Art

Hi Pete, RTC (from Bee Natural) is a finish rather than an oil. You can tint neatsfoot with Weaver's oil darkening liquid for black and Weaver Oil Stain for brown; these products are made specially for that purpose. Some conditioners like Bick's #4 and Lexol will take Fiebing's spirit dyes, please test before you do a major piece. Art

Hi Ryan, If you are talking about their new powered stitcher, the bottom end looks a lot like the Juki and the head looks a lot like an Adler. Not a bad combination if you need the inch or so extra room. Looks like a little Yankee ingenuity has gotten into the Chinese factories (the Yankee ingenuity being combining the best of German and Japanese designs). Art

Hi Russ, Call Steve at Artisan and ask him about dealers in your area although they deal direct for big stitchers. Even major sewing outlets don't see stitchers that often if ever, some places never sell an industrial machine. The folks I know sell about three or four industrial machines a year at the most, almost never a big machine. Steve at Artisan will take whatever time needed to get you going and keep you going, and we are always here, even on weekends. Read back through the forum and you will get more info than you ever could get in the manual. Also, when you order your machine, have them set it up to sew whatever you will be doing. Once you get it unpacked it won't take more than a half hour or so before you are sewing, they set it up and test run it so all you have to do is unpack, put head on stand, put belt on, thread it and you are off. Please oil often. Art

Russ, Unless you need to be mobile or are a glutton for punishment, pass on the manual machines. The Artisan 3000 has been around for four or more years now with not even a whisper of a complaint. Any newly developed piece of machinery is bound to have a few problems, why be a beta tester when you have work to do, if you absolutely have to go manual, get the Boss or wait for the Stitchmasher to get some mileage on it. Which Tandy do you go to, one of the Big ones? Art

Hi Russ, As I said before, I have been suspecting something like this. Twice in the last year they have been to showcase seminars where they pitch the company to investors. I teleconed in on both and it was the same Ron and Shannon show both times. However they have just had two bad quarters due to expenses, a lot of it in the legal area and other places that wouldn't make sense if they weren't contemplating something like this. I would say they are looking to spend some money and looking for some additional financing or other ways to capitalize it. The two bad Qs might make them look a little less attractive right now. If a store manager blabbed that to you it could open them up to some insider trading allegations. Not a very brainy move there. Someone dumped a load of stock a couple of weeks ago and dropped the price $2, that's 30%, I don't know if it was an insider. I can see where Weaver and Tandy might fit, or might not; there are things they could teach each other. Art

Hi Jim, So you want to get industrial.... Try a wood wheel (like cocobolo, paduk, or some other hard wood) or a leather wheel about 2" or 3" running at 1750rpm. I don't like the steel wheels because they rust except stainless like 316 it would work also. There's a ton of ways to skin this cat, but rubbing the edge with something way harder than the leather is the trick; the more you rub with water or wax, the nicer the edge. Art

Hi Rob, I moved this topic to Leather Sewing Machines, I hope you get more traffic here. With a thickness of 18oz you are in the upper range of the Artisan 618-SC and the mid range of the Artisan 3000. If you are going to be doing the 18oz and thicker stuff, using 277 or 207 then you really want the Artisan 3000. The 618 is for lighter and finer things all the way down to 69 or even 46 thread. Both Artisans ship with servo motors instead of clutch motors. The servo motors are very easy to use and very adjustable, something that will make you able to sew competently after an hour or two of practice, not so with the clutch motor, much harder to learn to control. They also have speed reducers that give you a pile of torque even at crawling (1 minute per stitch, and yes I typed that correctly) speeds. Do you use the two boss machines just to get throughput or do you have different setups on each. It would be hard for four or five Boss machines to keep up with one Artisan 3000, but you might want to keep seldom used setups on the Boss machines to keep changeovers to a minimum. There are other machines out there, but not many fill the particular niche the 3000 occupies; It has been a real success story from day one. You would be hard pressed to find a 3000 user that doesn't like his machine, they are that good. Good customer service also. Art One thing I will guarantee, you won't miss pulling that handle.

Hi Larry, A solvent for Tanners Bond would be one of the Glycol Ethers like Butyl Cellosolve or Carbitol DE which may be applied on the dried glue sparingly, let soak in for at least half an hour, and then wipe the softened glue with a steel wool dauber. Once the glue is removed, the area should be rinsed with water and dried off with a clean cloth. Glycol Ether must be handled carefully. Avoid contact with eyes and skin. The person working with it, should read an MSDS first. Butyl Cellosolve can be purchased for about $10 a quart and that quart should get you through forever. http://www.chemistrystore.com/butylcellosolve.htm Art

