fredk

Weather here right now is crazy; spring / summer daytime temperatures. Very little wind, clear skies. But at night its getting chilly. I still have my main window wide open, day & night, to keep the temp in my apartment down to a livable 19* or 20* I only have a very large planter outside my apartment. All the flowers should have shut down for winter coming but over the last 7 -10 days they've all grown and are flowering like its summer If we ever get snow here if we get as much as 1 inch the whole country goes into chaos! main roads get closed, buses stop running, airports gets closed down. You'd think they'd know by now, winter = some snow, maybe, get snow plough road gritters out before it comes not 3 or 4 days after

When I get a round tuit and finish making a certain leather hat, the pattern bought from dieselpunk, I think spraying some dye on it might help with this look

Two hands up and waving ~~ Me! But it can be worser cos I deliberately buy seconds of tools and stuff, for me its #3 and #4 of it. I have a medium sized tool box half-filled with those 'spares' Here we call it TMB, Too Many Birthdays Not leatherwork; I build plastic models. A couple of months ago I put into a box about 8 models to build before November, for a big show in England. That box, about 35cm x 35cm x 45cm, has disappeared. I've had to buy some replacement models

mmmm, I think I may have to consider buying this pattern As for paints; any acrylic paints will do. You can get sets of tubes of acrylic paints in discount stores. But you'll need to mix the colours. Alternatively, Warhammer/Citadel does a full range of flesh and blood colours. Any colour of 'flesh' you can imagine, from Goblin Green through Dwarf to Dead and many colours & shades for red. Citadel paints are acrylics meant for painting miniature figures for fantasy war-gaming

For this; you could re-purpose a house-hold cleaning product sprayer bottle or get a small water-sprayer bottle for use with house plants. I have both and could re-direct one for dye spraying

Some things to take into consideration; 1. the thicker the leather the more likely it will crack, without wetting and forming. Wet forming will help reduce the likelihood of cracking 2. leather from near a bovine back bone is more likely to crack as it tends to be stiffer 3. bovine belly leather is much more flexible and less likely to crack 4. leather from goat, sheep or pig is very flexible and less likely to crack Choose your leather for its intended use. I still have a wallet I started to make years ago. My first attempt. I used the wrong leather and when I folded it it cracked along the fold

Did you wet that section of leather before bending it to shape and letting it dry that way? then a feed with some NFO?

When I was a cadet stating out in the RAF a very famous WW2 RAF pilot told me; 'Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men. Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't do this or that. That's nonsense. Boy, learn the rules and obey them, then later you will know which rules you can ignore'

Yeah! That tall one looks real classy

I've found that not only on Tandy but also on other makes the thread in conchos and similar fittings are badly cut or blocked. Now I run a thread tap into the hole. I recut the thread to either M3 or M4. I keep a supply of small flanged head bolts in these sizes. I think the thread in Tandy conchos might be a UNF. You might be able to get a UNF thread tap to run down into the hole to clean it as I think, when the concho was plated the inside of the hole got plated as well, reducing its size a wee bit Not the post; As then you'll have to hit the post to peen it and that could damage the front of the concho. Happened to me, sort of. I had some fittings that were to be riveted on. The fitting had the rivet post. When I tried to fix the rivet cap, even at the lightest tap the fitting broke. Best was just one got riveted on but the front was deformed. Two-pack resin glue will hold the female part of a snap to the back of a concho. But there is a risk, if the snap is a tight one, the female part will pull away

Of course you could just punch out a leather washer and buy small flanged headed bolts. Probably much cheaper that way. I bought a couple of packs of the conversion sets, just cos they was on sale For more as I'm in Europe I couldn't get US threaded bolts so I got a thread tap, recut the thread in the concho for M4 and bought M4 bolts

Back on topic chaps; I reckon a few of these, in different heights, dyed in red and green with Christmasy type decoration might be a good seller at Christmas markets

