Mijo

bently, your collars and leashes look great. Wouldn't it be easier to purchase the leather already dyed pink rather than having to do it yourself? I purchased a hide of some pink bridldle leather (8 - 9 oz) from weaver several months ago that looks very close in color to the pink leather you use.

I think they also have an ebay store as well, b/c I've purchased some of those items listed on that website (the seller has a similar name). the shipping was surprisingly fast considering the package has to clear customs.

bentley, your collar and leash set look pretty sweet. I like that extra d-ring you put on there that runs parrellel with the collar, I'm assuming that's for the dog tag. I'm guessing that the D-ring that's mounted close to the buckle would be used solely of attaching the leash

cdwplus used to offer some thing similar to that hardware. burberry used to use some thing like that for their dog collars as well, before they ended their pet line altogether. I actually looked into have hardware like that custom machined, by the same company that custom machines my screws, but it was pretty expensive just to do an intial run.

Thanks for the tip, I picked up a stylus last week. Much bettter than having customers finger your iphone...

we got our square reader last week and it's pretty sweet. the only draw back is that after you run a card through then the customer is suppose to scribble their signature on your iphone with their finger. having strangers touch a device that comes into close contact with your face is kinda gross. The app also puts together a spreadsheet of your transactions for the day and a little map indicating where the sale was made. we were using another app before we got square were you had to manually type in the credit card information into your iphone. there was a monthly charge and they also took a percentage of your sales.

simon, it's funny that when i started messing around with making dog harnesses I used the same exact examples that you listed in your original post. I also had some of the same issues you appeared to have and had to slowly rebuild the harnesses until I came up with a design that worked the way I wanted it to. The harnesses I make are for small dogs (> 15 lbs) so I had to find ways to make the harnesses light and with less hardware, but I also had o-rings in my original design. I also tried to make a harness based on similar picture in your last post but it didn't work out, i might go back and try and play with the design so that it does work. Dean and tyler makes a really good version of that harness, i think it's called a pull harness, and a leash that kinda goes with it.

i make small dog harnesses and i've been using screws instead of rivets. The main reason i use screws is b/c i don't sew any of the harness it's all held together by screws and instead of using a metal d ring as a strap keeper (near the buckles) i use left over leather for the strap keepers. It's much easier to affix the leather strap keeper to the harness using a screw verses a rivet b/c the female part of the screw or rivet is dirrectly under the strap keeper. i tried using my rivet press to affix the strap keeper but the strap keeper partially obstructs the rivet die. I'd definately prefer to use rivets b/c they cost a lot less than the screws I'm currently using. The up side to using screws is that they are much easier to install and I can take the entire harness apart if I want to clean it. i read some comments in the forum about how screws can irritate the dog but i haven't had that problem with my own dogs (and one of them is almost hairless). I do like the idea of solid rivets but I'd probably have the same problem with the strap keepers.

Hi Keith, nice to see another new member from CA. Your website's pretty sweet, i like really the style. the stuff you've made looks amazing, not my cup of tea but still amazing...

please sign me up

the word swastika is derived from the sanskrit word svastika which means welfare. As others have already mentioned it's ancient symbol used in different parts of the world (it actually appears on coinage from ancient mesopotamia). Hilter took the japanese version of the swastika called a manji, which moves in the counterclock wise direction and is considered a buddhist or solar symbol, and used it for their own purposes. it's a shame that such an acient symbol has such negative associations today...

I use cdwplus as well and have always had a positive experience. buckleguy.com and batzusa.com are a couple of other site i order from as well. hope that helps...

Hello, my tag here is Mijo and I'm from San Francisco. I'm in my late 30's, married, no children and have started getting back into leather working as a side project for my wife's small business. I was intially exposed to leather working when I was a boy scout and took several classes in high school and JC, which I throughly enjoyed. I recently picked it back up when my wife started a small dog apparrel and accessories company. I looked around for a good high quality leather harness for my small dogs ( < 10 lbs) that weren't bedazzeled with bling (not that there's anything wrong with that, it just not my thing). When I couldn't find what I was looking for I decided to make my own, along with matching collars, leashes and couplers. Consequently, several of my wife's regular customers saw what I had made and requested that I make them similar items. I intially did not want to make anything for anybody else's dog, but they were very persistent and I eventually gave in. I see that there are a number of members that are doing similar things and I'm hoping to learn from and share information with you all.