fredk

I'm thinking they might be cordwainers tools or book-binders tools

Instead of a snap/popper what about a piece of elastic, in a closed circle? Like a scrunchie? maybe a couple of them, one top and one at middle, or maybe not

Now there's a phrase based in leather work; in early times shoes did not have heels. Men got heels on their riding boots, to keep their feet in the stirrups. A rider only needed a low heel riding a slow nag but for riding the more expensive and livelier hunters the rider needed a deeper heel. Thus a rich man, who could afford a good hunter was 'well heeled' now you know I'm full of interesting (read useless) information like that

What is so special about a General's star? Would not one like this do? https://www.ivan.tw/collections/2d-3d-stamps-clearance/products/final-sale-star-frame-3d-stamp

No, that is not mine, but I have one like it and another of different profile, more square-ish. They are, or were, fairly cheap to buy. Altho I've not used mine for a while since my last soldering iron died With these you don't need any pressure, just a light swipe along the edge A pyrogravure is just a glorified soldering iron. Most good ones have some sort of temperature settings Main point is tho, keep the heat localised to protect your hands. Too much dry heat can dry out your fingers and hands, You'll need to put hand cream on after each session to prevent dry cracks forming on your skin, which can be very painful Something for only those who know what they're doing; when I was a bee keeper I put a resistor into the mains supply feed line of a 40w soldering iron to make it reduce its heat so it would just about melt bees' wax

Reading thru the story it seems the gist is that the tale of a lot of anacondas is a myth

Would not using a pyrogravure* on low heat not be a lot easier and safer? I don't use edge paint much but mostly a beeswax mix. Rubbing that in and buffing it real good with a coarse cloth rubbed hard and fast builds up enough heat to soften the wax and get it into the edge * or an old electric soldering iron on low heat, maybe with a brass burnisher? as seen here

Anyone know where I can get a pattern for a Walther PPK? It needs to be a flapped holster, WW2 style I got asked to make one today. Its needed soon as well. Nowt like putting on the pressure

mmm, interesting. something that could be made from an off-cut. I'm tempted to make one, then find someone to wear it!

Just how thin? It doesn't look too thin to me. The goat should last well enough I've had thinnish sheep on my work stool for almost 3 years now. Admittedly the stool is not used a great lot, not like 24/7, but pretty regularly, the sheep is lasting well

is that 0.030 of an inch? if so, I convert that to 0.76mm (I work in mm) or roughly 0.8mm. I think a saddlers harness needle of 0.8mm or 1mm should do. That would a JJ size 4 (50 x 0.86mm) or a 001/002/003 (which are all identical sizes of 55mm x 1.02mm)

The original Time Team with Tony Robinson, Mick Aston and Phil Harding* was the best. It gradually went bad. It fed our family its weekly dose of history lessons. I think, watching a lot of that and all the CSI tv series was what made my dottir go study forensic archaeology. When she qualifies, she'll be one of those who go to old crime scenes to get evidence. Sites like war crimes scenes. Head of her faculty is one of the worlds leading forensic archaeologists, Dr Sue Black, who was born and bred and grewed up not far where #1 dottir lives now and went to the same Uni. But they've not met yet When I was a kid a family friend used to take us up to his cabin in woods in Wisconsin for fishing trips. Up there I found some native arrow heads, just laying on the ground. A few were obsidian. I had about 20 or 25 and over the years the number went down. The last few were stolen when a small safe I had them in was stolen * in my early days of leather working a chap came to me and asked me to make a 'finds' bag just like Phil Harding's one (or it might have been Mick's bag). Just a simple shoulder bag with a rounded bottom, on the gussets loops for pens & pencils, and a pocket for a small note book. The client chap was a new qualified archy

Well, it happened to me, twice. The last time was in March this year. My computer repair chappie traced the virus to an attachment to a PDF file. When that was sent to the printer it changed the printer settings and disabled it. It was a simple fix for him; clean out the printer and re-install the drivers or whatever direct from HP. And delete that PDF

What size thread do you want to use?

Naughty Tom. As punishment go sew a 72 inch belt, both edges, at 12 spi, saddle-stitch, by hand!

Interesting project Have you left enough room in the pocket for a phone? it looks a bit flat and tight in the photos Even though aluminium is light it still has weight. Would Kydex work for this?

