Rahere

Ah, now I understand. Tefillin? Working to that hypothesis, you're talking about small production volumes, so something like this https://www.autotanner.com/auto-tanners/stainless-steel may be a starting point, or lab-scale kit like https://www.unuo-instruments.com/leather-tanning-drums-ui-ft800/. Veg tanned most certainly, and using waxes to reach a high polish. It's laid down in layers - in the Army, we'd call it bulling. We use shoe polish in a flat tin, rather than liquid. What they're after has very source-defined requirements, and they're producing two grades of leather, half-inch straps and a stronger box leather.. A veg tan is preferable, both for sourcing and polishing, this is old-school work. Chrome leather can offer an artificially high-gloss product, but the "artificially" is the no-no. Another question might be to expand the issue of wax polishes. Beeswax would be a fine starting point. Any prefered natural colourings, folja? Apply in thin layers, abd buff strongly to melt it into the grain of the leather pores.

Supreme Courts aren't the highest. Treaty binds them, and in extremis, the International Court of Justice. In Europe, the European Court of Justice. Treaty is higher than those laws and decisions.

Some of what led to my action was indeed that old. That's why I defer to 'Im Upstairs, He'd planned things long before my parents met. We've been aware of it for upwards of 3500 years.

You didn't read something which left you weeping. Figures. There's gaps in your bill of materials, mate. Your interpretation of the Second Amendment doesn't hold water, in context. "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." What's missing from your application of it is that NOWHERE is there any right to keep the said Arms loaded, let alone to use them in flagrant breach of a legal text superior to and binding on your Constitution, the UDHR, as legally empowered by the ICCPR in 1976. As I said earlier, keep your ammunition away from the guns. The sole legal purpose is laid down in the preamble clause, the defence of your Nation, as part of it's legally-constituted Militia. Which well-regulated Militia (ie National Guard) unit are you part of? Stretching it to breaking point, your registration as a potential draftee lapsed on your 46th birthday. You don't qualify under the Constitution. Your barack-room lawyer interpretation doesn't hold water, because it omits huge amounts of pertinent law. And yes, I am a Constitutional lawyer appointed by the Belgian Supreme Court, and ratified by our own GB Ministry of Justice, for work done along the way. I even notionally hold the residual onus of the ECHR guarantor WEU, because it wasn't withdrawn before I deposited the closure accounts, although I happily recognise the Council of Europe's functionality in that respect. Not even your military have respected the exact letter of the Second Amendment. They've lost enough weapons to outfit a small Division. They haven't kept their arms. Leaving them in a drawer, or in the glove box, or in a purse, doesn't meet my standards as a former professional, I'm afraid. I had to sharpen my own game after the IRA came on the scene, admittedly. If it's not lanyarded to your body when not being cleaned prior to return to Armoury, then it's not kept, you know where it ought to be, but not where it actually is. So even my BS outranks your donkey piss. What is a Militia? As an Officer Cadet, I spent a year with the HQ Squadron of the only one in the British Army, the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers. It's a unit constituted before a Nation had a Standing Army, of professional soldiers living in the civilian community until such time as their specialist skills are needed in defence of their Nation. Our Sappers were mostly miners, I was a logistics specialist employed by a major engineering company. The RMRE are possibly the oldest unit in the world, dating from 1415 or before. In organisational terms, it is listed in a separate section of its own between Regular Army and Reserves, because it's Regular, but not full-time. Your Militias were likewise constituted before you had a Regular Army. They do not include self-appointed posses like the Proud Boys, the Symbian Liberation Army, the Provisional Irish Liberation Army, the Branch Davidians or any locally self-constituted branch of the Islamic Front, just to cite a few examples. They rate as terrorists. Which are you? Lawful or unlawful? Your prisons hold many who've adopted a similar viewpoint to yours, many having moved on via a short walk to a gurney to the ultimate Appeals Court before the Boss. The reason they're there is because of the harm they've done to others. Don't encourage others to do likewise, please, not all are at my end of the scale when it comes to understanding. Of course I understand the craft, I've instructed weapons long since. I appreciate a well-fitted sling in accuracy. But I also thank the Boss that I don't need to. We've had nearly 80 years since we had a world war. If we can keep going, maybe the term will become synonymous with criminal insanity. As it is, the gaps in your argument suggest it's time you had a long hard look at yourself. You transgress the basic norms of society. The Rev will appreciate Christ's simplification of Law to "Love God, love your neighbour as yourself". Where's that in your pervertion of the Bill of Rights? Let me modernise it's language for you. "Members of a Nationally-regulated Militia may store their weapons at home, to be able to respond with full and proper kit in a time of emergency." It doesn't stretch to the likes of Patricia McCloskey, sentenced last week for waving a pistol in threat at people exercising their Article 1 rights to freedom of speech in protest. Her weapon and her husband's are being destroyed, by Law.

