fredk

All the rotary knives are good. I use a 60mm blade one. But the 40mm is just as good plus the replacement blades are easier to get and a lot cheaper than the 60mm. The 20mm size is handy but watch out for the blade guard. On some, when it retracts it only clears the blade by about 1mm. Fine for cutting cloth free-hand but it won't cut through 1mm or more of leather, and the guard will run on top of your guide as well so the blade doesn't even reach the leather. Cut away a whack of the blade guard and it works better, but then you don't have a blade guard

The oils I'm using; NFO Compound, Baby Oil, Vegetable Cooking Oil (Rape Seed Oil), Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Lard (pig fat) and 3-in-1 oil My test squares are 8 cm x 8 cm, about 3 inch x 3 inch. Each piece has one hole punched in one corner, this is for set #1. Set 2 will have 2 holes punched there. Each piece has a number of holes punched in another corner; 1 to 6 holes, which correspond to the oil used on it - see further down. Leather is approx 2.2 to 2.4 mm thick, about 5 - 6 ounce (?) The index of my note book; I use coloured paper clips as page markers in books. One extra section in case I decide to add in another oil. Details of each leather & oil combination will be written down in each corresponding section marked by the coloured paper clip The leather squares, shortly after being oiled. Oil was applied using a clean piece of sponge for each oil These were put into my special car just as you see them laid out here. They went in at 23.00 on 10/1. In the car they'll stay dry but get the full sun on them thru the day and chilled at night. I'll need to check the temperatures. Looked at, but not inspected, in the morning of 10/2 & 10/3 I'll need to make a frame so I can hang set #2 up outside. I think I can get that done this coming weekend Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?

I'll update later

Assuming it has been veg tanned; give it a good soaking with clean warm water. Lay it out on a big board, which has preferably been covered in clean white paper, cover the hide with more clean paper, then lay a big board on top of it. Put lots of heavy weights on top of the top board. Leave to dry for several days or a week, or even longer. This may need to be repeated

When you put a temporary board extension to your work bench and forget to clamp it down tight? Then you set an opened bottle of dye on the board and its enuf to tip the board and spill the dye Not too much dye spilt, its the clean up I hate doing. No mess on anything except the bottoms of some containers

1. in the UK these are known as a 'cosh'. I don't think anyone uses them here anymore, they prefer base-ball bats 2. They may or may not be illegal here. It may be the context in which it is going to be used. I know some farmers have a version for stunning animals before slaughter. They are so unknown that I reckon I could walk down any street in N.I. carrying one and no plod would recognise it and stop me 3. When I did a lot of out-door photography, as did some friends, we used to carry an old cheap but heavy USSR camera in its case. It was useless for photos but more than once a potential thief felt that camera across their skull 4. we do have self-defence laws but it draws the line at killing anyone Only 'reasonable' force may be used 5. In the bad old days of our civil disorder the old police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary used two versions of a 'sap' on rioters. One was an egg shape on a short piece of spring steel, the other was a short long thin tube shape attached to a wood handle. One for close up and one for long-reach. When the police had to give these up they changed to 'knuckle-duster' gloves

If its not reported here nor on the maker's website then I ignore these "we're doomed" announcements on other web sites Just last night I read on you tube that the actor Richard 'John-boy Walton' Thomas had died in a car wreck last week. No he hasn't, he's alive and well, not been a car accident at all

That looks most excellent I admire anyone who can master the mystery of basket weave stamping When I saw the title of this thread 'wheelgun holster' I thought it was a holster for a 'wheel-lock' pistol

Talc powder on top of adhesive sticky will stop it being sticky but won't remove it. For that try WD40. Spray a lot on and gently work it into the sticky residue. It may take tome but WD40 usually works

I agree

1. I had a brass stamp made for use on the Tandy golf ball caddy 2. another source is Letter Press printing plates. They'll press into wet leather but their impression is sometimes quite shallow https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183843967587?hash=item2acdf45263:g:0ZoAAOSwBZdc~3rA&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwM5Mlog5MsEvfpa34K%2F9ePD4XiOMrWp72E0FDEOPsAQ8LjxDPq37P%2B5Ggu6tLVCCij0Iwd2UhereOjOqavBk3FJgIuRD76t%2B3vfUEQgPdsn%2BQKeVM3RqoNVVlB4LX5G6Y4Htk4qzyZK8pbgnUJFPIcEbOC%2F5A2WlvhpEmJRjkh12WIm%2FyCMOF%2BGXfwZhPTqPLhEyVUuhwM3P6sdnrSBjB2YLSHl%2FE%2B03toMbA7CYBWikum6jLfnds7ScaCBNO0u%2Fkg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9L3xoPaYg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155226939158?hash=item24243f1f16:g:qAkAAOSwfDFjWpv~&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwHBjITvnAuy3K4vsDinrXXWWnW6YltRmETrIZyioM43hVoYGc5GFQcFt4I5FQKIFTQ9kJ9JQGScqSyhnODHp8k%2FSSYkLNC5tfrGvx8lYcvvATiLJBJOYv57vXxRxHpHHo1ypkHLU1%2B4QOswmgazXe6eesJn3nBBLso1sy82JPeaZyMDcUuXEvmcPiw6QuFOCUQiQdPYEAkb7I2UE8yekq1zEYXL%2BjRHy1a2H%2Fa7tQVdqk5fe5C4DSuFs9NXhxoUzdQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9L3xoPaYg hth

