fredk

Maybe This is THE forum for US to experiment and check these things out. To get to the truth. Even the tanneries will only repeat what is said by the greater un-washed There is a discussion type which I call a circular-argument. It goes like this; I read it in a book, I put it up on an internet forum, someone else reads the forum and puts it in a magazine, I read the magazine and I know I'm right because I read it in a book and a magazine. Thats how a lot of these myths become perpetual I've thought of something. My Austin 7 car was built in December 1930. In its drive system is an item we call 'the donut', aka a fabric coupling (rear wheel drive BMW cars use something similar in looks) I have an original one from 1929. Originals are made of laminations of heavy fabric/canvas and leather, all tightly compressed and held together by those triangular plates. I know its from 1929 as the date on manufacture is stamped on one of those plates, That was retired as the rivets on one plate set ripped out during a race. Anyway, servicing of this item was to take it off at regular mileage intervals and apply some light engine oil to it to keep it supple. Not to soak it in oil, just a small amount I can say that when it came off a few years ago it was 87 years old and neither the leather nor canvas showed any signs of rot or deterioration. Another; the Austin engine was fully overhauled in 1984. I did it again in 2004. Inside the engine are some oil seal gaskets made of oil impregnated leather. They are in constant saturation with the engine oil. None of those gaskets were being destroyed by the engine oil. They were changed because they were too compressed to re-use

In my vintage car world leather straps are used to hold bonnets and boots closed, to keep spare tyres in their carriers, a lot of other places as well. Our cars spray hot and cold engine and gear box oils pretty much all over the place, over parts of the cars and passengers too. This makes it sound like we're an environmental hazard on the road but its an accumulation over time. We only use high quality mineral oil. Our engines and gearboxes cannot use the alternatives, they weren't built to do so Since I took up leather working I looked at the car straps. The straps which get the worst of the oil are the first to rot through. In places where the oil can be washed out the straps last longer but still rot. I had to replace all the straps on my car and when I did I gave them a good feeding of NFO, and used to do it regularly. My straps have lasted 24 years now. I've noticed that others in my club are replacing their straps every 3 to 5 years I think, the difference of using mineral oil on us is it is very highly refined and we are living. Our skin is a living organ and deals with it whereas leather is dead and just absorbs the oil and does nothing with it. Putting even highly refined engine oils on us can give us serious skin complaints - I know, I used to work on my cars without wearing gloves. Eventually I got serious dermatitis because of it Don't take other's words as gospel truth. Try it, experiment. If something works for you, thumb your nose at the nay-sayers

Interesting I just use thick thread for heavy duty, thin thread for light duty. I've never even thought about the thread strength Considering that tent and tilt and truck curtain makers use a double run of stitching and their thread doesn't look overly thick I reckon you could use two stitching runs. Spaced well apart and maybe with the sewing holes staggered, and maybe threads of different colours?

Here is a pixie of some of my stock. You reminded me that I have them and I had started to paint the pink ones and I think I actually paid slightly more for per 6 than you did for 10 The ebay seller I got them from has about 6 or 8 trading names on ebay and even tho I bought about 50 or so of these and the deal was fine he has me blocked from buying again. But my ex buys for me and gets them sent to her address and forwards them on to moi

I used to get them from a chinaman seller on ebay. Last lot I bought were about the same price you paid

Can you still buy the books which list brands? A copy would be handy for when we add some brands to our leather for that 'unique' look, I mean, like, one brand per hide ain't enuf, we need more

Have you back-flushed it regularly?

If your extra holes are bigger that 2mm, get two of the hole punches and wrap duct tape around them. Start the punching with double holes, then singles, using the last hole made to put one of the punches in to keep the spacing

Sounds like a bit of cattle rustling went on

I used to get that mis-alignment problem with pre punched holes when I first made these; Problem solved by punching holes along outside edge of the front and back pieces but punching only one hole in each edge of the gusset, at centre bottom, for parts alignment, then using either double-sided tape or glue to hold the gusset in place and making sewing holes by using an awl, a few holes at a time, sewing up, then more holes and so on

Its because you have two circles of different diameters

oh no? At one time I used to make shoulder bags out of upholstery leather. I'd bought several Kgs of it as off-cuts Anyway, a woman asked me to make a shoulder bag for her. I rootled through my stock looking for some nice stuff when she spotted a nice coloured piece with a large scar on it, The scar was about 6 inches long with a real ugly edge to it. She wanted that piece as the front of the bag. After finding out what it was, in her opinion, 1. it was unique, and 2. only real leather would have it

Could I have the stencils please?