OK, the big hammer then. Right now, Robert Schumann, the founder of the operation I went on not only to work in, but to complete, is up for Sainthood in the Church. We already have a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, for the reintegration of Europe, which I led on and actually got to make happen, myself being detailed off the welcome the First Secretaries and Defence Attachés of the Eastern European States, the first morning of the first step into full accession into Europe, with the Western European Union. I later completed Gandhi's work, tying up the loose end he was working on when he was assassinated, not as a personal initiative, but because the Nation concerned came to me and asked me to help, so I did, making something new, exactly as you make something new when you take a knife to leather, with an idea in mind, experience to make it happen, and the resources to deliver to hand. But you know what? It was lined up for me on high, only an utter idiot could miss. As the office boss Javier Solana said, so unexpected was it, "How on earth did that happen?" This is why Rome's scaling it up further, because the credit goes to the bloke on the cloud. The essence of it is that, as Henry Ford said, history is bunk. It's not where you were, but where you're going. Living in the past, wallowing in partly-fabulated mythology passing as history, just leaves you repeating the same old mistakes. I'm not a redcoat with a stock driving my head up into the sky, an ill-educated horny-handed son of a plough. They tell me I may gave set the top bar for brains. My reply is I was made that way because it was the only way a human could cope with the Boss, 'im Upstairs, however you know him. I'm the worthy child of my parents, my dad left us with hip implant technology, the ISO Standard for Pressure Vessels used in nuclear reactors, and the coordination which saved thousands of lives at the start of this pandemic, turning idle manufacturing plant to produce medical ventilators in just four days. After succeeding with the ISO standard, he did exactly what you would have done, made a masterpiece to celebrate, firing up his forge and crafting the first Pressure Vessel Quality Advisory Board certification stamp. Mum was former SOE, a Resistance fighter in Belgium, who went on to work as PA to Krishna Mennon, the Indian High Commissioner in London in 1946-7, during the Indian Independance talks. And that is why I have the authority to cite the Mahatma's reply when asked about Western Civilisation. He said it would be a good idea. Make it so. What I did was nail Clausewitz' nonsense, that war is the continuation of policy by other means. Glib, certainly, but shortsighted. No war has gone on eternally. I'm actually an academic expert in the roots of the Enlightenment, and part of that is shaking out from the near-collapse of Europe in the wake of the Black Death. It's a lesson in power play I well understand as a former European Crisis Manager, the finance man in the CFSP State Department. I saved Albania in 1997, at the head of the team of economic experts who sorted the wreckage of the Ponzi scheme which wrecked their economy, and did the pathfinding for Malta's accession to Europe. Essentially, given all wars end in peace talks once they've exhausted their economies, why start? My own body, the Western European Union, was born from the team of Civil Servants sent in in the wake of the Allied Armies to sort that mess out in 1944. That turned into The Western European Defence Organisation, and spun NATO off. So don't talk to me about future fears, please, you've over-egged the case. The UK's a generation since we disarmed our civil community, and is still producing the world's finest soldiers. Kids wandering around pretending to be a militia are just a joke, a sick one, admittedly, but none the less not to be taken seriously. I've spent 18 years as a top professional keeping the peace and have been personally recognised by the Heads of State, which is quite a story. I have the gongs. I'm fully certified both psychologically, by the Church of England, and Harley Street, as a seer medium, my weird having done its bit in full view of both the top medics and half the UK Government in 2015, accurately handling at four hours notice a major strategic issue, which from my side simply meant digging the study paper I'd started working on six months previously, knowing the question was coming my way. It may have caused the current fixation on geeks and misfits. You may dismiss this as Mitty syndrome - I'd reply you're actually perpetrating Cassandra's Curse. These things don't just happen, people like me make them happen. What am I doing here? Because one essential prerequisite of having your head in the clouds is keeping your feet on the ground. As I demonstrated in the Mexican harness thread, I also spin and work in rope. And long may that continue.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1995-11-15a.106.0 Good luck with that.

