BIGGUNDOCTOR

I would say depending on how often this happens,and what types of firearms, it may not be even worth dealing with (if you are talking about getting insurance). Once a year with a Ruger GP100, or 5 times a month with mint condition engraved early Colt SAA's? On the ocassions when we were working on a high end shotgun ($8,000 Perazzi trap gun) we would make extra sure the bench was clear of sharp pointy objects, lay more pads down, and be extra careful when removing pins, or screws. If you are doing this routinely, then yes, there is a higher chance that there could be an accident with your customer's firearm that coudld cost you some green. What you have to ask yourself is, are the insurance premiums going to cost me more than the repairs / restoration? It may be better for you to just put some money aside, and self insure. I would do that myself, since I doubt I would ever be working on Luger SN#-2 in .45 acp that was used for US military evaluations, and last I read was valued at $1,000,000+. Another thing is you can usually pick up on the anal retentive customers where EVERYTHNG has to be just right. With them you can just say, sorry, I can't do that without a dummy gun. If you feel the need, get a good camera, and take good clear closeup pictures all over, and make a note of any prior damage when it arrives. Kinda like when the rental car company does the walk around when you rent a car.

If that was closer to me I would be all over that. Restoring that wouldn't be any different than any of the other machinery I did when I had my machine shop. I even have the forklift on my end to unload it =)

To get rid of skunk scent use a taxidermy product called Stop Rot.

JAllen, where do you sell your items since you mentioned no wabsite, wholesaling, or shows.

CHERYL, sounds like you are making a good start with your items. Along with a busines card, a line card may also be in order. The line card can say more than a business card can. The line cards that the artists I know use usually have an artist bio/statement, as well as general information about the art that they are selling. They are the size of a standard postcard. In Las Vegas thay are not that expensive to get printed up, but your mileage may vary. Keep increasing your price till you see sales start to slow, then you know you are pretty much at the best price range for your products. Dave Ramsey also has a whole program dedicated to small businesses that may be helpful too. Funny how the definition of a small business is up to 500 employees! I have a good friend who has become a very accomplished artist over the past 4 years. One thing I noticed was that he didn't start out with low priced art, he priced it at what he felt it was worth. It has paid off for him, not because he was stubborn, but he is that good, and more people are discovering him.He has only been painting for 4 years,and encaustics for around 2 years now (he has done pen&ink for over 20). Many of us think that he made a pact with the Devil to be this good =). He is now selling paintings in the 5 figure range, and he just keeps getting better. He works in a medium that is not well known (encaustics -painting with wax), he also has a persona that plays to his brand. Having something unique can be a game changer in sales. You can see his art at 303 North Studio on Facebook. His name is James Henninger, and he is in Las Vegas. A lot of things go into being successful in business,and sometimes it just takes being in the right place at the right time, or meeting the right person who makes it fly. I am looking to start another business soon. I have 60 ideas for products, websites, and services that I want to explore. Been sitting on them far too long.

No offense taken Mike, it's all friendly here. You mentioned that you agreed with JAllen's thoughts. Ok so how about coffe mugs, hand thrown vs Wal-Mart China import. I have seen the Wal-Mart affect at craft fairs. People comparing $20 handmade to $3 Chinse imports. Those people you will probably never reach, becasue their PERCEIVED value of a coffe mug is $3. Doesn't matter that there are other potters at the same show selling mugs for more, or less. That person's perception is $3. The people who do want a custom mug will pay the price, as long as your product suits their need. That is the point I was trying to make. A guy who can afford a Lamborghini (pretty much a handmade car) more than likely would never buy a Kia because his perceived value of the cars is very different. For him, big bucks = status, and quality you won't get with the Kia. I saw a new Rolls at a casino recently, and the leather interior was absoutely beautiful, not a stitch out of place. It reeked of quality. Holland and Holland shotguns last I read started at $77,000, and are custom fit to you, you can't buy one off a rack since each one is custom made. There are people out there who will, and do pay for what they perceive is the best. You need to market yourself as the maker of the best leather bookmarks anywhere. The people who buy the less expensive ones probably wouldn't pay more for yours in the first place. Before I came on this site I never would have guessed that custom pool cue cases could sell for thousands of dollars, but they do. Does every custom case sell that high? No. Do the ones that are priced far lower drag their values down? Not likely, because the top makers have a quality reputation, and the players that buy their cases have the perception that they are worth the price. DoubleC, you mentioned people don't know Jack about leather (many don't know Jack about cars either). Sounds like you may have a marketing problem. If they don't know Jack , you need to introduce them to Jack so they know everything about him. That is the whole premiss of marketing, informing your customer base about your product, and why they should buy it. Don't expect your guitar straps to sell themselves, you need to sell the customer on them. In all actuallity you need to sell DoubleC more than the product, you need to build your brand so that when someone at the local music store inquires about custom straps your name comes up first. Your brand will be based on quality, performance, customer service, price, and most importantly what the customer perceives your value to be. There are also sites like Kickstarter out there that can help you get your business off the ground. I have friends who have gone that route. I have a friend who makes jewelery, and she is killing it in sales. She has cultivated a following, works the internet, hits craft fairs, and now her customers are waiting for her newest pieces to come out. Have you seen how many people make jewelery nowadays? She has tons of competition,but she kills them in sales at every show. How? She knows her market very well. This community is not that closeknit, there are tons of leatherworkers out ther that are not on this site. I know a woman in Las Vegas who has built up a product line called Leather Couture by Jessica Galindo. By most accounts her items would be considered lower quality, or amaturish by many on this site, but she is doing quite well with sales, and she was interviewed recently about her brand, as well as being picked up by Zappos.com. Again, she works her butt off promoting her brand. An intersting video relating to art sales is Con Artist, it is the story of Mark Kostabi. It may open your eyes to how a brand can be made , good or bad. When someone is doing better than you in sales you need to look at what they are doing right compared to you. Price may not even be a factor. Is their quality better, do they ship faster, do they have better customer service, are they reaching a bigger audience, are they getting the same materials at a much lower cost, what is it that they are doing that you are not? Chief may want to try selling one at what it "should" cost, he may be surprised at how fast one may move at that price. Or, he will confirm his previous thoughts. All handmade leather products are not the same,even if one copies someone else. There are still differences in quality, customer service, etc..I am sure that the well informed can tell the difference between a Gucci, and a Chinese knockoff. I would prefer an original Winchester 97 at a higher price than the less expensive Chinese copy. They look the same, but the quality is vastly different. A pig is still a pig no matter how much lipstick you put on it. Well , one thing we agree on is that Chief does nice work.

