Martyn

Absolutely. I have a set of 10x Chinese round punches from 1mm to 10mm as mentioned, and they are excellent. I dont think I will ever find a reason to change them. I also got super lucky a while back and managed to pick up a Dixons plough gauge as part of a box of leatherwork tools in an estate sale - £50 for the box. I also dropped on an unbranded 1" Dixons crew punch in unused condition a couple of weeks ago for £35. I'm on the lookout for an English point strap cutter and a few oval punches, but I think it'll be a few years before I find em at the price I'm willing to pay. :D

Personal preference plays a part here too. Personally, I don't like carved or tooled belts and would never buy or wear one. But I would and have paid a premium for a simple, but perfectly made belt. For me, the quality comes from the manufacture and the tooling is decoration. I've got a set of round punches from China and agree, they are fine, but round punches are easy to make, they are just sharpened tubes. The problem with the cheap Chinese stuff is when you start looking at punches with complex and subtle curves. They never get them right. There so called English point punches are usually just a V or a simple bisecting arc. Their crew punches are usually oblong and their oval punches are usually just squashed tubular punches. They all work and get the job done, but the question is, is that satisfactory? It kills me that there is such a massive gulf in price between the cheap (but not quite right) Chinese tools and the subtly different (perfect) but insanely expensive tools from the likes of Blanchard and Dixons.

For something as apparently as simple as a belt, I was shocked at the cost of some of the specialist tools specific to making them. You dont need them of course, there is always a fudge to get the job done on the cheap, but the right tool makes it so much quicker and cleaner. At the top of the line you are looking at a Dixon or Blanchard plough gauge for cutting the straps. Both are very expensive. English point sdtrap ends always look so good, but that curve is more than just an arc, it's more like 2 bisecting catenary curves. A dedicated English point strap end cutter is very nice. Guess what? They are expensive - especially when you need one for each size belt. The slot for the buckle can be made with two holes joined together using a wood chisel. But a crew punch is the right tool. They are expensive, especially as you need different sizes for different buckles. The holes along the belt can be made with a rtound punch, but an oval hole works better, it doesnt bunch and pucker the leather. Oval punches are expensive. You can easily spend $1000 on a few simple hand tools for belt making. It blew my mind. Dixon Plough gauge... Blanchard English point strap cutter Blanchard crew punches... Blanchard oval hole punches... OK, all the Blanchard stuff is top of the line and crazy expensive ($hundreds per punch). You can get good stuff cheaper, but the Blanchard stuff is spot on with the shapes and curves and if you only ever make one size of belt, then you only need one size of each punch.

Yeah, the pack was made specifically for the Swiss k31 rifle (although many will fit). The tunnel stops the action from freezing up at altitude. The K31 has a bit of a cult following (like the Lee Enfield and Mosin Nagant), particularly in the US and if you own one, I think the M-44 pack is a bit of a must have accessory. I think it's partly responsible for driving the prices up on these packs. I saw one recently on US ebay for almost $300 and it looked in just fair usable condition to me. Much better than mine but definitely not mint. I didn't pay anything like that for mine, I think because the leatherwork looks so rough. I'm hoping I can bring it back. " I just noticed that on the front of the bottom there seems to be some disturbed surface. You may have to burnish this well. If you're re-oiling the leather go gentle and add it from both sides where possible. Flesh sides before grain sides. Let it come back to its natural color before you oil it again. You may have to do it 2 or three times. " Yeah, it looks like it's almost gone to suede in places. It's a concern. The 'salt and pepper' canvas should be fine though. It's made from flax and nettle and has earned a reputation for amazing durability. I'll know more when I get my hands on it next week. Thanks for the input Thor. I'm in unknown territory here, it all helps.

Thanks Thor, that's some great advice. Yes, I bought it on ebay, I dont have it yet, I should get it Mon-Wed next week. I was planning on a good wash, I was going to use hot water through a hosepipe outside and some washing soda for the canvas. In the absence of any better suggestions, I was going to use saddle soap and neatsfoot oil on the leather, but I've never tried to get the best out of leather this far gone before. If I oil it before it's dry, wont that trap moisture in the leather and encourage it to rot/mold further? I'll keep the water below 40°C - thanks. There are at least 3 variants of the M-44 pack, but I dont think any of them had a handle. The most common is the one I have bought, it has a 'tunnel' through it for a rifle and ice axe. See... In the above pic you can also see what attaches to the loops on the lid, it's called a 'bread bag' and contained a mess kit, cup and flask with a sewing kit, wax polish and brushes for boots. It's almost impossible to find a pack with the original bread bag intact. Your last pick is the newer M-58 variant and on the lid the owner has strapped a mess tin. These are great packs, superb build quality. I'm not too worried about the straps as I can fairly easily make/replace those, it's the leather on the bottom that worries me as that is beyond my skill to replace.

