Go2Tex

Yeah, in a pinch I've resorted to trying to find a good piece of leather at a Tandy store. It's hard, but I've never had an employee give me a hard time about looking. They usually are very helpful. It's just that they don't have much good leather and it's no bargain. You pay top dollar for it. Now, that's veg tan, tooling stuff. They have lots of other leather that is useful at times, lining, chap, splits, hair on. Like I said, in a pinch.... saves on shipping and you can touch and feel. At least you walk out knowing what you have. Plus, as long as you're there, pick up some rubber cement, try some new dye color, a few replacement blades, lace. Might as well pay for your gas in savings on shipping. It would be nice if they would listen up here and start carrying better quality leather. I just hope the economy doesn't drive them out of business.

As always, this is one of the most interesting topics and most difficult areas of the business. One of the problems with pricing is that it is not a constant. Your price is always changing. Your costs change, the market changes, your skills change, (improves, hopefully). A good tool for pricing is right at your fingertips. The Internet is a vast marketplace research tool. I am constantly looking at what others charge for similar products. It's what I do as a buyer, so why not do it as a seller? Of course, you must use the formulas of cost of materials, plus overhead, plus labor but then you need to compare that figure with reality. Keep in mind that what someone else charges is not necessarily what they are getting. We don't know if they sold any of those belts for $15000. What are your goals? Are you just trying to break even or are you trying to grow a business? Either way you must first cover your bottom line, then determine what the market will bear, then offer a quality product at a competitiive price, keeping in mind human nature and the old adage that if you don't value your work, nobody else will. If you charge high prices for low quality products, it will come back to haunt you. So, be honest in your personal assessment of your product, be it work or art or both. You must get out and look at what others are producing. Go to some shows, competitions. How does your work compare?

It's a fine idea. I was just making a bit of tongue-in-cheek there. If it didn't cost too much, I'm sure a lot of small businesses would go for it.

Wilkommen zum Gruppe! Sehr schoen leder werk!

Another real handy book is the Stohlman book on all your leather tools. Tells you how to sharpen and use them. Also has lots of tips and little extras. One of my favorites to have around the shop. The vol 1 and 2 are really the most informative and useful. The 3rd vol just gives a couple more variations of style. So, you're all set there.

That Bowden kit, as I recall has different prices depending on if you use no. 1 grade leather, etc. If you price everything out, you are probably better off buying your own leather and parts yourself. I don't mean to discourage you from building your own. You will need some specific tools to do the job and then you will need to practice a bit with them before you attempt to cut up that nice leather for the saddle. Get a good tree. Even if the saddle turns out absolutely gorgeous, it ain't worth the price of the leather if the tree is bad. Because you are just testing the waters, so to speak, I see no reason to buy the highest quality tools. I believe in the old theory of "pay the pain once", and get good tools that will last, but a C.S Osborne head knife at $60, for example, will do you fine for learning. It needs sharpening, though. So, it goes with the edgers. I'd have to go down the list piece by piece to price it all out on what you'll need, and you can do that yourself if you have Dusty's book and a Tandy's catalog, but some tools you already have in your tool box, I suspect. After after it's all said and done, if you don't want to build more saddles, sell them on Ebay. You will need a drawdown stand. I can't imagine trying to build a saddle without one. You can build it yourself out of 2x4 lumber. Not a big investment. And if the saddle making thing doesn't work out, it'll make a great saddle rack. As for that tree question. Last Wade tree I bought came to about $256 with shipping, from Timberline. I generally figure about $400 for skirting, $60 for my wool. Hardware, stirrups, latigo, rivets, glue, oil, tacks, thread, dye...... whew. You'll be looking at around $800 in materials and supplies. You can save some on the leather, maybe get it for around $300, but it might be not so good. Since you won't have a way to split your skirting, you'll need to buy some thinner stuff for things like your bindings, stirrup covers, strainer cover. No sense trying to use the thick stuff for everything, but you can. So, you'll need a 3rd side of 7-8oz. for around $150-$180. You can hand stitch a complete saddle.....but, that takes a lot of time. You will need a stitching horse or some way to hold your work while you stitch. There are threads on that topic on this forum. The skirts will be extremely trying. Here's a tip. Trim the wool waaay back on the edge so you can find your needles and pull them through. Another tip, get your stitching awls real nice and sharp or else buy them that way. Use candle wax to help them go through the leather easier. This is more important on your cantle and horn bindings. Then, get comfy, have a sip of your favorite libation, put on some soothing music and hide the kids and dogs, lest they learn some new words. Good luck.

The kit can be an easy way to go, but I don't recommend it. You will be paying more and getting less for someone to put it all together for you. After you read the books and watch the videos, you will be able to purchase everything you need and you will be getting quality materials. It's going to be quite an investment anyway you do it, in tools and materials and your time to research and learn and purchase everything. So, unless you plan on make a career or major hobby out of saddlemaking and/or leather crafting, you might be just as well off in the long run buying a good used saddle.

I can't imagine a good reason to dye all 3 sides before cutting. You will still get uneven color because of the nature of the leather. Different areas will soak up more than others. Then, you will still need to dye your edges. The wasted dye is a very real consideration due to the cost plus your time. Not a good idea. A tannery has no other option for offering a colored product, so they either spray or drum dye the whole thing.

You could be right. We installed a new DVD recorder a while back and, who knows, there could be a slight wierdness there. It works great, though, and other than that one day when the power blinked, it hasn't occured again. I do know that we are getting several suspicious emails everyday, all day, phishing type stuff. so, I know the scumbags are out there trying.

