Ferg

Joel, The stitching "Poneys" like Tandy has are not very handy. The Al Stohlman book on stitching illustrates one with a sit down seat. I made one similar to it, works great, especially since you can sit any way you wish on it. ferg

No, I was referring to the vertical seams. Yes, I realized they were not Welts. ferg

I bought 11 x17 inch vellum at Office Depot (In a tablet form), printed with Epson Ink Jet, works great but I wouldn't try to use it more than once. I simply place several copies of the pattern on one sheet if it will fit. ferg

You can get large marble tiles at Home Depot or Lowe's. I assure you, if you have a nice flat table/bench with a piece of cloth under the tile you will not be disappointed. The price is right. LOL ferg

Have bought several tools from Lonnie, they are very good. While speaking to Lonnie the other day I forgot to suggest he assign numbers to each of the tools on the catalog sheets. Difficult to order without. ferg

There may be a lot of folks on the forum that have never heard of Shell Cordovan. For those: There are two pieces of "Shell" on each horse hide, right over the rump. I bought the Cordovan Shells almost 50 years ago for $10.00 to $15.00 each, they are now right at $150.00 each. You can make one pair of shoes from each shell. You couldn't tool or stamp this but I use to place names in gold leaf on it. One of the most beautiful leathers I have ever had the opportunity to work with. I bought a piece of "Horse Butts" from Siegel this last week. That is a strip from the shell toward the neck and close to the spine. This is vegetable tanned, you can carve it. Anyone had experience with this leather? I attempted to case a small piece but it did not "Take" well. Anyone using it like to give some information on how you cased this? BTW: Seigel is selling these pieces for $13.95. They had a Friday special this last week for $10 I believe. They are moving and trying to unload a bunch of inventory. Don't bother to send them an e-mail, they don't acknowledge them. ferg

I only just recently ordered from SLC. Received two beautiful pieces of 6/7 oz Double shoulder. I told them since it was my first order with them I wanted to be impressed with the quality. Cannot say how it tools yet. I clipped a "leg" corner to practice with, it was okay, will reserve my thoughts until more has been done. I ordered leather from Tandy for years, never anything much other than "Live Oak". Loved working with that leather. They don't have it anymore. ferg

Thanks for the comments folks. Glad you enjoyed perusing the piece. Our family business will gear up shortly for Christmas Rush, the leather work will be put back in the chest until after first of the year 2011. Have several things in mind to do along with the "Honey Do's" I have promised. ferg

Thirty plus years ago I put my chest of tools, boxes of patterns, Al Stohlman and Ken Griffin books in the storage closet and other than practicing some machine and hand sewing I have done very little leather work. Until the bug bit me again about two or three weeks ago. All the years I spent working with leather were fun times, mostly because I didn't have the pressure of making a living with it. In those thirty plus years I built some furniture with leather inlays and never got completely away from the "Gotcha" smell and feel of fine leather. I took the following work from a "Dover" book of flower images. Was not intended for carved leather, I had no carving pattern to follow, I just winged it. The piece was carved on a piece of leather I had cut 40 years ago for a Christmas scene that just got put on the back burner. I am halfway pleased with it. Mostly since my hands have some of that old "Arthur" creeping into the joints, I cannot handle the knife and tools real well anymore. I'm working on that Never done a lot of free hand molding with the molding tools until this piece. Just played around with some things. You will notice that I done different actions on some of the same type pieces. I could probably point out a lot of mistakes and whatever else. Two coats of NeatsFoot Oil, allowed to dry 48 hours. Two coats of "Neat-Lac" , my last can. Thought about using a dark antique stain, decided not to. Leather is 8 oz. and measures 11" x 13". Thanks for visiting an old man's playground. ferg

Access this URL: http://apps.webcreat...ProductID=17816 No Minimum. They are located in Brooklyn, NY ferg

Since there doesn't appear to be any Live Oak anymore I would assume the Royal Meadow has taken it's place. Haven't tried any yet, sorry. ferg

