fredk

A lot of us on here have our favourite 'resist'. Mine is a local version of 'Mop & Glo' floor polish which is actually a thin acrylic varnish. Some on here prefer Resolene. What I do is to coat everything with a couple of thinned coats of my 'resist'. When that is dry I apply the shoe polish all over the design with a soft cloth. I prefer to use a darker shade of the colour of the project eg, dark red polish on red, dark lilac polish on light lilac et cetera. I work the polish into the design. Before it really dries I use another clean cloth to wipe off any excess which has got on the leather around the design. Sometimes I'll need to wet the cloth with alcohol and wipe. This will also remove the top coat of my resist, but that's ok as that is what it is there for Just work slowly and carefully and it'll work out ok

You are not going deep enough. I do trials on an off cut of the same leather every time I do a stamping and adjust my ram accordingly. I try not to cut through the leather but also to get a darkened patch on the back of the piece. With some of these stamps, pressing into your project which is on top of a soft piece of scrap leather or moderately hard rubber pad will bring out the 3D design in the stamp Apply dye and then resist of some sort. Then apply the shoe polish on a cloth using your finger tip. Some polish will get on the other leather but quickly remove it with a bit of clean cloth and sometimes alcohol on the cloth will help but that will remove some resist as well

Streaking sounds like its drying too fast. My thoughts are to dilute it and dampen the leather project then apply the Kote

The saddlers on here will advise on whether its good to restore but I'd say no matter what a good going over with saddle soap is in order

mmmm, maybe, dunno, its kinda long and boring, but absolutely true

There are folk out there who think that if they pay a great deal more for somat somehow they are getting something much better, but very often they are not they are just paying out more and getting standard goods or services. I can relate this into a true story, but its long, and I'll not tell it unless asked

I use these by Mundial, the 'Red Dot' ones. I got my first pair over 22 years ago. I'm still using them. I have three pairs. They'll cut at least up to 6mm leather and even very thin sheet metal. They come in different lengths. The shortest pair I have is 8.5 inches, good for most general work. The other two pairs are 9.5 inches. Just looking at them now I noticed that there subtly different - almost like they were 'hand-made' They cost me from £10 to £15 each pair. They are dearer, but not by much, now of course. I got these in general hard-ware stores but I'm told they are popular with 'dress makers'. They're too good for the likes of them I reckon

When I first read the title of this thread I thought; do cobblers in Poland use an especially interesting 'ammer?

If thats as rough as it looks in the photo - send it back. That ain't fit for use Go on ebay and buy an old second had one which will be in better condition I know, in UK, but just to show you that you can get a good second-hand one cheap https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374065234354?hash=item57180681b2:g:CHQAAOSwQMhieAwk

and these are even quieter ~ until you nip your fingers with them!

As it happens .. . . I have that book. I could maybe do scans of the photos you want. But I'm away out all day tomorrow. I can't do it till Wednesday morning at the earliest. PM what photos/pages you are wanting

I think you are being too critical on yourself Leave it as it is . . . . . . . or rub some dark shoe polish into the low parts, and rub off from the high spots, buff up and the design will really stand out

Via ebay.uk we can buy sheets of nylon, acetal and Delrin. I use the acetal and delrin in my press, the nylon is softer and has its uses other places. Acetal and delrin, I think. are too hard for punching into but the nylon is alright for that

warning O/T - here 'hokey' means something not quite nice or something small and not too nice. Not enough to be terrible, just not too nice, eg a hokey wee pub, a drinking place to be avoided

From my experience, liquid latex will soak into the flesh side but will only remain on the surface of the grain side where it will peel off without too much effort

I made a special stamping table. Its basically a lot of 2 x 4 glued together vertically - maybe I'll photograph it tomorrow. On this I place my slab of marble or special hole stamping block. Under the marble I use a thick piece of neoprene rubber. I also have a thick piece of neoprene rubber under the table. This all limits the noise

I'm 100% US American, 50% Bohemian, 50% Ulster Irish, 25% Irish Scots, 25% German, 10% English, 5% Polish, 5% Jugoslavian but 100% just ME

Anything from 0.5mm to about 1.6mm for plain coloured or 2 to 2.4mm if you are going to tool it

The wonders and wonderfulness of the natural world Well spotted, that man

Try Screwfix https://www.screwfix.com/p/magnusson-beech-wood-mallet-16oz-0-45kg/2698v

I'm beginning to realise or find out that 'Mop & Glo' is different in our different countries Here it is as thin as water and leather needs about 3 coats to bring up a shine, 1 coat will seal dye ok though. Whereas it seems that in the US 'M&G' is much thicker and needs thinning down

Just to settle the 'argument' about HDPE. There are various grades of it I have some small pieces, UK made, which are extremely hard and I have some Ikea kitchen cutting boards which are much softer. With the first I'll not put a punch to but I cut on them with a box-cutter/Stanley knife. Just a few cuts and the knife blade is blunt. With the Ikea boards I do occasionally use them with round hole punches and they don't blunt and leave a circular cut in the board

Three reasons for turning the grain; 1. when doing a line of sewing or lacing holes the multi-punch won't follow any one grain 2. I also use this for quick rough out cutting, again, the blade won't follow any one grain 3. there is a possibility that one block may start to split - that split can't travel through to any other block HDPE = high density polyethylene plastic - wot plastic milk jugs are made of, kitchen cutting boards and such. It is hard. Maybe Sheilajeanne can tell us how it compares to her poundo board. I don't have one of those

I use a file or mini-grinder in a motor-tool to reduce the lengths

A. the board in question 1. the grain of each block is turned in a different direction 2. The individual blocks are glued together and were clamped up real tight. The glue was taken to within about 1/4 inch of the top. There is minimal gap between the blocks This sort of thing can be made from a slice of a soft-wood tree trunk. B. I also sometimes just use a scrap piece of leather, usually on top of my blocks board. Any scrap leather will do, thick or thin, veg or chrome C, I've also been playing with this; a thick block of candle wax. For smaller projects. Either punch through into it or use an awl to poke a hole. When the surface gets a bit chewed up I just re-melt it and let it solidify again = a new flat surface