JLSleather

And even though it may not look like it, this was MUCH more difficult than the the rose ..

I did this one 5 or 6 years ago. Someone was talking about rose patterns, and they had this one from stohlmans Inverted Carving book. There used to be a tutorial of sorts on this site, but maybe not any more (?). This is not carved at all... just a piece of 3/4 royal meadow tooling leather, some fiebing's red, green, and brown, and a sheet of paper.

Oh, keep in mind that "painting" with leather dye is not the same as painting with some other types of color. Stohlman's book Pictorial Carving has some great info in there about coloring leather. Ever see Bob Ross? He does a lot of landscapes. With oil or acrylics, you just paint the background, then paint trees or mountains or birds right over top of the background. The new "layer" covers the old layer, so the brown tree covers the blue lake water, makes it look like the tree is in front. And if you're making aspen trees (mostly white) you do the same thing. But with leather dye, that wont work. I could give you the whole speech, but the short version is, if you want aspen trees in front of a blue lake in leather dye, then you need to NOT paint the tree area wit the blue. So, you can almost think of coloring leather as the negatives of your photos.

Seriously.. I've seen some STUNNING things done with a $39.95 single action airbrush, an x-acto knife, and some sheets of paper. I mean STUNNING ...

"Custom" is misused to no end. I've seen pricing all over the scale. And I've seen "reasons" for pricing that struck me as anything from absolutely correct to basically insane. I had a guy take two colored pieces of leather ($12), stitch together - edge- burnish, and list it for sale at $100. It's a piece of light brown leather, with stitches. Punch a couple holes, and call it a guitar strap, and tell a neato story about how it was hand stitched uphill both ways. Well, okay.. if someone is willing to give you that, no difference to me. But you charge that because you decided to. Just don't bitch when someone else makes a "guitar strap" from the same leather, machine stitch it, and list it for $29.99 (and someone WILL) because they get to decide what to do with theirs. And yes, it DOES throw off the scale. I've seen belts very nicely tooled, sold for under $50, which I think is a LOT of work for $50. And I've seen a web site by people I personally think maybe are crazy. "Tooled" belt (in quotes because I'm not impressed with what they call tooling) start at like $250. Then it's 'extra' for a buckle, looks like mostly around $30 for various buckles, which I KNOW I can get for under $10 each. Dye the background is extra. Stain the belt is extra.. Blahblahblah... and soon you have a $450-500 "tooled" belt (it doesn't look any better with the extra). I looked at that site SEVERAL times, I guess trying to figure out if those people are really stupid, or if they just think maybe I'M that stupid. In the end, you'll decide what you want to charge, and people will decide what they want to pay. I don't pay ANYBODY based on time. I look at the article I'm getting - and decide if it's worth the price or not. If things were priced by TIME, then the SLOW guy would earn more, which is ridiculous -- I don't offer a REWARD for being slow. Further compound that with those 'marketing' sensitive boogers who run around telling the naive that if you RAISE the prices, then people will think it's worth more. ANd further complicate it by the fact that there really ARE some people who will think that. Fortunately, I'm not sucked into all that. When I get people say ;; "Hey, yer stuff looks nice -- how come it's $20 LESS than this, or that" I basically give them a slightly diplomatic version of 'ya kaint fix stupid". I can't set that other guy's price, and I don't let it concern me. Michael specifically mentioned holsters, so using those as an example.. I know that a pancake holster for most semi-autos will use about 1 foot of leather (some a bit more, some a bit less). Using the VERY BEST vegetable tanned leathers (including shipping charges for the hide and cutting waste), couple snaps, bit of dye/finish, and some thread, that STILL under $20, and many holsters would cost half of that to make. Say one guy sit down at the bench, work up a shape he likes (give it a fancy name if you feel the need, but that's all it is.. a shape), and prices the finished holster at $100. He went through 3 pencils and a whole eraser. Took him 6 hours. Next guy spends a few bucks for that guy's pattern, sits at the bench, makes a holster the same design. Prices the holster at $100 because he sees what the other guy charges. Took him 2.5 hours. Holster looks nice and fits good. Another guy buys leather already dyed, clicks the parts out in seconds, glue and stitch with a monster machine. Prices the holster at $82, because he sees others at $100, and he wants attention. Takes him an hour. Holster looks nice and fits good. And the last guy buys leather already dyed, clicks the parts out in seconds, glue and stitch with a monster machine. Prices the holster at $39, simply because he CAN. He knows he's only being paid $20 for that holster, and after he pays for the electricity for the machine and the shop rag to clean up the dye and finish, he only "makes" $10 each. BUT, he does the math and knows he can sell 1000 of em a month (which is 6 figure income, just for doing a simple thing over and over). Holster looks nice and fits good. Which would YOU buy?