I keep hearing about Carvajal but have't met him or seen his shop and not sure if he's even still in business. Apparently the newpaper bought the building where the orignial saddle shop was? There's a boot repair shop across from Smith's Propane. There's a saddle repair, tack shop over on 775, toward La Vernia, called Scotty's. Haven't stopped in yet. As for tacos, we're still looking for a good one ourselves. What's your favorite? So far, the ones we've tried are nothing out of the ordinary. As for hanging out in my shop, you are certainly welcome to swing by anytime. Like most other folks these days, I have plenty of time to chat 'cause there sho ain't much business.

Now that I would like to see. I bet it would take some practice.

Is the Windows firewall that came with Windows XP not enough? If I get another one, will they conflict?

I've been doing all the Windows Defender updates when the pop-up alerts me. But I still get the pop-up when I boot up that says I need a virus protection program. What the heck is Windows Defender if not a virus protection program??? So, anyone have any suggestions? Just a simple, cheap, reliable no nonsense deal.

Oh you see well enough. You can read this forum. How do you do fancy stitching? There's no quide there, just a gouge line, presumably or some chalk line or whatever. You slow that thing down and just follow your line. I stitch tack and billets, saddle skirts, and it's the same as a belt. I want the line perfect. Plus, it's all curvy in places. I rarely step out of the gouge. My skirts are all all one big long curve with only a couple straight places at the top. So, for me, the use of the guide was impractical. I just figured out that I was already pushing the work against the guide with one hand, why not just put my thumb on the plate and run the work against it as a guide. So far I haven't managed to put a needle through my thumb or any other finger. ...well, not a machine needle. The hand stitching awl, ....that's another story.

Same goes for the liner, assuming it is veg tan and thick. You could shape it too. Or, I might be inclined to just iine it the same way I line curved breast collars. Just lay the top piece down and trace off the liner piece, larger than the top piece, glue it down, stitch, then trim.

Like I said before, Bree. Take that dang thing off, put it in your drawer and just learn to use your fingers to guide the work. Trust me. It works.

yeah, do tell. It looks like some of that distressed chap, or nubuck. You must give us a tutorial on those rivets.

Well, for belts with a curve, all you need do is cut it straight, wet it down, and put the shape you want on it. Clamp it down so it stays that way until dry. Presto! Curved belt.

Whoops. Sorry....Mrs. Fitness. Well, anyway,.... yeah, what the world doesn't need is another obese woman wearing a gun belt. I say, put 'em all in sweat pants and send 'em off to the Quick Stop for some more beer.

We've had a wierd thing happen lately. The PC just reboots itself as if we had the power blink off and on, and we got one of those blue window fatal crash error messages when I booted up today.

eh, Mr. Fitness..... Last time I checked, ladies were supposed to be wide in the hips. To me, that is being in shape.

Does anyone here know if any of these malware, spyware, etc programs will show up on the processes window of the task manager? It would be really handy to identify a virus if you could spot right there. At least you'd know you had it. Also, what is a router? You talking about the box on the side of your house?

I only have one positive thing to say about "all this"....... At least it ain't Hillary.

Aahh, misery loves company. heheh. The tax thing is the absolute most frustrating, mind boggling aspect of running my business. My record keeping is very simple. 2 files. Income and outgo. You know which one is the biggest. At the end of the year, I go nuts trying to sort it all into the appropriate "accounts" or catagories for which I can never understand the reasoning. It all comes out of the same pot at some point anyhow, so why all the different catagories? Does it make a tinkers damn whether it was office supplies or friggin postage? NOOOOO! So why all the hoopla about it? Cost of Goods Sold. Oh do I love this one! Looks real simple on the face of it, but then there's that other line for "other expenses" that you just add to COGS amount anyway, so...???? The more I researched, the more confusing it got. Turns out, nobody does it the same way and the CPA says to me, the IRS doesn't really care where you put it. OH great! Well, that was worth the $350 bucks I just paid ya. The inventory..... Do I count every tack, screw, nail and measure how much glue and thread I have left? CPA says: "just estimate." Well, what about scrap leather? I have tons of it. Nope. I estimate that if I can't roll it up, it's in the scrap box and for tax purposes, it doesn't exist. I don't count belly leather as usable, even though I do use it for some things. I don't know how else to do it. I did discover while doing this year's inventory that the cost of all Weaver's hardware has gone up enormously in the last year. I also discovered that I have waaaay over-bought. Buying in bulk to save a few cents can come back to bite you in costs of your time to carry that inventory that you must count every year. One nice thing about it though, it's a hedge against inflation. I have dees and such that have gone up 60% since I bought them. So, as long as we have run-away inflation, buying in bulk makes sense. All that stuff I had when I started the business.... I just added in the big things, tools, etc. and took the one time write off. All the other stuff, the leather and supplies, it was a mess. Some I did, and some I didn't. I'm sure I didn't do it exactly right, but it's impossible to figure out now, and after a few years the numbers seem to average out the error. It's all about the COGS and since everyone does it differently anyhow, who knows what's correct? The ratio is all the IRS looks at anyhow. They compare your ratios to other businesses like yours and if you are way out of the norm, you might get audited. As for Ebay sales, I'm not sure I get the question or why it would be an issue what name you sell under on Ebay. Separate or not, the IRS wants it's cut. I include the Ebay sales related to my business in my business taxes. Also the fees. The CPA put those under Part V, Other Expenses, along with Licenses and Permits, show entries, delivery and freight, accounting and tools. Again, I understand why a business needs that information for it's own use, but what difference does it make to the IRS which account you use for a particular expense? Here is one to be aware of, if you work out of your home and take the business use of home deduction. If you someday sell your home, you will have to pay capital gains on the proceeds as the sale of business property!

You must be referring to punching holes, etc.? Yeah, I use a bench anvil under some thick leather scrap sometimes and it really helps. Just having a good firm, solid bench helps too. I can tell the difference if I move the work directly over a post. No bounce.