fredk

I just remembered, I think it was Tandy sold a spiral die cutter. I think it was for cutting long runs of lace

There is another way to cut the strip; cut along the backbone area the full length, at a curve, at the end do a gentle sweeping 180* turn-about and keep cutting, at the end you started at do another gentle sweeping 180* turn-about, keep cutting, repeat. Then thoroughly soak the leather, stretch out tightly and let it dry completely, then you have your very long strap

You cut a big circular spiral of the strap width in the best area of the hide, avoiding the belly. Then wet it thoroughly, stretch it out and let it dry and you have a strap as long as you want

Welcome to the forum Jeremy

Have you tried B&Q, Halfords or Screwfix for hole punches or other tools? Halfords has a no-question lifetime guarantee on their tools

I'm going to check all my pieces and re-oil if I think they need it So far nothing bad has happened with them but they've now sort-of dried out a bit

I'm thinking of checking in about every month. To keep this thread 'live'. I'll do a full up-date about every second month, unless something happens. One thing we never really sorted out was; do we re-oil our test pieces? if so, how often? I've re-oiled mine, I think, once near the start and some were done a couple of months ago before they were put out in the weather I think all my test pieces could do with a re-oiling

Even where I am, the sun is weak and mostly over cast I have to be careful not to store leather near a window. I did once and got sun tanned streaks on my roll of leather, the streaks which were facing the window and the rest was still the light leather colour I'm not explaining that at all well,

When Tandy had a store in England I visited it once to pick up supplies. I had heard of the Tandy cutting board and I checked it out. I choose to use a cheap cutting board from Ikea which I thought was the same material and thickness but larger than the Tandy one for a lot less ££/$$

Have a look here; We tested oils and fats found at home and some of them turned the leather dark brown

What I suggested should not tone it down but make the sunflower petals stand out, make them 'pop' as the phrase is

A bit of darker or lighter green in the centre line of the leaves, and a green wash over the sunflower to make its petals stand out from each other. A 'wash' is very diluted paint, almost like the water you washed the brush in, painted carefully along the petal lines

That is exactly what I thot and expected when I first read that joke

An elderly man rear-ended a guy driving an expensive European sports car. Enraged, the guy hops out and confronts the old man. He yells, "Look what you did to my car! You're going to give me $10,000 right now or I'm going to beat you to a pulp!" "Oh my…" the old man said nervously. "I don't have that kind of money. Let me call my son.” he said with hope. “He trains dolphins and he will know what to do." "Dolphins!" the other driver huffed, while rolling his eyes. The old man pulled out his phone, dialed his son, and just as his son answered, the irate man snatched the phone away from the old man. "So, YOU'RE a dolphin trainer, huh?” The irate man yelled, “Well, your old man here just rear-ended my car and I need TEN GRAND right now, or I'm going to beat you AND your old man to a pulp!" "I'll be there in 10 minutes." says the voice calmly on the other end. Exactly 10 minutes later, a Jeep pulls up and a guy hops out and proceeds to pulverize the bully, leaving him in a heap on the side of the road. When he finished, he walked over to his father and said, "For the last time dad, I train Seals… Navy Seals. NOT dolphins!”

For all the use my 60mm knife gets I can buy over 60 blades for the price of that sharpener (£8 per 10). That will last me several years

There is no grain direction with leather but there is stretch and you sometimes need to take this into consideration. The stretch is from the back bone to the belly, increasing as you get closer to the belly There is minimal stretch along the back bone, that's why that section is used for good belts, again there is a slight stretch parallel to the back bone as you go towards the belly and towards the tail. There is minimal stretch in the shoulders, with some towards the legs

You can get a vinyl paste for repairing cracks. But it is really meant for car dash tops and for small slight cracks. The kit of pastes comes with different colors so you can mix them and match what it is going on. I used some on my Cadillac dash top and door armrests. it did well on them but not so good on the upholstery But that amount of damage is a job for a re-upholstery expert

ISR reading once that some people use a woodworking band saw to cut their leather. You can get knife-blades for some band saws, also a jigsaw/ sabre saw(?) to cut leather C or G clamps/cramps to press an embossing stamp in leather I use a piece of sheep's rib I found over 50 (!) years ago as a bone-folder, a slicker and a fold press

Use what you have, if it works it works

I do nothing to 'prep' the leather. I paint straight on the raw leather, whether its been stamped or not, or on dyed leather. imo the application of nfo before painting may inhibit the paint adhering After painting I apply a couple of coats of thinned acrylic varnish , and only then apply any antique if required, but very carefully I've been doing it this way for 24 years now

Very Nice

Use a 'hair' tool. It usually has two ends; a fine and a coarse, use the coarse end I have the cheaper Tandy version and it works terribly well

I'm used to a much shorter beret, as worn in the RAF. The length of your reminds me of French Special Forces ones War pig? more like a Warthog; geddit?

I think, because it tears easily its not Nappa. Its goat skin skiver

This is the wrong section to ask Anyway, you can't delete your posts; that might break continuity of any thread. Just take the forum out of any book-marks list and ignore it