dirtclod

The color thing is a fad IMO. I remember when dark brown was the rage in the show ring then it went to light oil. It's like when somebody famous a trainer, rodeo person or who ever wears a certain brand of jeans, shirt or rides a certain brand of saddle and wins a lot then everybody thinks they need the same thing and they will win. I wouldn't sand your saddle because your going to ruin it i think. Now if it was ruff out you could more than likey get away with it but i wouldn't do it on a tooled saddle. Sounds to me like you need to get into the dyeing end. You would have enough money to buy a new saddle pretty quick at 450.00 a pop. But if you really want to make it black i would use dye. From what i've read you need to dip if you use vinegaroon ( i've never used it ) and that's going to mean you need to strip your saddle down to the tree reline the skirts, take the fork cover off and take the seat out put it back togeather and that's going to be a ton of work. Good luck in what ever you decide to do.

Nice job on your seat !! I'm betting you will be making more real soon.

I would leave it alone and for sure wouldn't dye it black. In my experience a black saddle is really hard to sell and i used to buy sell and trade on saddles all the time and would do my best not to trade for one. Nine times out of ten that i sold a black saddle it was to somebody that had gotten their first horse. People that have been around for a awhile won't buy them or they won't in my part of the country. If it's just dark on the fenders your leg is probley going to cover that part anyway.

You can try asking Kevin at Springfield Leather he might, might not tell you the weight they have. Won't cost anything to send a email anyway.

Cheryl those two post are of DUMBEST, SMART A#$ unnecessory post i have seen in a long time ! Best i remember nobody said anything smart to you about your rambling on and on fixing a display board and then about redoing furniture. Maybe he was serious and maybe not. Either way i don't think what you wrote was right.

That's just pretty durn neat ! A Lucky Charms billfold.

I'd really like to take all of your classes but it aint gonna happen for me this year. But i would be intrested in getting a copy your design book. Where can it be bought ?

No we don't have read it ! But we have to scroll through it giant pictures and all !

Sylvia If you go to the form page and scroll down right above where it says active members today. It says today's active content click on that and it will send you a page with all of the topics and post over the last 24 hours. Then if you want more click at the bottom of that page on the right hand side and it has 48 hours up to a years worth of topics and post. No emails or anything else just topics and post that have been made. Found out about this feature about a month ago.

Are you going to double stitch the halters and headstalls ? If you are i would get a sewing machine and a skiver before i spent 2000.00 on a strap cutter or a bell skiver unless you have a ton of business already lined up with cash in hand for your products. Over the years i have made a bunch of headstalls and halters and they both need skiving and a halter needs to have ever piece on it skived. You can get a wooden strap cutter and cut out all of your pieces as long as their are no curves.

I like it ! Nice job !

I redid my bench a few years ago and though i'll fix it where theirs no bounce. On one end i made it solid 2x4 screwed and glued 5/8 plywood on top and it still bounced. Heck theirs still some bounce no much but some even with a 3 inch thick piece of granite. Set a full glass of water or lay a tool on your table and hit your stamp you should be able to tell if it has some bounce.

Do you have something solid that your stamping on ? A bench top won't work very well they bounce. When i use my maker stamp i just spay it with some water and hit it with a 24 ounce maul once on my tooling / stamping stone. If for some reason it doesn't look right put the stamp back in place it will line up fine ( fall into the impression you made ).

Rubbing alcohol won't work ! Or i never had any luck with it. You can get the denatured alcohol at a hardware store. You might get a couple of eye droppers to if you want to mix mix small amounts.

Get the one on the right !!! Yes it cost more but it is a lot better machine. I have both and know what i'm talking about.

Yes you can use dye with a regular artist brush get the better ones it will make life easier. You need to get some denatured alcohol to thin the dye with. It's way to strong straight out of the bottle. I have seen some say on here that they thin the dye down to 32 to 1 or 32 parts alcohol to one part dye.

Phatdaddy i agree sometimes a quote makes things easier to keep up espically if it's a really long thread. But i don't agree when somebody quotes every time they have something to say. Their are a few people on here that i don't think they have EVER answered a question without quoteing the other person giant pictures and all. As far as getting a email every time that somebody has quoted something i have said, it's just another email for me to delete. Not that it happens very often. Generally when i read the threads i see if another person has quoted me. I don't know about Canada but around where i live their lots of people on dial up and i'm guessing it's the same way in other parts of the country and world. It's not that they want to be but that's the way things are. They don't want to pay a 100.00 a month for satallite internet even if they have satallite tv and i don't blame them the wireless internet is hit and miss you maybe able to get it you live on a hill but if you live in low spot your out of luck. This form isn't just a North American form either, their are people from all over the world and i have no ideal what type of internet connection they have. Maybe dial up maybe DSL or something else. With 2500 people looking at this site a day i'm guessing bandwidth use is pretty durn high and it all adds up pretty quick to i would think.

Why is it people have to repost every thing that has been said to answer a question or ask another question over and over ? It makes the treads long and hard to read. Plus i'm sure that folks on dial up hate it because it takes awhile to load espically if their are pictures. One more thing it takes up space and waste band width. It used to not be to bad but now i know if some people have posted i'm going to have to look at the other person comments again and again. About two inches below where it says reply theirs another box that says add reply if you will use it what ever you say will be buy it's self with out every thing that was said before. If you must hit reply highlight what the other person said and hit back space. PLEASE !!! It's just good manners. All right i'm done with my speach / rant and i walk away shakeing my head.

IMHO it has more to do with a sharp blade than anything.

From what ever body has to say about Tandy Leather Factory's new ones i would try to get the older tools. I have bough some new tools from Springfield Leather and i have been happy with them. Most of my tools are older tools.

I just coped this off of Ferdco's website and says they have the 1010 with a 9 inch and 16 inch arm. New Ferdco Heavy Duty Sewing Machines Specifications for Pro 1010 Walking foot and Bottom Feed Presser foot Lift - 3/4" Sews 5/8" thick leather 16" Work Space Heavy Duty Cylinder Arm Needle System - 794 S Serv-1 Forward & Reverse Stitching Thread sizes from 69 to 415 Economical & Affordable

I don't know anything about the 1010 machine. What i have is the Pro 2000 one of the older ones that started life as a Juki i guess. Has Juki wrote on it several places. I'm not sure what type of feed it has but it works really well. Particle i would call Ferdco if you haven't and ask them what they think. They have always been super help full anytime i called. The only other person i have any dealings with as far as sewing machines on here is Bob from Toledo Sewing Machine and he was super help full to. Here's what the plate looks like on my machine.

Rersonaly i would get the longer arm ( 16 inch ) machine. You will be glad you did down the road, plus their not that much more. I have had mine close to 20 years and the extra space sure is handy.

I use shot bags to hold things still while i work them. All a shot bag is, is a bag generally made out some chrome tan scraps what ever size you to make, fill it with shot, sand or BB's.

Nice job on all of them !