fredk

I put some in a glass jam jar and heat it up in a micro-wave. About 20 or 30 seconds gets it real hot, and very thin

Can you do the internal lines on the 'Lined' and 'Spiral' deeper? I do my stamping on un-dyed leather. After dyeing et cetera and the leather has dried I find that shallow lines have either disappeared or lost definition

My scrap is usually very much smaller pieces, odd shapes less than 1/4 the size of a paper $. I've just been sorting out a box full to send to a lady for her to use in art with the children she teaches

this; a lady in Scotland covers crochet needles with polymer clay and forms it into a generic hand-hold shape. She sells them to ladies of a certain age group, who really like them

Two things to try; 1. electric shrink wrap. a few layers of that 2. either on its own or over the shrink wrap; self-adhesive fabric band-aids/plasters I use both on some of my tools, not just leather work ones

tbh, I think you are worrying or fussing too much about the plugs getting stuck in the punch tube. Just about every punch I have gets plugs stuck in them and I need to clear them out, maybe every 6 holes, some punches take longer to block up. For small size punches, like 0.5mm to about 2.5mm I use a leather sewing-machine needle chucked in a micro-drill vice chuck to poke out the plugs. As an extreme measure on really stuck plugs I use a cigar/pipe lighter to burn the leather plug, then hoke it out

Weak vinegaroon on oak will give it that grey-ish look of very aged oak. We, my father & I, used to make it and use it on oak furniture, doors et cetera. We didn't know it then as vinegaroon, just as 'that jar of wood greying stuff' My father used to make it using old diluted car battery acid. Mixed with a pot of tea it worked on other woods as well. The tea added tannins to it which some woods don't have

A. great !, well done b. no need to remove rust from the nails, basically that's what you are doing, making an iron-rust solution c. depending on your local water, just a wash in water, or water with a very small amount of soap in it will be sufficient to neutralise d. depending on the tanning of your leather you may find the colour darkening, or deepening as time goes by as the iron reacts to the tannins in the leather

Years ago, after having gone through a lot of poorly made rotary hole punches, I bought a good one from Tandy. Unfortunately Tandy no longer sells it. Not only has it served me well for about 6 years but I like that the tubes can be replaced. So far I've only replaced one tube. But also, as the tubes can be screwed out they can be taken out for sharpening. Ivan now sells this punch. I've bought Ivan tools and I think they are generally high quality. I've punched 4 - 5mm leather with my Tandy version, I've had no need to go thicker https://www.ivan.tw/collections/punching/products/deluxe-rotary-punch Ivan also does a compound lever version; https://www.ivan.tw/collections/punching/products/dual-action-rotary-hole-punch

For handiness I have three sizes; (old picture, before the big one got the lines added) Made with some scrap acrylic and some 3mm aluminium tubing. They each took about 30 minutes maybe to make, using hand tools. Would take less time with power tools. Cheap as chips to make but worth a ton of gold

This; There is short pin in the outside holes. These go up against your belt or strap. The lines are to help with the linear spacing of the buckle-tongue holes. The spring clamps were just put on to hold the thingy in place whilst I photographed it. They are not needed in use

I found these two versions; Now you've got me wanting to make one for my hat!

Sew a strip of leather across the sheath, Sew just the ends, Make a long flap that comes down over the knife handle and slips behind that strip.

NO NO

I break the blades in half

and the blades from pencil sharpeners will fit. Not all of them, some are too thick but blades from the real cheap plastic sharpeners will maybe fit.

I use the two-hole skiver blade in my wood strap cutter. Those blades are easier to get

Please post the photos directly on here so we can see them

For the last 16/17 years I've been using a 2nd-hand compressor which came in a ladies spray tanning out fit. It cost me all of £7.50. I can adjust the air pressure up and down a bit but as there is no gauge I don't know what the actual pressure is. I just adjust it until it sprays well. Over time I replaced the original vinyl hose with a fabric covered rubber one and gave it and my airbrushes quick-release fittings. Just easier to take the airbrush off for a strip-down cleaning

and as usual, I'm contrary. I think it looks good the way it is

I re-bottle the dye and wash the tray. I bought some empty HDPE bottles at a cost of about 50p /50c each for a 500ml bottle. A few large funnels helps get the liquid into the bottles. Much easier to store labelled bottles than trays of dye. Also means you only need a few trays. I have four, but only really only use one at a time. Trays can then be stored on edge somewhere, no need to keep them flat taking up valuable storage or working surfaces

Turin is the base for Fiat, Fiat built Ferraris, Abarth and so many other specialised car builders I'd suggest your leather is water buffalo from North Africa

You chaps know your firearms far, far better than I know but if I may throw this into the conversation; About 16 years ago I was shown a 14th Century sword which had been stored in a woolie lined scabbard. The sword was definitely 14th C, the age of the scabbard was unknown but at least over 150 years old. The sword/scabbard was found in a blocked up small storage room in an old Irish castle. The room had been filled with cast off items and the doorway built over. It was known that this was done in 1854. The wool of the scabbard still had lanolin in it. It had degraded to a yellow wax but was still slick. The sword blade had very minimal corrosion on it, most of this was at the hilt end where the blade had minimal protection. Would not even the smoothest of cotton canvas be too coarse on a gun's finish?

What make of Italian car? That would help find where the leather came from. Eg, Ferrari only uses Swedish leather as the Swedes do not use barbed wire fencing, there are no animal ticks there so their leather is always much cleaner of imperfections and more even in look. Maserati uses Italian and Egyptian leathers. Fiat uses Italian, other European and Libyan leathers

Acetone, for really contaminated surfaces, or for removing a prior top finish only. Alcohol is much better. Then wet the leather a little bit before dyeing