Art

eBay or estate sale auctions, however you will end up with a lot of tools of questionable quality or that you will seldom use. Better to call Bob Beard or Barry King and get a basic set, then add craftools as needed. If you end-up using a particular craftool a lot, get a King or Beard tool to replace it. I an a border stamper by desire (just don't like to "carve") and have about 50 or 60 craftools of various vintage that I almost never use and would not miss, but have about 10 Beard, 8 or 10 King tools and several recent Tandy craftools that I use all the time. I have Beard, King, and Main modlers that can do anything the other tools can't. I kind of draw the line where I spend more time looking for a tool than using it. Art

In general they are quite similar. I don't buy leather from either of them anymore. I used to get calf to die for from Tandy and then it changed, probably not their fault, but I have purchased from Siegel now (last 5-6 years) and actually enjoy buying from them. Herman Oak and Wickett & Craig also provide great veg tanned and drum dyed or special finished leathers which I use heavily. A lot of the general leatherworking "stuff" I get from Weaver Leather, just because it is convenient and about a day away UPS. The local Tandy is also good for general "stuff" and they ship from your "local" store when you order through the website. I have a reseller account and get excellent pricing from Tandy. The store managers usually know their stuff at a craft level and are very efficient at operating their stores, they get orders out fast. I get a lot of my tools from Weaver, their "Master" line is pretty good mostly Amish made. If I want Dixon or Blanchard I go to Siegel for that, they also have C.S.O. I also get Dixon from Abbey Saddlery in Cheshire, England which may be better for you, they also carry C.S.Osborne tools. Tandy is the biggest importer of leatherworking "stuff" from the Orient. While Siegel, Weaver, and Hidecrafter (and others) have connections, they also buy from Tandy, it is just a fact that only Tandy has enough retail power to move container loads of some things. Don't be suprised if you get something from Weaver or someone else bagged by or for Tandy. Tandy is also active in this country in training both students and instructors, quite often at their own and total expense. They provide no cost courses, and materials, and even give away tools to instructors who they hope will go back and instruct scouts and 4-H groups. I only make it to my "local" Tandy 2 or 4 times a year, but always leave with a big bag of leather or big scraps for the scouts, no charge. This is not totally altruistic, they have a vested interest in keeping leathercrafting alive, but they step-up when asked. This is not just a Tandy thing; others I have mentioned will ship product gratis for good causes. I have seen one leather supplier eat a next day air charge (on a side of leather and tools all first quality) for someone who couldn't get together what he needed for a class, no charge for any of it, and this person wasn't even a customer of his. They don't have to do this, because they provide a good product and excellent service at fair prices, but they do, and that is important when you decide who to spend your money with. With Siegel, Weaver, Hidecrafter, and Tandy, service is just a fact. They will take back anything that is not satisfactory, send you a call tag, issue a refund or credit, send new product, whatever is necessary. They all make mistakes, but what is important is they take responsibility and fix them. Again, this was probably way more than you wanted to know about the supply chain. Hope it helped. Art

RRR, Smoothest edges will be from clicker is it rolls the grain somewhat. Clicker is a press and the leather is cut by a die compressed by the clicker. You still need to finish the edges though for a professional look and so they will wear better. Sharp edges on leather become ratty with use. The MC seat makers do flames all the time, check Beez in the show off section. George Hurst (and many others) at Hidecrafters for videos. They have been working on converting all of them to DVD. Art

Most folks make their own so they can match the adjoining leather. If you are talking about the cording you use to make the welt, that is usually cotton or polyester and you can get it at most any upholstery jobber or trimmer jobber. If you don't have access (plenty of internet providers) you can probably get what you need at a local trim shop, it will be more expensive per foot but you should only have to buy what you need and not a whole roll. You will likely make good use of a cording foot of the proper size on your sewing machine, it allows you to sew right next to the cord when making the welt. This is not a welt foot which is a little different and used for putting the welt into the seam. Don't try to use 6oz leather to make the welt with 1/8 cord, 2oz or so is much easier, remember the smaller the cord the thinner the leather. The inverse isn't true, you can still use thin leather on big cords, taking into account the wear factor. Contrasting material can be used on the welts with good effect although the original use of the corded welt was to hide the stitching especially where the material is transitioning planes (going around corners or from top to sides) and probably didn't want to call attention to itself with contrasting color. On seat cushions, contrasting welts are traditional, but it is all just a matter of style. Art