Spring steel is just plain carbon tool steel that has been heated treated to a spring temper. You cant work it once it's been heat treated. You would usually shape and form the steel while in it's annealed (soft) state and then once you are happy, harden it and temper back to a spring temper. You could do the heat treat and temper yourself with a blowtorch and a domestic oven.

Hi guys, I've just bought a 1940's vintage Swiss M-44 backpack. I'll replace straps and such if I have to, but I'd rather restore where possible. I havent seen it in person yet, but the leather looks in OK shape for the age of the pack, but it'll need work for sure. What do you think? What products are best to clean it up and restore it?

I think tugadude nailed it, a two needle method where the terminal ends are bought out between the layers, knotted together and then tucked back down.

You're welcome Alex. Looking at your clamp, it should work perfectly, but I'd like to hear what you think? It transformed mine.

You wont have any problem getting em mate, they're a US brand. It's the 'Cam Action Hold Down Clamp' from Wood River. They do 2 versions, a 1/4" version and a 5/16" version. Get the 5/16" version. I think it's $7.99 on Amazon (it was about £10 in the UK but I cant remember where from). The clamp comes with a 3 1/2" bolt with a 'tee' head. It wasn't not long enough for the Tandy clamp so I had to replace with a 4 1/4" long x 5/16" dia bolt with a UNC thread (18 tpi) - make sure to get the right thread type. I wish they made the cam with a metric thread, I had to pay silly money for a bolt with that thread in the UK, but you should have no problem in the US. Just get one with whatever length you need to span the gap in your clamp.

There are al sorts of ways to get the job done. The simplest is probably two planks of wood held together with a leather strap acting as a hinge and clamped with the force of your knees. How you do it I think depends on your budget and what you are going to use it for. I bought a Tandy pony and put my own cam lock on it and a die compression spring working against each other. The spring opens the clamp, the cam closes it down. It works great, but is limited to clamping about an inch thickness - plenty for me but YMMV. You just spin the cam lever to adjust and set to the required spacing and the clamping force. Then it's just a question of opening and closing the cam lever when you want to move your project in the clamp.

Too fat for 410's, look like 20G slugs to me.

Very nice. Nice antiquing too. How did you attach the end cap? I cant see any stitches.

I just watched a video with a good how to on exactly this...

Man, having 1500+ hours in one project, is pretty much the definition of all your eggs in one basket, there must be 10's of thousands of dollars in each one? It must be soul destroying when some jerk pulls a trick like that - not to mention, the impact it must have on your cash flow. Do they provide the gun? I would be tempted to get them to sign something that says I keep the gun until the balance is settled and if it isn't settled in 12 months, the gun is mine. Could you not get a contract with someone reliable like Purdey of something?

There are different ways of making things. The way the straps on your bag are made is not the best, but it's not wrong either. I dont know how much you paid, but the 60-110 EUR price in Thor's links above, is not a large sum. Like Thor said, for that price I would not be expecting much from the bag.

Make the belt 1.75 inches.

When you say the buckles, you mean the straps? Putting stitching on the edges or the straps is usually done either to secure a liner material, or for style. Edges and straps dont 'need' stitching and I dont think you can justifiable complain about the lack of it. But be aware, if the item is hand sewn, then adding stitching to the edges and the straps will add a lot of time - and therefore money - to the item. If you are not happy with it, then I would suggest as a first option, you just talk to the maker and see what can be done.

This new system allows you to set up whatever content type you like. If you want new posts since your last visit, do this... 1. Click 'unread content' to open the default stream. 2. From the row of drop-down boxes, select 'time period' and select 'last visit' from the options. 3. Click 'save as new stream' and give it a unique name eg 'New Content'. 4. Next to the stream name at the top are three little icons, a pen, a dustbin and a tick. Hover your mouse over the tick to highlight the option. Select it and your new custom stream is now set as your default. You will see that 'Unread Content' has been replaced with 'New Content' and clicking on it will display only content which has been added since your last visit. You have made yourself a 'new posts' button.

There's a lot of factors at play. Certainly some compounds seem to work better than others, but what is often forgotten is that stropping is the last step in sharpening. If you have sharpened the tool properly, then stropping can be effective with just plain leather and no compound at all. The more you are relying on compounds to get the edge, then the duller the tool to start with. It's better to get the tool as sharp as you possibly can, before it goes near a strop. Then the strop is just a final finish. If you do that right, then you dont need expensive or fancy stropping compounds.

I'd echo the above, an Osborne 43, 1 3/4 inch long is a good match to most of the chisels I own.

Try joining the holes up with a wood chisel.

Lovely, very nice indeed. It makes such a difference when you've got someone like Nigel teaching you. I really should hook up to one of his courses, he's only about 20 miles from me. Did you make your stitching holes with an awl or a chisel? If that's freehand awl work, it's very neat indeed for a first time.

From his website: http://www.caryschwarz.com/2013/01/ The English one he mentions, might be this one: http://www.boothandco.com/shop/item.php?prodID=63

Well then I guess that's why people buy Barry King stamps because it's only the third time I've done any.