Ferg

You do not want to store the hides in daylight/sunlight, they will be sunburned where the light hits them. I keep mine rolled and inside a closet, dark cool, and dry. Also keep most of my hides wrapped in brown packaging paper. ferg

First pic is a skiving machine. Could be a Fortuna, cannot tell from photo. Pretty bad shape. Would need to be dismantled, cleaned, serviced and checked out. I would give you $50 to $100 for it. One hundred if it is a Fortuna. ferg

I can see where you are going with this. When I feed thin leather chrome mostly, I want the feed and the knife to turn slowly in comparison to other leathers. Easy to control. If the knife is as sharp as it should be there is no problem with the cut. I have simply gotten used to the way the machine is set up to begin with and have no problem with it. Different strokes for different folks! LOL ferg

I don't have a Fortuna but have one very similar with both top and bottom feed. My machine feeds from one motor. Bell knife, feed for top and bottom are synchronized so you can vary the speed of feed while everything else responds to that speed. I would not want different speeds for each operation. ferg

That is classic! I have seven grandkids. Youngest is 8th grade ????? Oldest is 30. Oh My! ferg

Pleating is one method, my method is another. If using the pleating method and covering with another layer that may also be rolled, the thickness is a little extreme for me. When done properly, which I didn't necessarily do on the piece in the photo, the cuts blend so well there is no bunching. Many book binders use both ways. I think there is a place for almost every method of work. ferg

bryanleenheerYou are getting some bad info here so I will show you a photo of how this is done. Please bear with me, photo is of the first rolled edge, round corner I ever done in leather. The wide portion of wedges must take into account the thickness of whatever you are wrapping at the corner. Each of the triangular pieces/cuts must be equal. Wedge next to the straight/square portion of your rolled edge must be square with the long straight edge with the other edge being an angle one third of the corner or 30 degrees. Note in my photo that I allowed the edge of straight piece to get stuck to glue before it was where it belonged. Doing these is a little tricky. With practice this becomes a very beautiful piece of work. Remains quite stable and strong when stitched. I don't convey instructions real well but I think you can get the idea from written word and photo. ferg

Do you have a photo of this machine? ferg

Hammer Customs, Don't take the criticism to heart. Some folks speak before brain is in gear. Your trucker wallet looks good and with all the accessory items you have included it is worth what you can get for it. Your price of $180 sounds okay to me. ferg

I don't find my written info for doing this right now. Google "Book Binding" then "Rolled Round Corners". You will find a Web Page that has instruction on how to do this with photos. Don't get your rolled edge material too thin or it won't hold the stitch. I skive to about 1 1/2 oz. to 2 oz on anything very heavy or areas of much wear. ferg

Make sure your unit is actually a true copy of the Fortuna. Most skiving machines other than Fortuna are nearly identical but do not have the same type of presser feet or the feed wheel. My Cowboy has the serrated metal wheel. Easily cleaned. ferg

The roller stone needs to be adjusted as near perfectly aligned with the knife as possible. Less aggressive. Using these machines can be very aggravating but super rewarding when you get it all figured out. This is a post I made after I had learned to use my skiving machine. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=45661&hl=%2Bskiving+%2Bmachine ferg

Three things you may wish to check: Did you use the stone on the inside of the Bell knife to remove "fuzzy edge"? Sharpen knife in very small increments. You may be feeding too slow. ferg

Jo, Just bite the bullet and buy a servo. You will pat yourself on the back every time you sew. ferg

I make a change purse for ladies. My wife places it in her purse. I made hers of Kangaroo with two snaps, she loves it. ferg

Your machine will sew 207 with 138 in the bobbin. Doesn't really do well with the 207. I have used 69 thru- 135 with no difficulties. I have done a few adjustments to mine and actually sewn nearly 3/8" but it is hard on the machine since it was intended for medium to light work. Hold at 1/4" if at all possible, machine will last longer. Keystone Sewing Machine has a great copy of the manual. URL: http://www.keysew.com/ They also have or can get for you many of the accessories for the machine. Bob Kovar at Toledo Industrial URL: http://www.tolindsewmach.com/ Has many of the accessories also. ferg

Handle the leather as you would for tempering, ready to carve. Makes the punching holes almost fun. LOL ferg

Me too!

