Well all she said is that she was wanted a tote bag so I made one. I’m afraid it has gone elsewhere now!

Thanks for the information, unfortunately I am UK based.

Nice one. I wouldn’t have thought on those two colours together but hey do work. Can I ask a question. You say both your leather are 8mm, where do you get them thinned. When I asked the leather supplier I was going to prefer from they had a 45 sq ft minimum. No good if you only want 1 or 2 skins done.

@Anders from Jävlar I am finding it easier now and havefound the method that suits me best. I put the awl through, withdraw it and then insert the right hand needle. I then put my left hand needle and finger againds it and as I withdraw the right hand needle I can usually find the hole with the left needle. As they say the more you practise the easier it gets!

To be honest I am not completely sure. I am still not familiar on identifying different leather types. i think the outer was some dyed through veg tanned leather. The red was some shiny backed leather I found in the scraps bin at my local leather merchant.

Second; is there a preference for how the prick marks should be aid out. See the attached photos where the red is the angle of the pricking iron

It was just a couple of scrap pieces i used for practise but it has given me the impetus to buy some decent leather and try a complete box. With that in mind can i ask a couple of questions. First, when skiving the inside of the lid why skive the thin lamb skin down to an almost feather edge. Why not skive a little of the bridle and glue the lamb skin on top?

My favourite tip so far is your video for putting a small leather loop on the end of the awl. It just makes it so much easier to work with. I have went from hardly ever using an awl (and trying to hammer my pricking iron through several millimetres of leather) to using it all the time for my sewing.