I understand the need of a frontier culture breaking free from a Germanic dictatorship to create laws underwriting self-defence. But you don't answer the question of selfishness we did, in the wake of the Dunblane massacre. You're not a frontier culture any more, facing serious threats from foreign forces on your soil. The "whereas" clauses explaining the context of the law no longer apply. Instead, you tell me "it's our culture". If I were to believe that, I'd have some extremely caustic comments about a culture willing to put up with chancing another Sandy Hook. Thankfully that's not universally true, but the old saying that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing certainly applies. The result is in the statistics, your nation competes with third-world States riddled by gang warfare. How sad to think that we cannot distinguish between good blokes under a delusion and criminals. You may go into it with the best will in the world, but the Good Book tells us to focus on our fruits, the actual product of our actions. Pious platitudes aren't enough, by your deeds you are known, be they deeds of commission or deeds of omission.

It's been 50 years since I played, but back then, the brass rims were covered in 8oz leather flesh-side out, stitched with the ball rail beneath. They had to be excellent dampers to ensure the horizontal velocity of a hard-struck ball was killed, dropping it into the pocket: otherwise there was every possibility it would rebound onto the table, possibly shifting other balls in the process. The connectors were probably hand-knotted net, using a 3/4" netting shuttle/needle.

Partwell's site says they use Austrian Boehler Martin Miller steel, https://www.voestalpine.com/precision-strip/communication/sales-contacts/global-sales-and-distribution-network

If you didn't have them, they'd not get stolen. Most firearms in criminal hands in the UK are smuggled these days, and the presence is a rapid escalatory factor in policing tactics, which is shorthand for they'll likely call snipers in, to avoid risks to themselves and others. If you know having one is utterly and completely illegal, then not getting rid of it is in and of itself tantamount to suicide. These are NOT toys, and the days of the Wild West long behind you.

This isn't a moral superiority claim, just one of common humanity. I'm not using my heavy hammer on this - yet. I have one, the heaviest known to man. Doesn't 40 000 dead a year even begin to touch you? Your interpretation of rights is so unbelievably selfish, only you have rights, nobody else does. They have a human right to life, not to be casually gunned down by carelessness or worse excused as an accident. As part of my military training (you don't have ambulances five minutes away where we go) I'm trained in dealing with gunshot wounds. They're far worse than knife wounds, because the percussive deflagration expands into the body. It's not just the slug. I carry two knife wounds, they're just scars. No , I didn't keep the log, but I wasn't winging it. You couldn't find it because it's become utterly commonplace, and you can't even see how evil that is. You claim community, but it's a fairly primitive level of tribalism, in reality. When the UK decided we didn't need weapons, the only realistic target being ourselves, it was almost completely voluntary. Yes, we passed a law, but it was never questioned. I was sorry to lose the means to keep my skills up, but there we go. I can't square that with the consequences, life's about improving the world, not leaving a million grieving on top of the dead and injured. If you don't trust the Government, vote in one you can trust. In hard reality, it's difficult to trust the gun-toting community after the shameful abuse of democracy that happened earlier this year, and continuously since. It's reduced that argument to claptrap. Do you really mean that power in the US comes from the barrel of a gun? If so, you don't deserve to be worldvleaders. The Etsy line is International, and should serve as a message that in this, you're not the world leaders you should be. They're recognising that careful storage is a safety benefit, but you don't begin to understand what that means. I follow the LockPickingLawyer on YouTube, he's forever opening gun cases with tableforks and the like. Cases which can be opened by curious adolescents lacking the maturity to understand the lethality of what can and too often does follow.