I''m guessin' that many holes punched together would make it very difficult to get teh leather off the punch without deformation / stretching.

While I agree tha's not so lucky, if he's out the prison, way ya hear bout summa them boys, he may not mind gointa lunch witcha! Tha's a riot. Get it? Prison... riot ....

AND .... the point is that though that gal is just a tad chubby healthy, I conclude that NOT EVERYTHING from Tandy is sub-par

I'd be more interested in knowing how wide are the billet ends (kaint bleeve nobody done alredy asked that)????

Oh, as for Tandy .... There's a shop a little better than an hour from here. Usedta be called "The Leather Factory" years ago. I ordered there ALL THE TIME, no problems. I'd just send em a order form (anybody remember those paper things with lines on 'em?) and in a few days I'd have exactly what I need Worst case, if I ordered a dbl shoulder o' 9/10 oz and wrote 12 feet, they might call me and say all they got is 14 footers. Yeah, fine... whatever. And it would arrive and be about 95% useable leather, very little trim. Now .. it's "Tandy Leather Factory" and .. well.... not so much. Still, that litttle dark haired gal is both cute and knowledgeable, so ya GOTTA go SOMETIMES. Maybe just to decide you already got what you need, and did she already have lunch ... ? Ahhh... I'm gittin soft.. finding the up side to everything

If you're cutting 13-15 oz leather consistently, then maybe git the round knife. More blade in the cut theoretically means less labor. But like Art mentions, then you also have the 'down time' of sharpening. With a utility knife (the one I use I found at an auto parts store years ago) you just pitch the blade and go. Yer out a quarter er so ... I cut 10 oz leather with it all the time. Gonna go out on a limb here and say bout the only benefit I've seen in those curved "skife" skivers is that it binds the blade in place, much like a pancake holster holds a pistol. I got one 100 years ago, and I use it just because I'm used to it -- not necessarily that they're that wonderful. There are a LOT of ways to end up with the same thing. While I won't buy something so cheap i have to FORCE it to do the job, I also don't buy things just cuz I kin, which I think is often the case with round knives. Saddle maker likely got several uses for one. Most others buying one... as you suggested ... simply because someone told them they need one.

I bought one of those little tools about a year ago to spray finishes. One day, I really MUST get an air hose that fits it The ones on the Paasche brushes are different (which I used to know, guess I forgot). That airbrush should be fine for a LOT of work. You know, proper combination of masks n stencils....

If you're hand stitching, then I WOULD get the groover. And a diamond awl. I like an overstitch wheel for marking stitch spacing (no punches). I've never owned a round knife -- for the type projects you're describing, you won't need one too. Stanley utility knife is $5 and cuts like butter. I keep a #11 x-acto around too. What's a v-tool? You mean a gouge? Might help for notebooks n such. And the burnisher is never a bad idea.

Don't kid yourself... you can get cheap junk LOTS of places

I picked up some bowl thingies at walmart... sealed lids. Rubbermaid? Or something like that. I pour the dye in (quarts, but they'd probably hold gallons if you want), dip whatever I'm working on, then put the lid on the 'barrel'. Simple. And they stack, so not eating up shop space. No, I dont have a picture of them... just any 'tupperware' type thing.. I just checked to make sure they have a good seal (don't want the reducer evaporating out).

