dirtclod

Thing is do you want to give away something that you have spent a few minutes to a few hours designing ? Not counting the materail you may or may not of messed up to get the design right. It seems the world has turned into a give me that or i want that give it to me. Most don't want to take the time to make a pattern of even try to make a pattern. I know on here i have told several folks how i would make a pattern they wanted but they say they can't make a pattern. Well i wonder if they even tried to make one ? I'll be the first to admit that i have took patterns i bought and copied them and most of the time changed them some to make it work better for me. Bottom line is if your going to make custom items you need to be able to make your own pattern. Their not hard to make it just takes some time and you will get better at it.

Their are some knockoff Blevins buckles around. Take the ones that broke out and see if they have Blevins stamped on them. For me personally Billy Cook saddles are over rated espically the new ones. I have had a few in for repair and the trees are not right. The bars were straight / flat and not curved to fit a horses back. I haven't seen a horse with a straight back yet. A few years ago i stopped by a BIG tack dealers place and seen a big waste can full of what i though was Blevins buckles at a bargin price. I grabbed a box and was filling it up when i noticed they were knockoffs and poured them back. The owner asked why put them back and i told him they were fakes. He said they were just as good but they didn't look the same when you looked at them close.

Why not tell them about leatherworker.net and let them learn to make their own patterns and share their ideals ? Lots of things i don't mind shareing but others i'm not going to share. This is how i make my living. Sometimes it's great. business is good and i'm eating high on the hog and sometimes business is not so hot it's beans and cornbread.

Nice job on your chinks and slobber straps.

Tina it looks great on the horse. That is a nice piece of work !!

The ones i make i use 3 / 4 ounce top and bottom grain side out on both pieces if you want to be able to move it. It you to stay put line it suede or another piece with flesh side out. If your making one for a electric guitar you may to use a little heavier leather cause they are generally heavier.

I used some Black Rock leather conditioner on a guys leather car seats and helped with some of the scratches. Might of just been lucky though. The other thing i would try is antiqueing paste for leather if you try that just try a real small spot to see if it works and i put on with my fingers.. I have used that on a scratch on a saddle before and it helped. It may hide it or help hide the scratches but i don't think you will ever get rid of them. Good luck to you and the dog.

I guess i'm just plain ole stupid cause i don't get it. Whats it's supposed to be when it's done ?

Simplest thing to do is stop when you see the dropped stitch and pull the stitches out and start over. Yes it is a PITA to do but your customer is paying for something that is as good as you can make it.

Nice job on the bag !! I'm sure your customer is going to be very happy.

Nice job on your saddle !! I bet you do well. Hope so anyway.

Nice job !!

Good deal. Hope you do well.

Nice job !!

Check out any of the folks on here selling sewing machines i bet they have some. Another thing i seen on here ( don't remember who posted it ) but put a piece of sponge cut to fit in the lube pot and cut a slit in the sponge pull your thread down into the slit then put your thread lube in. It keeps lube from lube from building up on a guide or anything else and dripping onto what ever your sewing.

How does your customer like the saddle ? Got anymore pictures ?

Ray take a picture of pieces before it's sewn. Maybe we can figure out a easy way to put it togeather, if nohthing else sub the job out your cousin Luke .

I line them before doing any molding. Not sure how your going to get the lining in one after molding espically if you much molding.

Looks good to me. I would be proud to draw to it.

I just though a paper stapler might work if your leather isn't to thick. But you would need to make sure it was in the stitch line so the holes would cover when ya sewed. 100 zippers ( no hill for a stepper ) as a guy i used to work with would say. Glad it's you instead of me !

Ray i think that putting a dot of glue in a few different places from a glue gun might work. I haven't tried it though. Most of the zippers i have people wanting are to replace one that's tore up. When i put a zipper in shotgun chaps i glue those with contact cement but i keep the zipper zipped up. On the green bag on my profile page i cut the zipper hole in the leather then put glue on the leather and the zipper and laid wax paper down on the zipper. Then laid the leather on top and moved the wax paper as i stuck the leather to the zipper. I've watched all kinds of viedos where they just lay the zipper down and take off sewing and it's perfect. Personally i never had that kind of luck or skill..LOL.

Ray the zipper would still need to sewn in useing the double sided tape. The way i understood was the tape holds the zipper in place so you can sew. All of the super glue i have ever tried pretty much soaked into any type of cloth material and wouldn't stick. They may have some new types of super glue now that will work now though. I haven't tried any in a long time.

That's neat. Is the leather glued to Kraft paper or is the back leather that folded ?

I don't remember who it was but they said they used double sided tape. Never tried it myself, but then again i don't do a zipper if i can get out of it. The times i have tried glueing i used barge contact cement. But you need to be real carefull so it doesn't get where you don't want it.

If i was you i'd just buy the one ebay and when it doesn't do the work sell it and get one like folks are telling you about.You asked for advice and different ones have tried to help you. But you seem to have your heart set on the ebay machine. Cheaper isn't always a good deal in the end. One thing though what ever machine you buy you better make sure you can get some different feet for it cause the foot in the video is way to wide to do what you want to do i think. One other thing it doesn't take long to get 1/2 of material to sew through and i think that's limit on the machine you want.