Boris wants to force things by adding a tunnel to you. Might get interesting halfway, though, because that's where they dumped all the unwanted munitions at the end of WW2. Revenge for the cost overruns on London's Crossrail? Without a doubt. Anyway, I can't see the EU stopping an HST for six months...

I'm ex-military, at the end of contract when our world-class Special Forces bid for me. The gap they needed to fill had been created by the politicos ghosting the incumbent, I was as good as they thought, discovered what had happened, agreed with his thinking - as has the ultimate test, history - and quietly walked away. You'd think I support skilled weapons handling, not least because the only way we'll preserve peace is an ability to fight well. However, that abstract philosophy fails to recognise two factors. Easily available firearms and a lack of compulsory continual training has demolished that theory. Your risk profile is serious in the US, wereas our disarming in the UK has virtually removed ours. Indeed, having knowingly accepted the supply of weapons to Lindsay Anderson's film If...., which may have been the meme which started the wave of school alienation massacres off, I can't entirely excuse myself, other than ignorance of the degree they were taken too. And that's why I take the other stand, not out of wokeness, but out of experience. Month by month you clock up another 9/11 massacre in head-count, yet you won't treat it with corresponding gravity. The legal provision, the Second Amendment, has been met by the existence of the National Guard. The ready availability of firearms is being used as a licence to kill by redneck police, just yesterday a case in Alabama concerned a couple of black students tortured after a copper who couldn't possibly see shouted "He's got a gun". They're suing, and have an excellent chance of winning. And it's this dark side which wins, under the precautionary principle, in my soul. Not all men are good, some are evil, some merely troubled, some morally disorientated. Letting them have access to firearms in any shape or form in any way makes you complicit. You don't require the separate storage of weapon, firing mechanism and ammunition, let alone on a different site: the home defence argument arises, which is hogwash on the proportionate use of force limitation. Someone stumbles into the wrong house because he's drunk, and is shot down as a result. Protestors on the street are threatened with lethal force because it was available. It doesn't hold water. There may be good valid reasons to be able to defend myself. Let the Law decide on a presumption of safety. Because right now, the Islamic State's best recruiter is America. I know this must hurt, but until you can reliably and trustworthily prove you can handle the weapons entrusted to you, you shouldn't have them available.

It might protect it here in the UK, but it's melting point is between 60-67° C and then it'll disappear into the leather. You'd be surprised how hot a sunny patio, or window-ledge, or car can get. Nor, for that matter, is it opaque (I have a box of wired frame bases in the kitchen right now).

