chrisash

I did some basic water tests on veg tan just using 2 solutions. first was sedgwick leather conditioner with two coats on the leather, there was water mark's showing on the leather, I then tried the same with effax leather-balm which is a much more liquid balm and found no water stains after it had dried Hardly a scientific test and not a vast selection, but also raises the question of how long resolene lasts as a surface resistant with flexible wear One thing i can say is the effax did appear to soak into the leather a bit like NFO where as the sedgwick seems far more like a surface polish like when you polish your shoes

My take is how do you know you need the more expensive tools until you have tried the lower cost ones and found them failing to meet your needs, I would suggest buying the Tandy ones which are still good tools and when you have the experience upgrade as required after all the Crafttools are relitivly low cost items and of reasonable quality

History about Draper tools https://www.drapertools.com/about-drapertools Quite good for a family run business

Thats a point that I have often thought about One area where a lot of veg tan is left out in all weathers especially in the olden days is saddles, how did the west look after there saddles and did they last a long time, I assume their boots were also veg tan at that time as chrome tanning was only invented in 1850's and must have taken time to spread its use around the world

After watching others making Mallet heads I thought I would give it a try making a tapered head using 3D Printing I used Nylon for the head "Taulman 3D 230" filament with width 50mm length 50 mm and hole in centre at 10mm dia IF you chose to make it then you need to change the bottom layer in Cura to Cylinder so it lays the filament in rings around the design for strength rather than normal up and down accross the design also 100 percent fill The beauty of this file is that in your slicing software you can change the height or width to whatever you need to make a small or large weight mallet Photoshows raw from printer without cleanup Nylon Mallet Head with taper.stl

Makes you wonder what speed hand burnishing is, and that seems to work well

Welcom to the forum Elon, there is a growing UK number of members on here

How I see it, is that sewing machines are normally all good items that will work for years with little trouble, hense the vast number of 40, 60 and 80 year old machines still being used today. All the top names produce great machines even the clones, so what would a review tell you other than the specs of the machine, Wiz has many great posts on what to look for based on many years experience. One problem that can occur with some reviews are very personal things that the reviewer is not happy with yet a large selection of other users like, maybe caused by nitpicking to have something different to write about, have you read car reviews who repots such insignificant deatils as they cannot just say x Car was great, they report it was o.5 sec slower that B car in 0-60 tests

Maybe one of those thick polyerothane varnishes they put on shotgun woodwork these days instead of oil, quite thick and one coat, maybe two coats

You could try fileing down the knifes on all four sides to make it easier to push in as well as remove, just make them as smooth as possible without weakening them

When i was in retail, i found that any specialist items you sold, the people took up large amounts of your time which was more expensive than the profit made on the item,

I have trouble understanding the word "Traditional", What century does it apply to, 1900's, 1800's, 1100's are sewing machines acceptable if so what about the modern pre programed ones, do you use modern methods of making leathers or make your own dye's, use modern information to learn the skills Life is sure full of conflicting ideas

It must be that wonderful Norfolk air and way of life , as i seem to have grown in certain areas as well, since moving here, wrong side of 90 kilo

Hi Harry That's kind of you but i have a few ideas i can try, just wanted to see if anything more adventurous was around, but still a long way to go before i challenge Hermes and the likes Thanks Latigo Did not know of that site, worth knowing

Some if not most contact adhesives also have a operating temperature and don't like the cold

Hi Folk Looking for a nice design for a notebook 14" computer, lots for tablets etc but wife wants a sleeve type cover for her notebook computer, no tooling required

Hi Folk's For information I found this site and information about the differences between various 29 classes http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php/29#Singer_Class_29_Comparison_Chart

I must agree, but it justs get my goat when someone makes something with very bad design features, especially those with a lot of friction on the contact points and presumably in use for a few years

Thanks Harry, but it only does small rollers and both there machines have no bearings so quite a poor quality compared with the Far Eastern ones similar to what Tandy used to make or the cowboy 8700 Whilst 5 years ago I would not have hesitated to take the gamble, now days on a limited pension it's a different perspective

A cheap Arbor press would give you far more air gap, and can have a hole drilled through the center to take shafts and held in place by a grub screw, About £40 in Uk for the 1/2 ton model

I have a idea for selling some embossed belts to a specific design, before i invest about £600 on a roller embossing machine, i would if possible like to use someone else's machine with my stamp to trial about half a dozen sample belts to show to selected outlets in the UK If there is anyone in say 100 odd miles from Norfolk who could let me use there machine for a couple of hours I would appreciate it Chris@cjashdown.co.uk

Sorry it justs emails you the link, looked promising at first sight

If you follow Fred's link you can post it to yourself as a email

Yes I understand that but dislike the resolene and other acrylic as they do seal ok but make it firmer, and wondering really if balm or dubbin well dried and polished would be more than adequate, looking really at tooling leather, effax seems to be quite a loose balm and appears to be able to soak well into the leather presumably sealing it whilst sedgwick balm seems to be only on the surface and presumably does not go very deep, I have only tried these two so others may be better Totally agree someone working out in all weathers then acrylic is the best solution, but assume in them there olden days they did not have acrylics and balms and wax were the only protection and not fashion conscious of a bit on there clothes

With Veg Tan leather belts for normal trouser/ Jeans wear and maybe be dyed or plain, do you really need a acrylic sealer or is a leather balm or Dubbin better as Acrylic leaves a stiffer leather but more waterproof and a Balm leaves a more flexible leather and limited waterproofing whilst Dubbin seems in the middle Just wondered what you think when not expecting a lot of wet outdoor activities