Mike 516, and J Allen, I agree, and disagree with the pricing issues. This was brought up on my blacksmithing site too. One should be paid correctly for their time,and skills, this is universally agreed upon. Now, what one person deems correct will be different then someone else's idea of correct. Cost of living, overhead, location, clientel, etc will all affect this. Now to say that someone selling for a lower price will affect you is fuzzy logic in some ways. Are your products exactly the same, do you have the exact same customers, are you selling in the same store,location?(even on Etsy it could be hard to see all of ones options)Look at it this way, not everyoe can afford the same items. Cars are a good example-they are all cars, but some are far less money than others. Does Kia bring down Lamborghini's value? No, because they have different customer bases. The owner of a Holland and Holland shotgun will have a different perception of value than the owner of a Mossberg 500. If you are selling a comparable item for more money you need to sell the customer on why it is more IE; better quailty, better customer service, warranty,you'll get laid more, whatever you feel makes it worth more than someone else's. Don't expect someone to look at your item and say "It's handmade, so it must be worth what he is asking." I see a lot of crappy items being passed off as Handmade by Skilled Craftsman. If you want to be considered skilled, show some skill, and sell it to the customer. Marketing isn't easy, it requires a lot of work to pry money out of someone's wallet, especially in a poorly performing economy. If Chief can make these, and sell them consistently for more then it costs to make them then he is money ahead. Yes, he MAY be able to sell them for more, but will he be better off? In the end he may make more money by selling at a lower price that the customer perceives is a better value. A lower price may allow him to keep a steady cashflow going, as opposed to a more lengthy period between checks. As I said before a lot affects pricing. One of the biggest is perceived value by the customer. What I may value at one price will be different from someone else. We perceive value every day, be it figuring out what we want to eat for lunch, filling up the car's tank, shopping for clothes, every day we are applying our perceived value on our purchases. To say that all leatherworkers need to make $30,$35,$40 an hour is ridiculous. It is the craftsman that finds his niche ,and can profit from it , that will succeed in the end. That is why it is called capitalism, not socialism.

Expanding foam can exert tons of pressure. Im high school one of the students made a mold for a larger item, and braced it with 2x4's. He mixed the foam's A & B, and poured it in. Soon afterwards the 2x4's were breaking under the pressure. Look into Smooth-On's products for mold building. They have lots of options. A friend used a can of expanding foam to get home after one of the airbags of his truck's suspension had a fatal air leak form. The airbag was toast, and the foam held for a long time, even after getting back home hundreds of miles away.

You may try a patent search, or check with the government printing office for this.

There are some good airbrushing websites out there too. Just google airbrush forums.

Buy the best you can afford. Paasche, Iwata, Badger are some of the better known brands. Available all over, and easily serviced. Then you need to decide on single, or double action, as well as siphon, or gravity feed. I would suggest siphon as they can be used at all angles, and have larger capacity. You may end up with more than one brush to make things easier.

There was a member that had a yard full of abandoned granite slabs that he was giving away. He was in SoCal IIRC. Lots of free out there, no need to spend $.

I don't use PayPal due to their anti firearm policies. A friend has an Ebay store , and has had his PP account frozen a few times due to irregular activity-or what THEY thought was irregular. I use my debit card for online transactions. And yes, I have the same protection as a credit card-which I will not own. With any online store you need good clear pictures without distracting backgrounds, and good descriptions. One thing I see is a $10 key fob. I have tons of unused fobs laying around the house. With them being so inexpensive to free to obtain those may be a hard sell. Also for that $ I would want to see something more than a Tandy stamp impression. This is one criticism I see with a lot of "hand tooled" leather goods being sold lately. With any business you will need to research your market, and your competition - unfortunately that will include WalMart even though they don't sell hand made items. There have been some threads in the business forum covering pricing of items that you may want to read through. Iforgeiron.com also had a good thread addressing pricing of handmade items. Not trying to be snarky, just pointing out some things I have seen, and heard from my fellow artisans, and guild members.

