Jimbob

very nice carving, broad and bold.....fits the bag....please show us the bag in more pictures.....love the sandals....something I need to do in Spring... good work!! James

Rayban When I feel like Tandy has low quality, then that is because I can not afford to loose customers to Tandy junk leather....I am a professional leatherworker. I do understand that hobby crafters may like Tandy's because that's all they ever heard of....that is ok and if you feel you can live with this low quality, that is perfectly fine. No one trashes Tandy, everybody know they have mostly junk. So dont be offended when people demand better material...in the end it is good for all of us, pro and hobby crafters alike!! We all deserve good companies selling good learher.... No heart feelings, shop arround and you will see.... We all are here to help each other and get better in what we do....if you have any more questions, please drop me a note... Greetings james

I lost a good friend, leather worker, certified tanner and mentor, but also a supplier of wonderful strong belt leather and blanks,,,,, Elmar Crawford of TN passed yesterday morning and will be missed a lot.... Now I am on the lookout for belt blanks, belt leather and also already dyed belt blanks.... I will NOT order this junk from Tandy! If anybody has a source for me, it would be great to continou making affordable belts for people in the manner Elmar would like to see it and also sold it ...he was an old school guy and liked quality first.... Thanks for all info and help See you on the other side Elmar... Jimbob

Hello NC man..... Greetings from SW-Virginia.... As a Graphic designer you should be ahead of us in about 6 month or so.....because the design and the art part of leather is often very challenging....spelling for me...haha... but seriously, great to have you on here and put your flippers on, get your hair tied back and jump right in!! There are tons of people like you on here....more tons of people with great skills!! Wallets are a great way to start, make yourself a template for the kind of wallet you want...then cut it out of poster board, add design and when it looks good then cut out of leather....the outside should be somewhat stiffer 3-5 oz the inside can be 1-3 oz....make it plain or fancy, hand stitch or lace...finish and step back and be proud of yourself!!! Keep us posted and come back often!!! Greetings James

Or, you find some very flexible electric cord ( last time I used old vacum cleaner cord...) wrap it ( glue) with some 2-3 oz chrome or veg tan, leave about 1/2 inch seam on it.....glue it to your one side of your bag panel,inside out... then glue the other panel to the welting (cord) now let dry and then stitch it together.....welting will be very dominant and very protective....also can give your bag some sort of shape if desirred! Some people use cotton ( upholstery store....) welting cord....but it is not very sturdy....I prefer my welting cord to be more stiff....you can use rope, plastif piping or tubing!! Make sure you have a zipper foot so you can get as close as possible to the welt when sewing inside the bag... Just the way I did my last backpack... need pictures, give me a shout.... Aloha james

Got my trusty Singer 211-155 to help me make another backpack, nice 2-layers of 3-4 oz leather plus liner plus french rolled leather seams....well, gotten a bit heavy in thickness....but the Singer foot lift was still enough to get it under the pressure feet....I had no problem sewing....got a servo motor from Toledo Bob!!......But I noticed that some of my stitches on corners or on real thick layers gotten very small.....so I adjusted stitch lengh and when doing thinner stuff, suddenly I had huge stitches... Did I overdo the thickness of the material? Maybe I went to far for the old Singer....should I be able to release pressure from the foot to give more feed movement? Or is the old Singer just wore out? Tension was fine, knots where inside material and stitches very tight....Wonder if anybody has any idea about this matter.... As always, thanks up front for any help!! Greetings Jimbob

In about 60 years or so, my kid';s children will go to the museum and see your work in a display case with the title : American art in its finest, ( WESTERN COWBOY CULTURE IN LEATHER ) .....now exstinct...! And they will press there nose on the glass and stare at your amazing work.....what is this material Dad????.... is this micro fiber or some sort of molekule max webbing....its awesome!!! Truly artistic!! Your work will carry the spirit of the West in saddle leather to the year 3000.... james

Ohhh what a beauties! Wonderful workman ship and great look!! Boot making should be declared a national tressure.....it has so much craft and art in it....let alone the rich history!! Well, and I love roach killer pointed Mexican gangster boots, hand tooled veg leather of course....haha.......yeahhh, I know...but that's just me.....nice, very nice work!! Pull my hat!! James

Would like to bring up a loose group of leather and leather related people to learn and share....ohhh and have some fun too!! Info sharing, helping with skills, machine sewing.....self taught classes and showing of latest work....?! NON formal meetings and leather show goings.... Anybody interrested?........I am in the 24251 area..... Call me or send e-mail.... 2766905084 jamespetersatgmaildotcom

Andreas Erst nass formen, schoen zuschneiden und glaetten....dann ueber Holzform stuelpen ( die Form hasst du ja wenn du nass formst...??) Holzform auf festem hartem Untergrund befestigen und stempeln/punzieren!! Finish auftrage...... Klappt prima, wenn die Stuecke nicht zu gross sind!! >>> guad ischs...gell hanno!! Gruessle aus Virginia James

80 looks and no answers.... Like to know how you folks do ur liner pockets and pockets from the outside..!? Thanks!!

