fredk

I hope it is!

Its not something I really looked for. But my 1.5mm thick c/t is harder to hand sew than 1.5 or even some 2mm veg. On these I use a glovers needle and just sew with no pre-made holes

@AndrewWR thank you. I'm waiting on an investment dividend to be paid and I might buy some of this 'ere Kanga hide What ever would Poo think!

Another late reply. I dunno how I missed this until now That is really some bag/holdall (we call a different style of bag a 'duffle bag' ) I'd be afraid to use it out in the real world!

That looks very nicey indeedy Your design sounds like the style of bag I'm supposed to be making for no.1 dottir Where did you get the kangaroo hide from?

I'm a little concerned about what you bought. It sounds like it has a cheap sprayed on top finish. All the chrome tan I use, and I do use a lot, is dyed thru and will not scuff at all, one of the main reasons I use it on certain projects. Certain areas on the projects will buff a bit through wear on that area, but that's after several years of use. You say Neat-lac took 'out that scuff mark and it doesn't seem to scuff as easily'. The Neat-lac is giving a harder top surface but the problem of the weaker top finish is still there. I would try to remove that weak old top coating and put a totally new top finish on the leather. To remove top finishes on dyed/finished chrome tan I use cellulose thinners, aka lacquer thinners. Then I can re-dye and refinish These hats are made with chrome tan. I have several Kilos of it brown but I wanted some hats in black. I did as above and re-dyed in black with several coats of black resolene to seal it In the brown chrome tan; In black, from the same stock of chrome tan Just my $1 (inflation!) on it

Back on topic; imo you don't always need to have perfectly even dye coverage. If it is all over even it can look like a plastic one out of China, b. you loose the worked design into that overall colour. Yours looks fine because the flower stands out A bit of work on evening the bevelling around the artwork; make it all much more smoother. A bit of work on the outer edges of the petals. You can get a special beveller tool which under 'cuts' the leaf. Even if you don't have one of those other almost sharp tools can be used to undercut the edge and lift the petal from the back ground. Perhaps some gentle bevelling along the edge of each petal to make it look like each petal over-laps the next one to it and to help each petal stand out more. That stem, ah, now what to do with it? In this case it might have been better just to not have it. Smooth it and if you have any, use a small rose leaf stamping to each side of it Undercut beveller B892; https://tandyleather.eu/products/b892-craftool-undercut-beveler-stamp Small rose stamps; L953 & L954; http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/stamp3.htm ~ very useful to have when doing flowers As you do more carving and stamping you'll find you end up buying more and more tools into your armoury so you can tackle any design you fancy

These days you can no longer reckon that more expensive = better, cheap = poor. Nearly all my oval punches are from China. They each were a modest price. And all are perfectly ok. Some needed a wee bit of sharpening first but nothing too bad. Buy some modest priced punches. Buy just a couple of different sizes from one place. If they are ok, then buy more from them, but even that is no guarantee the next ones will be as good

all of the above

The buckle tongue goes thru the hole at an angle and in use it deforms the circular hole into an imperfect oval hole, which eventually looks not-nice. If you start with an oval hole there is virtually no deformation and the hole will still look better after much use

Does the 362 'diamond' shape look better than the 361 'square' shape? Personal preference obviously, but what do youse think? Edit; PS, I've found larger versions of these stamps in Sergey's catalogue. They are 361B, 362B, and 362BB

Sergey has an advert at the top of LW pages

I got a message back from Sergey. The square stamp is 10 x 10mm

I've bought at least 2 stamps, perhaps more from that chap. afair it took about 1 week to get to me in UK. All the stamps are of 1st rate quality edit to add; I checked my records, it took 12 days. And oddly, he has not put the sizes of these stamps. On nearly all the his other stamps he has put the size, so I've messaged him asking the size of the square one

This; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333549358924?hash=item4da9174f4c:g:VgsAAOSwoQlecQwl or this; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333549359609?hash=item4da91751f9:g:l-MAAOSwmwhecQxz

Nfo will soften the leather and make the gloves easier to pull on but not make them stretch to a larger size which the OP wants

I had a thought on this; try wearing several rubber or latex gloves. That should build up the size of your hand easier and quicker

Don't use nfo. Wrap your hands and fingers with a layer or two of duct tape or similar. Soak the gloves in water, really soak them. Then pull on and let them dry out on your hands. Wet moulding them. Then when they are dry take off, take off the duct tape and the gloves should be a bit looser

Doc says it. You can do some holding stitching for the edge clean-up, take the holster apart and then do the grooving using that good edge as guide. I'd advise using a wing divider to mark the groove lines first then go over those lines with a groover, taking a little bit of leather off in multiple passes rather than trying to dig it out in one pass

Is the sewing just decorative or is it two pieces?