Hi Pete, If it is something I am going to sew, I use Tanners Bond from Fiebing, however everything else is Barge GP. I use the large cans with the brush in the top and keep the brush lid on the can of thinner and the no brush lid on the can of Barge. I fill the cans out of the gallon cans to just where it covers the brush. I don't think I have ever had a can of Barge I didn't have to thin even when new. The thinner keeps the brush in good shape and carries enough over into the Barge to keep it thin. I don't use a glue pot for the tanners bond, I use a squirt bottle with a snap off lid. Art

Dave, Yeah, sometimes I actually find myself looking at the bikes, and say to myself, what the hell is the matter with you? Art

Hi Dave, Never seen the poster, but I do remember the "Horse" spread because the model had HUGE pupils, I've seen that before and it just stuck in my mind. If I was the photographer I would have retouched that. The seat top looks great anyway, why not just finish the seat and have them put it in the shop on spec? It'll sell, ain't no question. Art

Hi David, Maybe it was a little too close to a "spread" in "The Horse" about a year and a half ago. Art

Hi Jim, Gum Tragacanth is a natural gum product from some weed in the middle east. It is related to zanthum gum and the likes and is also a food product. Basically it is used as a natural finish coat and is commonly used for finishing and smoothing the flesh side of leather although it is a good top coat also. It is also used to finish edges in both the burnishing and coating of the edge. You could use it in place of water to burnish, but water works just as good. A natural and old time finish that gives a little gloss and lets the leather breathe. Not waterproof or very water resistant. Art

Ok Tex, Bobbin tension should be about a pound or two as a starting point, I don't have a gauge but that's how I would describe it. Now if you tighten the bobbin tension it will pull the lock down into the leather. Conversely, if you loosen the top tension a properly tensioned bobbin will cause the knot to go down into the leather, and if you loosen the top too much you will find the knot on the bottom. So set the bobbin tension to a pound or two, but definitely something that resists your pull. Now just use the top tension and tighten the top tension to move the lock up into the leather towards the top. OR Loosen the top tension to move the lock down into the leather and to the bottom if you loosen the top too much. Loosen Top to move lock down. Tighten Top to move lock up. Just do that and talk to us if it doesn't work. The only time you want to change bobbin tension is if you can't get the lock where you want it with top tension. Art

I presume you have dyed the piece and it is dry and any excess dye is buffed off. The edges have been edged prior to dyeing. Now get some water on your finger and wet the edge you are going to burnish and go at it. Burnish until the edge gets hard and glossy, don't be afraid to lean on it. After you have it the way you want it, you can put some finish like gum tragacanth on it and rub until you get what you want. Do this on a practice piece first to see what to expect; if you've never done this, don't try it on a piece you have 10 or 20 hours in, try it on scrap. If you have a flimsy edge, put it between a couple of pieces of board or glass so the edge sticks out an eighth or quarter inch and work on that. It's like hardening steel, folks put a lot of mumbo jumbo into it and make the whole process harder than Chinese Trigonometry. Just take a scrap piece of veg tan , edge it, dye it, dry it, buff it, and slick the edge, then put on some finish and slick till it looks great. You probably won't have to add any more color, but if you do, try some edge paint (Fiebing's Edge Kote or similar) or an acrylic paint. Painted edges are not a durable as just a well slicked edge. Art

The price is also higher than the Boss. I had heard rumors that is was going to be waaaaay less. Tandy $1595/1495/1395 Retail/Club/Reseller Tippmann $1295 direct Can't say which is better, they LOOK darned similar. Tandy has been doing some strange things of late and this one has me scratching my fanny. I know Tandy and Weaver do some cooperative things because I have received Tandy branded and bagged stuff in Weaver orders, maybe they are testing the water on a cooperative machinery thing with Weaver. That might be a good move for both; Weaver has ventured into Chinese clones with their new stitcher so why not? Then again, maybe Paul wants to get out and TLF does have a bag of cash, anything is possible. All this is just me thinking from a business standpoint and is pure forward looking speculation, interesting thought though. Art

Hi Regis, If the dye does not strike (penetrate) completely to the center of the leather (happens on thicker leather more often) you can and do tool down to the undyed part and it shows. Art

Hi Tex, The bobbin tension increases because it has to pull the bobbin around faster (more times for the same amount of thread because of the decreasing diameter of the bobbin) when there is less thread on the bobbin. Simple physics. It is not uncommon to make minor adjustments to tension as you sew over any length of time, usually if sewing thick material you don't notice the minor changes that occur over time because the lock is somewhere in that thick piece, you only see it when you see the lock appear on the top or bottom usually. There are newer machines (usually the home sewing ones) that have automatic tensions, damned if I can figure out how they work (or don't). I still prefer the manual tension you can change when and if you WANT to. Tensions are very much a part of forming and executing the stitch on threaded needle machines as opposed to needle and awl machines where timing and mechanics are used to do the same thing. Since tension is so important on the machines we use today, it is advisable for any operator to become very familiar with setting the tension. I know if you screw it up it can be a pain and even a terror for a new operator to get it right again and then you don't want to touch it ever again; but it is the most important thing for a machine operator to learn. As far as manuals go, the industrial machines only have manuals because they have to, nobody reads them because machines like we use are a design that has been around since the late 19th century and in the case of industrial machines everyone knows how to use them (at least that is the perception), and there is always OJT. There have been a few operator training tapes made for specific machines or groups of machines, but they sold only a few copies, so they don't waste the time and money doing them anymore, and it costs quite a bit to do one right. Art

