Art

Folks, Please do not "gift" money to a seller as a form of payment through Paypal. It would leave you no recourse should the deal be unsuccessful. Art

The "iron" is definitely a standard in the accessories industry over in Europe, I have also seen it used at Hermes and other high-end makers. You could accomplish the same thing with irons, usually heated on an alcohol burner or even a candle (I'm old). The coloring is usually "Yankee Wax" made by Renia. It has a lot of Carnauba wax in it I suspect as the only way to put it on is to heat the iron, maybe a daub of beeswax to finish? Art

Realize that machines are rated for a particular production speed like 3000spm (stitches per minute), which is actually slow by some of today's standards. To get these speeds and keep the machines from coming apart, they use the lightest weight materials that will do the job. Now if you add a heavier weight thread, you will have to use heavier tensions to pull the thread up, and the bearings and thread arm aren't designed for it, not at speed anyway. For our particular passions, where we are sewing slow, there is a little less of a problem, BUT, tension doesn't change much due to speed so you are still wearing the machine. I guess what I am saying is that it might work fine for slow speed, try it, but eventually, the wear will happen. When you get a jam, you can hurt the machine with small thread, you WILL hurt the machine with big thread, make sure you have a well operating safety clutch, even then no guarantees. Art

Jessie Smith, Bob Klenda, Pete Gorrell, Al Gould, Don Butler Are all saddlemaking teachers. I would call each of them and see if they would take a raw beginner as a student for a week or two. It won't be cheap and given your level of experience you might not get a saddle made, but you will learn a lot, even that maybe this isn't what you want to do. Then work with that knowledge for a year and go back for another week or two, maybe with a different teacher, maybe not. That is for Western saddlemaking, English is different. I would also mention to my teacher that I wanted to do repair also, because that's the kind of work you will get a lot of starting out. Art

Alright everyone, we've done enough damage here, it is done, stick a fork in it. Art

Hi Cheryl, Miso was probably sincere and not pulling our legs. Some folks just don't know the plain hard facts or animal husbandry. I guess some can wish that cattle are treated fairly, but they are big animals that can treat someone quite unfairly if they so wish. Today, some grow up in a world where they don't know where things come from or don't know how they get there, sometimes it is a shock when they find out. Art

I thought we were talking belts, not harness. I guess we went off the tracks somewhere. Art

$1400 or so.

Slitter, better known as Strap Cutter. Art

Drum dyeing is just a finishing process as is hot stuffing, they are done to hides that are tanned already. Hot stuffing drives tallows, liquors, or whatever into the leather under steam heat and centripetal force. The liquors and oils they use in hot stuffing are determined by the finisher at the tannery, which ultimately determines if the hide is bridle, harness, etc. The drum dyeing just determines the color, they can do it a lot easier than you can, so if you are getting them to do a lot of work for you for basically nothing, go for it. Keep an airbrush around (Badger 250 for big jobs and a 150 for detail work) so you can be creative when you want to. If you are going to carve or stamp, you generally don't want anything hot stuffed, and drum dyeing doesn't allow you to do shading, resisting, antiquing, or other decorative applications where color and or shading is part of the work. Get a splitter if you want, but what I would recommend is the Osborne 84 or Campbell-Bosworth Keystone. In my opinion, you don't need one if you can learn to skive. Go to one of the shows where Paul Zalesak or Terry Knipschield are selling their knives. Learn to skive from either, they both make excellent product and you can buy a knife to do more than just skive. Get your leather split to the thickness you want by the tannery. Or buy a band splitter for $16,000 and it still won't skive. What a volume beltmaker needs is a Slitter not a splitter, or you can get Weaver to slit hides for you if you buy from them. If you are doing double and stitched belts you will need a sewing machine, as handstitching those gets old fast. I do borders and geometrics, ask Bobby Park how long to carve a belt and then figure times 3 or 4. Art

Yes, just left in a little longer. Art

Ok, so maybe this will help. I got my cap anvil from my Weaver Little Wonder and I took a few measurements. Length overall 1.200 Length of top part .500 Length of bottom part .700 this is the part that goes in the press Diameter of top part .500 Diameter of bottom part .375 Inside Diameter of cup .343 this is where the cap goes Depth of cup .060 Inches of course. So, all you have to do is apply the cup part to a TLF splash anvil or take a Weaver cap anvil and mill the shaft to fit the TLF press. You could make one out of 1/2 inch drill rod in a few minutes on the lathe. Art Art

Standard practice with contact cement on porous leather (usually the flesh side) is to put a coat on and let it dry 5-10 min, if it is shiny, use it, if it is NOT shiny put another coat on let dry 5-10 min and if it is not shiny, put another coat on...... Unless you are getting really big pieces, $3 a pound is a little expensive especially if there is anything in there you can't use. Going rate seems to be $1/lb for scraps. Art

