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Made up these medicine bags. One side has a removable panel inside with loops for syringes and pinkeye meds. The fellow wanted a bottle pocket on the outside as well as a syringe holster outside. First set like this.

I got this e mail this afternoon. " Have you ever made saddlebags for a motorcycle. The ones I have are synthetic leather and they only last for a year. It is also hard to find a set that fits properly." I've finally learned my lesson, that I can't be everything to everyone without working at minimum wage or less. This person is in Northwest Saskatchewan, Canada If there's anyone who feels like they are up toe to this, please let me know within 16 hours and I will forward his e mail address. I like to get back to people fairly quickly. cowboyup@sasktel.net Terry

I went down this road a couple years back. I took apart a check book cover and on the binder I found a name and searched on the internet. I came up with the outfit that made just the ring binder. It was an outfit up north here. You might try looking for a name on ones you've "gutted". If you don't find it, pm me and I'll find the name of this company here that sells them and send it to you. Terry Singletree Ranch Leather

I tried some royal meadow a couple years back when it was on sale. It was ok I guess but not a whole lot better than the cheaper line. Finer grain to it, so on larger projects that was good. Just one person's opinion though. Terry

Thanks for the compliments, After tooling and allowing the leather to dry thoroughly, I started with Tandy gel antique ( medium brown in this case ). When it was just dry to touch, ( the humidity is very high this summer so that's likely a factor ), I sponged on Fiebings acrylic resolene in a circular motion. Again, after just a short time, I ran over it with more gel antique. When it was dry to touch, I went over it with a generous coating of tan kote, again a circular motion. Then left it to dry for 24 hours. This seems to work only on leather that has been cased and slicked. Terry www.singletreeleather.com

Is there nobody that has any exposure to these machines? Posted July 3, 2010

Here's a photo album I finished up and took in to town for a wedding this afternoon. The fellow who ordered it wanted the names and date on a leather plater inside the front cover. Forgot to get a picture of that. Thanks for looking, Terry www.singletreeleather.com

I've picked up here and there about how much crystals to so much water but can't recall anything noteworthy beyond that. Would someone run us through from the start? The ratio, hot or cold water, (I mixed it in screaming hot water and after it cools down, there's still some drop out). Then, how to work it, cloth, dauber, sponge? Any cleanup or dressing after or before dyeing? Wet leather, dry leather cleaning.............might need a pinned tutorial maybeso! Terry www.singletreeleather.com

I printed off a picture of a draw down stand from the internet and showed it to an old timer around here that does good woodworking. He built it just looking at the picture and what a nice job he did. I didn't have to pay any freight and I offered him the going rate to buy one ready made. He gave me back half the money! I feel sort of like I cheated him but we had a pretty good cuss fight before I gave up. You might look around for somebody close that does woodworking. Keep the money local. Terry www.singletreeleather.com

Awhile back a neighbor brought me a large piece of puck board they use in lining hockey rinks. It's easy on the knife and not really expensive. I checked in town and a 4x8 sheet was $40.00. Our local lumber yard will sell it in smaller pieces too. If you need a large cutting surface, this is a good way to go. Plus, if one side gets too hacked up, you flip it over and go again. The end grain of a block of wood is probably the best for punching. The poundo board is pretty good or you could get a piece of neolite soling from your local shoe repair shop pretty reasonable. Terry www.singletreeleather.com

If I buy a couple sides of Hermann O out of Calgary, the average per belt price for me is roughly $5.00 each w/o freight. If old Louie's boys (over in China) are buying by the truckload, (even if it's a better leather) I'll bet their leather cost is less than $2.00. The buckles probably not even that. The labor?, when they crank out belts by the caseload, probably not much. Just because his name's on it don't mean it cost more to produce.

Just wondering how many have opinions on the tech sew/ raphael sewing machines? Both the flatbed and cylinder arm models with walking foot and needle feed. I've heard a lot of good things about other brands but tech sew being in Canada reduces the freight and no customs brokerage fees.

