Horsetutor

Good quality oats are expensive. If you don't mind oats that have already been through the horse, well, those can be had much cheaper.. Old adage from my Grandpa. I train horses, used to be a farrier, and now am relearning a skill from my youth.( carving and working leather.) Retired, more or less. Mostly less. Quality is something that YOU create. Do whatever you do as well as you can. Every task you look for a way to improve. Every day, every task. One day, you will find the world coming to you. So, I recommend,: don't whine about the world not appreciating quality. Just be quality yourself. Be the example. That's the only part of the world you or I can control It sounds to me like most of the people here operate that way already:yes: . So, there was today's sermon from St John the Idiot. Worth exactly what it cost ya'.

I use a filigree blade in my swivel knife for small tight areas. It has a smaller,angled blade that works well for me. Plus, also, did you catch that part about" practice" That's how you get to Carnegie Hall. Make mistakes, think about it, throw the mistake away and try again.

OK, So, if I make saddlebags out of Steven's hides, which costs me quite a bit less, and looks good, profit-wise,-- can customers tell the finished product from the ones I have been making from those cows who ran afoul of IBP's captive bolt? Would I be able to do some creative marketing, and get better prices? Cause this ol' fat cowboy is interested in that. Plus, also, if I build up a nice niche market, can those unscrupulous devils just make knockoffs and CLAIM THEIR LEATHER WAS FROM "NATURAL" LEATHER, AND THUSLY BENEFIT FROM MY CLEVER MARKET WORK???[ Just curious. What little mind I have works that way. As far as a lesser carbon footprint, I fear it takes more emissions to harvest range dead cattle than normal ones. Th normal cows go efficiently to the slaughter house, 50 or 60 to a trailer. The other requires a separate truck, and a front end loader, most likely, both using that awful fossil fuel for only one hide. I don't know where one of Segal's hides go to be treated, but I doubt it is as handy to the tannery as, say S. B. Foote is to Swift Packing. ( about half a mile. in Cactus, TX) Probably gonna require more trucking than that. More fuel, more time, more special handling, bigger footprint.. I guess I have my doubts. Is this the same Steven Segal who whacks folks around in the movies? Great flicks, bud, if it is. I love 'em. I'm an old Marine and I still kinda like violence. BTW, before You city folks get out your pitchforks, shovels and lynching gear, I'm mostly just kidding. My tongue is firmly in my cheek, OK?quote name=JohnBarton' timestamp='1295498963' post='182691] Not really weighing in one way or the other but I'd like to point out that to me there is a bit of a disconnect here when you are trying to connect the prices that leather workers receive for finished goods and the "morality tax" that some people are willing to pay for supposedly bio-ethical things. If any leather worker is not getting the amount of money that they feel that they deserve for their work then they should either quit, make better things or improve their marketing. The argument that leather work is grossly under priced has nothing to do with the type of leather used. We all know that some people get great money for their stuff and other people don't. That's just life and has to do with many many factors. No one is ENTITLED to a certain income JUST BECAUSE they spent x-amount of hours learning their craft or because they work so hard at it. People earn what they can according to their ability AND market forces. I agree that there IS a market for so-called "green" materials. Whether there SHOULD be a market where people are asked to pay more and willingly pay more for these items is another topic. In my mind what should happen is what is already happening and that is that companies are finding out that being environmentally friendly and bio-ethical saves them money and preserves profits. Thus, instead of having to market SOME materials as more ethical while implying that other materials are not, we can all benefit by knowing that industry as a whole is more ethical and humane. Personally I think that any leather worker who markets their products as being made from "free range" cows is painting themselves into a corner because then they have to pretty much NOT use any other type of leather. And let's say the price of material is double that of other leather. Why increase the price of the finished goods by 3-10x ??? Is that ethical and moral to take more money away from a person just because you can play on their emotions and sense of morality? This seems like the wrong way to increase one's income. I mean if we really care about these things and I am linking the vegan lifestyle with the green movement here, then one has to consider the carbon impact that making the 3 to 10x extra money to PAY for the "slaughter-free" leather goods has on the world. Life is really a viscous circle isn't it?