Check with them, a lot of suppliers don't understand the regs if they don't do a lot of small lot shipping. Angleus ships mainly to distributors so they might not know the regs and think that the over 1 to 4 gallon rates apply to 1 gallon and down. They way the regs were initially written they were as you stated, but they caused so much pain that they were amended to exempt 1 gallon and down from the $25 fee. The shipments go as ORM-D but there is no $25 fee. Art

Adam, Hand sewing can really slow down production. Sewing machines are great, but try to adjust your workflow so that you are NOT changing thread sizes and colors all the time. I now have 9, or more regularly used stitchers which doesn't include the dozen or so the wife has. Is that extreme, well not really if you do a lot of different work. A good harnessmaker can get by with one or two (black and white). Cutting is another time consuming function, and for harness and tack a clicker would be a godsend. Once you have the dies made, you can click out 15 bridles in 5 minutes or less, then there is just sewing and finishwork. A ten ton clicker is enough, I can do 12 iron (1/4 inch) sole bends without it even phasing the machine. While not of a lot of use to a harnessmaker, a bell skiving machine can make a big difference to someone who is doing a a lot of it, like a shoemaker or saddlemaker. I had a saddlemaker tell me that if he had it to do over, he would have purchased the skiver before the stitcher. For the shoemaker, it is the other way around. A slitter can be a useful thing if your work goes that way, e.g. beltmakers. You just buy the machines to do the most labor intensive portion of your business. Time is indeed money. Or you can buy a machine to do the things you really hate to do, your sanity is more important than money. Art

I have gallons of volatiles shipped all the time. As long as it is a gallon or less, it just has to be labeled ORM-D and regular shipping rates apply. If you ship over a gallon, and up to 4 gallons, the $25 Hazmat fee applies. Art

It is an outsole sewing machine, also called a curved needle machine, that was used by cobblers and shoemakers to sew the outsole to the welt. Most of these are a copy of the Landis 12 (F, G, K, L) but the Goodyear machines preceded them. All the manufacturers machines look pretty much alike. Your best bet would be to call around to all the old cobbler shops to find someone who has one and convince them to show you how they work. As Landis and most others at the time leased the machines or provided service, the technical manuals of the times were user manuals and parts lists. Cobblers mended their own machines or had a Landis tech do it. Factory techs were trained on the job and were either kept on or let go based on their abilities. Machines were leased to cobbler shops and service and even thread were included, some machines even had stitch counters, not for service work like today, but for charging for the lease. My grandfather serviced NCR (cash registers) machines in the '30s, '40s, 50's, and 60's, and I am glad I had the chance to go on the road with him during summer breaks. There is a mechanical bent that runs in my dad's side of the family, and I am happy to have received some of those genes; I just kept up with the times and got into the computer end of it. Art

Linda, Welcome aboard. We have a knowledgeable crowd in most of the things you mentioned, and they're mostly open to questions. Leatherworking requires very sharp tools, and little ones and tools don't mix well. Congratulations when the time comes and again welcome to Leatherworker.net (we abbreviate that to LW or LWN). Art

Most of my green handled knives are Hyde. http://www.industrialbladesandknives.com/literature/pdf/shoe-knives.pdf http://hydestore.com/industrial-knives-blades.html?dir=asc&limit=all&order=name USMC still makes some. Art

Ferg, They can use a feed dog, you just put it in, screw it down, and change the needle plate which has a feed dog hole instead of a slot. Art

I would recommend obtaining hides from the Tajima-ushi breed of Wagyū cattle, raised according to strict tradition. You would then have to find a tanner who would process these for you. Packing plants generally take cattle in one end and hides and meat come out the other. They have no idea how the animal was treated during it's lifetime. If you look for big thick hides, you may get a dairy bull, who generally had a really good time during his hormone raged life, either naturally or artificially. Art

Particle, His machine is set up for harness (but it works on everything). It uses ONLY the needle feed, there is just a slot in the needle plate, the feed dogs have been replaced with a needle guide. Art

If you can get a decent price on the Pearson 6 and it is in reasonable shape jump on it. Probably one of the best harness machines made. Will work for saddle skirting too. It is a square feed jump foot machine. Leighton's still has parts and knows those machines well. Art

The way you should look at it is: What reasons do I have for getting a small arm machine, and with the 1010, why do I need a machine without needle feed. With all the seems you climb over doing bags, I can't see why you would NOT get needle feed on a machine that will do all around service. I can see it for a machine that just does one thing and doesn't need needle feed or a long arm, but for the little bit extra, get the most you can. If you want to try and then get accustomed to using a bag or holster plate, then you HAVE to have needle feed, those don't work without it. Art

You'll need a bigger machine for that. Something in the 441 class, but a used 7 class might do. You'll need to talk to AL or Darren as they have better knowledge of what's available in your area. Art