Pictures, and dimensions may generate more interest. A place to check with would be summer camps, as we used mostly Tandy kits at the camps I worked at.

Yes, this is a contacts only event, as nothing is out for sale.

What are their questions? I would just say horsehide. I don't think it really matters what area of the horse it came off of. Some may be put off because it is horsehide alone. Tap into the whole electronics "E" marketing thing IE; E-trade,E-mail, E-tarded (me),etc. and call it E-quine leather.

The SHOT show is the premier show for everything outdoor related. The firearm section is huge, and has all of the major players in attendance. I have been a couple of times, and it is worth going to, if you can get a ticket - it is not open to the public, and is usually held during the week. It is held in the winter, so don't be afraid to come to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada. It isn't hot like it is now.

Are you saying that there are no off the shelf work gloves that will work for your purposes? I would think with all of the glove manufacturers out there that you could find a style that would work, and at a fraction of what it would take to make. You may not even want to go with leather being around oil. All of the leather work gloves I have used soaked up oil like a sponge, then got squishy soft. A coated glove may be a better choice.

Chains will fit a range of tires, and will need to be fitted to your particular tires once purchased. You need a set of bolt cutters to do this.Once trimmed to size they are not that hard to put on. You would want to put them on before entering the field, as trying to put themon after getting stuck would be a mess. Another item that you may want to purchase is a HY-Lift jack, sometimes called a handyman jack. Off road shops carry them here in the states. They are a ratcheting type of jack, and they are very versatile. They have a 7,000# lifting capacity, and will lft several feet high. They come in 48", and 60" tall configurations. You see these strapped to Jeeps , and other off road vehicles here. I own several myself, and have used them for many things over the years. I have bought all of mine second hand, and have paid from $5 to $25 each. All of mine are the forged/cast style, not the fabbed sheet steel version. I would like some more info on your VeeDub. 50mpg loaded!? Diesel? Pictures? I have a 2001 Dodge Cummins HO turbo diesel 3500 4x4 dually extra cab 6spd.My best is 22 mpg unloaded.Pretty good considering it weighs 8,000# empty, 4:10 gears,4x4, and it has the aerodynamics of a barn. Weighing in at 18,000# towing a trailer I got 13mpg on a 700 mile trip which included some looooooooong steep grades.Of course or fuel costs here are less expensive. I paid $3.55 a gallon for diesel a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas. Mesquite NV has it for $3:69 a gallon. I thought I was doing great with my 98 Saturn SW2 averaging 40mpg. .

First thing is posting smaller pictures to make it easier to see the whole item. Pretty decent for a first attempt. The fingers could use some finessing, as they look a bit reptilian.

Going with the tallest, and widest tire you can will help, as well as lowering the tire pressure to get a wider footprint.Nylon tow straps wil also work if you have a pulling vehicle available. Winches are only good for the length of the cable,and the motors need a rest to keep from burning up on long drags. You need a couple of small sandbags to weigh down the cable in case it come loose. The cable can become deadly if not restrained. The sandbags are hung over the cable in a couple of locations, and will deflect the cable downward if it snaps, or comes loose. When using a come-along with pickets you also will need some rope. You drive 3 pickets inline into the muck with the tops angling away from the vehicle, then lash from the top ofthe front one to the bottom of the middle one, then the top of the middle one to the bottom of the last one.The come-along gets attached to the bottom of the first one. This will get you out, but it is very laborious.When you are out you need to remove the pickets, which can also be fun. The best thing is to not go in with a vehicle that you know will get stuck in the first place. What about borrowing, or renting a 4 wheel drive for the event?

This is just my opinion, but I would not make payments. Save the money up, and pay ca$h. That is how all of my machine shop equipment was purchased. No loans, no leases, no payments. If i could lay the cash down, I knew I could afford it. Less risky too in case something happens to your income stream. If you cannot afford new, look at used machines. ALL of my machine shop equipment was used when I got it. At the auctions I was averaging 10 cents obn the dollar compared to new. $200 indicators for $20, and a $27,000 CNC torch for $2,700 are just a couple of examples. A couple of years ago I saw a beautiful 441 clone for sale on Craigslist, IIRC it went for $1,200, and it looked new. I bought a long arm Adler patcher from him for $400 with a new servo motor, and table.

As to the parents not being there, tell them when they get up there, or notify them beforehand -if you can. Like I mentioned before, some dad may have a nice wood shop at home to make mallets in. It was amazing what we could get donated by parents. They even got some of their employers involved with donations.

Summer fun in Southern NV involves staying inside until the sun goes down. At least then the 115 is bearable without the suns rays. Only 102 today.