fredk

All punches need a good sharpening. Just invest in some supplies for sharpening what you already have

No, its actually not easy to saw. It bungs up and clings to the saw teeth. For big lumps a cold chisel and thumper to split pieces off, or sheet metal shears, or wire cutters for smaller thinner pieces

Actually some of my lead did come from a Church roof. Sort-of, It was left over flashing from the re-roofing job on the local Parish Church. About 20lbs. Too little for the builder to keep, I got it in exchange for biscuits. 20lbs of lead is very small in volume and not much of a roll. I still have that somewhere

I accumulated my stock of ready-use lead, now at about 100lbs, from car tyre places. I got their used wheel weights. Here the lead weights had to be changed to zinc or iron but the places didn't know what to do with the lead weights so I got them free and used to cast sea fishing weights for mates in the fishing club

oh, I didn't know that, not needing to use it. I prefer Semtex any way

No. the measures are ; size A, B, C, D, E. Envelopes are often in C sizes. My printer used to use a B size for printing my magazines. D sizes are often used for cash payment envelopes and E size is a speciality size

btw. I do some lead based pewter casting. Its easy peasy. I use a camping stove which runs on gas. I use an old soup ladle which I have bent the rod on for easier pouring. The ladle will hold a maximum of 200g of lead, for safety. I usually melt about 80g - 3 oz at a time. It takes just a few minutes to melt. I wear a leather welders glove on my left hand which holds the mould. I pour the lead into the mould and put the ladle back on the stove. I also use oil sand in some casting

I think them be too big for the OPs needs

or, small fishing weights, or stuff called 'Liquid Gravity' - expensive. 'lead' [now zinc] weights for fish tanks - to keep plants down

Go to a fabric shop. They usually sell small weights, probably in zinc these days, as 'curtain weights'. Used by sewing into the hem of a curtain to keep it hanging down straight

A4 is a European measure of area, usually used for paper, = 8.25 inches by 11.5 inches, approx

I don't think you're going to get the tonnage pressure you'd need out of this one we've discussing. I have a Tandy press, 1.25 ton pressure. I can cut thru 2 - 2.5mm leather ok, but I've not tried any thicker. I think this one will be only a bit greater I think you should go for a converted press which uses a hydraulic jack

ya gotta watch out for them durned meeces Many years ago I unrolled a large hide to find a meece nest in the centre. The meeces had chewed holes in the hide and used the bits to build their nest. Did they hole it near the edge? nay, right in the middle lengthways of the roll, but not only that, they'd chewed through the layers of rolled leather to each side of the nest, so when I unrolled the hide it had this repeating 'pattern' of holes down the centre! The holes weren't too big, about just larger than a US 1/2 dollar coin

Without a clear photo, I think the curved part we see is just re-enforcement to the main base as in this one This is what I believe it to be, but this one uses a hydraulic bottle jack

Thats not a leather working clicker. It a garage mechanics press adapted to be a clicker. Garage mechanics use them for pressing bearings into wheel hubs and such jobs. The lever has long since been replaced by a hydraulic ram or on some versions with an air-fed ram using air from a compressor

Sponge wash it all with a solution of oxalic acid

Some good ideas on here. I need to make a new, as in a better, holster for my phone. Its ok, but I want better. My no.1 son says its the 'American' in me that makes me carry a phone in a holster on my belt

What price can you afford? If I had a guide on that I could recommend something

That was a long time ago, maybe 18 plus years ago. I don't need or use pipes anymore. Main thing is, as water is constantly flowing thru the pipe any chlorine getting into that water is very minimal but when you store something in the pipe it allows that chlorine gas to build up and affect what ever is in there over a longer period. How it will affect leather over the long term I cannot say. It may not do any harm to raw veg tan. In fact it may just help prevent mold growth. But on any pre-dyed leather it may bleach the colour.

What is your secret to keeping your work space so organised? I need to sort out my place, yet again, to find something and some space to work

Time to resurrect an old dead thread. Post here those odd thoughts and wonderings which don't really need any answer. Or some silly thought No serious stuff, OK? Just fun stuff Like; how do they stop the chocolate bits in a muffin from melting when they bake the muffin in the oven?

I want to check if you are mixing up your Century with the Years, a common & easily made mistake 18th Century = 1700s 19th Century = 1800s afaik 18th Century / 1700s chaps were very simple and basic whereas 19th Century / 1800s, especially later 1800s Western Chaps had some more fancy leatherwork on them, usually on the belt area In the main the answer is Yes. Its a difference of temper. Chrome tan, ime, is never as stiff as Veg tan. If the chaps are just for costume you could get away using chrome tan but you'd still need veg tan for the belt and fancy tooled panels. If for serious use or wear you need veg tan right through

I can't say what affect it has on leather. But experience is of photos, prints, posters and print-ready artwork being bleached out by the chlorine gassing out of the pipes we stored them in. We used 4 inch diameter waste water pipes to store the above things in a roll. After a few months when we retrieved some items we found them bleached out, progressively from outer to inner. I took the items to a man I knew who worked as a conservator in the national museum. Without telling him, he pronounced that they'd been bleached by chlorine gas. Then the discussion when into detail. Later I took him a piece of pipe and he was able to have the amount of gas coming off measured. Not enough to worry about, but enough to bleach over time. One of my bro-in-law worked for the N.I. Water Board and he told me that they knew of this and certain PVC pipes were only used for waste water and PVC-free pipes used for taking water to a place Later, I had to totally changed my photo negs and slides storage system as the PVC storage pages and boxes were gassing off as well. I had to change to 'museum quality' PVC- free storage.