fredk

I mostly use pieces of scrap leather. If it needs to be soft-ish, like in an archer bracer, I use pieces of carpet felt under-lay. Soft chrome tan leather is good, its stiffer than the felt but almost as soft

By hand would do. The way I'd do it is to pre-punch sewing holes in the leather with a stitching chisel. Spacing at about 4 to 6mm. Then use a sharp glovers' needle of the appropriate size to sew through the elastic material. You can do a straight running stitch, or by going one way then back wards you get a sort-of one needle saddle stitch, and that is what I'd do

I wonder if a 'feather' stamp, like F120, used inside the pear shader would give some leafy look?

No. You'd be best painting the details first and waxing over them and the rest of the vessel

Gezzer's is good Those are rose leaf stamps on the one you like At Le Prevo. Look under L, last two on top row - with rough edges are L948 & 949, and first two on bottom row, with smooth edges L953 & 954 http://www.leprevo.co.uk/stamps.htm#rx Tandy used to do the same ones You might have to search out your local Tandy stores or other places to find if they have them ~~ I just spotted that on the one you like the vine stalk is made using a rope border stamp

and thank you @Gezzer for finding that. I found it interesting as well but didn't know it existed

an aside; to kill glue smells, get some large fresh onions and cut in 1/2 or 1/4s and leave them out in your work area. Cut onions will also kill smells from fresh paint, put near the painted item. They also kill smells in the fridge and refresh it. You can leave the onions until they start to dry out or replace sooner. You can still use the onions for eating and cooking afterwards

I notice that you did not read what I wrote. Try again

Good tips and ideas from you both. I'll need to get 'creative' to figure out how to hold the removable punches in my Tandy punches For some sharpening I use some W&D used dry wrapped around the handle of an old artists paint brush inside the punch tube. Just lightly, not too much, not enough to enlarge the hole

When making wide hat bands, over 3/4 inch wide or so, cut the strap with a modest curve to it. It will sit tighter to the crown then

It would be nice to see the photos on here, and with some details about construction

I find a simpler way is to right-click on the photo. In a menu which opens I chose 'search image with google '. That opens a side-bar showing that photo and ones like it and you can find its origin

Why is that called a 'Rudder' wallet? Is it just some silly catch-phrase? Just to make you/me/us look? I used to see these, made in fabric, in the discount store (Dollar store?) and they sold for no more than 50p (say 50c). I use to buy them to keep odd things in in the car, the tool box, in the sheds

Thank you for another idea. I'll be re-enforcing the join, gluing it and lacing it. But I do believe No.1 Favourite Dottir doesn't like fringes. No progress on this yet as I've been giving my leather room a really good sorting out. I'd run out of any surface to actually cut and work on. Tools sorted and put away, all those odd bottles of dye put away, why did I keep so many empty Fiebings 4 oz (US) plastic dye bottles?

Bruce doesn't say it directly but SHARP chisels. Sharpen them and polish the sides of the teeth. 1/2 hour maybe to do them, maybe longer, but sharp and polished teeth will go in and out of the leather much easier

Depends on the material of the board. A stiff kitchen cutting board, maybe 5mm. I have some kitchen cutting mats from Ikea (£1 for 2) they are about 2mm thick and they do the job as well as any thick board. You only need to get the tips of the chisels through the leather, not the whole tooth or even 5mm of it. Even an A4 self healing cutting matt, about 3mm thick, will do the job To help you pull your chisels out, use one of these; I made this one out of a scrap piece of clear acrylic plastic. You van buy all different designs now, including plastic and metal ones with a wee handle on

Try using a set of these. You still need some care to get the teeth in alignment both sides but its easier, and they work fast and silently

You should resist the temptation to wiggle and tilt the irons to get them out. I used to do that. But the wiggling around distorts the holes and can make the stitches look wonky

Most times I use a kitchen cutting board from Ikea, Cost me £1.50. I also made a big wax block for use with small and/or delicate items. Melted candle wax into a big aluminium oven tray. After it gets a lot of marks the surface is re-melted and when hard its as good as new When I do a lot of bigger hole punching I use a block of wood blocks glued together ends up

Good. A too perfect chess board looks factory made. Yours is personal. Enjoy playing chess or checkers on it and may you not lose too many games,

Use one of these to hold the leather down; I made this one out of a scrap piece of clear acrylic plastic. You van buy all different designs now, including plastic and metal ones with a wee handle on

Its simple to make your card wallet RFID (Radio Frequency IDentity) protected. Glue into the pockets, or use double sided sticky tape, pieces of kitchen aluminium foil. A piece on the inside of each of the outer covers will do. For best practice the pieces of aluminium foil should be at least the same size as the cards, about 8cm by 5.5cm

Another decent idea, thank you

I've seen some people paying a bill from as far away as 30cm from the machine, but usually max distance I see is about 15cm. Your card may have been 'cloned' as you paid your bill If you use your card regularly on certain things and only in certain areas have a word with the fraud department of credit card. They can take the details and will block any payments which are not normal. If your own purchase is blocked a phone call or text to or from the fraud dept soon sorts it. In the past I've had to inform the fraud dept that I was going to be in a certain area of England making big purchases but I still had to get a phone call on some to clear them On cloning; a person not directly attached to the legion could have put the cloner on the card reader. The cloner can send the info to the dishonest person miles away. We had cases here 18 months ago. Several ATMs had cloners attached. They sent the info to a gang in Dublin, over 100 miles away from the ATMs