Wet form your tray and clamp the corners. When they've dried they should hold the shape and snaps should hold them together

There is a way which I use but would not recommend on new quality boots or bags as if it goes wrong the item can be ruined You need to break through the top finish. To do that I wash the item down with cellulose thinners. A lot of. I really scrub it down. This removes the top finish and also removes some of the dyed colour, leaving the item looking a mess of patchwork of very pale areas of dyed and maybe dye-removed places. Then I wash it down with soapy water. Whilst its still drying I start to put the dye colour I want on. The dye is thinned down. It takes several coats of dye to get the colour built up and even. When the dye is looking good the item gets an oiling with Neetsfoot Oil as the oils in the item were removed by the cellulose thinners, After the item has dried I give it a feed and polish with a beeswax mixture I use.

You're both well ahead of me! I'm still getting organised. I got to a shop this morning and picked up a block of lard I'll be back, later, dudes

dunno about 'cats pee' smell. Its not a scent I know too well. But, yes, some leathers do have odd scents. I have some that has such a strong bad scent I can't keep it near me for too long. It might have something to do with where the leather originated and their method of tanning Can you, or are you able, to hang the leathers up some place where they can get a lot of air circulating around them?. A real way-out suggestion; hang them up and have a big barbie. Let the smoke from the barbie circulate around them

I hadn't even thought of lard. Any amount of fat I get from my cooked bacon is not enuf to fill a teaspoon. Bacon and pork are just the same, one word is derived from the original Anglo-Saxon for pig and the other is derived from the original Norman-French for pig. The same for almost anything about cows Anyway, I can buy lard in the supermarket. I think its beef lard though as the shops here are catering more and more for the Jewish and Muslim shoppers. Its actually getting harder to buy anything pork-ish in some of our supermarkets. I think the lard has salt and food preservatives added. But as we are testing commonly available oils that might be ok ah, good on yer. I never considered mink oil. I even relocated several tins of it just on Friday too! Just another thought; all leather test pieces should be about the same thickness. Yet another variable! I mostly use thin leather. I do have some up to 11oz /4.5mm but my stock of leathers is mostly in the 4oz to 6oz / 1mm to 2.6mm thickness range. I think I'll use about 2.4/2.6mm thick. And I'm down sizing the test pieces. 6x4 inches is not necessary. Half that size should be big enuf, maybe even just 3 x 3 inches would do edited to add a PS This is gonna take up some leather. Make shure you can spare it Also, the same oil may react differently to a piece of the leather of a slightly different area. eg when I was making some coin purses all the parts were cut from the same hide. I marked some pieces which were from right next to each other on the hide. When it came to the dyeing they came out different shades, one part might end up a bright green and the other part dark green. On some that I dyed 'light' blue some parts were bright blue but their matching part almost a midnight blue. All dyed at the same time and in the same way with the same dye The oils might do the same. But we shall see I have to do some rivet sorting today

At a local store I buy lightweight zippers 6 for £1 and heavy duty ones 4 for £1.50 - thats about 17p per light and 25p for heavy, Lengths available are only 6, 8, 10 & 12 inch, Same price for which ever chosen. For continuous lengths I get it either from Le Prevo or a sewing shop in England. afair the heavy duty was £1 per meter with discount on long lengths. The last lot I bought wasn't for me but for someone else, afair 10m was about £6 or £7 inc delivery, and included some stops and pull things

Caveat, I don't make gun holsters, but I do study them Every tut I've read from holster makers from long ago up to recent times mostly, almost always, instruct just to take the design just around the fold bend by an inch or two and, afair, a lot of the original holsters examined in 'Packing Iron' are of the same, with the design either ending before the fold bend, on the fold, or just an inch or two past it on the rear I think, and its only my opinion, ultimately, if you want to do the stamping do it, if you want to reproduce an old real example do it as it was done. Its not lazy to not do it When I made copies of medieval or viking knife sheaths, which are usually one piece folded around and sewn, I've always done the design all the way around, just as the original was done

Tallow is something I cannot get or make. Due to the UK having BSE* in cattle a long time ago its illegal for butchers to sell beef fats and other parts and even porcine fats and parts are restricted but for another reason But I may be able to get pork fats, but not for a while Anyway, I have enuf oils to test I don't think we need copy each other's tests, but I think they'll be similar anyway. I'm off to the shops soon to get supplies *BSE = Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis

Two thoughts. 1. is there any small things you can do on the kits to prepare them beforehand? 2. use a stop watch to time every step, including the gaps between. 3. write your spiel down, edit it, look for where one or two words can replace 4 or 6 words I've been asked to do a 'class' to make my key-ring coin purses. I'll have approx 1 hour 20 minutes. I've timed each step. I've made adjustments to the making and I've taken the spiel about types of leather and threads from the beginning to the time the ladies will be sewing the purses up. I've cut 1/2 a minute here and there and took off 1/2 an hour. I've prepared the thread by making wenzels with the needle already threaded, I've pre-made up the key-ring part so they won't have to do that, but as they fit it to the purse its then I'll explain the parts

I won't start the oiling just yet. I don't have enuf 3-in-1 and I'm out of olive. I'll not be shopping until Monday or Tuesday next week @SUP, I might be teaching 'granny to suck eggs' - remember to measure the quantity of the oil you'll be putting on your leather so each piece getting that oil gets the same amount. You don't need anything special to measure, a soup spoon, an egg cup, an aluminum or waxed paper bun case We are on page 3 now. This is gonna end up a loooong thread PS; I'm going to keep a note book. I'll divide it onto sections so each test piece can get its own report

yes, and a long one too. I hope I'll still be around long enuf

yes, like that. I didn't even know the name for that, There used to be a shop in the UK which sold the wire ones. They sold lots of old-style but new stock car parts for refurbishing our old cars. Some modern competition drivers used to use the wire loop ones to hold their bonnet/hood and boot/trunk lid down. Maybe use a modern s/s one. Would look more like the original ?

I want to share/discuss some reasoning for why I/we should do this. Its long winded, so look away now This is THE foremost site for leather working information. We should become a Primary source of information on the use of these common oils I've been studying history for over 50 years and early on I learnt to use primary sources first, then secondary and then tertiary Primary info is; Me, if I tell you I was in Castle Street, Belfast when a terrorist bomb blew a local bar apart and I was slightly injured and I helped the injured Secondary info is; my friend who tells you my story to you Tertiary is; my friend's sister, who tells you my story as she heard it from her brother After tertiary we just call it anecdotal and more-or-less ignore it All this in practical use; Some years ago I was a beekeeper. Due to disease and invasive pests there was a shortage of honey bees in the UK. A real shortage. A friend and I got together and we imported queen bees from parts of Europe and cross-bred them to get disease and pest resistant lines of bees. There was a large bee keeping conference in Belfast one year. And one of the points to be discussed was the banning of us doing this because we were damaging the lineage of the natural Irish honey bee. A very eminent bee keeper of outstanding character gave his written reasoning in a 30 minute lecture. It took me 10 minutes to refute his claims using 4 Primary sources and 3 secondary ones; I had obtained copies of ancient letters, one from a monk who was asking the pope for permission to import honey bees, from his home monastery in North Eastern France, because there were none in Ireland so he could not make bees wax candles for his church. Another letter was from 150 years later, a viking businessman's letter to one of his partners in Denmark ordering several hundred bee hives with bees because there were no honey bees in Ireland so they were unable to make mead and had to import the mead. Thats 2 primary. The third was a copy of a letter from a UK government inspector who reported in 1917 that the recent 'Isle of Wight' disease had wiped out every bee colony in Ireland, He could not find a single one. The 4th primary was a UK letter back to the inspector telling him that he would be getting so many hundreds of new bee colonies from the 10, 000 the UK were importing from Denmark to replace all the colonies wiped out by the disease So we have 3 x primary over a period of about 1400 years telling us that at certain times there were no honey bees in Ireland and 3 x primary telling us bees were imported from other countries Another, maybe a primary source, or maybe secondary, was another bee keeper. A top scientist who lectured at Queens University and did work for the our local government. One of his specialties was looking at the DNA of plants and insects. When he first heard me say about the monk and viking importing bees he had run DNA tests on honey bees. He and his students had got several hundreds of bees from all over Ireland, Their results were; the bees in the West and South-West were the same as Icelandic bees, bees in the South-East, the East were a mix of Norwegian and Danish, and the bees in the North were Danish. There was no separate lineage to indicate a separate Irish honey bee The second secondary source was the report from an eminent entomologist, made in the 1960s, that after years of research that the 'native Irish 'Black' honey bee' was a myth and that honey bees were not indigenous to the island of Ireland A third secondary was a research paper which listed the ancient Irish laws. Giving the penalties and compensation to be paid for certain offences and within those, which changed only slightly over 1000 year period, the mention of honey bees only shows up 10 years after the monk's letter and never before. So let us become that primary source. Our experiment may be imperfect but at least our information will not be, I read it in a book published in 1974 and they got it from such-a-such book published in 1929 sort of thing Sorry for the long ramble

I know this fitting I think. I've seen it on straps on some, just a few, cars in my vintage car club. Its like a buckle but not a buckle. Its like two hinged loops. One short loop is attached to item or end of a strap. The tongue of the strap goes through a gap between the loops and the second loop hinges over gripping the strap between the loops and that loop locks down in place. Endless adjustment without holes in the strap. Rather like how the fitting on a HGV cargo strap works, but nicer looking. But I don't know a name for it