Bob Blea

I think it's really cool! I like how the bag shape incorporates the honeycomb design.

Beautiful work Ryan, and congratulations! That is quite an achievement for only your second saddle.

I just noticed a new antique gel from Feibings on the Springfield Leather website. Its the first I've heard of it and I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with it?

That is a very cool idea! Nice work. Your stitching looks particularly nice.

Nice work! You got a good finish on the face of that beveller.

Too bad it didn't fit. That's nice looking leather and your stitching looks great.

A couple of questions: What kind of leather (or leathers) are you using on these bracelets, and are you burnishing by hand or mechanically?

The company I work for in my day job has a major manufacturing presence in Shenzhen, China (near Hong Kong) as well as offices in Shanghai and other parts of China, so this was an obvious question for us too. Our health and safety department dug into this early on and the determination was that the virus should only be able to exist on a surface for two days at most, so there should not be any health risks with handling packages. Even things that are sent 'overnight' take more than a day to reach us here in the US, but right now I'm not sure how long anything would take. Even their normal shippers have been shut down or heavily restricted in doing business from our understanding.

To me it looks like the antique didn't adhere to the leather and is peeling off. When I apply antique I don't let it dry. It's more a case of applying it and then wiping it back off before it can dry. That leaves the antique only in the crevices of your tooling. That being said, even if someone did let it dry completely I can't see it peeling like this unless there was something on the leather preventing it from sticking to the leather.

Yes Sir, that was certainly a challenge for this one. It took a lot of work to get it buffed and sealed without getting dye particles everywhere they shouldn't have been.

Thank you! It wasn't too bad since the front and back are mirror images of each other. I didn't keep good records on how long it took but I think the floral carving took 3-4 hours per side. Thank you very much!

That is a very classy display case. Looks like it came from a museum.

This was one of my Christmas orders. The customer wanted a pretty specific design and layout. This was the first time I have done a notebook where everything was black except the tooled areas. That seems to be a popular style these days and I was glad to give it a try. She was thrilled with the result and I think I'll be glad to make this style again, though maybe in a smaller size. The basket weave design is all hand carved. I don't have a block stamp that size. I thought that would be a fairly simple design but I really underestimated the amount of work required to tool that large of a design. I did like how it turned out though and would do it again despite how labor intensive it turns out to be. I'm happy to hear any feedback.

That is a lot of hand stitching and you did it well. It looks great.

That is looking awesome, good work!

I think they are really cool!

Really nice cases!

That is a really nice bag! Makes me want to try making a tote like that too. You're wife is a lucky lady!

I too hope that all our friends in Australia can stay safe and that the weather takes a cooler turn sometime soon.

Hello and welcome from a fellow Coloradoan. Nice feather carving on the sheath. The chinks look great.

That's really nice work! I too owe a lot to Nigel for what skills I have at hand stitching. And thanks for the tip on the pouch pack. I didn't know about that one but I think I need to get it.

I think it looks great! Stitching the bottom like that is not easy. I've tried it one time as a practice piece and it did not look nearly as good as yours does.Good job!

Outstanding work! Good to see you on here again.

Nice and simple looking, and good stitching. What is the stitching on the bottom for? Is that attaching some sort of reinforcement that makes it hold it's shape?

Along the lines of what @Tugadude said above, there are a LOT of people out there that can make somewhat crappy leatherwork. This is particularly true when you look at what you can find online. It is very hard to complete with them at their level because someone will always make something that is equally mediocre for less money. In my opinion the only real way to differentiate yourself from that crowd is to bring your quality above theirs and show that quality off. Make your unique talents and skills what sets you apart from them. That is the value you add. Many people can make a simple bifold wallet. Some of them use nice quality leather and can put it together reasonably well. Where I can rise above them is in the quality of the leather carving or stamping I can do, in a style that is fairly unique to me. And yes I am going to charge more for that and it is easier for me to justify to a customer BECAUSE its not so easy for the mediocre competition to copy that.