I agree, because the unnecessary dominance of true saddlery has thoroughly muddied the waters, not helped by copycat manufacturers whose ignorance may be matched by the poor design of their work. About the only thing they haven't done so far is apply the generic term "sexy". It's a wonder they reproduce at all. My interest is temporary, as I like edge-channelling my work but my diamond cutters, offsetting the thread more than necessary, produce a line incompatible with the idea of slightly indenting the stitching. What might be useful as a precursor is to review the terminology, to apply some plain English. "Pricking Irons" mean nothing: in horse-riding, stirrups. I'd prefer to xall them "markers" because that's what they do, they mark where the hole should be. Next up, "Stitching Irons". Fine, the idea came from pricking irons, refining the points to give a constant awl angle - and here, you didn't mention that there are three different types, round, flat and triangular, with increasing amounts of damage done to the leather - but I think we need to add a third category to flat and diamond, namely hole, derived from the circular hole punch which has thankfully disappeared from these forums, only to be replaced by circular straight punches and now multi-head punches. These are fine in lacing and possibly for beginners (SteamPunkRo's patterns on Etsy, for example), but not for more advanced work: we recently saw a newby's thread-through holster on the "How Do I Do That" thread which was asking for the stitches to tear through the edge, dumping the bearer's line of last defence somewhere out on the lone prairie. He's learning and improving. Then, "Stitching Chisels". Osborne use them generically as the encompassing class name for everything, with subgroups, thonging chisels, stitch chisels and pricking chisels. That makes a valid differentiation for thonging tools, I feel, but overstates prick markers/prickers, and omits punches. We should equally consider the use of the right tool for the right job. The case for minimal disruption in a point awl in saddlery is well made, and also exists in shemaking welting, as it minimalises water infiltration. But as you say, we equally can use wider holes for tidier stitching on work which will suffer less tension. A lesson from sewing is relevant: contiguity of the fabric matrix on the stitching allowance edge isn't absolutely necessary, as long as it doesn't amount to completely unravelling it. On a reversed convex curve, ie one which, buried on the inside of the work, is actually concave, causing the fabric to bunch in an uncomfortable and potentially unsightly way, they will happily notch the excess away: shoemaking does exactly the same when wrapping the core of the shoe, the insole, with it's own cover and the lining and outer of the shoe itself. Generically, it's the art of lasting: although nails are the starting point, glue is the most common major binder, with some stitching. So, as an offering very open to development and critique: Markers: Temporary pen markers and chalk Permanent pen markers Pricking wheels Pricking markers Should the different types of creasers and channellers have a place here? Stitching: Notchers Awls Straight punches Diamond punches Thonging: Slit chisels Hole punches Hardware: Hole punches Rivet setters You'll of course observe that I'm treating leather as the oldest natural fabric of all, but still a fabric. It may be we can learn more from pattern-making, for example in transfering complex 3D surfaces to flat, but that goes beyond the question at hand.

Sun-bleached, most likely.

Boat covers in the Badlands. Yup, the Big Boss upstairs really does have it in for you. Unless the Tropical Storm currently headed towards the bayous and points northeast goes straight ahead, in which case your name is Noah.

Fish descaler?

There's the old tale of Creekbottom Joe, his paw and grandpaw. They've got a fly problem, so Joe chaws some plug, and lets fly. Down comes a fly. "Dang, boy" says his paw, "ya gotta practice." His shot nails six. "Children!" contributes grandpappy. His doesn't down a thing, and the fly goes on its way, buzzing in a high pitched tone. Joe and his pa eventually stop laughing. "I thought you said..." gasps the lad. " Well it was a kind act" grandpaw replies. "It'll never breed again, though."

People haven't learned that you only get 2 out of 3, fast, pretty, cheap. There's nothing wrong with teaching the Veruca Salts of the world some patience. Send them the parts and tell them to make it themselves, it's the craftsmanship which takes the time.

Not far from Fagin's old thieves kitchen, then.

Have you checked the knife edge for sharpness?

No, a French binding halves the binding material then buries the raw edges against the raw edge being covered, leaving four layers on the wrong side after it's wrapped. If you take the same centre crease in the binding, and fold the edges in to meet that, then wrap the raw edge, so you get only two layers of binding either side of the material being bound, it's thinner and neater sewing, because only one layer covers the edge.

Mine doesn't have a row of bolt heads doing things to the pull, though, and it's got a spring-loaded feed tensioner.

I have to smile. Round here, Charlotte Dujardin's home base rules the roost (she won Olympic Gold in 2012). Most riders are female. Repeat the exercise.