Actually, I find I'm using a quality handle with 18mm snap-off blades much more

similar, but I don't like a retractable blade and my main knife is a 'carpet fitters' version shape; the middle one and for roughing out I use a hook blade in it;

A. inform local trading standards offices of your concerns. I'm thinking that most places have such located at, in or near the local town hall B. Many years ago now, about 15, I was in touch with my TSO;, In the EU 'Leather' is no longer just the material made from the skins of animals, its just a describer. In the same way 'cloth' can be used for wool, cotton, silk

deviation; I think the very dangerous thing I/we used to do as youngster would be called a 'mortar' Here, the real fireworks had long fuzes, which gave you 20 to 30 seconds to do anything.We got a length of plastic water pipe. Stuffed a 'sky rocket' firework down it. On top of that we put a paper cup or paper cone filled with fire-crackers. We lit the fuzes on the fire-crackers or other small fireworks. Then one of held the pipe as another lit the fuze on the sky-rocket. The tube was hastily shoved into a bucket of sand or soil, at an angle off from vertical but close to. The sky-rocket fuze had been cut short so it would go off well before the fire-crackers. If all worked well the skyrocket launched taking the paper cup up and as it exploded it sent the fire-crackers flying out, and then they went off, whirling and twisting as each section exploded. Sometimes, one of us (usually me) had to hold the bottom of the pipe to stop it falling over, and sometimes (a lot of times, ) the fireworks didn't go skywards but dropped on to somebody's house roof PS. as my friends knew I was from Chicago they gave me the nickname 'Chicargo Chuck-a-boom'

Years ago I came across a craftsman, who I knew casually, at an out door craft fair. His specialty was/is high quality wood turned items and other wood work using extremely very nice woods He had printed signs on groups of his items. But he had one price sign that said £2000. He placed it randomly on his wares. As I watched I saw the sign working for him Like this; 'Is that really the price?' 'yes it is' 'What, £2000 for that ?' My friend lifts the price sign, turns it round, looks at it and says 'oops, thats in the wrong place. Those are only £x each' 'oh, thats better, Can I have that one with the dark & light wood?' My friend then tells the buyer what woods they are, how to look after it, then throws in foc a small tin of special wood polish See, psychology, the customer is drawn by the £2000 price sign and even when buying at the lower true price in the back of their mind is the thought they got a big discount bargain, £x instead of £2000

If the case is made tight to the battery, the thick leather and straps underneath should be sufficient to prevent any 'sag', (imo)

Spoiler! No Way Hose-A. I need to see if he has clean hands earlier as well Actually, yes. Western dentists, as well as English Victorian era dentists were good. Dentures were made of real human teeth, either from cadavers or from donations. As early as Roman times soldiers had a good a side-earner taking teeth from the battle dead and even from prisoners and selling them to denture makers. There was little wrong with most teeth in Victorian times, Very little sugar in the diet. Almost, the poorer you were the better your teeth were. Unlike today And you didn't want to complain about their dental work on you, especially to a certain one! PS. Notice the guns? afair, just right for the period, Due to Clint. He is what is commonly called a 'history buff' He has always insisted that things are correct for the period in his films. Even to having an exactly correct copy of a newspaper in one of his films. Its seen on a table for about 1/2 second, but it is period correct

Now I'm gonna have to watch that whole film again to find that!

As you would be aware; piles of horse manure & waste hay can start burning in its depth. If not noticed and dealt with this fire can build and explode outwards setting fire to hay bales and buildings. I once had the winter supply of coal and logs start burning in its depth. This pile was right up against the oil tank which held 1000 litres of heating oil. The tank was plastic. My father did a lot of wood-turning and he often had the waste start burning as he worked