First of all, whatever you are doing and works is the right thing. Second. I am not Fiebing so I don't know what they mean for sure. However, from a chemical standpoint, I would expect that everything in the oil dye should be non-polar by nature. Non-polar will mix with oil which is non-polar. Water is polar and will not mix well with oil or anything non-polar. Alcohols (spirits) are usefull little buggers that can be kind of both Polar toward the OH side and Non-Polar toward the CH side. That said, I would guess the Oil Dyes should be capable of mixing with Oils and the other dyes maybe not. So if you have some neatsfoot you want dyed a little, use the Pro Oil Dye, heat the neatsfoot a little or mix with a little mineral oil or lanolin (sheep fat, Non-polar) to thin if necessary. Some have said to do the mix magic with Bickmore #4, but I haven't tried it. I have no idea what Fiebing intended without the formulations, it may just be a marketing gimmick. Dave Genadek worked for DYO, he may know more about this. Art

Leather Weld is the Tandy version of Fiebing's Tanners Bond, a white (probably alaphatic) resin glue. Art

The spirit dyes aren't too bad ecologically, they could be reformulated a little to be somewhat better. The finishes are another point and proceeding toward water based formulations could have a lot of benefit. The dye manufacturers like Fiebing can do it and probably already have. Getting the industry to change is another story. Leathercrafters are a small part of the overall finishing business and may be a good testbed. I don't know for sure, but could the eco-friendly dyes be a rollout of a Fiebing's product? Art

Tandy Tanner's Bond is their brand for a Rubber Cement and a Contact Cement, just like Barge comes in General Purpose (contact) and Rubber Cement. Fiebing's Tanners Bond is their resin glue, the white stuff. I have been using the "White Stuff" for about 10 years now and am hooked on it. I still keep Barge around for when I need a real contact cement. The white glues are not true contact cements as they give you some "set-up" time as opposed to true contact cements which are right now serious. Also the solvents in white glues are much more friendly. Once the white glues set, you will rip leather to get them apart and they are quite waterproof and pretty flexible. All of the manufacturers are going to be trying to meet new standards since the California thing happened. While that is happening some of the reformulated "old standards" might go through some shakey periods of redevelopment. I've pretty much stopped messing with anything more volitle than alcohol bases or occasionally acetone, the ester solvents are just too much, especially for inexperienced users and that is what California was probably getting at. It will take a while to get the water based dyes and finishes worked out, but then solvents will be at your tap and cleanup will be easier. They went through this 20 or so years ago with wood finishing, it's our turn now. Art

Hi Barra, I have run across these at Smuckers in various states of repair. If it is the one I am thinking of, it has a horizontal right to left to right shuttle (like a loom) instead of the rotary type. At first I thought that it might not be a Jones as when they were branded Jones they usually had some of the best decaling around, very intricate. It does however have Jones on the stand (although I would have expected to see it on the treadle, usually Jones & Co.). Jones also branded for every major retailer in England, although usually not with the intricate decaling. I believe the Brother U.K. Company has Jones in their blood, and by its very nature Tony Luberto may have more information on it. There is a company in Canada that rebuilds Pearsons and contacting them might help also, maybe Tony has contact info. Sorry I couldn't help more. Art

If you are going to order that $ of fasteners, go to http://www.dotfastenersdirect.com/ they have a $50 minimum but they also can answer all of your questions about what part goes with what and what parts interchange. The Scovill company is DOT snaps and the DOT snaps are usually the best, or at least most consistant. I always buy dot because with them, I know what I am getting and it always works with the Press-N-Snap and the Snapmaster tools and dies. Sometimes DOT snaps can be hard to snap or unsnap, but I got "another" brand one time that were just about impossible to snap and unsnap. Durable DOT Sanps are Ligne 24 Baby DOT Snaps are Ligne 20 Segma Snaps are Ligne 16 Durable DOT, Baby DOT, and Segma Snaps are the Real DOT snaps, if they are Ligne 24, 20, or Segma Type snaps they are not DOT. I have used the Tandy imported snaps in a pinch, and they are ok, but I don't use enough of them to know for sure. Nice thing about the DOTs is they come in a bunch of materials and finishes and colors and you buy the individual parts you need. There are also other fastener dealers that cary DOT but don't have the $50 minimum. Art

You can file or grind to the right height, not much though, there is little difference between the short and the tall. I have a Pres-N-Snap and it puts them right through the leather, the regular setter and anvil kits from Tandy work fine, just don't smack them too hard. Use some scrap and set a few before you do the real ones on the work, no matter how much you read or ask, doing is the best teacher. Art

