bkingery

Vernal utah

WELCOME WELCOME I sure do hope you know your in for it now, this hobby is so addicting its like CRACK for me i am so obsessed its crazy. As far as the hammer goes you'll find that it is just really lite and it takes alot of work to do simple things but if you like it I have about ten of them I'll send ya some more, When I started I went to ACE and bought a couple of the rubber 1 lb mallets and a 6 oz one as well and they seem to work really well but I finally broke down and bought the Al Stohlman 16 oz round maul from tandy and its about the best thing next to sugar and coffee (yeah i'm addicted to other stuff to). They are a little spendy but its well worth it. And if your gonna get into this alot the best thing you can do is get into the wholesale club at Tandy because it will save ya quite a bit, I just joined the elite club for 135.00 but so far I've spent about 500.00 and got 965.00 worth of stuff so its already paid for itself.

As soon as I can get my 400lb sewing machine into my house where I can get power i'm gonna try making some floppy purses, I dont think it would be that much harder to add the stuff but people still want cheap so selling is always an issue.

Thanks for for the replies, I was thinking the same things. The only reason that i have so much thick leather is that it was free from a couple of saddle maker friends i have and your right about the kit leather being crappy so i'll probably just use it up and start making my own kits as i can afford to buy more leather. The only problem I have is the only place I have to buy my leather is from so far is Tandy in Salt lake and its usually a crap shoot with what they have. Guess I just need to bite the bullet and find a good supplier with good shipping prices. Any suggestions? I did start adding some glycerin to my casing water and that seems to help with the drying out problem that and i think i just work to slow. Thanks Again B

Hey All, Ok here is my problem, i have a ton of Tandy kits that have really thin leather, BUT the only leather that I have I have to practice tooling with is anywhere from 5-6 clear up to saddle thickness and i can do pretty good on the thicker stuff but when i try to do the thin stuff in the kits it all looks like **** and its driving me totally bonkers and really frustrating. Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks B. .

Hey I just might have this one, I'll check and see if I can find it, if I can I'll just send it to ya. B

Thanks for all the replies. I realize now that I have been holding the leather and then pulling the backing off ergo distortion, I'm going to try the plexiglass next project. Thanks again B.

Hi all, I keep seeing posts that say they use vinagaroon but i don't know what it is, is it a soak and thats how they get such even color, and where can I get some. Also does it rub off if you use it alot and can you distress it. thanks B

Hi all, I have done a few projects but my tooling always seems to distort when I pull the posterboard backing off when I am all done tooling. I have tried using more rubber cement, less cement all to no avail and when i try to tool without a backing the whole piece stretches out and is not usable. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated because I want to start making stuff to sell eventually. Thanks Bryan

I am new at this too but i have done a few things like wallets and cell phone cases, if you are looking to sell then you are going to have a tough go, moneys tight and people are cheap i should know i'm as cheap as they get, I personally have gotten alot of stuff from freinds that had "a business" and I have bought a lot of stuff on ebay sometimes you can find really excellent deals from people that just don't know what it is they are selling. i have a blast at doing this, tracing and stamping and so on i just can't get enough. as far as where you should start is just by getting some scrap leather at your local craft store or buy some from tandy and prctice practice practice, this hobby is VERY not as easy as it looks but when you get it right it is the bomb. If you look ebay under leathercrafting you can find a bunch of easy to read books and tools the ones i use all the time are "LEATHERWORK" by A D Patten Al Stohlman and J A Wilson and Adventures in leather I don't know who wrote this one but it is very good. Again like I said I love to do this and it it very rewarding, definitely something you should try Bryan