Sharpshooter

Thanks... The insert is Cobra... I must have slept through that part of snake school.

My mentor in the Knife Business has told me many times... "When you set out to design a knife that's Different, you usually end up with something that's a lot more different and a lot less knife." I'm finding that the same goes for sheaths... This weekend we hosted another "Grind-In," where people come from all over the country to design and build their own knives. This group's "colors" are black and red, so we laid in some black leather and red thread so they could have "Devilz" sheaths as well. The knives were all terrific, but when the "girl" who made this knife asked me to come up with something "different" for a sheath. I'm coming to fear that word... But I think I overcame my fear with this.... CLICK FOR FULL SIZE Faux Python Insert, black leather with red stitching. I'm not huge on inserts, we're a production shop and not setup for the tight handwork but it's pretty darn good. The shape of the blade forced the snap at the mouth to lock in the blade while showing off a lot of the fancy handle material. CLICK FOR FULL SIZE Thinking outside the box can take you a different directions. Everyone in the shop just had to play with the snap, examining how the sheath works so she's getting it all broken in.

My shop is attached to a knife company... they drill all different sorts of stainless steels after heat treat so it is possible. Drill speed is critical... also with very thin materials it will grab the bit as you poke through. 1/16" is pretty thin and you MAY be better off punching through like we do with leather. I don't think you mentioned the hole size... The Knife shop uses Carbide Bits, not carbide tips, carbide bits. If you can't find a specific size, let me know and I'll find the source for you. Damn.... I'm pretty spoiled with my setup... none of these things are problems for me so long as I m willing to walk a whole 30 feet. Let me know if I can help.

Pay close attention to the location of your tongue when using the groover... I find that if I keep the first 13/16th of an inch clamped between my first premolar, second premolar and first molar with between 3 and 3.25 pounds of pressure on the side of my mouth opposite from the side of the workpiece it works perfectly. It's simple... really.

Just because I felt like doing something different.... I went rough out for a more period correct look. CLICK FOR FULL SIZE CLICK FOR FULL SIZE

Tim... Let's get the story right, without the spin and then I'm done here on this matter. You replaced two rolls of product that are not usable...... piled off the spool in shipping. The reason they weren't to be returned was YOUR decision that it wasn't worth the price of return shipping. "We had already given him two free pound rolls of thread..." which ones are they, the defective rolls you don't want or the replacements for the defective rolls I paid for? By the way, just to ensure that you don't feel taken advantage of... it was me who called earlier today to have you send a call tag for the box that arrived this morning. It will come back to you unopened as I don't want anything for free.... It was also me who sent you an e-mail through your site to make you aware of this thread. I have a problem with your business practices but I will not compromise my ethics. Tell me, why is it a problem for you to send the refund before I send the defective product to you? The ONLY answer is you questioning a customer's integrity. If the thread wasn't defective, you have your product to sell to someone else and everyone is whole. If the thread was defective, you could return it to the manufacturer and be credited for the defective product, again you're whole. The ONLY real concern you would have would be that I could beat you out of the thread by not returning it. You carry a two million dollar inventory, and buy the thread for significantly less than you sold it to me for, again, that's the way it should be. Your concern was over the wholesale cost of the thread. You placed the value of me as a customer at the wholesale cost of the thread with the huge assumption that I wouldn't have put the spools of defective thread in a box, placed the label I asked you to provide on the box and handed ot to the UPS driver. I asked to be made whole, I don't carry 2 million dollars in inventory, I struggle to take great care of my customers and try not to worry about how much it costs me to make them happy. I buy supplies as I need them, enough to cover the next few jobs so I don't have inventory dollars tied up any more than necessary. Four spools of thread is about a three week supply. The business model is called "Just in Time" and is quite effective so long as your suppliers hold up their end. You sitting on my money makes no sense. Since you don't extend me credit, why am I obligated to do so for you? I'm not the one who shipped out a defective product and I'm not the one who stands to profit from the sale... you are. I'm not a new customer nor am I a featherweight, not that it should matter. I have spent a respectable sum of money with you over the past 18+ months, enough that I would have thought my worth was more than those spools of defective thread. There won't be a flame war, it's never worth it. You're not going to send the check with the UPS call tag, to quote you directly... "That's never going to happen" and I take you at your word in spite of the fact that you made it quite obvious both on the phone yesterday and here today that you don't much value mine. These words keep coming back to me.... "if the product is indeed defective." "sold 37 rolls of the same thread to other customers with no complaint" " We had already given him two free pound rolls of thread" " but we wanted to see for ourselves the oil that was on the thread" Tim, it's not what you're saying as much as what you aren't saying. It's about deeds, not words. You don't trust me, that's your prerogative, just as it's mine to consider who I'm dealing with. Not only don't you trust me, but you also lack the moral courage to openly tell me so. You came on here, not to attempt to rectify the situation but to speak your piece. I'm glad you did as our stories pretty much match and your position has remained unchanged, convincing me that I made the right decision. To paraphrase what Joanna said earlier, I'm doing you a huge favor here, one that you can never repay as we won't be doing business again. "That's never going to happen" might just as well have been "Go away, I don't want your business." The message was the same and I received it loud and clear. Enjoy the $88 you charged me for some defective thread, but I admonish you to spend it wisely as it's the last you'll ever see from me. Maybe the next time a customer calls, you'll consider the value of a customer vs. what he is asking you to do to resolve what he perceives to be your fault. Maybe you'll consider that the wrong answer will cost you and maybe then you'll do the right thing and realize that customers can find whatever you sell elsewhere and by purchasing it from you are demonstrating trust in you. Maybe you'll make a different decision, or select different words. Regardless, maybe you'll think about the guy you took for $88 and how he wished you happiness and success and wonder why. I wish you much happiness and success Tim but it's highly likely that we're not going to do business again. Reid