Bristol board works great. Just a tip.. you can probably get that same stuff at a print shop for less money -- just won't be paying for the packaging and a middle man.

Straight slot will do that, Boss. Assuming your slots are 5 1/2" apart (give er take a bit), that 20° is only a difference of 1 3/4" -ish, and doesn't require a longer slot (the difference in slot length is LESS than you would take out with an edger). I'm going with the reason for the curved slot is 2-fold... cosmetics (appearance only) compounded with a marketing goober telling you how important it is to have it that way. Or, other words, no value.

Toolmaker AND an RN? Cool... you can put in your own stitches when the die gets you!

I have other images of this type of thing, but since you specifically talked about belts, I tried to find pics showing belts. One day, I really must do some cleaning and organize my images better ... Top layer and billets dyed Fiebing's Oil Black and Neatsfoot (24 hours in between and 24 hours after oil), then buff to shine. Glue natural (undyed) liner, edge stitch, burnish edges, and apply finish. Same approach as above, just different thread and look Leather (H.O. 7/8 oz) is tooled and allowed to dry overnight. Apply oil and dry overnight. Apply stain over all. When dry (later same day is fine) machine stitched white. Drum-dyed leather (Wickett&Craig brown skirting) is glued and stitched with complementary thread color, buffed, and finish applied. Holster and belt are both cut out, glued and stitched with natural color thread. Holster is formed and allowed to dry overnight. Base color (saddle tan) applied over entire article - both sides of holster, only the outside of belt. All edges rounded and dyed (fiebing's chocolate) with a wool dauber before burnishing. Lightly buff after a few hours, and spray fiebing's chocolate for that sensitive look (hey, that's what he wanted). This is done SO THE THREAD WILL COLOR along with the leather.

Congratulations on your progress, and finding a gun shop you can work with -- awesome! I would suggest - though I'm guessing you're already finding --- that a guy curb how much time you spend on videos. I don't know the numbers exactly, but the majority of time in those "leathercraft" videos is spent proving that the video guy should have stuck to what he knows... making videos! Just a light humor, but you'll see what I mean soon enough. I don't think your 'process' is all that broken. Couple things to mention, but I've been at it a while and I can tell you, there's more than one way to skin a cow. We don't have to take the exact same route to get to the same place. I'm not one who subscribes to the 1/4" thick belt club. I have made them, and if that's what your customers are asking for then by all means. Mine are generally more like 3/16 -ish. 7/8 with a 3/4 liner, or occasional double-6 oz. Again, up to the customer. As for the problems you mention, those are easy fixes. → Truth is, if your dye is bleeding, then it isn't as dry as you thought -wait another day. → Your leather should be at least damp before making a sharp fold. I actually include a note with rifle slings (and other things where the strap is adjustable) NOT to put a sharp fold in dry leather (and how to avoid doing that). As for thread getting discolored, I've done that a number of ways. On projects where I want the thread unchanged, just make sure the dye is dry. Once dry, I've never had oil dyes "bleed". On other projects, I WANT the thread to take the dye, so plan accordingly. I'll dig out a couple pictures showing the different looks, but that's all it is.. just another look!

Yeah, that's two votes for W/C leather .

It's gonna be easier to help if we know ... what kind of leather you are looking for, and how much of that leather (shoulder, a back, a side, 10 sides?? .... patterns for what, exactly?

Actually, I LOVE thread exchange. For anyone not familiar, they have a good product, at a decent price, fast delivery, and have even offered to have me send them a sample of what I'm sewing so they can match thread color. Beyond that, I have also ordered at http://www.superiorthreads.com/

I'm surprised you never see anybody "swappin". Perhaps they do, just - as they say - under the table.