Rahere

I'd be cautious about the fumes from residuals in the tanning. Also, use a top split so you have a smooth surface. To deal with the former, run the exhaust through a bubbler.

I didn't post earlier, because I wasn't absolutely sure. I now know I practice every one of those skills, and it has zilch to do with leatherwork other than the tags in the end. Firstly, he uses a drum carder to align the hair. We use several intermediate stages to create a very airy rolag to spin with, in wool. He then spins a twine from it. That's the skilled stage, feeding a constant thickness. We now move onto a ropemaking spinner, which adds more spin to pull several twines into a line, and then selects lines for colour to make a final rope with. What you don't see is that he's very likely run a flame along the twine to burn any sticking out hairs off. At each stage, the direction of twist reverses, so the twist of the previous lay pulls the current lay together. For completeness, several ropes laid together form a cable, and several cables a hawser. Any thicker than that and it's impossible to bend. Finally, he uses a Turk's Head/Crown Knot combo to stop the ends feathering.

Many hidden seams are turned work, sewn back to front, which creates a problem with seam allowances going from the outside of the curve to the inside. The answer's to reduce the volume, both along the seam by notching, and perpendicularly, by thinning it. Imagine you've a sewn curve with a 5cm radius and a 1cm seam allowance. That 6cm line sewn flat has to become 4cm when inverted/reversed. That means it'll either crumple or have to be notched. The strain's transverse to the line of stitching, so if you reduce that waste material to a row of tabs, no mechanical harm's done.

As far as cars are concerned, we still have one or two companies in the UK which actually do make the whole thing by one man. Rolls has just offered a similar facility, 1 per year, starting cost around 1.5m. My dad shared an office with Fred Lanchester at the end of that Renaissance Man's life, did his in-memoriam portrait. Look him up. And then there's the home engineer maker community...of which we're part, I guess. A starter nix in handmade is the disability community, so artisan becomes more neutral. Perhaps we should rebrand pigskin as lawyerhyde. Lambskin as Qwikbuck.

In minutiae, the first needle is pushed as far as the eye, and then withdrawn so only a third is right through The second goes 2/3, following it, then the first the same. that then gives you enough to grip on the other side.

Thin it and notch it to within about 2mm of the stitching.

You might have to try high melt-point inorganics, lithium or silicon grease.

Money can't buy you experience or skill, though. Far better to start simple and get what you need once you know what it is you need. And note, need is not to be confused with want.

It's very possible a lot of the WWF work's hot-pressed, where the pattern's been made in steel.

Just a basic 1/4" beveller. The user has used a swivel knifr to impress the line just behind the rolled edge, now they're working along it to slope tjt inner edge away. The shot's been set up, because the leather's not been cased.

Aw, you've lost half of it. Ex = has-been, spurt = drip under pressure. Another angle is that an expert knows everything about nothing. Me, I know nothing about everything.

You haven't accidentally doubled the thread, have you?

Try searching on escutcheon pins. You'd need to turn the tips flat against an anvil.

Slowly. This is, in all likelihood, going to call for you to anneal some steel, file it into a deep concave beveller, and reharden it by heating and quenching in oil. Forged in Fire stuff, in other words.

See if you can lay your hands on a copy of Ashley's Book of Knots. He's got a thing or two to say, from a hundred years back. Fish oil and engine oil...

And that lived-in wear is exactly what I like about it. I wasn't a Tin Soldier, you see. The best of the best asked for me.

It's a starter's piece, which may serve well in the fireld, rather than a dress holster. As a former soldier, I'd far rather have someting like that than something glossy (shone) with the edges picked out (shape), those being two of the things you break up with camouflage - the others being silhouette and shadow.

The thread was too thick?

Having started my soldiering when our kit was cotton webbing, we'd start with it natural colour and apply blanco until an even colour was found. And then it would rain, so our uniforms would need dry-cleaning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanco_(compound) These days it's white plastic. There is an anyline titanium white, though.

Often, it's feasible to sew through leaving a lot of slack thread, and tighten up once basically assembled. The giveaway is that the threads aren't perfectly aligned.

As far as right way up's concerned, I have a low opinion of social media - at least someone'll correct me on here if I'm talking nonsense! If in doubt, try it out. Use some scrap, and learn old-school, by getting it wrong every which way,

KAM make one, sold in the UK as Green Machine. I don't know what their specs are, though.

Now translate that to a single-sided Cap rivet. Base on the bottom, with the male prong upwards, female cup cap on top. All that happens in a double-sided one is the bottom one adds a cap, but remains male. It also therefore needs a dished anvil - for the single-sided one, I just use a flat, although I should technically use a raised-dimple anvil. I've actually had a look at mine, and the caps are subtly different, probably because they're different production batches or sub-contracted suppliers. It's therefore important to be consistent in your setting. From an artistic angle, being able to see the product come together as something better than a cobbled-rtogether patchwork. Although I don't pretend to Carriage Trade quality, none the less knowing what you've done is craftsman-like is satisfying.

As he mentions, pipes also have airtight bags, often poly these days, though, but originally greased sheepskin, and also in elbow bellows.

One thing to note is that in the heyday of 18th and 19th century binding, the quires were often stitched to very substantial threads, requiring the "humps" often found on those spines.