I did share my displeasure and as I stated at the onset, I am not shy about praising publicly as well. I gave them an opportunity to make it right. My expectation is a bit beyond what they want to do but I am the customer. I don't accept it when a business tries to blow smoke at me instead of giving me a straight answer. Telling me that nobody has ever complained about thread piling off the spool in shipping when I know that I complained several months ago is an outright lie... sorry, that's intolerable. They lied again about oil being acceptable on thread, I've asked several people today and NOBODY concurred with their position. I told them... I want a refund, send me a pickup ticket and a check for the amount I paid for the thread. I'm not a new account... I'm not a hobby leatherworker... I don't call and order one buckle or one shoulder... I make 500 sheaths a WEEK and buy accordingly. They know who I am. For me to expect an immediate refund, while not the way they like to do it isn't an outrageous request. They don't extend me credit, I don't receive product from Zack White until I pay for it. Why is Zack White entitled to credit from me? We're both professional businesses. I have a tax ID and I used to spend money with them. From my perspective, sending the refund along with the check would have been the right call because it shows faith in a customer and indicates a measure of the value they place on me as a customer. As it stands, I'm NOT worth risking $88 to keep. That's $88 against 4 spools of product that he doesn't have $88 in. We're all entitled to make a profit, that's how we all eat. I never asked for a discount, the price is the price, but I expect to get what I pay for. I'm not sending the thread back, I'm keeping it as a reminder of how to never treat a customer. I see it as four $22 bills; maybe someday the mint will start printing $22 bills and then the thread will be worth something. I hope they keep the $88 and use it in good health as it's the last they'll get from me, obviously all of my business is worth the profit on those spools to them so it's time we parted ways. At this point, there's nothing they can do to "make it right, " A demanded apology is meaningless and empty. Sending a check to me at this point isn't a matter of doing the right thing, it's hush money to repair a damaged image. I stayed on the phone for 20 minutes giving them many opportunities to do the right thing; I worked too damn hard to remain a customer when I know full well that my money is green everywhere and I'm an easy customer. I say thank you, I seldom demand anything and when someone does a good job I let them know how much I appreciate it. I have emailed a link to this thread to Zack White... I WANT them to know about what I'm saying and I want them to know how I feel about how this was handled. Joanna is right.... this is my parting gift to them, they can do what they want with it.

