fredk

Your carving and tooling is pure artistry

Even they are immigrants, the first of many, about 17,000 - 16,000 years ago! Very little is made of this. During the 'Highland Clearances' from about 1680 to 1850 tens of thousands of Scots were forcibly sent to the Americas [ all of the American continent, Welsh were sent to South America ] mostly as 'indentured' servants. Several thousand never survived the sea journey. The ships used were on their last journey, The Scotch land owners chose cheap ships for the job. Upon arrival in the Americas the slaves were to be sold and the ship broken up and sold as scrap. These ships were small, about 120 ft long at the water line and 40 ft wide at the beam. Hundreds of people were crammed on to them - in the same manner the black-man was transported My home town participated in this slave trade. The town was a major sea port back then and ships from Scotland called in for fresh provisions before making the Atlantic crossing. It was chosen for this as the land owner and harbour owner was Scotch and was involved in the 'clearances' himself. The people of this town saved at least 1700 people on one occasion. The ships used to just stop and anchor off-shore. But on this occasion a terrible big storm came up, the 3 ships were beached and the slaves taken off and housed in local farmers barns until the storm passed. Over the next 4 days 1700 people, all the slaves, 'disappeared' ! The local magistrate fined the local people for the 'loss of the cargo due to not securing the barns', but as the barns were actually owned by the local land lord he had to pay the fine to himself ! And these 'indentured' slaves got their own back - the Scotch and Irish were present in great numbers in George Washington's Continental Army which beat the pants off the British in the AWI [1775 - 1783]

Don't be daft, anything like that would never work. And even if it did, it would take away work from all the sewers and artisans. Naw, it would never work btw, I sometimes use my Singer 99K just for making hand sewing holes in a project. I can vary the spacing of the holes continuously variable. Someday I'll larn how to use the 99 as a 'sewing machine'

I'm surprised that Tony doesn't know that the 3.5mm spacing is sort-of the EU standard spacing and the '9 o'clock' 'not quite 3mm' is 3.18 mm or 1/8 inch the US [ and other places] 'standard' spacing

deja vu - again

Your Jess probably used special lead/tin body fillers, aka Body Solder. I still have about 10 bars of that stuff. The lead/tin was 'sweated' onto the car metal and 'paddled' into basic shape then 'surformed' down smooth. A friend showed me the lead/tin fillers he took off a 1930s Rolls Royce. Put on when car was built. Over 50kg came off it

The resist will stop the shoe polish, aka thick gel dye type stuff. from dyeing or staining everything, but it won't stop the polish remaining in the low spots of the design and colouring it. The shoe polish will dry there

chuck, I think that hammer of yours is a sheet metal workers, 'metal shrinking' hammer The lines in the face cause the sheet metal to pucker and gather together, to shrink sheet metal High quality versions of these actually have a face which revolves slightly on each strike. The use of these is a long lost sheet metal worker's art

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