+1 To the other suggestions. I have another. When you get a domain make sure you have meta words and names if applicable. Everyone should take note when building a website. If you use the same word more than three times in your Meta Text, the Robots will pass you by. The first nine words (average) on your main page is what the robots read. Then they check to see if you have any Links to other sites. That has another quirk, You need to ask, and hopefully get folks that own the sites you linked to, to reciprocate, the robots check that also. All the search engine lists etc. are for the most part hogwash. Save your money for tools. If you follow the main rules your site will get listed in the top 10 or so in three months minimum. Improve your site at least once per week. If there are no improvements, the robots will ignore your site therefore placing it further down the list when someone is searching. Your product looks nice although limited for a full line. BTW: I think your product pricing is too low, you aren't making any money. I forgot to mention, you should make your photos on your web site about 3 1/2 to 4 inches in height and 4 to 6 inches wide if applicable. Photos should be 72 pixels per inch. If you include thumb prints make them about 120 X 120 pixels. ferg

Hi Troy, I made a lifter to try. My concern is the raw "flesh" part of the hide you expose with the lifting. Do you attempt to camouflage that when you color/stain the leather? The tool also makes impressions in the already beveled area which a modeler helps to smooth of course. I notice on the seat image you have above that you raised the areas quite a bit, do you normally do it that way? Thanks, ferg

Andy, Not knowing what you are working with for a Site Builder I will shoot in the dark. If you are using CSS you should have a setting for how many pixels wide your format is. Seventy two pixels per inch in most cases so 15" would equal 1080 pixels wide. If you aren't using CSS you should be able to shrink the width in whatever program you used. ferg

Andy, Get that "Under Construction" sign off your website. That is one of the biggest "Turn-Offs" for visitors. Nice Site ferg

I have had a number of websites that I wrote since 1996. Search engine listers were and are coming out of the woodwork as soon as you get on. We spent thousands of dollars with Google and YaHoo, none of the sites were ever above #40. Junked all of that garbage and let it ride. I don't think any of our sites are listed lower than 13th. That will give you good sales. Get a chunk of reality though, there are many sites touting just what you have to sell, word of mouth just about winds up being the best advertisement. Johanna gave some excellent ideas. BTW: I looked at your site. It is a "Plain Jane". You need some nice photos of your work on the front page with concise information. I hate sites with all the Flash and sounds that provide nothing. Read some books and look around the Net at some sites that are similar to yours. You can also access Templates for most anything you can imagine, don't buy them, there are too many free. I must ask, what are you using for a Site Builder? PS: I wrote this site for my Son-in-Law. May give you some ideas as well as looking at an interesting subject for a lot of folks on this Forum. http://www.classiccarvedgrips.com/ ferg

Hi Doc, Thank you. Pretty much what I thought. Useful in doing Roses as well as Oak leaves I suppose. ferg

Dave, It is a pricking iron, definitely not a thonging chisel. According to Gary, the #10 iron would be thinner in thickness of the tool. Gary, I have four or five different size awls, two of which are Bob Douglas, fantastic tools. ferg

I would like to know who uses a Design Lifter. Does it actually add to the carving? What is the proper way to use them? ferg

I have used carnauba wax for many things. It is a great product and is considered a hard wax I believe. Not sure it would wear as well on, say a holster as a topcoat. My preference would be to use the wax "after" applying the topcoat. You would want to allow the topcoat to become very well cured. ferg

My explanation was way too far off obviously. I am enclosing a photo of the end of the iron I have, maybe that will clarify a little.

Yes, I am aware of their moving situation. No excuse for this kind of hassle. UPDATE: The gentleman called back about 15 minutes ago. Said they found my order, part had been shipped, remainder on back order. Wonder how long I could have waited if I didn't tell him to forget the whole thing. We run a fairly large business, everything we do is by Drop-Ship. Most orders get shipped next day and there is no inventory for our personalized items. We deal with some of the largest companies in the US. ferg

Probably 2 1/2 weeks ago I ordered through the net from Siegel. The order never did get acknowledged, no response from them. Last week I ordered again on the net. Called last Friday to see if they could tell me anything about a delivery date or at least a shipping date. Never received a return call. Called today. A gentleman answered the call, looked around I guess but couldn't find the order. I asked if they ever check their net orders or if they just ignore them. I thought it was a good question since I never received a confirmation of any kind. Answer? Which is really beginning to get my goat, "Why don't you just order over the phone, that way we know we have your order." I take that to mean you really do not pay much attention to your web orders. "Oh know, we check and print them out every morning." Well you obviously missed printing the two orders I gave you. "Let me help you with your order right now." I told him I wanted 2 Double shoulders, #1 grade in 6/7 oz. We are out of that right now, probably have some next week. Okay, Sir, let's just forget I called you. I can buy somewhere else I am sure without your hassle I will never attempt an order from them again. ferg