fredk

Pardon my ignorant behavior; I've not commented on the leatherwork Tis a nice bit of functional leather work.

In the UK; illegal to carry openly without a good reason, concealed is generally alright, but it needs to be secured

Not totally banned in UK yet. In the UK its the weapon of choice for gangs. To be killing other gangs or often innocents (yes, real innocent people). We don't have any real wild areas where a machete is needed but a few groundsmen and gardeners have them in their tool boxes

I use a contact adhesive all the time For small areas or seams I use a tube glue called UHU. For larger areas I use a brand none of youse would have heard of. I work straight from the 1 litre tin. Sometimes I pour in a wee bit of Evostick adhesive cleaner which acts as a thinner too and it stops the glue going 'off' I rarely wait for the glue to go tacky. One generous coat of glue on one of the item parts then I stick the items together and clamp up. After a couple of hours I remove the clamps and tap down with a small rubber-head mallet Never had a problem doing it this way and 99.9999% of the time I get a good glue bond

Your branch of the SCA is the bestest resource. I used to use archaeologists reports for ideas and draw my own patterns from them. I also used to use Olaf Goubitz book 'Purses in Pieces', 'Shoes and Pattens' by Grew, 'Scabbards' by Cameroon, 'Knives and Scabbards' by Cowgill, and an SCA publication on making shoes The SCA used to have hundreds of patterns for items on a website. All free to down-load. I've been out of it all for 20 years so I don't know if it still exists. Ask at your local branch

those deserve a double *groan*

I'm declaring that my part in this experiment is at an end 2 years and nothing bad to report

sheeesh! deer in your front yard! I'm very jealous All I get are seagulls

Wonderful Work Welcome to the forum.

What type of leather are you using? I don't mean 'veg tan' but more specifically

I used to buy some of my motorcycling gear from military surplus stores. My gauntlets were WW2 British Dispatch Rider's* and my summer boots were WW2 German troopers boots. My rain cape, for use on motorcycle and post bike, was an ex-RAF WW2 guard's rain cape. I also used to wear boots called 'ammunition boots' as a postie. They covered the ankles and protected them from dog bites. They were tough and normally hard wearing but as a postie I walked a lot so wore out a pair in about 7 or 9 months There is one store left in Belfast. Still doing 'Army Surplus'. We have a very large number of marching bands and some of their uniforms are made up from Army Surplus uniforms * I think I may still have them somewhere

Checked what I paid; £8.90 with 2 sets of dies and 35 x 15mm snaps Its now running at £10.26 for the same

Its raised up to clear the sound-proofing? I'd try to replicate that mounting; go to a scrap yard and get some scrap door panels. Cut around the mounting, leaving a large piece of plastic, and screw that to the new door panel. Might get you some replacement clips too Just thinking as I write

Those clips should be available from the vehicle dealer. They probably sell them by the box full If your area is dry I'd use MDF. Stable & smooth surfaces, easy to cut and shape

You can paste photos directly* from your computer or phone. They need sized to no more than 800 x 600 pixels, ie about 150kb * this is actually preferred

I recently bought one of those off Temu for £12, for tool, 2 sets of dies and some snaps. Not used it yet. I have one for use with KAM snaps and it works fine so I reckon the new one will as well

When I'm soldering anything very close to plastic or leather I wrap a piece of wet cloth around the item, just slightly past the area to be soldered. That keeps the rest from getting too hot

you could solder/braze or whatever to join it and make it more secure

Even I could make it. Anneal some brass rod, bend either free-hand or round a former then heat & squench

afaik its the same in the UK and Ireland

Smaller stitching holes, these keep the thread tighter. Pull each stitch real tight Have you tried the pierced-thread way of putting your needle on?

Yes. I have a large block of wax that I can push the whole die into, at the start and about every 4 or 5 cuts

Whatever you use as a show table use a cloth covering it. I/we found dark red or brown best with leatherwork. There are websites which tell you which colours are welcoming or 'cold' et cetera

The 'Speedy Stitcher' does a lock stitch and I've used it a few times. In places where I wasn't able to do a saddle stitch