10/8 18.30. Almost 1 week on None of my pieces have any smell nor any growth of anything on them, which I will loosely call 'fungus' Piece #3, Lard, is slightly stiffer than Control Piece #4, NFO Compound is slightly stiffer than Control and is very slightly stiffer than #3 Piece # 6, 3-in-1 oil, is noticeably stiffer than Control and #3 & #4 All other pieces seem to be equally flexible as Control. But these, including Control are slightly stiffer than the leather they were cut from so I'll have to have a #2 'Control' in my leather-working room I've not yet sorted the #2 set for hanging up outside

Buy it, then; forego coffees from Starbucks and choccy bikkies for a couple of weeks Ya never know when ya might want or need one

Here a 'pig in a blanket; is a sausage roll. Sausage meat cooked in a pastry type roll I reckon it might be cos a lot of Oirish were transported to the penal colony now called Oistraylia No chicken is involved in the making of My main recipe is. Mix and grind down, not too smoothly, some (no exact measurements, just as much as you like or want) regular salt, coarse sea salt, ground black pepper, some black pepper corns (crushed down in a mortar), a bit of ground ginger, a wee bit of cinnamon, a wee bit of cardamon,(optional) a wee bit of ground garlic (NOT garlic salt!) and some ground dried onion granules, (NOT onion salt!) and sometimes some other 'erbs I may spot in my cupboard. All, mixed together and slightly ground together in my mortar & pestle (not the vessel which has the poison. . . . ).Keep it slightly rough so you can taste the large pieces of pepper et cetera I usually make a very large bowl of it and dispense into salt shakers. It lasts a very long time as you don't use much. I've given some away to some friends from South Africa and OZ and they like it and they gave it the thumbs up. The main differences between this and medieval 'poudre deuce' is that contains saffron (lots) and finely ground sugar (lots) and was used on top of puddings. not chips/fries, cooked chicken. I like it on cooked ham slices in a sandwich

Good job Tandy sells, or did sell a 10 pack conversion set https://tandyleather.com/products/concho-snap-adapter-10-pack

Bees' wax burns at a lower temperature than paraffin wax. But get either to a critical temperature they will self ignite. When melting its best to use a dry heat as it takes longer for the wax to get to that point * I use a glass holder, which looks a bit like an ash tray, but it ain't * when I was a beekeeper I was a champion candle maker

@jrny4wrdit would be very helpful if you put your location in your profile I buy coloured lace meant for jewelry making. I can get it in diameters from 1mm up to 6mm. I usually buy 1mm to 3mm, by the 3m long

ach, shure we call that a 'sausage bap' or a 'pig in a roll'. Very popular with the likes of builders as a mid-morning breakfast. Grilled pork sausage. You get chucked out of the shop if you want a beef sausage.

I make my own 'chicken salt'. I've been making it for over 25 years. There are a few variants of 'chicken salt' and some are the same as a medieval condiment called 'poudre deuce'

Yesterday a hunter came round to sell me some meat He offered me 8 legs of venison for $500 Do you think thats too dear?

If you are really concerned; you can buy battery operated LED tea-lights. The LED flickers randomly and the CR2032 battery lasts several days, about 10 days in constant use, far longer than the wax burning. No smoke, so flecks of ash in the air, no heat, no fear of fire if you leave it on alone, no molten wax to spill, The LED light is as bright as the wax light and the LED bulb is covered by a soft pliable plastic cover made to resemble a flame shape I can buy them 6 for £1 in a £-shop. I sometimes buy them just for the batteries and or the LED bulbs These are plain ones but you can buy fancy ones where the plastic case has been moulded to look more like a candle which has burned down a bit, and you can them in different heights and colors The wax tea-lights I use are scented. You don't get that with the LED lights tho

I would not use treated wood for the shelves. Maybe MDF board, or plastic board, melamine laminated shelving boards

They look cute Maybe not; I can hold a lit tea-light candle in my fingers. The aluminium cup doesn't get too hot

Char-grilled / barbied burger, slice of pickled beet under, a slice of strong cheddar cheese on top, a little salt directly on burger, lightly toasted bap/bun with sesame seeds on top yum