There are as many different answers to that as there are threads. I have a fair amount of experience with the following threads: Coats, in polyester a great thread that works in darned near anything. In my experience always tight wound (laid). Eddington, another good polyester thread, laid a little looser but still works in most everything, I run this in the ASE No. 9. Linhanyl, a good nylon thread, tight laid and well bonded, I use this in smaller sizes (138, 92, 64, 42) in the 618, Artisan had this on sale for $12 a pound and I stocked up, call Anne at Artisan to see if that deal is still going. Rice, the best nylon ever made, I used it in everything, very little stretch, well lubed and bonded, tight lay, not currently produced. Barbour's, linen thread not always Irish anymore but good quality control nonetheless (ought to be at $50 a roll), I use it in the Campbell machine and mostly for late 19th century period work. The differenced between quality nylon and polyester are very slight. Nylon has a little more strength and resistance to damp creep. Polyester is more resistant to sunlight deterioration. I have found stretch to be about the same. Whatever someone sells is always going to be the best. Nylon and polyester look to be about equal in the dye acceptance (spirit dyes) category with linen having the best dye capability. So, it really comes down to what looks best for your particular application, just sew off a few lines and make your choice. If you stay with the top companies they will work the same in your machines, and with adjustment you can make a machine run on anything, even wire or fishing line. I like the looks of Coats Dabond polyester for the big stuff and Linhanyl nylon for the small stuff. GET Coats Dabond from FERDCO, Linhanyl from Artisan, Eddington from Campbell-Bosworth. Thread does have a life, especially if stored improperly. Don't buy thread off of eBay or at an auction unless you get a price that would allow you to throw it away if unsatisfactory. Art

Hi Matt, Send me your email address. Art

Hi L'Bum, Weaver has it or a leatherworker.net member JPH is a distributor in NV. It comes in liquid or aerosol spray. Jim is a great guy, way big time master bladesmith. Art

Hi Jim, Glue up and sew, then even up and smooth (on sander) BEFORE edging, then dye, then burnish and slick, then finish. I will check leatherworker.net often this weekend if you need help. I have made dyes for period work (walnut hulls etc) but for the most part use Fiebing's Pro Oil Dyes (spirit dye) cut with DEA. You can mix the Pro dyes to get different shades. Art

Hi Alex, Lately I am lucky if I can get 3-5 hours a week and I am going to have to take a week off the day job to get the stuff done I have promised people for Christmas; and it is NOVEMBER, where did the year go. I keep promising myself the weekend is mine, I'm going to knock some of this stuff out, but that rarely happens anymore, and the Christmas season is ahead where we have to go to this or that relatives house for some function and all of them live more than three hours away. Hmmmmm, I have five extra hours a day if I don't sleep, and I can cut back on sex, that's an extra hour a month; I wonder how long I can do that. Art

Everyone (except the Chinese) seems to think that the rest of the world (meaning not US) is happy about their currencies strength against the dollar. Quite the contrary! Non-US products (except commodity products like oil) are at a disadvantage in the US because the US product competition is now at times less expensive than a comparable import. The Chinese are the exception because they key their currency to ours. Not that they couldn't do it before, but now Boeing can open a can of whoopass on Airbus even WITH the European subsidy of Airbus. Things are relative here in the US, if the product is American made or put more realistically, the more US it is, the better it will compete because here a dollar is still a dollar. We just have to make sure the Fed keeps inflation at bay. So, buy good US hides preferably tanned here, and buy quality US tools, and but quality Chinese machinery (there is still a distinction between quality Chinese and crap Chinese) while the Yuan is still indexed tightly to the dollar. Art

Jim, You do each edge (top and bottom) in a separate pass. Tool is held around a 45 degree angle and with a good edger like Ron's will round the edge over not just skive a 45 degree cut. Ron makes edgers from size 1 to 8, but there is no law against making multiple passes to accomplish something. The radius of the tool increases with the number. If you need something bigger you will need a saddle horn trimmer from Ron, but they are only good on straight stuff and outside curves, they're too big for anything but the most gradual of inside curves. http://www.ronstools.com If this isn't making and sense I can maybe do some tutorial this weekend, let me know Art