It wasn't 'conscription' but just regular volunteer joining up. You 'took the Kings shilling'. Legend / myth is that recruiters would buy potential recruits drinks until they weren't sober then they'd drop a shilling in a drink. The recruit would drink and find the shilling, thus they'd not only 'taken the King's shilling but had 'drank to the King'. The legend / myth is that glass bottom tankards were made so that you could hold it up and look to see if there was a shilling in the bottom. It may or may not have been done as GB has always had a good volunteer rate and rarely needed either such tricks or conscription

Things were suspended due to numerous meetings during the week. Travelling by bus has its downsides; the time wasted whilst waiting on connections or allowing time not to miss one I have some 3 inch wide elastic. But I think its too wide so I've ordered some 2 inch wide The SCA are grand but they will not tell you these things; fletch your own arrows, use only real goose feather. Why? because when you trim the goose feather down you'll find it has a bend or twist to the rachis. Plastic 'feathers' don't usually or normally have that. Mount the goose feathers on the shaft so that that twist is used. Then the three feathers will give the arrow a spiralling course in flight, just like rifling on a firearm, which gives it a straighter flight. Each wing of the goose has feathers which twist in a certain direction. Match all three feathers to be the same. For competition shooting trim the vanes as short as possible. Long vanes are good for clout, but for closer target, trim the vanes till they are only about 1/2 or 5/8 inch long. Then when you use the stand-off hold the hens will hardly touch the stave, just about eliminating the paradox. When you use thread to tie on the feather, use a fine thread such as silk and have it wrapped around the shaft extended about 1 inch forward of the feather. When its glued down rub in some beeswax and rub that in really well and real smooth. This will help the arrow pass over your hand very smoothly. If you use a glove with a pad on it for the arrow to ride on, use leather and polish it really well Many times I have heard, even in the SCA, that the fletching feathers should be put on perfectly straight PS. we now regularly call the feathers the 'fletching' but in medieval times 'fletching' was the making of the whole arrow, the feathers were called . . . . feathers. The local fletcher had the legal rights to all flight feathers from every goose in his/her area. That is, every time a goose was turned into food its wings had to go to the fletcher

That looks just grand so it does Would really like to see some close-up pictures too

Its ok for me edited to add; its still ok for me

A. the Welsh invented the Long Bow as we know it now. The long bow goes back into Roman history. The Welsh bow was made of Elm. They drew it only to the tip of their nose. Edward 1st fought the Welsh in the late part of the 1200s. He defeated them. He was so impressed by their archers that he incorporated Welsh Long Bow archers into his army. Gradually the English improved the Long Bow. First by making it of Yew and then, about the same time, drawing it to the back of the ear. That extra 5 inches or so adds about 25lbs to the draw weight. The infamous William Wallace, of 'Braveheart' film, was actually a Captain of Archers in Edward 1st's army in roughly 1292 - 1302. Because Edward 1st defeated the Welsh and killed their clan princes he gave them his new-born son as the first 'Prince of Wales'. The man in the centre of that picture is King Charles III, who until just a few days ago was 'Prince of Wales'. Now his eldest son Prince William has been gifted the title. 2. The four men at the corners of the catafalque, and many others positioned out of sight, are the Kings Royal Body Guard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers. They do practice archery but their body guard duties are just ceremonial now. Policemen/women and soldiers with big noisy loud guns do the real protecting now. But not as many as the POTUS needs. King Charles will have at most 3 body guards near him. The late Queen Elizabeth only wanted one PPO Both the late Queen Elizabeth and King Charles III are experts with the long bow. The late Queen once took part, actually several times, in an old traditional archery competition where you have to shoot at a small bird on top of a Church's spire weather vane. She always hit her mark And before anyone says it; the famous English two-finger salute is not to show that the archer still has his fingers for drawing a bow. All that is a myth I knocked up this bracer the other evening. Its for #1 dottir to test. Its just some thinnish 'dragon skin' embossed leather on the outside, some felt padding making that raised portion and some upholstery grade chrome tan on the inside. Just all glued together. With lacing hooks riveted on. Elastic cord to lace criss-cross between the hooks. I posted it to her yesterday. She'll test it out and let me know what has to change for the next ones