fredk

Each to their own way For a lot of my stitching I use these pliers for making the holes. They are really fast in use. I can go around the perimeter of a book cover for an A6 book in just about 2 minutes [I've timed it]. A few minutes longer for a cover for an A5 sized book Available with 4 teeth/prongs and 2 teeth/prongs the type of book cover I'm talking about Also used on the perimeter of this Navigator's Board. It took only a few minutes to punch all the holes

Just a couple of thoughts; 1. are you really loading it on? not just a wee bit on a cloth and rubbing it on? 2. it sounds a bit like its soaking into the leather, so its density of colour is weakened. Perhaps another, really heavy coating, will improve it

Basically, what you are doing is what I do to make a game board I glue the leather, either veg or chrome tan, to the flat board then when thats dry I glue the leather to the edges. No pulling or stretching, just rolling it over with a brayer to ensure a good glue stick Chrome tan on the board with a veg tan playing area glued on top

Go back to that Tandy store. Be brave; tell 'em you're only a raw beginner and ask them to show you what you need to know.

Did it? or did it just not come out the way you expected it to? We've had others on here who had 'problems' with dyeing. Some dye spilt on the leather, or not evenly applied et cetera After some encouragement those crafters took another look at what they had and turned that 'ruined' piece of leather into a unique OOAK Sometimes you just gotta look beyond the norm and see the piece in an artistic light

You can make those sanding sticks yourself very easily. I make my own for plastic modelling. Just need a sheet or two of grit paper, double-sided tape and a load of lolly/flat popsicle sticks. Costs about a few $$ to make 30 to 50 sanding sticks

A thought; would a riffler work? I must try to find one of mine and try it

There is one commercially available, has been for over 30 years. Called Jennican. Kinda hard to find now tho. Last place I knew which had them was W.Hobbys in London I used to use a few when I worked on my own cars. For occasional spray painting etc without having to get the full-rig spraying equipment out

Nice, But I'd suggest trimming that pointed end on the cover flap to a more rounded shape. That point will look very grotty after some use

Basically , but I'd go a bit differently. Used diluted/thinned dye. A dye of a darker shade than your main colour. Then make several applications working towards the edge so it get the most applications and thus more dye

And there I've been using 50 grade grit paper on a stick to do my job

Try sponging it down with a solution of distilled vinegar and baking soda

Is this the style you want? Not the exact one, just a sample of the shape

Try cutting one from nylon or HDPE. On the end of a short bar, to fit into a swivel knife I know these ain't a beader, they are 'bevellers, but the same principle works Like this; I don't have any machine tools so they are made in two parts; the head and the shaft. The shaft, which is a good fit for my swivel knife, fits into the head and is pinned to hold it, you can just see the pin in the third photo. The head is HDPE and carved and filed to shape. They were dead easy & quick to make The cost of material to make about 10 of these cost me about £5 afair. In use I just run the beveller back and forth along an already bevelled line and it smooths it. I reckon a beader would work similarly; make two parallel grooves and run the beader over the top with a leg in each groover

The old fashioned way to sharpen tools with a groove cutting edge was to rub jeweller's rouge well into a length of string. Tie one end of the string to something solid, pull the string tight and run the cutting groove back & forth along the string

I got buckles like that from Le Prevo. They don't sell them anymore but email them and ask if they might still have one or two

Is the pad two layers? I wud try some thin sheet aluminium double-sided taped to the top piece and covered by the bottom piece which has been sewn on. Aluminium, from a cleaned drinks can and about 2 inches wide

Distance between jaws when closed, not holding anything = 0, a big fat zero, nada, nowt Open to accept a small item such as a wallet, about 1 inch For bigger items max = about 3 inches, 2.5 inches will do

Depends on what you will be making; small items such as wallets, or even larger items such as shoulder bags, no more than about 2.5 to 3 inches will suffice

Personal preference plus what you are making. My two have jaws about 3 or 4 inches long. Sometimes I need to clamp up a long piece of sewing work between two pieces of stick, each about 6 inches, to support it, then into the jaws. But the 3 or 4 inches or so is adequate for most jobs Not exactly used the 360, but 180, to turn the item still clamped up around to get to the other side without disturbing everything. Also useful for just turning at an angle to get a clearer view or something of one side of the work piece. Or to turn the head at an angle which suits your style of sewing. I think I usually use mine set to an angle of about 3 or 5 degrees to the left. Only one of my clamps swivels around. Most useful tho

Whatever you decide to use to clean the hides; 1. do all of them, even areas or hides which do not as yet show mold 2. clean the whole storage area as well anything else in there Mold can spread via spores. Given the slightest encouragement of any damp and food (your leather) you'll have that mold back again so you need to do your best to wipe it out now PS. Be very careful of any black mold; that mold is not only dangerous but deadly - breath in any of its spores and you can end up hospitalised. Bestest is to just destroy by burning anything with black mould on it

Do you want a belt pouch of this style? or

If the photograph is a negative/print then the photographer was probably right handed

NOT OUT OF SOME DAMNED 'PAPERBACK '!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT FROM THOSE WHO LIVED THEN AND WROTE THEIR MEMOIRES - NOT JUST ONE OR TWO BUT SEVERAL HOW DARE YOU YOU OBNOXIOUS GIT 'GREAT PLAINS' NORTH OF LONDON INDEED - YOU ARE NOWT BUT AN IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!