fredk

I dye first, then seal, white or silver colour acrylic base coat on where I want to paint, then top colours; lightest first thru to darkest.

Have you tried Le Prevo? http://www.leprevo.co.uk/HeritageCollection.htm http://www.leprevo.co.uk/offers.htm

Welcome to the nut-hatch, er the forum The only daft question is the one not asked. You'll find plenty of help on here. And there are several hunderd pages of 'How do I . . . '. I'm still making my way through them Have to get you off that beer, ale is better, and even better is wine Ever thought of keeping bees? A friend of mine* lives in Londinium and keeps bees in the top floor of his house. Gets about 100 -150 pounds of honey every season. Honey is very useful for making wine and mead. Goes nice on toast as well *lost contact with him several years ago

We just had 'Mothers's Day', on Sunday 19th. Our Mothers Day is an old religious festival day, unlike the commercial Mother's day observed in other foriegn countries Good luck with your projects

Another scource for lead is aquarium shops. Lead strips are used to hold plants down

I use; glass paper weights, lead blocks of various sizes/weights made of slavaged lead (car wheel balance weights mostly) two 2kg bar-bell weights I was given, a couple of iron /steel bars. Never use iron directly on the leather, theres a chance of staining, my bars are painted

You've got the item. With the info on the lable go buy another, a new one. Make sure its exactly the same, but without the marks of course. Give the new one to G/f If she asks; just say you got it sorted (no lie), advice from here, trade secret on how you managed it, bluff with very long scientifical explantion - unless she's a biochemist she'll loose interest at the first few words. end result = she'll love you forever and think you're the most supreme being in the Slovenian universe

I use a Tandy press of 1.25 tons. My biggest stamp is 70mm x 70mm. My stamps are made of brass. For all my large brass stamps, from 40 x 40mm upwards; As I stamp I 'walk' the piece around. I start in the centre, which kinda-of locks it in position, then a corner and each corner in turn. After the corners I do mid-way between between each corner, then on the largest stamps I do mid-way between each corner and the centre and along this line each point mid-way between the corners, about 17 pressings in all. I might do them all over with slightly more pressure on the second run. It all sounds long but actually very quick to do Delrin should be ok as a stamp but I'd siggest you get a piece of 3mm thick steel plate to go between the ram and the stamp. The ram will press divots into the delrin surface ruining it. I have a thick piece of Delrin as a base and if I dont cover it with a steel plate my brass stamp, through the leather, leaves a slight impression hth

Thats why in certain professions the fully qualified practioner charges more than the new guy or apprentice. But it all comes out in the wash; eg pro charges $50 per hour and takes 4 hours, apprentice takes 8 hours but can only charge $25 per hour. I used to see it in my accountants bills; the Fully Charted Accountant charged more but took less time than his assistant whose cost was less per hour, but at the end the cost was very nearly the same

In my area miniumum wage for my age is about £11 per hour ($12.50?) but I usually work for about £1 a day, Recently my #1 son took in a car for a certain type of service. Based on previous jobs he gave the customer a hard quote. Job should have taken 2 mechs 1.5 days but they and #1 worked on the job for 5 days. They ran into problems they don't usually get. But #1 stuck to his price

This has got me thinking that a scuba diver scene would look cool on a belt or a strap, or a wallet, an eye glasses case Might be somat for certain items for me to sell in my area, it being a sea-side town and all that

When I need some odd art work I search the internet for line art-work. I download it and adapt it to my requirements

$125 minimum to $150/$160

You could be correct Was the mark on the skirt when bought and not noticed? I know that has happened with other people I know. Even I have bought something and not noticed a fault with it untill later

I don't think it really matters. But I think you have more control on the mixed colour if both dyes are thinned the same amount before mixing. I recently mixed some thinned red with thinned blue to get a cetain shade of reddish-purple. I think, had the dyes been unthinned I would have had a problem getting the shade I wanted

In my experience, the diluted dye soaks into the leather better, giving a better distribution of the dye thru the leather. If you take a brush full of dye most of it will be just where you first place the brush on the leather. You sort-of get a 'hot spot' of concentrated colour. If the dye is diluted you'll still get the 'hot spot' but it is less strong as the diluted dye can get absorbed by the leather better. and spreads out more. Less dye required to even out the colour and get rid of those 'hot spots'. Also dampening your leather before application of dye opens up the leather fibres and helps the dye distribute thru the leather Same reason for resolene. My resolene is thick. Straight from the bottle it doesn't soak into the leather. It just coats the top surface. Diluted it soaks into the leather better and gets down deeper into the leather sealing the dye that has gone deeper hth

Jeepers-o, I'm a tight fist compared to you lot. I only put a one penny coin in my coin purses! The Oirish always look for their 'lucky penny' upon buying anything, so thats what they get from me - a single penny. I aint one for giving money away Just remembered; My #1 used to have the year calander printed on the reverse of his Christian message card. He reckoned people wouldn't be so fast to throw it away then On packaging; I wrap the item in colourful tissue paper before it goes into a small box or fancy paper bag

especially now as you cannot buy it without the risk of hefty fines and/or prison time

When I think about it; most people I know just think 'leather = leather' and never consider how to look after it or that it even needs looking after. Only recently, maybe over the last 18 months, since more people have got to know I do leather work, that some people have come to me for advice on how to rejuvenate a leather car seat, an old leather belt, an old leather purse/handbag, even an old WW2 British gasmask On shoes; even the top makes make rubbish. Just last week a chap came to me and asked if I could repair one of his shoes. He wears specially made ones. Made by the top maker in such shoes. The soles were glued on and one was coming off after only about 6 months wear. There was no possibilty of re-glueing nor even of sewing the sole back on, afair these shoes cost him about £600 a pair (no gurantees on such shoes due to the nature of the wearer)

What colour is the mold? Black is long term condensation mold, light grey is short term humidy condensation mold In all cases, use latex gloves whilst handling and avoid breathing in any dust from the subjects. All forms of mould are dangerous to peoples' lungs I would try a heavy coating of baking soda soaked in with white vinegar sprayed in. You'll need to do all the cases, inside and out. Leave to dry out side but do not put them back in the room

That may be the case in USA but in N.I. there is a set fee, which is quite low. afair its £125 or £150. No extra beyond that fee, which includes court fees, may be charged. Makes divorces too quick and easy tho imo

Its not the thickness that matters; its the temper. It will cut 0.8mm - if its stiff leather, but makes a mess of 2mm if it is very soft It doesn't have to be as stiff as cardboard but not as flexible as a piece of cloth material

I too have never spent any time on any of my leather. Maybe I should. My first belts are looking a bit weary The only time I did spend time, maybe an hour, on feeding a very old bag I picked up at a car-boot sale. It was a nice briefcase bag but was well dried out and worth giving it a good feeding and waxing. It came back to life very loverly looking. My no.1 dottir grabed it for her own

I use these; 2 teeth and 4 teeth. Stuck with 2mm teeth and 2mm spacing I have another set with larger teeth but they are only for lacing These certainly speed up making sewing holes, and of course no noise. I've also used them on busses and trains on long journeys

Its not the caffeine; tea has tannin in it. So does coffee, but less so. The better quality of the tea the more tannin. Ever drunk a cup/mug of good qualty tea and had a dry feeling in your mouth afterwards? that is the tannins working