I really try to be completely fair with vendors. Being in the wholesale business I understand that things happen that no matter how hard you try aren't going to come out right. As far as I'm concerned, the fair measure of a supplier isn't in them never letting you down, but in what they do to make it right when something goes wrong. I also give praise when it's due so I don't feel at all self conscious when I say that I'm done with Zack White. I order my needles from them because I know they have what I'm looking for and it's easy. I also needed some 346 and 277 thread so I put together an order and rang them up. My account with them is COD which is fine with me because it's simple to pay for what comes in and whatever is in the shop belongs to me. Bookkeeping is much simpler that way. The product arrived, I have no complaint with them shipping, that's easy. It's what arrived that's frustrating. The spools of thread are all in loose plastic bags to keep them clean, a nice touch for storage, but when you toss those spools into a box, tape it up and ship it, the spools tend to bounce around a bit which isn't good for the thread as it slips loose from the plastic "bobbin" and forms a very nice rat nest in the plastic bag. In order to use ANY of the thread you have to spend time untangling the rat nest from the spool and in the process toss about 1/3rd of the thread you just bought into the trash as it's not worth the time to untangle it for use on the machine. I called and complained, this is the second time this has happened with me being told the first time that they have NEVER heard of such a thing happening. I ate the loss the first time but insisted this time that they make good on it, so they're going to be sending me one spool to replace the lost thread. That would be fine and we wouldn't be discussing this if that were the end of the story... I went to use that thread and discovered that it is SATURATED in oil, not sorta oily, dripping with oil. I'm not an expert, but if I recall correctly, the old machines had oilers on them to lubricate the thread and it wasn't Nylon it was cotton. The PRODUCT I ORDERED was "White Bonded Nylon Machine Thread", nowhere does it say pre-oiled or lubricated or "dripping with oil so you don't need to ever oil you machine" or "Lubricated for your sewing pleasure" or even "dunked in 3 in 1 for your convenience". What adds to this issue is that the thread unravels in the needle as you sew with it forming huge clumps of oily nylon strands to drip the oil in it on your work so instead of a neat stitch line you get a wadded up mess on the sheath with a row of neatly spaced holes and intermittent oil splotches. I guess if I wanted to market my sheaths to the 3 year old market or make stuff like one of my competitors that would be acceptable, but that's not what I'm about. I called them again to complain and was first told that they order thread unoiled but sometimes it just comes like that. That answer doesn't do me much good as I sit looking at a hand cut prototype that needs to be done ASAP that I now need to remake. I pushed the issue and was them told that nobody else ever complained about that problem.... gee where did I hear that before? Oh yeah, when we talked about the rat nest I received from them. We ultimately came to them agreeing that if I ship the thread back to them, they will send me a check. Know what, I'm now angry enough that I don't feel like being reasonable. I'm out a bunch of money for the wasted sheath, both materials and time. I'm out the money for the lost production time as I messed around with fixing the rat nest and then I'm going to be out the money for the time in packing up their defective product to return it. I get to lose all of that just for the opportunity to be made whole. BUT!!! They don't give me terms when I buy from them.... I pay up front or I don't receive the product. They have my money and essentially they're expecting me to give them TERMS. They refused to provide me with a credit application and wouldn't accept the package COD. I'm ticked off.... I'M THE CUSTOMER... I won't treat my customers like that.... I made some sheaths for one client and we discovered that there was a mistake in how something was put together.... he didn't find it, I did. I called him and told him to throw the sheaths he received out that replacements were on the way and I sat on the check until he had them in hand. I guarantee I'm a bunch smaller than Zack White, so much so that the $88 I spent on thread from them is something to me and having them hold MY MONEY is a slight issue. That's fine with me, I ordered thread from someone else and plan to toss this thread in the dumpster, it looks like two $44 bills to me now and that's cheap tuition for the Never Buy From Zack White Class I just graduated from. I hope that $88 makes a huge difference to them because it's the last penny they'll ever receive from anyone who will listen to me. We all make mistakes, we all even make mistakes in handling customer service issues but there is a finite limit to how far you can ride the Excuse Express and for me, they hit the end of the line HARD. Sorry about the rant, then again maybe not... maybe I should go back to one of my prior lives and say... "Class Dismissed."

I'm stealing that idea....

Thanks, This sheath was machine stitched, we're a commercial shop and the prospect of hand stitching 300 sheaths a week is frightening. The Knives are both made by Bark River Knife and Tool which is why I ended up with the job. The owner of the knives came to me since I make all of the production sheaths for Bark River so it made sense that I would have the knives on hand. Here are the Knives: CLICK for Full Size TOP is the Bark River Knife and Tool SOCOM BOTTOM is the Bark River Knife and Tool Classic Light Hunter We've promoted the concept of "Piggybacking" knives, making a pair of knives to deal with a wider variety of outdoor situations. The larger SOCOM would be used as the big chopper in situations where the user doesn't have access to an axe. The smaller Classic Light Hunter would be used for fine work as well as game and food prep tasks. The Loop on the side is a "FireSteel Loop" to carry a Swedish Army Fire Steel as a firestarting tool. Bark River has made several batches of Firesteels with handles that match the knife handles so the guys have completely coordinated rigs. This sheath will carry a pair of knives and Firesteel with the same handle material as the SOCOM. It will be a terrific rig.