Hi Regis, Integrity of the seam means strength? In that case more stitches per inch up to the failure point of the leather between holes the stronger the seam. Kind of an experience thing but for 346 thread and a 230 needle, about 6 per inch is optimum. With chrome tan and leathers with less body, there can be and usually is a "pucker factor" along the sean when stressed. You can control this some by lengthening your stitch some at a loss of some strength of the seam. If you back with veg tan, it will impart some stability to the piece and make it easier to sew. Nevertheless, if you attempt to sew 3oz chrome tan on a machine that is setup to sew 14oz skirts all day, you will have big thread and big bobbin tension overcoming any body the thin leather has and you might have to back down the thread size and tension. You just have to see how your machine handles it. When I sew thin soft leather, my seams are usually on the inside of the work and won't be seen, if I want seams for decoration, I will use veg tan backing. Latigo never seems to be a problem for me, however I don't think I have any around under 6/7oz. With us, owning a machine means you are the maintenance and setup guy in addition to the machine operator, if it takes 15 minutes or so to set-up a machine for a job, just remember how long it takes to hand stitch the same job. If you are doing altogeather too much setup, you need another machine. Art

While you are at WC, ask them for a sample string, not a line card like they send others. These are really representative samples of their leathers and help in understanding what they are producing and what they are calling it. If you are ordering from them it shouldn't bend them too far out of shape. Art

I use a lot of drum dyed veg tan. In anything over 5/6oz there might not be sufficient "strike through" to keep from showing undyed center portions in carving. You can still case it and stamp it, but you have to go really light with a knife. HO does better than W/C in this area but that may have changed, the last piece of W/C "English Bridle" I received was pretty good. The other problem with black drum dyed or any kind of dye job is there is nothing left to contrast and show off carving or stamping. This doesn't affect stamping too much like basketweave or border stamps where you don't necessarily want it to jump out, but for carving and detailing, the contrast is an important part of the presentation which is somewhat lost with black. Art

Hi Ed, At load the servo motor is 400W for 1/2hp, however they seldom if ever run anywhere near load. The electric company bills at load X time so for an hour's use you will use .4 kilowatthours (kWh). Now look at your bill and see what a kWh costs and multiply to get the maximum cost per hour it will ever use. With the new unregulation, they break out kWh cost into electricity and transmission costs so you need to add those together to get the real kWh cost. It is not going to cost more than 4 100W lightbulbs to operate. Art

Hi Wayne, Why not mold the top wet, let it dry, then go back and barge or better yet use one of the resin glues (white glues) like Fiebings Leather Weld that have some work time to them. Art

High Skip, The No.1 was made by Landis, the No.6 was made by Pearson, the No.9 by American Sewing Machine Company or ASC, the Classic by Tony Luberto, and the 6/6 by FERDCO. The Classic and No.9 are the best of that breed although the Pearson was also good. Tony still makes parts for the Classic and the No.9. Many of the older machines don't have reverse, not a problem, just stop and lift the presser a little and position the needle for the next stitch about half a stitch before the prior stitch to lock or turn the work around if you have something else in mind (leave needle down then up just a little when turning). The castings for all the clones are made in the same factory or area in Tiawan or maybe even China (not sure for some of the brands but know that some are out of Zhejiang China). They are pretty much all clones of popular Juki, Consew, Pfaff, Adler and even old Singer castings. There is a big difference in price between castings from Juki and Zhejiang, not to mention availability. The parts are where the difference is in quality, fit, and finish. The Chinese are capable casters and their work is generally quite good though a little heavy; a tour of one of their foundries would send an OSHA inspector screaming into the night. The Cowboy brand is the brainchild of Ryan Neel at Neel Saddlery and he is in North Lima Ohio which is close to you maybe? I have not had the opportunity to look at and use any of the Cowboy machines. Art

Hi Skip, It is a different casting, a little less robust, and there is no bobbin winder. A whole bunch of the parts are the same except the shafts and headgear due to size difference, same shuttel, bobbin, needle bar etc. However on price, it is a marketing thing; things are sold not based on what they are worth, but what someone will pay for them. On the No.9, go to Luberto's website and look at the Classic, that is what the No.9 looks like except Black. A great machine for long harness runs. http://www.leatherstitchers.com/ Art

Hi David, Nice thing about the Adler is you can buy factory timing gauges for them. Timing is not a particular recurring problem with Adlers, but if you are doing harness work, running over hardware is not an uncommon thing. Adlers and Pfaffs are great machines, I was wondering when the clones would arrive. I have yet to see the new machine from Weaver, it looks like an Adler Clone but still pretty high in price, close to an Adler. Most of the major distributors in the US make a clone with higher quality parts than their standard product, some only make one grade. For casual use the lower grades are fine; if you are going to run them hard, get the higher grade machine, there will be less trouble. The only reason I don't talk about Adler and Pfaff more is their high cost. Would I buy one? Oh Yeah. Art

