fredk

errr, I meant to put 'on our swords and daggers as well as the armour' - not on US. That would have been a bit tooo kinky!

I fear that that rubber tubing will be far too stiff and solid for your needs

Interesting thoughts and suggestions from everyone. Thanks Actually, come to think of it, the best snaps I had came in a small packet of ten with a silly small setter & anvil. You put the very small setter in a hole in a piece of plastic and the anvil into a hole on the other end of the plastic. But I've not seen those for years

At the end of a season playing at knights we (my family) used beeswax. A wash down, and towel dry, then a thick coating of beeswax. I also used to use beeswax on my sports fencing swords. Another chap had scabbards made using sheepskin with the woolie to the inside. The woolie was loaded with natural lanolin which lubricated his blades and kept the damp off the iron or steel Food grade oil is good on blades which will come into contact with food. On other metal blade tools such as handsaws, chisels et cetera I always use a thin oil such as 3-in-1, or if I'm desperate, old used engine oil

Here, oil tanned leather is veg tanned stuffed with oils during the tanning process and is quite different and distinct from chrome tanned leather

On my Singer domestic I just used the minimum of presser foot pressure. Just enough grip to help me push the leather through. It was content enough to go through approx 4mm leather. Its happier doing it on manual drive, less stress on the drive system. Your 4411 may well take 4mm and say 'pah!, give me more!' Other fixes are to; cover the feed dog teeth with thick tape, eg duct tape or plastic electrical tape, or use a couple of layers of low-tack painters tape on the leather

@SUP You have titled this thread 'Oil tanned leather. . . .' Then you mix in chrome tan and we discuss chrome tan. Chrome tanning and Oil tanning are two different things. We need to seperate them and decide which

I've found that results can be very variable. I made a scabbard for an antique sword using some cheap chrome tan. Because I didn't know any better. The sword has not been out of the scabbard since 2014. I just checked. There is rust on it - but it went into the scabbard with rust and water on it in '14, so I think its no worse However, I made a little sheath for a small pair of pocket snips. I used chrome tan. The snips were new and I lightly oiled them. Within days there was rust on the blades

For that a domestic sewing machine will work - for punching holes using a leather needle. 1. I picked up a working domestic in a charity shop for under £10. I also got an old (1970s) domestic 'free' with a sewing machine table I bought for £20. I use a domestic Singer 99K for punching holes around the perimeter of wallets and card cases 2. On manual, which I do, you can control the speed of making the holes, fast or slow 3. I use a magnetic guide on the sewing machine to set my edge to hole distance

Looks like leather-cloth. Leather dust mixed with resins and sprayed on to a heavy cloth backing. Main test, cut off a tiny piece from underneath. Hold in pliers and apply a flame. If it shrivels up and smells like burnt flesh then its leather. If it starts to burn and gives off a light black smoke with small black soot particles then its leather cloth

Thanks y'awl for your input

Timing, both awkward and needs to be just right. The way I would handle it is; wait for their next visit. Tell them and show them the plaque, just telling them you felt like making it. When they say how loverly it is and before any tears start, just ask, in a sort of telling them way 'Here, you can keep this'

Thanks, I'll try those two tricks as well

Thanks. If I have the correct size punch or somat I'll give that a try

@williaty Could you please show a photo of the style of mask you currently make and we might have some suggestions

Off topic; this subject of weemen and motocikles has reminded me of a 'sissy' belt I used to use sometimes

ah, don't go by the photo. Its a stock photo just to illustrate the type of snap/popper I'll check to see if setting the stud widens the male part I dunno about 'bad snaps', my snaps have come from at least 5 different sources and each source supplied a different size and/or finish

Motorcycles & girlfriends = tick Motorcycles & wives = XX

or poppers to us uns The type with a spring in the female part - I have lots of snaps/poppers but I very rarely use them because they are just too tight. They are so tight I have to use a small screwdriver as a lever between the male & female parts to get them to open up. Sometimes I have to use a pin-nail hammer to force the screwdriver between the male and female parts. I have snaps/poppers from a number of different sources. Some are worse than others but they are all too tight I recently used a few on an old fabric jacket. I re-enforced where they were fitted, but upon trying to open a couple they ripped out of the jacket rather than opening! yes, I checked before hand that they'd open but they didn't, I foolishly thought the snaps would loosen up with some use. One snap/popper even ripped out thru the leather on a project rather than opening As we say here 'its dooin ma heed in' (translated; it is very extremely vexing and its annoying me ) I've tried filing the raised ring towards the top of the male part. That helped a wee bit. Maybe I didn't do enough. But filing that ring cuts through the plating on nickle plated ones, but not too bad on the solid brass ones. Is this the only way I can make them looser? I only have about 100 snaps/poppers to work on PS. grease, vaseline, any lube, does not work

Try adding some NFO into your dye. Not too much, just a wee taste of

A required accessory for this; A H-D Outlaw If I could, I'd have one of dem!

I wonder if these rubber pencil grips would work

Nicely done A nice bit of repair & improvement

Two good answers To answer one of your questions I use a roller lint remover to remove specks off suede. It definitely does not smooth leather. In fact it does the reverse, it pulls up the nap

The ban is specific to Northern Ireland. Illegal to 'import' any knife or blade via post/mail/courier, and only allowed on personal 'imports' with a very good reason for doing so. Very often if I try to buy any blade from GB and have it sent the good companies will flag up 'cannot deliver to your address/location' I buy some blades in GB and arrange collection for when I'm over in GB. I once picked up some sports fencing 'blades' and the forms and questions was ridyicullis for what are just thin straight steel bars with no edges and no points, but the packing said 'blade' on it