Great skull!! Will be a screamer for sure.....nice work!! Needs black and orange lacing....or how about flame red lacing.... Well, u will get it right, I can tell...let us see the scooter with the finished seat!! Aloha James

Ohhhhhh my!!!!! What a difference!!! Ohhhhh my, what a friendly voice on the phone!!!! Ohhhh my, what a joy to order!!! Ohhhh my, how much I hate my self not to have dealt with them in the very first place!! Boy was this girl friendly on the phone, she had such a friendly soul....you just could tell she loves to work there....knew instantly what I meant....had it on the computer in a heartbeat and amazingly...she spoke perfect English!!!! Wow!!! No rude attitude and just willing to listen....NICE....bet'ya she was good looking too....hahaa Ohhhhh, and did I mention that they had a killer price on upholstery leather in lovely earth tones....??!! Which I need in a hurry to upholster some furniture for my neighbor..... Oh well, guess as you all can read further down in this forum.....there will be NO more leather orders from ST Leather at my door steps.... I am going to call her again, just to enjoy her friendly soul..... Pull my hat Springfield leather, way to go....or should I say way to sell !!!!! James

Follow up!! Ok, now after some weeks, I have received another side of 2-3 oz tooling leather.....not much better to do something serious with it, but way better then the other side was!! And it was send for free as an appologie to the mess they made!! Also been send a bag of 50 snaps for free, wich was rattling loose and mostly some of them lost in the broken box they send the first time...... I have talked to the Lady with the thick accent and she first was as rude as usuall....then when I told her about sending everything back, telling the story here on the forum and demanding my money back....she got much more understanding and finally appologized!!! Wow....what a little pressure shure can do...!?! All in all, I have been satisfied with what I got now, no extra charges have been made and I think they have understood what my issues where...so I hope. They do have good prices on lot's of items.....but some real quality issues!! AND they shure dont know a lick how to pack items well..... I do not think I will order ANY leather from them anymore!! Fair is fair, so here is my follow-up on STleather James

Been reading about larger bobbins on Singers, wonder if a Singer 211G-155 can be converted to a larger bobbin....? Needs a larger bobbin case, is this managable....how hard is this to do and what costs am I looking at...? Who would have parts and is there anybody has done that...(pictures) ?? I would love to hear from ya all about this.....making wallets is OK with small bobbin (138) but it runs out in a hurry when sewing bags and such! Thank you for the time and effort... James

Erika send me an e-mail and I will forward you a PDF file for the manual and a parts list....... Greetings James

Wonder how a man would do a zipper pocket on a bag, ......all you see is the slot with the zipper lets say on a flat front panel, so the actual compartement is inside the bag/purse....how would this work, do you sew on the inside a sack like piece or double up leather and sew it to the slot on the inside...do you hide it behind the liner....just wondering how this would work....any ideas and pictures would be great.....just trying to get the feel for it! Thanks James

Prima info, kann man gut gebrauchen!! Ich hab mittlerweile alle Daten die ich wollte....da sind aber ein Haufen Leutchen die diese info gerne Haetten!! Also nochmals Danke fuer die links.... Gruesse an die alte Heimat von einem alten Wuertenberger...haha..... hanno mir Schwobba hald, gell James

Try buying turquoise in 138.....about drove me nuts.....hahaaa...!!

Ever tried to buy some turquoise leather for a bagpack, ever tried to locate some 138 Nylon thread in turquoise......how about finding a few Navajo style silver and turquoise conchose u and ur customer can afford?? All the leather guys around did not have an inch of turquoise leather nowhere.....not even the big guys....then a lady in Oklahoma had some....me working nite shift....could not call right away....duhhhh sold...bummer. So why not try e-bay.....all kind of sellers, surprise....some had turquoise leather in about 2-3 oz.....yeahhh, for 5-7 dollar a sf....to much for me....! Finally, from the leatherguy a nice piece of beautiful turquoise 1-2 oz leather...this must do... On to the thread, sure enough the trhead exchange in NC will have it...? NOT.....no turquoise in 138.....zzzzzzzz.....oh well, found some skyblue from LE-thread in Charlotte....that hopefully will match.... Now the conchos, almost done.....hahaha....5-9 Dollar one small one and I was thinking of using 5 or 6....NOT Well, back to e-bay....little Lady in MO sold a fake silver (German silver ) Doll belt, the one look like navajo concha belts....nice fake but beautiful turquoise stone in center....old, needs lots of cleaning up...!! well, some dark tan 3=4 oz chap leather for all the main parts of the bagpack.....some elbow grease and a good pattern, nice hardware out of my stockpile....and this one should be done soon!!! after this one I will do pink, yellow or ashgreen....but NO MORE turquoise, hahaha... will keep ya posted how I get along, soon with pictures... Aloha James