I know, but I've seen sets go for way more than $75 on Ebay. When I bought out the Tandy store in Springfield, Va, I got about 20 of Volume 3, I traded them in at several Tandy stores for Volumes 1 and 2 and sold or gave them away as complete sets. I'm still waiting for Volumes 4 and 5 that Al promises somewhere in Volume 1 I think. Just tell them you received it as a gift, they still sell them. Art

David, The Sewmo 441 is a Juki 441 clone and the Sewmo 205-370 is an Adler clone. The artisan 4000 is a Juki 441 Clone and the Artisan 4000P is bigger than that (but still uses Juki 441 Parts). The FERDCO Pro 2000 is a Juki 441 clone and it goes on an on, none of these machines are "toys". The Artisan 3000 is a shorter arm version of the Artisan 4000. They all use chinese castings and parts except for the Artisan 4000P and the FERDCO 2000 Pro which use Japanese and U.S. parts, that is why they are more expensive. I have seen and used all of the above and they are all great machines, some more so than others. When I say "Chinese" I mean mostly Tiwanese not Mainlandese. There are also the Germans and the Japanese, Adler, Pfaff, Juki and Consew all make good heavy duty machines some like the Juki 441 need a little work to make them better leather machines (remove dogs new needle plate, some of the Juki 441s had a wide set of dogs that need modification). Distributors in the US (like Weaver and FERDCO used to modify the Juki 441) usually make these modifications to target a particular market. Needless to say, "good ole American Iron" like the Campbell, Randall, Union Lockstitch, No. 9, Luberto's Classic, Landis, and Singer machines, even without reverse still make better stitches than most of the new "foreign" machines out there today. I consider my Campbell and ASC No. 9 my "tinker toys", and use the heck out of my Artisans. Art

Hi Regis, Artisan or FERDCO should be able to get that for you. That might be a little overkill on the 618 or 1245 but it wouldn't hurt. I would definately get it on the 3000 if available. Art

Holly, Take two of those back to your local Tandy and swap of Volumes 1 and 2, then sell the set. Art

Hi Regis, The 440R is a drop feed only machine. It just uses the feed dogs to move the work. If I was doing big belts, I would want a needle feed. While a couple hundred cheaper than the 3000, I think you get a lot more machine and the ability to do bigger work if you want with the 3000. The 440 kind of fits in between the 618 and the 3000, it would be a better machine with needle feed. FERDCO and Artisan are about the same machine wise and service wise (I have had both), although I will give the nod to Artisan for putting timing procedures in their manuals instead of just printing call us in the manual like FERDCO does. The only thing FERDCO made that was truly heads above the rest was the Ferdinand 900-B, made on a Consew 756 frame which was really a brute. They also made a 2000 Pro on a real Juki frame that was almost as good, tie either of those to a needle positioning motor like an Efka and you have the ultimate. I wouldn't pass either of those up at the right price and good condition. On another note Happy makes a 550 Watt servo motor now that is a little better than their 400 watt model. Number HSM-550 as opposed to the old HSM-400. The new motor is 3/4 horsepower and opposed to the old 1/2 hp. While the 400 is adequate for even the biggest stitchers (with speed reducer) the 550 has a little more umphf and a little variable speed dial instead of just a switch. These newer motors are $20 more or so but worth it. Jerry at Artisan used to be the importer for those motors, not sure of he still is. Art

Hi Johnny, It is a lot easier if you are working with the seat pan but not impossible if you just want to cover the vinal. With seat pan you foam and contour the pan then make a pattern. If you have the customer fanny it makes it easier to coutour the foam. If you are going to make a twin in leather of what's already there then you can pull the cover off the seat and work with the cover as a pattern. It is a little harder to make a cover over the old cover and have it come out right, but possible I guess. To make the pattern, take some brown paper like grocery bag stuff, it should stand-up to some pulling and folding, and basically cover the seat making darts as required to take-up excess that you will have going around corners and the contours, taping the darts down and cutting excess until you have a piece of paper that when you untape it from the seat you can lay out and that is your pattern. If you are going to lace then you should mark the top/bottom cut line while you have the pattern taped to the seat. Do the holes when you get the pattern off the seat. I haven't done a ton of MC seats but I have done a lot of boat and auto canvas and upholstery, you just have to take your time and fit everything. Use 5oz/6oz or less till you have done a few. We have a few guys here that are way into MC seats and they can tell you a lot more about this that I have not mentioned. It is a lot easier to watch and help someone do one or two before reinventing the wheel a few dozen times doing them yourself. Did that answer your question? Art