I have several, different size blades, straight and angled, different diameters of the barrel as well as lengths. Buy the best you can afford and don't buy off e-bay. Just my .02 Oh yes, the best definitely makes a difference in your work. ferg

I won't tell my wife that she is of lower quality. Some folks just have their head in the sand. Do not mouth off about things you have no understanding of to begin with. Thank you "TomG", I couldn't have said it better. When I said a few cents that is what I meant. Where the heck did the $10.00 add on come from? We have been shipping product since 1977. I believe we know what we are doing. Also, we wholesale everything we manufacture, how long do you think we would have been in business if we were gouging our customers. Another thing, every one of our items is wrapped in bubble wrap, any vacant space is packed with excelsior. Did I forget to mention, shipping materials and boxes we have to buy, about ten thousand, are figured into the price of the item not shipping cost. Folks do tend to read what they want the written word to say and not actual print. ferg

I shouldn't even try to explain our end of this as several of you think those of us shipping a fairly high amount of product are gouging the customer. You are so wrong. FYI: The Shipper in our instance, takes any and all phone and e-mail orders or questions, double checks all incoming orders for duplicates or bad addresses, does 100% of the billing for our company. Oh Yes! Almost forgot, she packages every single order that goes out. Most of you haven't got a clue as to what it is to package 500 to 750 packages per day for about 8 months of the year. Twenty dollars an hour!!!! Good Lord folks she is worth ten times that! BTW: She is my wife and may God Bless her every day of her life because I do. ferg

My wife orders boxes from USPS several times per month, several hundred each time. Best thing ever happened to UPS for us Shippers. They are totally over priced. Sad part is, they know it but had very little competition until Post Office came up with their newest system. The system I have incorporated into our shipping gives us great rates for all First Class and Priority. We have a credit card on file and pay the balance every month. Never have had to pay fees. We are also set up with the Post Office and their internal system. We printout a sheet that has all packages we ship in one day with all info. Take the load to them, hand them the printout and leave. Can't beat it. ferg

Did you check with Bob at Toledo Industrial Machine? ferg

You may be familiar with mechanics and Hasmat shops but you are a little less informed for shipping product. We ship between 25,000 and 30,000 packages per year via USPS. To make things easy for our customers we average the shipping costs over the entire spectrum for USA only. Person packaging, checking address for mistakes, printing the label, applying label is paid $20,00 per hour. Some packages we make a few cents on, some we lose a few, it balances out. I guarantee you, we don't make thousands of dollars on the shipping. ferg

We had Collie dogs since I can remember. A few other "Hines Dogs" thrown in there once in awhile but mostly Collies. We raised Collies for several years while the kids were young. We had to have our 14 year old Collie put down in January because of many severe health issues. We took her to the vet with her crying the entire ride. When the girl came out to the truck to take her inside Bessie looked up at me, cried, and licked my face. I shall never forget those few moments. Soft old man I guess. Told my wife that I didn't know how long I could go without a dog, she agreed. We began checking out different breeds soon and I decided I wanted a Tri Color Sheltie, daughter and wife really wanted a Sable. I found a breeder in norther Ohio that would have a litter ready to go by March 15th. Just four in the litter, breeder contacted me to say she had two other folks coming to look at the puppies while they were just four weeks old to decide which they wanted. We selected one from a photo, which I never do, brought him home on the 15th of March at eight weeks old. We have had three male dogs named CHIP. Our family business is in the woodworking field so the name CHIP came up again. Breeder began calling him by name at about five weeks so he knew who he was. He weighed just under five pounds and now at twelve weeks he is at eight plus and stands ten inches at the shoulders. He will stand between fourteen and sixteen inches and weigh about twenty plus pounds when a year old. CHIP is very intelligent, has a schedule he likes to follow almost every day and night, loves to play and investigate outside, hasn't found a human he doesn't like, and he is beautiful. Thought some of you might enjoy a couple photos of "HIS HONOR the CHIP".