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That piece is garbage in my eyes. I think the seller should be divulged so others don’t make this mistake. I recently made my first purchase of a side directly from Wickett and Craig it it was near perfect. Best side of leather I’ve ever bought in twenty five years. If you think naming them isn’t right, do you think that they thought it was right to look at that then send it to you?

Things that help to stiffen the leather... Dunk the leather in very warm water. Not hotter than 120°. If it burns your hand, its' too hot. Leave the leather submerged until bubbles stop surfacing, maybe 30 seconds or so. Remove and blot off any excess water. Lay the leather on a rack to dry. Such a rack as the air can circulate all the way around the leather. Like an oven rack. When the leather starts to return to its' original color, squeeze it in a press or use a rolling pin to compress the fibers. This is akin to a tannery process called "holstering" the leather, packing the fibers and making denser. If the leather is too wet or too dry, it will not work. It should be to a point that when you bend the leather, it somewhat retains its' shape. After compressing, cut the pieces to shape and mold them the way you want. To go a step further, force dry them with 120° heat and a fan. In the beginning, check them every couple of minutes to make sure that they are holding the shape you want. Reshape them as necessary. Get them very dry but do not let them burn. You don't want grill marks on your finished pieces. If you are worried about burning them, lower the heat to 80° or 90° and when they are 90% dry, finish them by air drying at room temp. If edges start curling, bend them back as soon as you notice and maybe cut back on heat but even with air drying there will be some curling because the edges dry faster than the center. This is the general process. Use your own judgement. Figure out your own methods. If you live in the desert, setting the leather in a hot garage works pretty good in the summer. If you put it in the sun, it will brown. That could be a plus or a minus.

It will be the first character on the second line of the brass plate on the front of the machine. Mine said: 545-H4-6/01 CLPMN So mine was a "C". This introduction to the pfaff numbering system explains what all the characters mean: https://leatherworker.net/forum/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=166325

Terrible news coming from Merseyside this evening. The Birkenhead Tunnel has been closed and the speed limit will be reduced for the foreseeable future to 40 km. per hour. The Highways Agency found over 200 dead crows on the tunnel approach recently, and there was concern that they may have died from Avian Flu. A Pathologist examined the remains of all the crows, and, has confirmed in their report the problem was NOT Avian Flu but rather the cause of death appeared to be from vehicular impacts. However, during analysis it was noted that varying colours of paints appeared on the ...bird's beaks and claws. By analysing these paint residues it was found that 98% of the crows had been killed by impact with lorrys, while only 2% were killed by cars. The Agency then hired an Ornithological Behaviourist to determine if there was a cause for the disproportionate percentages of truck kills versus car kills. The Ornithological Behaviourist quickly concluded that when crows eat road kill, they always have a look-out crow to warn of danger. They discovered that while all the lookout crows could shout "Cah", not a single one could shout "Lorry"

If your in Daytona beach area definitely have some "biker" type items. Wallets for men and women. Keychains, can koozies, maybe some small handle bar bags.

Nice of you to come back and show us the end product. Very cute!

Key chains, minimal card wallets, coasters, dog leashes. Bracelets. Dog collars. Every demographic area will change for hot seller products/inventory.

Thanks. Right here in your supplement I don’t know where to find what model (A through D) the 545 H4 falls under?

Will you guys give me advice on 5-10 smaller quick buy items to make an inventory of to put at my booth in flea market in daytona beach please or other items big or whatever that will hopefully sell

Great, thank you. Thanks! I will do that.

They look great, so cute! I'm sure my grand-daughters (and wife) would love them.

Yes I have that one. Here’s the exact problem I’m having, not having the measurement of the standard needle bar height for the 545 and trying to use the 1245 manual which says 15mm for the standard position before fine tuning. But I can’t find the measurement in my 545 instruction manual or my 145 instruction manual. If you are still looking for how much needle bar rise, these excerpts from pages 3 and 4 of the supplement may be useful. page 3: Page 4:

Thank you everyone for trying to help me with this! Here's a little rogues gallery of what you were helping me with - the purple one shows how I'm going to do the beak going forward. I think since I'm working with such tiny pieces, and random scraps, that getting a nice hard curved piece is just not practical - it adds too much time and fiddliness for little return. The cube in the photo is only 4" tall - so the beaks are very small. I did have some success but the wet shaping didn't come out all that different than using the technique above - the two on the left were wet shaped, the 2 on the right weren't. I decided to leave the leather untreated except a bit of marker along the cut edge. With some polish, I can focus on shaping the tongue which is much easier to do for me. Again thank you for your time and sharing your expertise with me. I've learned a lot about working with leather. I had thought it couldn't be that hard to work with after working with fabrics since childhood. Yeah, it doesn't fray but it is definitely fussy about how it's cut and what angle the scissors is positioned. Like with so many handcrafted things, what looks fairly simple to do is often far harder than it looks.

