fredk

Have you considered France? France and Vietnam once had and now have again a good friendly relationship. France sometimes welcomes people from the countries where they once administered government

Lift-a-dot; used on the tonneau hoods on classic and vintage cars. Easily come by. Good quality brass ones can be expensive, common steel ones are cheap enough

Thats looking just grand

Could you not do the job yourself with a planer-thicknesser? They only cost a couple hundred $$ or less. At $100 each board, after you've planed the second or third you're winning

most excellent

Sounds like its too dry & hard. Try feeding it with neets foot oil. A little bit at a time and see if that softens it

Dunno how this would work for your problem; to stop someone tapping a card, eg a thief, through a wallet I sandwich an aluminium tape between the outer and the liner. Perhaps if you had a leather/alu/leather sandwich divider between the cards?

Good pictures charon. Better than trying to describe them. Thanks

Know anybody wot can weld? Weld a 3/8 bolt to a piece of 3mm or 6mm steel plate. I bought a bit of 3mm steel plate recently for my press, cost me all of £1.60 [about $2] Buy a piece of 6mm to 12mm thick acetal. Use two-part epoxy glue to stick it to another piece of steel plate. Acetal, about $5, steel plate, another $2. At most about $15 for it all

You need sail eyelets which have a 'washer' for one side. You need to have the matching setting tools for them. Two tools; a bar which widens and flattens part of the eyelet over the washer and an anvil with a centre hole and a circular groove; the groove prevents the eyelet from deforming and the hole allows the setting bar to do its job. The commonly bought eyelets are just basic types which are crimped using a special pair of pliers; these types are basically rubbish and useless

I just took a bit of 2 x 2 inch timber and drilled holes into one side through to the other. Different sizes for the different tools, but the smallest hole will still take most of the other tools as well. It wasn't wall mounted as such but mounted on a board that got shifted about out of the way, but close to hand when needed. For mounting to the board I just put screws thru the board into the 2x2. I suppose a couple of small steel right-angle bracket could mount it to a wall. I'm redoing my working place and I'll be using of those magnetic bar tool holders now I reckon

Centre punch. Standard drill with HSS drill. Use a very slow speed and a cooling/cutting fliud. There are special fliuds but in the past I've used 3-in-1 oil, brake fluid and engine oil - both new and very used. You can drill once to size or start small and work up the size in a few size steps. Best to use a drill stand for accuracy, but if you're very careful it can be done without

This is a good idea On straight runs I put lolly [aka popsicle (?)] sticks between the jaws and the leather. This also helps to spread the loading further than the jaws themselves. On short runs or curves I just break the sticks to suit

The only short cut to cutting these out without grief is to get a clicker cutter made for cutting them out. But I reckon you'd need to be doing a lot to make it worth while. I reckon you might be just a bit too self critical. Unless two shields are mounted directly next to each other no-one will notice any small differences, and unless they are cut really askew no one will notice any little lopsidedness. I used to make toy shields for children. I made hundreds at a time. I stacked 10 boards together, drew the shield shape on the top one - using a template - then cut the stack on a bandsaw. I used to spend ages evening up to two curves. Then I had a eureka moment. I stopped doing that. The curves were still a bit lopsided to my eyes, but no-one gave a damn, not the children, not the parents.

A. the only way you can achieve this on a fold-over sheath is to have the belt loop as a separate piece. 1. Sew the belt loop near the top of yellow, on the back, with the good sides together with the loop part extending up from the top, 2. then fold it downwards and 3. sew it to the back of yellow further down. Allow about 2 inches between the inside of the curve of the fold and where its sewn further down B. On a two piece sheath you could have the flesh side of the leather on the outside of yellow, and just fold down the extended top of yellow and sew it to the back of yellow I think sewing is better in this case

I found that it was a personal preference to how high the knife was on the belt. I made the knife sheaths in my medieval group. All of the knives were longer than 15 inches and some were 18 to 20 inches long. Some chaps wanted the knife with the top of the hilt level to the top edge of the belt, some others preferred to have their knives lower down. Only one person wanted his with the top of the hilt a couple of inches above the top of the belt; but his fighting style was such that he could cross-draw that blade very swiftly

bikermutt has it; but I fold the card first, then cut the the 1/2 shield shape. When the card is flattened the two curves are the same. I just cut them out with shears as & when I need them

An idea/thought on peening rivets; long forgotten, just remembered. Last used a long time ago when I worked more with wood. Place a disc of thick card board around the rivet head, allow the head and washer room. Use thick compressed card, like the stuff on card envelopes, the ones that say 'do not bend'. When you start tapping with the hammer and you miss, you ding the card and not your wood or leather surface

The 'shadow' or 'ghost' is caused by the tool bouncing. Its all in how you hold the tool. Grip it fairly tight and hold it tight against the leather, pushing it down slightly. A loose grip or not holding it really tight against the leather allows it to bounce, and your reaction is to then increase your grip and push it against the leather, making the ghost

Get pure nfo, not nfo compound

NFO has only a very slight smell. You'd need to put your nose right up onto the leather and sniff in heavily for a few moments to get its smell. If it smells any stronger than this the NFO is 'off' and shouldn't be used

I cannot say just what you should charge. What I'll say is how I used to charge in my other businesses for bespoke or special items. I'd look and see what others are charging - but maybe not actually getting - I'd reckon mine was 2000% better and I'd charge anything from 2 times to 10 times the average asking price. Often I'd get that price, sometimes not. Often I'd get told 'so & so is only charging so much' so I'd tell them to go buy from 'so & so'. Only one in 100 customers were that way. Another group of customers I did business with always wanted a discount. For them I'd hike the price up then we would haggle till they got a price they were happy with and their discount, but still way high from my view In other words; do not undervalue your time, your creativity, your skill. Ask for as much as you possibly can, then if absolutely necessary give a reluctant discount Do not, never ever, cut corners on your work. It'll show. Be happy in the methods and styles you do. If you are happy/content with the way you make things, on how you finish it, your heart will be in it and it will show in the finished item An old joke; a man's car was running badly. He took it to a garage. Mechanic lifted the hood, reached in with a tiny screwdriver and turned something. The mechanic tells the man 'that'll be $100' 'What' says the man 'a hundred bucks and all you did was twiddle a screwdriver, and that only took 2 minutes!!' The mechanic tells him 'twiddling with the screwdriver costs $1, the other $99 is for me knowing what to twiddle' Skill costs money; the worker is worth his pay PS; #1 son has been having a go at me lately cos he thinks I'm charging way to low for my leather items. He reckons my prices need to go up by x5 at least

That looks like a water stain in the polished finish. You can get that if you put a hot cup of tea/coffee directly onto the surface. Sometimes it will cure itself over time. Sometimes putting a damp cloth towel over it and ironing with a mildly warm iron will draw it out and return it to normal In this instance I'd let it sit and air for a few days, allowing some warm air to blow over it; warm air, not hot

that one gets em every time

I'm still me on most other forums except one where my name was taken so I'm Black Knight on that one Chose Black Knight cos I'm not. In my history group all the men wanted to dress up as knights, especially in black, but not me. I always went as the craftsman, doing leather work, or making arrows, or cooking. I got my photo taken by the public more than the others and I got into the local/national papers more often