Mike, I got the package in yesterday's mail. Thanks a bunch for the help. Terry

OK, so I started resizing the tugs on this harness. Tried different ways of lubeing the thread. Olive oil, no good. My wife was going to town so I called the auto parts store and they sent home some silicone spray, works sort of ok. While I was having a panic attack, I searched the net and found this. www.bioplastics.us/sewing-tips/biothane-sewing-tips.html

To those who responded, thanks for your input. I was hoping that I would get a broad range of responses but what I got I appreciate. I am going to implement changes to my site. It will take some time because of my location, I only have a dial up connection. Re-doing much on my site can take hours of phone time. I have to do some work to be able to accept credit cards or pay pal but I am going to do it. Oddly enough, just a couple days after your post, bullwhips, a customer's check bounced on me on the last order I sent out I was thinking stuff that would make a sailor blush, he won't even respond to my e mails. And, by the way, bullwhips, no offense taken! Like my tax man said, education costs money, we just pay in different ways. Thanks again, Terry

I realize this isn't leather but in my world I must repair/ resolve other people's mistakes. The local farm/ ranch store called yesterday. They ordered in and sold some biothane harness to a customer. Guess what? something's not right. Better call Terry. Cutting to the chase, I'm not keen on altering, repairing, or building anything from biothane but in my world I can't turn down much. Question is, from past experience, I know that I need some luibe to get the thread to feed and pull the lockstitch through the material. Bought a small ( finger nail polish size ) bottle of thread lube at the sewing store for $3.00. I don't think it's going to last through four tug straps. I'm wondering if anybody has worked with this evil stuff and if they have tried something like vegatable oil?

Wrangler, Awhile back my wife was trying to find out more about an old saddle I've had for about 35 years and the fellow I got it from had it for25 or 30 years. She came across this article about Meanea. http://lasvegasmuseum.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-07%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=24 If anybody has a good photo of Menea's cartouche, I'd like to see it. This saddle's cartouche is pounded out pretty hard. It was put on centered on the seat just back of the swells. All you can make out is Cheyenne Wy and a couple of letters. Was it common for old makers to change location of their stamps? thein

Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan is holding this years Meadow Lake Stampede this week. Any leatherworkers traveling up this way this week are invited to this years Stampede. Starting on thursday night is the pro bull riding. Friday, saturday, and sunday there are rodeos. On saturday, we're having the ranch horse competition and heavy horse pull. If any of you all are in the area, check it out. Also, you're welcome to get ahold of us and come for a visit and talk about leatherwork. Send me a message and I'll let you know how to get in touch.

I started carving leather 40 years ago. Up until about 4 years ago I used Tandy leather, early on it was "Live Oak" 4 or 5 years ago I used some of the Oak leaf, etc. Got hacked off and tried Hermann Oak. There's no doubt about it, the stuff tools like a dream. My problem is blemishes, uneven grain, funny coloration. Are you supposed to use a whole side if you're doing a large piece and try to use up a lot of scrap on smaller projects? I'm making some saddlebags with only partial floral and large blank areas and as I do the oiling, finish, etc, stuff's showing up that I'm not happy about. I'm about to order another side but hey! that's another $260.00 when you count the freight.

I started a website two years ago this month. To date, I've had 14,904 total hits on all pages. In that time frame, I have averaged two orders per month (that might be stretching it) from the website. All of my work is custom. The only stock stuff is for local businesses. I'm inviting everyone interested to look at my website, critique the construction of the site and my skills, and tell me what more I can do to increase orders. My website: www.singletreeleather.com

Thanks for the info. I've got an order for one headstall, so not very many! I'm supposed to pick up the example headstall today. I'm guessing there's two on each cheek piece. Likely the shipping will be more than the hardware. I'll check out the links. Not sure I'm doing this reply right but you gotta start somewhere. Thanks Again, Terry

I'm looking for hardware I understand is used on some English headstalls. They are a sort of hook used where the loop of the cheek piece fastens back after going through the bit. No buckle, screw, or tie is used. I've never seen the exact thing but saw an old rifle sling with a similar piece used to secure the ends. This is confusing but if anyone knows about these, and where to get them, let me know.

I've been trying to find some outfit that sells stapling pliers. I've tried searching the internet but all I've found are the large bench or floor models of riveter/ stapler. Thanks