fredk

I use small electrical side-cutters to crush the sides of the hollow rivet inwards. Often this works so I can pull the fitting off the leather quite easily. Or the side-cutters will be needed to hold the rivet and I drill the rivet. I usually manage to get the side-cutters inbetween the fitting and the strap, or between the peened over end of the rivet and the strap

Questions with a multitude of answers Size of punch first, for a 4mm tongue I do a 4mm wide hole, but I use an oval hole punch so the hole is 4mm x 5mm The distance between holes can be what you like; on a lady's belt I go about 12mm between ends, about 16mm between centres, on a man's belt I go 16mm between ends, about 20mm between centres. On a shield strap I go 20mm between ends, about 24mm between centres How much billet to leave from the end to the first hole? whatever you like or whatever looks good. About 70 to 100mm maybe

If you have a problem with lighting your work 1. I have a couple of poseable lights, on each side of the bench, each with a very bright bulb. I use day-light colour balanced LED bulbs, about 20w, equivalent to about 100 -120w incandescent bulb. I can angle these lights anyways on to my work to eliminate any shadows 2. very occasionally I use a small fore-head light. Its a small LED torch which you can wear on your fore-head using its elastic strap. You can buy these for a couple of $$. Mine cost me £1 and I have several lying around the place. It gives a very bright light for all of its small size 3. You can buy an 'Opti-Visor' with a light and magnifiers built into one visor. These are more expensive, from about $10 upwards.

I reckon the leather is just too dry. Try applying some pure neats foot oil and working the leather in your hands to loosen it up somewhat

That looks very tidy indeedy

As usual; two names for the same thing,

That is a 'cable' stitch. Quite common on fabric items where strength of the sewing is needed. It can only be done by hand sewing

When I first started in this leatherwork lark Resolene was a great sealer but a few years ago I noticed that my newer stock of it would never seal anything so I tried Astonish and have been using it since

I go 6x for an X stitch, but it depends on how tight the X is. A tight X might take 8x Too many bludy Xs ! If the stitches are close then maybe about 8 times, if they are further apart maybe 6 times will do. But only use no more than 2m (6ft) at a time

Can't tell you why right now. I need to think a thunk on it, but here's a fix 1. get a cheap airbrush 2. get some floor 'polish' called Astonish*, which is actually a water thin acrylic varnish 3. spray several, about 3, coats of Astonish on your piece. First coat, go lightly, let soak in and dry, 2nd coat a bit heavier and let dry, then 3rd coat as heavy as the 2nd coat 4. by this third coat everything should be sealed. Further coats will do more sealing but actually start to give your piece a shine. *Astonish, this floor 'polish' has numerous names. No need to buy the original Pledge product which is very expensive. I gat Astonish in Home Bargains for about £1 per 1L or 750ml bottle

I've thinked a thunk on this and tbh I can't thinkafy of anything different than your own suggestion. That colour would really suit a 1960s / early 70s bag with fringe. One of my sisters (I had 4, all older than me) had a hand or shoulder bag that was a rust colour, with a fringe on the flap which came all the way down over the front and the fringe hung down lower. I dunno what leather was used tho. This was about 1970 to '74 - ish.

Good One!

Something I do with friends on other forums; be a 'postal buddy'. Someone posts a thing to me in UK then I post it onwards if the original seller won't post to my 'buddy'. My 'postal buddy' pays for the item and s&h to me, then pays me what it costs to post onwards Perhaps someone in the US could get the book and then post it on-wards.

1. That is a really nice piece of work. Really nice basketweave job and that triangle border stamp looks just right for it 1a. one thing I would do differently, is to end the fleece before the fold over closure flap. Maybe put a thin piece of skiver leather on that part 2. Good idea chuck. I remember losing a lot of fishing equipment to Neptune. Sea fishing here, but wallets like this are used for flies for sea trout and sea bass. 3. My new selling agent has these on my list of things to produce for her. Your job inspires me to get a shufty on* with making a few. They'll be different to yours tho 3a. I like your closure lock. I'll be using a marine grade lift-the-dot fitting on mine. * a shufty on = an Ulsterism meaning to 'just get on with it', set to to actually doing the job. Not to be confused with the English meaning of to look quickly'

Must be a country thing; all the SB studs I have and use have a straight post Like this;

PS. Once upon a time the UK old 1/2p, old 1p and decimal 1p and 2p were made of bronze. My father, who was a cabinet maker, used to take one of these coins and by drilling and filing made key escutcheon plates for antique furniture he used to restore. Its a simple job. Now-a-days these coins are steel coated in copper and not so suitable. I think you'd need to go back to pre-1992 to get fully bronze coins. I guess you'd only have the very old 1c coin in bronze. Modern ones are made in a zinc alloy afaik

I think its a Sam Brown stud going thru a key escutcheon plate. You can get them in a quadzillion of sizes, shapes & materials eg, just a few examples

That is one grand looking job there. You embarrass me, the back on my stool seat has some duck/duct/gaffer tape holding part of it together, I must recover that in leather. Its such a simple job compared to what you've done.

An aside; Henry Ford chose to use Chrome-Vanadium Steel for the chassis (frame) members on his Model T car where competitors were using mild steel supported by teak wood. The Ford T Chassis was known for its flexibility without breaking, its overall strength and lightness compared to the others. Over 100 years on original T chassis are still in use whereas chassis on the other cars have been changed many years ago

Some sellers are promoting a foot corn remover as a skiver. It uses razor blades https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233302066452?hash=item3651e30514:g:kEUAAOSwPkBadBzh It doesn't work

I found a one-off https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114999691410?hash=item1ac6840892:g:OGAAAOSw00phR2Yd

So far I've found the ebay seller I bought the fringe from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281084271280 They are now doing it in 410mm lengths - about 16 inches Still looking for the other one, the scalloped type

Back to the original OP intro When I started seriously in this leatherwork lark I used tools I had in my shed. I fortunately had a large amount of odd tools. Plenty of hole punches, plenty of various knives, straight edges, squares. It was simply a matter of looking at a tool and seeing if it would do a job on leather For cutting I used my old and trusty Stanley knife, (aka a box cutter knife?) (now owned for 52 years, but not the blade! & still used) heavy duty shears and even tin-smiths shears. For an awl I sharpened a wood working bradawl I bought linen thread on wee cards at a haberdashers. 10m of thread with a needle for about £1 I got ready rivets at a shoe repair shop, at 20p each, very dear but then that was the only place I knew to get them Skiving? never heard of it I got my leather from a special recycling shop. There used to be places that companies could off-load their decent waste. It was sorted and schools and play-groups could take what they wanted for use in childrens' arts. They mostly ignored the leather. My wifey owned a children's nursery school so she went there often and brought me back bags full of leather. Writing this reminds me that I still have a couple of decent sized boxes full of it! As time went on and I read more of Al Stohlman's and other books the odd tools were changed to better quality proper leatherwork tools. Along the way I did buy some real rubbishy tools but they in turn were replaced. Some of those really crap tools came from the main names in leather work and some really good tools have come cheaply from 'no-name' places. My first efforts were half-decent. Others in my medieval history presentation group were happy to buy the items and ordered more even though selling was not my intent. I was making kit for me & family primarily. I'm the sort of person who strives to get as good as possible in as short a time as I can eg, I passed my motorcycle driving test in an August and by the following April I was an instructor & driving examiner, I took up Fencing and within 6 months I was good enough to represent N.I. in competitions. Bad tools and skill will do a job. Good tools and skill will do a better job, or make the job easier

Don't just leave us with that cliff-hanger, damn you !