tooling of the deer is spot-on, but for pictorial balance it should be leaping into a space. On this its trying to leap off the pad but hitting a 'fence' - the border edge pattern. In pictorial balance things/people/animals should be moving or looking into a space. On the balance of space in front or behind the subject can give an impression of speed, eg little behind/more in front = fast, same behind/in front = slow or stationary

Not too long ago I was walking in the Highlands. I heard a farmer shouting. I think he was a Rolling Stones fan but he couldn't get the lyrics of a song quite right. He was shouting; "Hey, M' Cloud, get off my you"

An old saying; "A wife, a dog, a walnut tree the more you whip them the better they be" Never worked on my walnut trees

That looks just fine and dandy so it does. It only appears big to you as you're not use to the size. Your finished size matches the one I use every day. I was looking at wallets on a Christmas trade stand a month ago and thought they all looked small. I tried a £10 note in one and the note was too big; it would seem those wallets were cheap imports but meant for either Europe or the US I can't say bout England but in N.I. most men I know [including me] carries in the back pocket of trousers. Only posh gents carry the non-folded type of wallet* in the inside pocket of a jacket. We don't have a pick-pocket problem here; very rare to hear of one * [ aka 'Banker's wallet' ] I really must make me a new one. The one I'm using was bought about 30 years ago, its still holding together well, but its rather mis-shapen now. Good leather items last well. Last year I priced a few leather wallets, just to find out what prices are like. True leather ones, similar to yours, are about £40 in N.I. and hard to find; most available are faux leather

LePrevo in England has them http://www.leprevo.co.uk/buckles-steel.htm code 070 type

Sorry, no I don't have any patterns Could you not trace around one you have, scan into a computer and print out at a larger size, or enlarge by way of a photocopier? Those are the methods I use to resize patterns

see my answer elsewhere

My wallet is 102mm [slightly over 4 inches] deep by approx 235mm long [about 9.25 inches] on the outside. All UK notes fit in ok. It could actually be better if it was a bit deeper for the £50; say 4.25 to 4.5 inches. On the notes; £5 is smaller than £10 which is smaller that £20 which is smaller than £50 which is the same size as £100. Euro notes are closer to US notes sizes. Euros are not used in the UK but your client may put them in the wallet when on holiday in Europe

After I dye a belt, both sides get a few coats of water-thinned resolene and then some neetsfoot oil/beeswax mix rubbed in. The back side gets more soft beeswax rubbed in and buffed up, more than the front gets. This really slicks the flesh side smooth and waterproofs it

I use a regular edger, on both flesh and grain side edges then the edge becomes rounded when I work it with my slicker

Very nice indeedy

You could try an industrial work place; they use spring steel banding around packing cases etcetera. I used to get if from that sort of place when I made wooden toys. However that steel is very hard to cut and drill. An alternative is brass strip from K & S Metal out of Chicago. A lot of hobby shops carry racks of their brass and aluminium in strip, sheet, rods, tubes. It can also be bought directly http://www.ksmetals.com/ I always have a selection of their brass strips and sheets on hand. Its useful for supporting or backing some fittings

Nicely done I have to agree tho; that bull-dog clip just doesn't suit it at all. The rivets are much nicer The 'interim' one is nice too

As JMcC says; buff after the dye has dried. Use a pale coloured cloth and buff, buff, buff. When you think you've done buffing, buff some more. Keep turning the cloth to a clean part so you can see when its not taking any more dye off. Depending on your work and home area let the item dry for at least a few hours or overnight. If it feels cold to the touch its still drying; when its room temperature its dry. Now you can put on that thinned resolene. Patience is needed in finishing an item to top quality standard

ooops, for dipping, the resolene should be diluted as well, not straight from the bottle

Enough already Back to your corners you two Please

Buffing wont remove the line marks. Forget the Resolene's own instructions. Dilute Resolene 1:1 with water [or even 2 water :1 resolene] and apply using a slightly damp sponge. Put it on wet and wipe in a circular motion until its covered and getting into the leather. A couple or three coats put on this way with time to dry between them. Or if you can, dip coat; put the resolene in a clean container like an oven tray and dip the leather item into the bath, hang up to drip and dry

Go to a hobby shop which caters to R/C or plastic kit modellers. They usually keep sheets of plastic [aka plasticard] Available in polystyrene or ABS etcetera. Thickness is usually measured in thou of an inch, eg 10 thou, 20 thou, 30 thou, 40 thou. 40 thou = 1mm approx. Sheets are commonly A4 size and about $1 a sheet. It comes in white, black, clear and sometimes other colours. A sheet weighs just a few grams 30 thou [three-quarters of a mm] should be thick enough. Use a contact adhesive to stick to bag leather, then cover it all with a pigskin lining For mildly firm re-enforcing I just use compressed cardboard - the type which is used in the 'Do not bend' postal envelopes. Cardboard has been used like this for about 100 years. I've even used the thinner card from cereal boxes on small projects

What bikermutt says. To add, I use a heavy duty stapler [staple gun?] to 'tack' the leather to the support wood. If you do it carefully the holes made by the tack/staples will be your stitching holes in that top piece

I'll try to tell you of what I've found; nothing artificial acts like leather. I've used various faux leather materials. None have had any trade name on them; they've come from top material suppliers and fabrics outlets. Whilst ok for covering bus seats, or door cards and the like, which have been glued and sometimes tacked in place when it comes to sewing they can't take stitches without them ripping out. Leather, like fabric, has fibres which hold stitches, faux leather is just a sheet of plastic, no fibres. Some like Leathercloth have a fabric on the rear to help with stitching but I've found that the stitching still rips the plastic. I've bought the cheap Chinese made wallets made of faux leather just to see what they do. Mostly the parts are heat welded together and the 'stitches' are a heat imprint, not actual thread. A few years ago I had woman bring an expensive leather handbag to me for repair; it cost her about $250 from a good named store. The stitching at certain points was ripping out. I took a snipping of the bag material and put a flame to it, it burnt like plastic, the bag was not leather at all. After 6 months use the bag was near useless. A chap in my history-presentation society tried to under-cut me by making draw-string money bags of faux leather; 'just as good but half the price' he said. It cost him dearly. The bags were simply two same sized pieces sewn together with a lace thong going thru holes in the top edge to draw the bag closed. Within a short time of use the top holes were ripping thru and the stitching ripping out. He had to repay the buyers their money plus he was out the cost of materials and the time. My leather bags are still being used 18 years on. What I'm trying to tell you is that any of these faux leathers are not suitable for likes of bags; they wont last. There are many faux leather bags for sale but they are designed for short term use and then throw away when they start to rip. Go to any thrift store/charity shop [in UK] and find out how many faux leather bags they are given which they have to dump because of damage. If you still want to use faux leather; make a bag out of heavy weight material like cotton duck and use the faux leather as panel accents on it, where it wont be under stress Just an opinion and thoughts on it.

You've not got an 'arms race' on your hands; Son gets nice knife sheath Daughter wants something else to up the one-man-ship then son wants something more to up the game it can be a happy cycle of events, but be prepared for making lots of things for ever-more just joking btw

I'd use various sizes of hole punch to remove most of the leather then use a scalpel to trim the edges; a E11 and 12 blade

Yes, and yes; I use a neetsfoot oil/virgin olive oil/bees' wax mix rubbed into both sides after dyeing