fredk

Wrong steel wool. Woolies for dish washing have soap and rust inhibitors on them. Get pads from a DIY or hardware store. Use neat distilled white vinegar diluted with some water. Allow air to get to the wool in the vinegar solution

For a real basic stand you can get a stand to take a standard hand-held electric drill. Then you get a faulty / non-working drill at a car boot sale and fit it into the stand. A drill stand costs about £10 to £20 and about £3 to £5 for the non-working drill. You have the advantage of the drill chuck etc. You can change the drill to a working one at any time. It can all be packed away easier too eg, one of these; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134182405632?hash=item1f3de50600:g:vNIAAOSwZlVi39Az

Use a round point awl, aka a 'scratch awl' to poke round holes through the leather first then use a # 001 (JJ Needles) or a 00 or 000 (Osborne) Glovers Needle with 0.6 to 0.8mm waxed thread to sew up

Draw a grid to match the 9 spi chisels that you have

Draw a grid to suit the 9 point spi ?

Double wrap and pack orders. #1 company wraps hides inside each other and with heavy duty wrapping paper integral to the roll. This is wrapped in a corrugated card wrap. Then this is put into a plastic tube bag of heavy industrial plastic, then this is put into another bag of the same. Small items such as buckles have been bagged and put into the centre of the roll. Never any damage to anything upon arrival. #2 company rolled 3 hides individually, with a piece of lightweight brown wrapping paper around each. These were put into a not very substantial card box and one piece of parcel tape to keep each end of the box closed. A bag of buckles, conchos etc was just placed in one end of the box. One end of the box burst partially open during transit. Fortunately not the end with the bag of fittings. But on a previous occasion it had been and the supplier had to send me the fittings again.

The main problem I encounter (not too often though) is suppliers not keeping their stock records up-to-date and I put in my order only to be told days, or even weeks, later that what I've ordered is out of stock, and was when I ordered it. And even after that the supplier still lists that leather as 'in stock', available to order On the other hand; one supplier, which I've used for a long time, will send me small samples, about 2 inches square, of leathers, foc, when I've asked for samples

I would; take the flat leather lace through the button, through a spacer, through the trousers and through the patch. I would use a small dab of glue to hold the flat lace to the leather patch and sew the lace to the patch with a few stitches. I would splay the ends of the flat lace to either side of the hole in the patch which they come through Then a small dab of glue to hold the patch in place and sew it to the trousers. I would use a glovers needle, a straight one for sewing the lace to the patch, but a curved glovers needle to sew the patch to the trousers. You can make any straight needle into a curved one by heating its centre up red hot and bending it By using the curved needle you can go through the patch, the inner layer of the trousers and come back out through the patch again

Goat would be good, but I'd suggest Sheep Nappa That's if the OP wants to just recover the box with any new leather

That appears to be easy-peasy to hand sew and not easy with a sewing machine Pull the flat leather lace through the button (I would put a leather spacer between the button and the trousers), through the waistband and sew to a leather patch, then sew the leather patch to the trousers. A fiddly bit of sewing but easily done

Some folk will buy it KNC Syndrome Anyone remember the leather American style lunch bag a few years ago? Based on the standard paper lunch bag as used by 90% of US moms to put kiddies lunches in but made in leather for executives. That was selling in the $150 - $500 range

Not necessarily. HMRC is a law unto themselves. They'll add any postage paid to your goods order and will charge you import duty plus 20% on top of that, irrespective of the value of the order, i.e. it won't matter if its below the £135 or not. Then the courier will add a fee of between £10 and £25 on top of that for paying the customs fees on your behalf OR. . . a small parcel might just escape their notice and you'll not be charged at all. (info acquired on a modelling forum; buyers experiences of buying models from Japan)

You don't say where you are but a working 99k can be picked up for as low as £25. About £50 - £80 is average, £125 plus for a serviced one from a s/m dealer. I got a mint, low used, fully serviced one with a 1 year guarantee and 1 year of servicing for about £200

I find washing down leather with cellulose thinners not only removes waxes, other finishes, some dyes and also stiffens the leather

Yes, look carefully at the size & colour example bottom left. You can just make out the nicks on the tube. Having seen that, look at the smallest gold and nickel ones and you can just make out the nicks http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/eyelet.html

Le Prevo is closed until August 15th The smallest sail eyelet is 5mm i/d The 4mm listed are not the ones you want http://www.leprevo.co.uk/eyelets.htm

I've used a Singer 99k with a roller foot attached. No other add-ons or adjustments, Sewed a 2mm leather wallet and will do soft very thin leather

Try these, the larger holes on these might do your job https://www.tandyleather.world/products/hand-sewing-leather-punch?_pos=4&_sid=83253a55d&_ss=r You can buy these for a lot less than that price. The last pair I bought just about 2 months ago cost about me £11 ($13.50 approx). And they are worth every penny of that

Its an ideal thickness for making ladies over-shoulder carry handbags

My preferred method is to wet the leather, not too much but thoroughly, then apply multiple coats of thinned dye

I would think that is a water-slide decal/transfer

btw, that belt that took 3rd place. I made that for a guy in my medieval group. He insisted he was a 38 inch waist, his mum agreed, so I made it for 40 inches. Turned out he was a 46/47 inch waist. His old shop bought belt and trousers had the vanity marking of 38 on them. I measured his old belt to his well used buckle hole and it was 45 inches. I made him a larger belt, and made him pay more. So that belt has been in my 'stock' since about '14

Thank you, Turning a mistake to an advantage I have a small brass maker's stamp, about 30mm across and 18mm high When pressing this mark into very thin leather, say 1.2mm and less, (under 3oz) I have to be very careful on setting the height on my press otherwise the stamp cuts through the leather, like a clicker cutter. I've turned this problem to an advantage. By adjusting the height on my press I can just cut through the leather. But not 100% cleanly, I leave it so I have to pull the leather way from the oval. Why? Because those last few fibres hold the centres of the A and D in place. I'll sort this out by using my mini-drill and a grinder to lessen the height of all the letters so they don't cut through. By cutting out the oval I can get tags out of scrap pieces, which I can glue inside drawstring bags made of chrome-tan and that sort of thing eg Yesterday evening I started sorting out some boxes of small scraps and ended up punching out over 50 tags. Once started it was quite addictive, to see if I could yet another one out of a small waste piece

I too have a piece of leather that looks a bit like that on the rear. But do the burn test to check

Thank you