Mijo

Rayban and kylecrumrine, thanks for the heads up on buckeye. I hoping that infinity gives me a deal on the maker stamp as I'll also have a set of lower case alphabet stamps (to match my upper case) made on the same order. If infinity doesn't cut me a deal than I'll checkout buckeye for my maker stamp.

Seanafk, thanks for posting the link. Makes it real easy to view the different ways to handstitch.

Damn your edges look good. I'm always inspired by your posts.

Spincycle, if the collar is for your pets you may want to consider stamping the phone number directly one the collar itself and forgoing the tag altogether (which would eliminate the need for the d-ring completely). I've done this for my own pet's collars / harnesses but I still had to include a d-ring so that the collar and or harness could be attached to a leash. You can also sandwhich the d-ring between the top and bottom layers of the collar and simply have a gap in the collar where stitching ends and starts again, the gap w/o stitching is where the d-ring is located. If your not walking your cat on a leash, I don't image that there's any issue with not having the d-ring fixed.

I'll be in the market for a maker stamp in 2013 and I'm going with Infinity stamps, simply b/c they made a custom set of american typewriter font letter stamps (upper case only) for me a couple of years back that I'm extremely pleased with. The size of my letter stamps is slightly larger than 1/8" but I'm amazed at how sharp the stamped letters look. My maker stamp will need to be less than 1/2" in width, so I know Infinity will be able to handle making something that small. Rickybobby, who posted in on page one, is absolutely correct in that you will definately pay top dollar when ordering from Infinity. The upside is that they do really good work, use quality materials, have excellent customer service and provide you with multiple proofs (to ensure that you get exactly what you want) to approve before they create your stamps.

Really nice, the purple thread is very striking. Is the d-ring not fixed or sewn in place?

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you on all counts. The advertisers AND the contributing members pay to keep this site running. The OP is not from the US, how are they suppose to know Barry King is out for the holidays. An easy way to resolve this problem is for a company to post, on their website, when they're out for extended periods of time. You can believe what you want but IMO not responding to a potential customers inquiry IS poor customer service (setting up an out of the office auto email is common place). I've also seen other members flame suppliers / vendors on this site as well, but I actually find value in those posts. If other members post back defending that supplier or vendor (as they did with this post) that was flamed then that's a good indication that the supplier / vendor just happened to drop the ball with that one forum member and that's not normally how they conduct business. Compliants / whinning do keep businesses honest, and if businesses don't care what people are saying about them then they are out of touch. IMO, negative customer feedback is extremely important as it lets businesses know what they need to improve upon. I've seen several local businesses clean up their act b/c of negative reviews on yelp. I'm not debating the quality of Barry King's tools at all. I'm simply defending Swivel Knife's right to post his negative experience.

Congrats on your first show. We've been starting to share booths as well, with a couple of local start ups that we've befriended (their products don't dirrectly complete with ours). Sharing helps streamline our displays, reduces the cost of participation and also gives you some one else to talk to (when it's slow).

I gave up when all I could find was plated. If any one does find a source I'd be interested as well.

Your stuff looks well made and very unique / original. How are the metal strap keepers working out for you? I have similar brass strap keepers but I haven't used any, I really like the look of leather strap keepers. I like the design of the collar with two buckles, on the bully x gh, but is it a hassle having to deal with an extra buckle?

The hide house in Napa carries some unussual colors, https://hidehouse.com/products/index.html?Category=SADL&Page=2 . The chap leather at the top of the page comes in turquoise, and the latigo comes in ultra blue. I only purchase specific types of leather so I'm not sure about what else is in stock.

I second Lion's circle cutter, I've been using that one for over a year and it works well. My only gripe about it is that the measurements are all in metric, which isn't a big deal.

Construction looks solid, is it hand stitched? What weight leather did you use?

+80 views and no posted comments, huh? Maybe it's the picture but the stamping on the collar doesn't look as clean as the stamping on the pipe stands. Aside from stamping names and phone numbers on leather dog tags I don't do any stamping at all, so my comment has little experience behind it.

sorry for the delay in posting but attached is the colt stitcher I mentioned. it's compact size makes it easy to store.

Amazing work. Thank you for taking the time to post your process and tools.

If you need to skive in addition to split, then I'd go with the 86a or 84.

Very nice collar.

Beautiful all the way around. I like how you lined the strap keeper, it never occurred to me to do that.

herm sprenger has them but there a limited number of US distributors. Henssgen hardware corp is the distributor I used to go through for herm sprenger's "french snaps" they maybe able to order them for you as I believe they are one of herm sprenger's major US distributors. I don't make those types of collars but some else I know someone that does and they have been very pleased with herm sprenger (but I think they are ordering direct and not going through a distributor).

I bought a pound of the 5 strand barbour linen thread awhile back and I'm just working through the rest of the waxed linen thread I already have before I start using it. I'm curious to see how other forum members respond to the OP questions. The only question I can really answer is Question 6, when I researched vendors for Barbour's linen thread I could not find anyone that sold less than a pound. Katsass - i'm glad to see that your not mixing bee's wax with anything else as that's what I intend to do myself when I start using the barbour spool (just use bee's wax and nothing else). It seems like a lot of other members mix their wax with something else and that's a process I really didn't want to get into

Tooling, thanks for that post. Such a simple / easy way to gauge thickness with what's in your pocket.

My last two orders of sides have come from the Hide House in Napa. I only go to them b/c it's driving distance from where I live so I can pick out the sides myself. Thus far i've only purchased latigo from them, which i wasn't that impressed with (in comparison to weaver's latigo) but I'm going to try their bridle and harness sides next time.

I guess the first thing you need to figure out is the size of the dog that your going to be making the collars for. This will help determine size of the hardware (i.e. buckles, d-rings) and weight of the leather you'll need to use. I make both lined and unlined dog collars for small dogs, using 9-11 oz latigo. for my lined collars I just split the latigo and double up, with 5/8" being the minimum width. for unlined I don't bother to split the latigo at all. If your planning on making collars for medium to large sized dogs and only using 7 oz leather, I suggest doubling up and using the same leather as the liner so that your overall weight would be around 14 oz. IMHO, using only 7 oz with a liner of deer skin or thinner leather doesn't have enough weight for a medium to large size dog collar. Conchos, bling, decorative spots and studs seem to be real popular on collars these days so if you incorporate those into your collars they should sell fairly well. I don't like to use those things on my own collars, I prefer a simple and understated look, but I get a lot of people asking me about them. Good luck and post what you make, if you have time...

I inquired about the press offered by creative leatherwork, link posted by stelmackr, several months back and it was over $1000 usd. The shipping and custom fees put it out of my budget but its smaller than the one weaver offers, which is a plus b/c I don't have a space either. I'll make do w/o until I can justify / afford the cost but it really seams ideal if you don't have a lot of space. If any one has that manual click press from creative leatherwork, I'd be interested in what they thought about it. I read some okay comments about the weaver version from members on a different thread.