I'm assuming the pattern carried in a computer virus which upset the printer's software programming. I had a similar problem once but my computer repair chappies simply wiped the old programming and installed it from HP directly. Some repair places don't know how to do this. its just , can't be fixed, buy new, we have one over there at $$' (me being cynical, btw)

I've not used that place you linked to nor will I go to it Simples; if in doubt do not There are plenty of other sites with patterns which are more reliable. Sometimes you can even get a pattern on here. And you can adapt any pattern to your own ideas

I keep a triple entry bookkeeping system. Because I need to be organised 1. several spread sheets on computer 2. 2 note books On the computer spreadsheets I keep inventory of all leathers I buy; colour, square footage bought, thickness, type (veg or chrome tan) and then a rough price of per sqft (I take off a small & for the squiggly bits of a hide which can't be used) and which box they're in and where that box is. I need to up-date my spreadsheets as I keep forgetting to mark off which hides have been used up or have very little left Another spreadsheet lists every project I make. It lists the leather(s) used, how much and the price, it lists the hardware, lace, a small amount for glue and dye and anything else, such as pens I supply in some pen cases. With this I can look and see how much each Item costs me to make and which thickness of leather I've used et cetera Notebooks; One main one lists the same as that last spreadsheet. but its a working note book in which as I make an item I use the info in it and might change the info as I work on the project A second note book; I keep a note of how I make the item, rough notes usually. Changing the steps of construction as I go, to make the item better, or to put in fresh ideas on making an item, eg as I was making some pen cases I found that the stamps I was using could almost cut through the thin leather, so I noted down to glue in a thin piece of fabric over the stamps on the inside. Later I decided to try putting strap loops on the back of the pen cases; note on size and positioning of the loops was noted down hth

Yes, but you may need to change some details on how it is done

Depends on just what it is. I use thin pre-dyed for lining bags and small goods or even over game boards with the main playing area put on over it. I have some real nice stuff which is kinda very wrinkly looking which I used to recover my work stool which had had PVC on it.

A lot of recent talk on the form about certain skivers reminded me that several years ago, maybe 7 or 8, I bought one of these. Never used it yet. I must set it up and larn how to use it And more recently, like only about 5 years ago I bought one of these. and again never used, or maybe just the once Another 'machine' skiver I have and do use for straps is this one. Not used too much recently but it was used a lot when I made battle-ready medieval shields and made the straps for them But most of the time I just use my two old simple types which I started off with; The safety beveller and the super skiver

I think you're in for a long haul on this one. Do X many rivets at a time, leave off for a while, then do more. You'll soon work through them. But, I'd do the reverse, sort of, what you're doing. This is how I polished up the dome heads on some coach bolts; I chucked the bolt into a small motor tool, like a dremel. I chucked up a polishing wheel in a normal drill. The normal drill & polishing wheel were mounted up in a bench vise and run at a moderately slow speed. Then the motor-tool was run at normal speed and the bolt head pressed into the polishing wheel. In no time it took off the '88' cast on the head and polished it up nicely. I only had about 50 to do. I did them in small batches, having a cuppa tea in between. It didn't take too long to do them all

If it needs any new belts, try a car parts accessories shop. They should have a range of different size belts to fit cars for driving the radiator cooling fans or the air-conditioning units. Some car or farm machinery places will even make you a belt to the correct size I have a 1930 vintage/antique Austin 7 car and a few others. When I need to replace the fan belt I just take the old one into the shop and match it up to a new one Have you checked if any debris is stuck down inside somewhere and stopping things from moving? With fine clearances it doesn't take much to jam it up

Use of cardboard as a stiffener goes back to about 1850s /1860s. What was better than cardboard, not too thick, stiff and also flexible enough to 'give'. Not until post-WW2 do we see the use of man-made polymer sheets, such as thin nylon sheets used as bag stiffeners. The cardboard used up to about the 1950s both as stiffeners in bags and in general purpose boxes was much thicker and more resilient than later cardboard and this early cardboard was eventually replaced with the multi-layer corrugated cardboard we use to day Adding a cardboard stiffener to a bag helps make the bag keep its shape, especially when using light-weight leathers. I used to make shoulder bags using chrome tan upholstery grade leather. That leather would never keep a bag shape so I sandwiched cardboard between it, on the outside, and a thin liner leather