Yup, BACK CUT python from the looks of it. I prefer the BELLY CUT when I use snake, but.... that there's prolly large enough to use each side. And it's pricey, as a rule, with a good piece runin $200-300 US. Looks nice though, and one snake make a number of projects. The other piece is likely whip snake or similar, belly cut. $9.95 in a barrel at Tandy (ish)

Oh, and this is what a Hermann Oak "A" hide looks like. Much of what others are selling as "A" or "B" is really "D". Aside from direct from H.O., only place i've got consistently GOOD hides was from Goliger Leather (CA). The top pic is the "shoulder" section, and some fat wrinkles as shown are common and not a problem. The bottom pic is the "bend" of the hide, which is the back section after the shoulder has been cut off. And obviously, the middle pic is a closeup of the grain, which is nearly entirely blemish free. Prolly we all dun seen those "ads" and "buddy talks" where somebody tries to tell you marks, brands, scratches, bug bites, wrinkles, and crinkles "add charm" to a piece of leather. I say, keep your "charming" crap and send me what I paid for

What type of wallet? Starters, 8 oz is WAY heavy for something supposed to fit in a pocket. As a rule, I use 3/4 oz for tooled wallets... and might go up to a 4/5 for larger pocketbook type thingies for the girls to hand hold or drop in a bag. As for the liners, good tips already on here. Calf, goat, kangaroo,... in about 1.5/2 oz is good. If I'm doing a wallet with multiple card pockets - like 6 er more, I like to use FABRIC behind a goat "face". It's more sewing, but never a complaint For illustration .... These "chaylor finnelly" prefab interiors used to be sold at SLC, don't know if they still are. One of the few things they sell down there worth it's cost, the ones I've used were quite nice. The one below, I tooled a 3/4 oz leather back, and then laced in the PRE MADE pockets as one assembly.

Good job. Blue jeans don't need fancy. I did a similar belt build several years ago. But I found that I still wear the same old favorite belt day after day. It's broke in and stretched in all the right places.

That's ATROCIOUS 🤢 Yer a bigger feller'n me, cuz i'd be "callin em out" at will. I'm LOUD... NOBODY gets to ignore me. Treat me right, get me a fair deal, and I'll tell everybody for you. But stick me with something like this, I'll tell folks that just as often. Don't like it, should have sent me what I paid for. As for bag straps, I'm kinda picky. I like to see the strap made from the same hide as the bag - perfect color match now and as it ages. And I like LINED straps, so if I have to I'll split it ... like as in if I'm making 8 oz somethings... I might split a couple of straps down to 4 oz and sew them together to end up with 8 oz that match the bag (realistically, only the "view" side needs to match, but I can be .... thorough ) Looks like yer up Sharon's way... she likely fergot more about leather n most of us ever figger out. She still stompin round here? Maybe she pop in with a word abot what ta do here, though... fair warning ... she sounds a bit like me

I use 1/2 oz calf or pig for the inside pockets. As stated above, 4/5 oz for the outside needs a gentle hand for carving. Suggest carving a few practice panels to get the hang of it before building a whole wallet.

Yes, 7.5 = 3mm, 8 = 3.2mm, 9 = 3.6mm, not much difference really. I use 2.5mm max = 6 oz

Aquilim 315 sells for $30 32oz at Springfield Leather Barge sells for $32 32oz on Amazon Weldwood sells for $20 at my local Lowe's I have the same issue as TomE on the edges but I've been trying to control how thick I put it on at the edge, which is working out better

IMHO: i) If I had purchased a Grade A, B, C or lower I expect the vendor to choose what I purchased if I'm buying it sight unseen. I am relying on their expertise / reputation. ii) If I had purchased the hides as 8 / 9 oz and they measured out with a proper leather thickness gauge or by micrometer to be equal to 7.5 oz I would have returned them regardless. I expect they would be at a minimum of 8 oz everywhere on the hide. Otherwise I would have bought 7/ 8 oz. iii) If I purchased Grade A hides I expect near as possible to perfection over the whole hide, no cuts or wriggles and a consistent colour as I did notice a dark line in your first photo up the length of the hide. I wonder if some of those wriggles going across the width of the hide on the right hand side of the hide in your first photo were cause by it being rolled too tight during storage or shipment to you. As a side question what was the laser measurement on the back side of the hides? Did you do a rough check to see you got the square footage you asked for?? If possible it is always wise to go and select your own hides to avoid the frustrations you are having. Who was the leather produced by, not the vendor? kgg

In my book that is not grade A. It almost looks like they let it dry in a roll and when you lay it flat it wrinkles. The color looks to dark as well, like it sat exposed to sunlight.

Also, now that I think about it, I mind as well also ask…I had bought the 8-9 ounces for making leather straps for tote bags. Do you think the 7.5 ounces will still be okay?

I can't access the video But from what I can see that is not Grade A. More like C or lower. The hide should be smooth all over. And you got thinner than you ordered. No excuse for that. About 7.8 oz for 8 minimum. 8 to 9 should be 7.8 min to 9.2 max