Thanks guys.... I wish I had invented the idea of retaining the strap but I stole it from someone else just like I expect you to steal it from me... The Color is something we call Oxblood. It's not a commercially available dye, it's my own concoction that we do in the shop on some specialty jobs. It's a trade secret so I won't share the exact process, BUT I will tell you that the depth to the color is isn't accidental. It's also important to think outside the leather dye catalog when looking for unique colors. We spray the finish on before cutting the leather which gives us uniformity. The finished sheath is sprayed with neatsfoot oil compound as the last step.

Thanks... Something we always do on sheaths from the shop is to find a way to assure that the retaining strap is unlikely to be accidentally sliced when inserting or removing the knife. The Stacked sheaths we make have a relief cut in the drop loop to hook the strap behind. like this.... Since the front of the sheath is occupied I simply went the other way....

I had a customer ask me to build him a custom sheath.... I don't do a lot of custom work, the hand made sheaths I do are prototypes. This challenge was too good to pass by... a Double Sheath to carry a Bark River SOCOM and Classic Light Hunter. I'm usually not a fan on double rigs because they just don't carry right. Either they're too wide on the belt or way too bulky. We was heart set so.... Click for full size Image Now I just need to figure out how much to charge him...

Art's on the money as usual.... I'm going to go a slightly different direction..... Sharpshooter Rule #2: Good things aren't cheap and cheap things aren't good. Save the money you have to pay for a machine now and add to it until you have enough to buy a Toro 3000.... It's a great machine that will last just about forever with terrific support should you run into a problem down the road. Buying a used machine is fine if you really know machines well enough to figure it out because the "Used Sewing Machine Technical Support Hotline" is either closed or busy whenever you need it and you're back to sewing like you are now except your wallet is a bit thinner.

Hey... I'm trying to find a source for "Sling Hooks".. I need the good hooks. like those used on rifle slings not the cheap stamped small ones available from Ohio Travel bag. The picture above is from Siegel of California and their site shows that they have them but I've called several times and requested information about the hook they're selling as for what attaching hardware they recommend etc. I have been promised a return call three times and a sample twice but nothing happens after I hang up the phone so I'm assuming that they aren't interested in my money. I'm not a hobbiest, and buy production quantities so to be blunt I don't think it's unreasonable to expect answers to queries about products someone want to sell to me. Most places will actually send me a sample when I ask which usually results in me buying 10,000 pieces. I still need the hooks and have no idea where to get them. Any suggestions?

A couple of times a year, my principal customer, Bark River Knife and Tool holds an event where people are welcomed into the shop to build their own knife. People come from all over the world and always have a terrific time but they do manage to come up with some very unusual designs for knives. Being that the sheath shop is attached to the knife shop, we are often asked to come up with sheaths for the knives these folks build. Since we're a production shop, custom sheaths are really more like prototypes to us as our everyday job is knocking out a hundred sheaths. This sheath was a challenge.... the knife shape is very different, yet pleasing to the eys and actually feels good in the hand. Click for the full size picture Click for the full size picture I can see why this guy wanted a sheath, the knife just begs to be used. The sheath will be in the mail to him as soon as as I take care of the stitching issue. Anyone else have a pic of an unusual sheath they've done?

Very nice.... I may steal that design.... Reid

I have been approached a few times about making "Generic" sheaths for knife distributors to sell to dealers for sales at knife shows. Here's what I have discovered... Obviously, "One Size Fits All" really means "doesn't fit anything". Since the sheath doesn't fit the knife properly it needs to be a bunch cheaper than a correctly fitted sheath or it won't sell. Leather isn't cheaper just because you're making a cheap sheath, nor is the hardware or the thread or glue. That leaves only the labor or to be really accurate PROFIT to cut to lower the price. Since you aren't selling quality with the discounted sheaths, the competition is now about having the lowest price. Oklahoma leather can make a sheath to sell for about $2. I can assure you that they're making money on the $2 sheath as well. I'm not interested in that part of the business, I'll make my money building quality and charging for it. If you're looking to E-bay as a way to generate sales, you may want to attack from a different direction. Perhaps you can sell a sheath for a specific size knife for a set price, a basic custom sheath that will be fitted to the knife the buyer sends to you. It's not as simple but you would be building a reputation with each sheath you ship. Good luck in the venture, however you choose to pursue it.

