fredk

Make some Walnut ink, add some rusty nails and some lamp black as you make it. Make a lot, thin with water and add a little NFO. Apply to leather. Coat with beeswax well rubbed in and buffed up

May be time to message Joanna about this. I think its deep in the system. I had a similar problem on another forum when the owner did some adjustments or something and forgot to re-establish permissions for everybody

Its ok for me https://leatherworker.net/forum/forum/49-critique-my-work/ and I can see your last posting, about 9 hours ago

I often use a tubed contact glue called 'UHU', Also if you thin a standard contact adhesive with its maker's cleaner the thinner adhesive is less stringy and much like that in the video

I finally got the proverbial out and bought some of these hook blades this morning and in the afternoon used one to do some rough out cutting of some pieces in thin leather. I think I now prefer this blade to a standard one for that use. I could slide the blunt outside part of the hook on my table and just pull the blade through the leather, the leather being lifted off the table a bit by the hook shape

I once used front projection in my wood toy making business. It was horizontal though. I projected the outlines & line details of cartoon characters on to white painted board, which was then cut out and painted for decorating walls and fences of childrens' nursery schools. By projecting the drawing on to the board I could vary the height of the cartoon figure, from 2ft tall to 7 ft tall I think the same would work for leather patterns. You could vary the size of the project without having to draw a new card pattern The biggest drawbacks I found were; keeping the board perfectly still, and thus in alignment, whilst drawing on it, and me getting in the way of the projected image, I got used to doing the twist and squirming around to get out of my own shadow

I got some designs made by Le Prevo I found that with the photo-etch there isn't a very sharp outline because the edge of the design is at an angle, unlike CNC cutting in brass which gives a very sharp line. Also, the photo etch could not resolve very fine lines But it is still an option

Do you want links to my stamp makers in China? eg; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142322898759?var=441360988490 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384571997548 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384585885915?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D240364%26meid%3D5f65f00c91b244278b701d91fd3da483%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D384571997548%26itm%3D384585885915%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv9PairwiseWebMskuAspectsV202110NoVariantSeedWithRevOpt90NoRelevanceKnnRecallV1%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851&amdata=cksum%3A3845858859155f65f00c91b244278b701d91fd3da483|enc%3AAQAHAAABQAoNKsJM3HOHkM0OuV9XKcsoXSMLk3wBBxTIYdgqgcSsJbD%2BWQW2%2Fi9%2FH9y8TZ%2F9TU3Es3oTKRolT9u5mF91RnSGjcRDdDpXI3GNi9QMheFP623sd2luaveQWWobQW5%2FEb6aJC7BAefj30lHP8W3v24yRic5lU6o7PY27jWrVMhd9lC2iPU1AqgmGjESeLBaFK3khYOI4r%2BKGBPs5xNo%2FnizIZqI5qzjSS4v7O0n3Df6JYGG5SoGKLTCZ%2BhzGamp6x3J0o50KaId%2FwnKtaQuQIwyzcB%2BnYHMK3rvF0aC7WmV1gsaqaFsC1mUA%2Btsr0izne%2B%2Ff4%2Bze6gkF9kbfDQAg0FYsXgBLbRQcd5yOEDgBoxlyVg%2BPyKswZItbqglyALSRE7Bo5r1dH%2BtjU%2Fr%2FkslSoyZ36Nplk1TQsvAl8gvlDF%2F|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2047675

I was hoping someone would supply you with the info & links. Lots of them I've not been able to find any UK based maker that does a good job for an affordable price I use three different makers based in China. Their prices are very good, as is their work. But you need to wait. It used to take about 10 days from buying to it arriving but last year a few stamps took 40 days, although I think that was due to the special N.I. Protocol. I think delivery time is now back to about 12 - 15 days Company above, 2 cm x 2 cm = £59.99. One of my makers; 2cm x 2cm = £22.02, larger sizes go up by about £4.60 or £4 per cm, eg 3cm = £24.61, 4cm = £28.50

yes it is, but on these s/w its three colours, a running stitch of one colour each on the sides of the join and the third colour in an X to pull the sides together via the two other threads Sorry for the hijack Back on topic; mind which glue you use; some contact glues can dissolve foam padding

You think thats a problem?? No.1 has about 600 steering wheels which he wants me to recover. Not as easy as it sounds. There are about 6 different styles, so different patterns, and the leather has to be sewn on in a certain way. Youtube doesn't help. I've been putting it off for about 7 years now and the number of steering wheels grows by nearly 80 per year

I admire your all-round skills to make this

So many choices, but I'd suggest Walnut. But that would be for chip carving

I looked up 'dental dams'. They are not necessarily used by dentists! Its a couple of months away to my next dental check-up and if I remember I'll take one of my pairs to my dentist to see what he makes of it. Just to find out

A long time ago, about 30 years ago, before I got into leatherwork I did some work with a place that did old commercial vehicle restorations. I remember the chap called in to do the door cards on the vans. He used canvas bags of wet sand to hold the leather or vinyl in place The wet sand was in plastic bags, then a canvas or linen bag outer. afair the bags weighed about 10lbs each The upholsterer glued the material on with time-drying contact adhesive. A modest size area at a time. He had various wooden tools to prod and push the material into place then he slapped a sand bag on top of it.

Is this another example of a tool finding its way into different practices?

Just one wee tip; keep that pointy cone sharp and true. Its quite easy to mis-align it with those holes in the circular plate and you can blunt the point. Every so often I give the point a swipe with a diamond sharpening plate

I find it most useful for punching the lacing/sewing holes when I make these little coin purses

Yup, I have two of them Tandy sells them, or they used too They cost about $25 from Tandy but I bought my last one for about £12 They're very useful for rapidly making holes in thin leather

and, btw, yellow, orange and red are the hardest colours to get even

This I've given this more thought Start again on a fresh piece of leather 1. its a very special present and deserves the best of the best 2. no matter what 'fixes' we can offer, it will still be a 'fix' 3. you'll spend more time, maybe wasted, which you can put to use on a new piece 4. and more cost of solutions to fix it than a piece of leather is worth 5. you'll never be happy with that fixed piece, but you will be on a new piece. You'll constantly worry if the fixed piece passes muster, but no worries that a new piece will do 6. Keep the old piece for practicing on or use parts of it in other projects

btw, with using all these different solutions on your leather they take out its natural oils which makes the leather go as stiff as a piece of masonite. You'll need to give it a feed of neatsfoot oil, aka NFO. But go easy with that, too much and its ruined. To make sure I give just a small amount of NFO, I have a wax & NFO mix which I apply and rub in, then buff off.

I had a thought; there might be a burr up the tube of the punch. Either; try a different punch or get a jeweller's rat-tail file and file the insides of the punch you have. Not to sharpen it but to smooth the insides of that tube

Fiebing's Deglazer is very expensive for what it is. I can't remember just what it is actually made of but I use cellulose thinners, aka lacquer thinners. Costs me under £10 for 5 litres NFO in the dye doesn't really help prevent blotchiness. It helps a wee bit. Wetting the leather first helps more

NFO wont help now