celticleather

If you get a dull ache just under the shoulderblade after a couple of hours on the lever, then yes, it is like a Boss. If it turns into a sharp pain after three hours, then I think your reloader is a Boss!

I usually ask them to hold for a moment, and then go back after 15 minutes . . . and they've gone! They waste my time - I waste theirs!

I feel for you guys and gals in the US, who are unable to get decent spirit-based dyes from Tandy. I don't use Tandy here in the UK, because their prices are way too high, and I can buy Fiebings Professional dyes from a number of suppliers. I guess they have fallen foul of 'elf'n'safety' legislation in some parts of the US. I don't think you'll achieve much by just stopping buying the Eco-Flo dyes - although Tandy may notice the drop in sales. I think you need to let them know why you are not buying the product, so that they can work on improving it or coming up with an alternative. Just my observation!

Are these the cute little fellas you're talking about skinning? See story at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/20...geographic.html Edit - Whoops . . . forgot to upload the picture!

Are the red spots paint, or the aftermath of a disaster?

These have been around since medieval times, called a scold's bridle! The tab on the inside held the tongue down and stopped it flapping!

That's a pretty smart idea! I guess if the pattern is not symmetrical, you need to remember to flip the image left-to-right before printing onto the transparency film!

Here's a method that I use for transferring carving patterns that need to be repeated: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...ic=16834&hl

I really can't imagine how I've lived all these years without one of those gadgets!

There's a Revolution R2 riveting machine at http://www.rivet-machines.com/riveting.html. Could there be a connection here?

That certainly looks like a useful piece of kit, and I'm reassured that I got the dating about right - smack in the Victorian era! I still buy bits and pieces from Standard Engineering . . . they're still making machinery for the shoe trade. My daughter's rowing machine has been sitting in my garage for the past five years. I wonder if I could convert it to a clicking press? Any ideas . . ?

Take a look at http://www.bowstock.co.uk/saa.html. There's some useful advice here!

The curved spokes on the flywheel have a Victorian look . . . Victorians didn't like straight stuff! Does it have any useful words on the plate at the front? If you have to spend any amount of time pedalling it, you'll soon wither away to nothing!

Forum member Steve Brambley (SteveBrambley) has a couple of machines that are capable of stitching the corners of boxes etc at a 45 degree angle. I think they're pretty hard to find, but I'm sure he'd be happy to let you know what you should be looking for. Why not drop him a pm?

I use greyboard, about 1mm thick for my templates. It's cheap, durable, and comes in sizes up to A1.

'Irons' are an antiquated way of referring to the thickness of leather; see http://www.claytonleather.com/thicknesstable.htm for a conversion.

This may be what you're looking for, from Le Prevo http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/bag_frame_med.htm Not sure if it's solid brass, but you could drop them an email.

Magnets have been used in bomb disposal to stop clockwork timers. I'm not sure if they can also interfere with liquid crystal displays, often used on digital watches.

Have you tried these people? http://www.saddler.co.uk/shop.html?cr=2467...mbination_locks

Sounds pretty much like it!

Ray Round about 1980 I spent a couple of weeks working on an archaeological dig at Coppergate in York (now the site of the Jorvik Centre). In the course of the excavation a Viking boot was discovered. I believe it was used as a pattern to re-create a pair of boots. It may be that someone at the York Archaeological Trust would have a cutting pattern for the boots. A bit of a long shot, but may be worth a try! Terry

We stayed in a cottage in Llangarron, but we might as well have been on the dark side of the Moon! I live just 3½ miles from Knebworth as the crow flies, and we heard most of the concert in our back garden!

Welcome, Paul - come in and soak up some knowledge! I visited Herefordshire for the first time in June . . . what a wonderful county! Not very mobile-phone friendly (in my experience!), but that's not a bad thing when you're on holiday!

Who would have thought this thread would stretch so far?! We visited this aspect of stitching quite early in this thread (27th July), and although the closed channel method is used quite a lot in shoemaking, I've not yet seen it used in conjunction with tunnel stitching (but I'm not a shoemaker!). We often use it in the course of shoe repairing, to stitch the outsole to the welt of a shoe, and sometimes to stitch the outsole directly through the upper and into the insole. Just to make clear what I'm talking about, I stitched a small section of a sole in a channel to illustrate the process (see pic below). 1. Cut the channel (with the channelling tool). 2. Open up the channel. 3. Mark the stitch spacing (I use a pricking iron for this). 4. Lay in the stitching (conventional saddle-stitch or machine stitch). 5. Close the channel with adhesive, stain and burnish. Shoemakers often use a curved awl to punch the stitch-holes, but I believe it's more often used to stitch the welt to the upper of the shoe, which is a different process. This video raises the spectre of the boar's bristle, which is mostly used for welting . . . far too fiddly for me . . . I'll stick to my curved needles! Ray - If you reckon you're a sad-sack with just three curved awls, then what does that make me? My collection runs to ten un-hafted, and another couple hafted! Terry

Doug I don't want to steal Ray's thunder, but I'll offer a couple of thoughts, to which he'll no doubt make eloquent additions. Most craftworking tools - whether it be awls, needles, knives, hammers, chisels, even screwdrivers - are the products of evolution. People will have tried out different shapes, sizes, materials etc, sometimes over the course of hundreds of years, and almost invariably, the tool that emerges from this process is the one that works best. Sometimes another tool may serve the purpose . . . you could turn a woodscrew with a blunt knife . . . but a screwdriver works better! It may be that your 'S'-shaped needle is too curved, or not curved enough, and I think the triangular cross-section is more suited to glovers' or sailmakers' needles - which is probably what it was designed for! In my opinion, a proper curved sewing awl gives the best amount of 'push' and leverage to achieve a good stitch, together with the right shape of hole to give a neat result. What I'm getting at, is that you really need the right tool for the job! A stitching rate of one stitch per 7½ minutes would be enough to put me off tunnel stitching forever! I'm sure that if you can find the right awls and needles, you'd soon be up and away! As to the thread - you really need a thread thickness (and flexibility) that suits the size of hole that your awl makes. If the thread is too thick or inflexible, it will probably distort the leather when it's pulled up, and if it's too thin it will leave a gaping hole either side of the finished stitch. I found another pic which may give you a better insight into the technique, particularly the angle of the awl, which has to change as it travels through the leather. That's my lot for now . . . over to Ray! Terry