We're a production sheath making business, cranking out 350 to 500 sheaths a week, every week. A good sewing machine is vital because if we're not sewing, we're not working. When I started out doing research on machines I went with the Toro 3000 because it seemed to be the right machine to start with. Keep in mind that we're using this machine 8 hours a day, 5 days a week on sheaths that range from 3/8” to darn near 7/8” thick. I need another machine to take the business to the next level, with increased production from another big client. I'm NOT going to be shopping for the next machine, no internet time searching for reviews, no looking for the best deal or for free shipping. To make a purchase decision without research is not good business sense and any Business School Graduate will tell you 300 different reasons to not do that. That may be the current conventional thinking, but it's not the thinking my grandfather would would follow. He would agree with me 100%. See, the reason I'm NOT going to shop for my next machine is because I have found someone who does business the way my grandfather did, the way I learned to do things. The workout we give “Oliver” (the name my Team of Girls has bestowed upon the Toro 3000) does cause him to show occasional signs of fatigue. It's a great machine that performs far beyond what anyone could expect of it but we still run into problems once in a while. In the course of a month we probably put better than a year's worth of mileage on Oliver so it stands to reason that things are just going to happen. But every time something goes wrong that I can't figure out from past experience, I just ring up Steve at Artisan and he walks me right through. Steve seems to have figured me out well enough to just let me grumble a bit when Oliver is giving me a bad time before getting into fixing the machine. Wisdom is Knowledge Shared, and Steve personifies that. He has walked me through timing the machine and finding the mysterious knock that turned out to be a wad of thread in the bobbin case. It's always with a smile in his voice and just enough confidence to let me know that we will figure it out and get Oliver back on the job. Steve does a fantastic job of getting my machine back on line and I appreciate it more than he can imagine but he does something else, that I don't know he's even aware of.... It's not reasonable to expect that nothing will go wrong when we buy something; the more complicated something is, the more likely a problem is. I don't buy things expecting that it's going to be perfect and I don't measure quality by that standard. The Standard my grandfather taught we was simply to measure quality by how the problem is handled when it comes up. Steve handles problems the way it should be, not a 30 minute hold time while they research sales records to verify that you are entitled to ask questions. Steve just handles the issue and makes sure you know that YOU are important to Artisan when you hang up the phone. Like I said, I'm NOT shopping when it's time to add the next machine.... I'm calling Steve and telling him to pick out the next machine I need and send it. I think I'll let him name it as well, Oliver sounds like a name a bunch of women would give a machine.... we need something more masculine for the next one.

We build sheaths for a living and occasionally need to design a sheath from the CAD Drawings of the knife as the first one hasn't been built. If the sheath is a Stack type I can get pretty darn close but need the actual knife to make final placements like snaps and straps. If it's a pouch style and the desired result is a fit that's better than a paper sack, then I need the knife to make it fit correctly. Sometimes we need to have the moral courage to tell a customer that he's not going to have it his way. If I can't have the knife to fit the sheath, I'm not making the sheath. What happens when the sheath doesn't fit? I'll tell you.... YOU are at fault. The customer won't remember that he didn't want to supply the knife and he certainly not going to accept the blame. The unfortunate fact is that he's somewhat right... you are at fault, because you shouldn't have taken the job under those conditions. I may sound harsh, but the bottom line is, you are setting yourself up for problems.

That is VERY nice work.... When I do edge protectors for axes, the poll is left exposed as many users tend to utilize the poll as a hammer and the edge protector can still be masking the axe when it's used in that capacity. Beyond that, it spot on the money.

Karl I'll tell you this for somewhat selfish reasons.... You would not be violating copyright by doing your own tutorial since the actual product, the tutorial, is YOUR WORK and not that of whoever did the DVD you learned from. Following your line of reasoning, anyone using the English language would be violating Webster's copyrite since they used all of the words in their Dictionary and have a copyright on it. Copyright protects the actual product, in this case the DVD, were you to take the DVD, and re-record it with your own label, you are using their entire work without them receiving whatever it was they required in exchange for their work (usually money). The DVD was produced to sell; in exchange for the purchase price, the purchaser can learn to make leather feathers. The seller does NOT have a right to control how that knowledge is used under a simple copyright, so if you wish to use the knowledge to develop your own tutorial or even a DVD you aren't violating their work. A copyright is not the same as a patent which protects a process or product. The selfish reason is that I want to see how that's done and since you didn't mention who made the DVD and I'm really too cheap to buy it anyway, your tutorial would be cool to check out.

I use Steel Rule Dies instead of clicker dies, they're a bit cheaper and work perfectly on the 300 sheaths per week we do. For Steel Rule Dies, my guy... AC Steel Rule always gives me world class service and dies. My parts are very complex and the dies show up right on the money, every time.

You don't owe me anything..... I'm glad to have helped you out. I've made a bunch of sheaths for F1s.... In fact I just received an order for 100 of them. If that's what you want, it'll be easy, if you have something more like what Fallkniven does, I can do that as well.

What are you looking for?