fredk

Last year I made about 15 of these 'Christmas Stockings' All made from off-cut out of the scrap box. About 5 inches tall. Just took an evening after I took the notion to make them. Just glued together Showing front & rear; A few were a bit more elaborate; These were a bit bigger, about 7 inches tall. The other side had a personal initial on it I'm thinking of doing just a Christmas Tree hanger this year. With plastic jewel 'rhinestones' as decorations. Maybe about 4 to 5 inches tall

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I have done that on straps. It helps pull the two leathers tighter together at the edge. . . . . . But. a: I've done it at both ends of the fold-over and b: I cut a narrow slot for the thread to sit down into so it was no higher than the edge and c: at the cut edge of the fold-over I did a stitch over that edge as well.

I had a wee search but didn't find it Have you tried emailing or phoning Tandy HQ and branches? One time I was looking for set of Tandy alphabet stamps. I emailed nearly 40 branches until I eventually tracked down a set Branches might even know of someone who has one but has 'retired' from leather crafting and might be willing to sell it onwards

You could, sort-of, do a stacked leather grip. Layers of different coloured leather laid on top of each other either side of the tang. Loads of glue and/or resin. Then carve the grip back and the coloured leather layers will show as laminations like ply woods A look like WW1 propellers

Use gel-ink paints to write in the lines, then seal over the ink

I would dye to match and glue in a piece of 1mm thick leather, skived at the edges, to a feather edge, so it hardly shows. Then, lace through that new piece

Oh, I'll add, with some leathers I punch out 6mm discs for bases for game pieces. As each game needs 40 pieces, and not every disc is perfect I go through a lot of them. I also punch out my 'maker's mark' as an oval to glue into or onto items I cannot really put the stamping directly on

I haven't heard of those uns, but that would be typical of the UK Gov though They did try to ban people in offices using the words 'black' and 'white' in case people took offence No. not really, Animal Rights type people getting their way

Yours looks just grand so it does but, I thought the marks in the long bit were done with a long pear shader, a P367, or a P208 ground narrower on the fat end

First, look it up on google to find out what that is!

Unfortunately its illegal to hunt rabbits in N.I.

I may be adding 2 + 2 to get 5 but please bear with me 1. In the UK it is currently illegal to raise rabbits just for their fur 1a. it is currently illegal to import furs from places which raised the animal for its fur, including as per # 2 2. In the UK rabbit fur is currently obtained as a side product of rabbits raised for meat 3. the last rabbit meat farms in Britain are closing down now (due to pressure by 'Animal Rights' groups) 4. the UK Gov is about to outlaw rabbit farms, even for meat (due to pressure by 'Animal Rights' groups) 5. if you/we/me cannot get rabbit fur from a local source, nor be able to import it legally, then it has, de facto, become illegal to use it (old rabbit fur is not any good)

Warning; deviation; yup, but not impossible. I inspected an Italian made saddle of 1812. It had stitches of 18 per inch

A stitching chisel will make a diamond shaped hole, about 2mm across the points of the rhombus, it will be 1mm or less wide. A lacing chisel will make a 2.5 / 3mm rectangular hole about 2 to 2.5 mm wide. The wider hole is necessary to pull the lace, typically nominally 1mm thick but closer to 1.5 mm thick. It will take very thick thread to fill that hole neatly whereas 0.5mm thread (x2 in s/s) will fill the stitching hole

I would cut this just about the same as JLSleather. But after cutting off the shoulder I use my strap cutter to cut lengths of various widths of straps. I don't make too many belts these days and most use buckles of 30mm minimum to about 40mm. So I cut as many straps as I think I might want, trying not to get too far towards the belly part of the hide. This gets the better belting leather off and out of the way because I use more of the more flexible leather

On thin leather, up to about 2.5 mm thick use a rotary knife.

If you are sure its about 1/2" of material then 3/4" will do

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