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If you want really, really minimalist then an awl, needles, thread and a knife are all that are needed. You can do all the cutting out, skiving, bevelling etc. with the one knife if you really want to. Beveller and burnisher (or bone folder) are excellent for making edges nice & neat; a bone...

Cone layout - http://search.sheetmetalworld.com/news/articles/198.cfm http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/math/cones1.htm Commercial sw with freebie - http://www.pulserate.com/ http://www.red-bag.com/engintools/calccone.php

Formula for surface area of a sphere is (4/3 pi r^3), so a hemisphere would be half that (!). Formula for surface area of a cone is (pi r l) where l is slant height. Of course, fabrics are sold squared... :)

Stitching clamp, stitching pony or saddler's clam. Buy or make... Chuck Burrows has a good plan at http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/tutorials/_stitchpony.html I invariably mark the back face with either a crease or a groove so I can be sure where the awl is coming out, it is then a simple...

The only time I keep track of what I have in stock is when I need to do the tax return...

Washing soda will strip tea stains out of the stainless mugs if it is left to sit for a while.

I've recently switched to using pricking irons instead of stitching wheels - still reach for the wheel occasionally, but less & less. Different style & end result. Optional, but adds a nice decorative touch. Just to reinforce - do NOT hit pricking irons with metal hammers. You'll...

I've completely rejected television, but I don't think it would make for, um, good television...

Hi Ed - there's a few of us relatively near Locks Heath too.

Nice work! As an alternative to using a coin, could I suggest slitting a length of pipe & unrolling it? It might need annealing, but it is a nice easy source of sheet copper. Even a 15mm pipe gives you almost 2" wide copper.

Condolences Chris.

Nice work - both the bracer and the tutorial. One thing I've found when casing leather is that wetting it thoroughly, then putting it in a plastic bag & leaving it in the fridge overnight helps immensely on getting a good impression when carving. I also use Pro-Carve solution sometimes...

He really hasn't ;)

I bought a tin of the dust as I couldn't believe just *how* bad the reports of it were... New or not, the stuff is not worth having. Really.

Don't forget to sand off the scale (and fractional decarb area) too - or you won't get many sparks for a while... Alternitively, bung it over & I'll do it for you.

Black (or coloured) infill on engraving is another application, although the US engravers seem to tend to prefer Rustoleum (which I *think* is a Smoothrite kind of paint).

I've used borax to preserve squirrel tails before now. Seems to work OK, but I wouldn't want to get it wet.

Not really, more of a lighter grey - it is forming iron tannate in the leather (or wood, in Eric's example), which is black. As Toddy says, it is not all that different to old ink recipes (got one somewhere involving oak galls & iron). The smell of vinegar takes time to fade, but you can...

There's that word again :D As for things like carpet & the like, I tend to go for Stanley blades for that. Weaning myself off using them for leatherwork these days. (OK, yes I do resharpen the things... :o )

Given you can see what is, in sharpening terms, a huge amount of steel being removed - how long do you think your knife is going to exist with constant use of that? Fair enough with a Mora, the abuse is not going to be expensive to replace, but a more valuable knife I'd keep well away from those.