Glendon

I've never thought to do an e-mail order. I may have to give that a try. I probobly do have a pretty good store credit sitting there. For me the credit usually only gets applied when I have a specific leather request that I wanted to talk to them about. I usually have like a $100 order worth of smalls when I finally place an order with Springfield, dye, hardware, needles and the like. I don't want to sit there and rattle off stock numbers unless I have a question that actually needs a person when the website works just fine.

If you want to do your own dying, then yes you will want "tooling leather", otherwise known as vegetable tanned leather. The other major types of leather you will find are chrome tanned. What people call oil tanned, boot leather, upholstery leather, are chrome tanned. Those have a finish already applied. You won't be changing that. Veg-tanned leather is best to start out with. You'll be able to do the most with it. The great thing about Springfield is that it was a Tandy store back in the day. Then Kevin who was the then manager, bought the place when Tandy was going to close it. So they carry 85% of what Tandy does. It's just usually at a better price, and you're supporting a small business. Plus the icing is that everyone there is a treat to work with. Most of my orders with them I just do over the website, but if you have product questions, or need help deciding on a leather, or whatever, CALL THEM! Tell them what you want to do, and not only will they recommend the best options, they will put a note on your order and pick the best specific piece of leather for your needs they have in stock. If you have product questions but aren't planning to buy right away, an email to them will usually get your question answered, and Kevin responds to a good number of those himself. Yah, they don't carry the the dye sample packs. You would have to go to Tandy for those. One thing you will find with dyes is that no one uses them full strength. They're usually just too thick and too dark. Browns especially have to thin or they look nearly black. You have to kind of play with that and find what concentrations work for you.

If you are sewing properly, your pieces won't come apart on either side of the stitching. The problem with contact cement is that it has no working time. It's bonded pretty much as soon as two pieces touch. When you're first starting out, it takes some time to learn how to get nice clean cuts and align your parts correctly. To start out, it's best to give yourself a little fudging time to get everything aligned. Tandy will not be the cheapest. They are the most well known, but they are more geared to the weekend hobbiest who wants to do one or two paint by numbers projects. They still make their money on the hardcore guys, but they mark up a fair bit. Great alternatives are stecksstore.com, springfieldleather.com, and zackwhite.com. Personally, I do a lot of business with Springfield Leather Co. Awesome people, really helpful. Do expect to pay $10 - $15 in shipping each order no matter who you go with. This is all fairly heavy stuff. You're not going to find $5 shipping like in consumer stuff. As for weights, it looks like most of what you want to do is going to be 3oz - 6oz leather. The first leather you will want to get to develop a feel for the work is the scrap bag, leather by the pound, whatever the supplier you go with calls their scrap bin sales. Either pick up a set of calipers or go here http://www.blackriverlaser.com/leather-craft-tools/ and pick up "Handy" for eight bucks. You'll want some type of leather thickness gauge. It's hard to get weights into your head until you've handled them.

Here is a great video on how to sharpen a round knife. Credit to Paul over at Leather Wranglers for this.

I would drop the contact cement and get rubber cement. Contact cement is permanent. Rubber cement can be removed and adjusted. You want something to hold just long enough to do your sewing. You only need one edge beveler to start out. If you're doing a larger project, you can always run it over the edge twice to get a larger bevel. Other then that, your list looks good to start out. Be prepared to be buying rivet / eyelet / grommet setters in the next few months. You can accomplish the same things by sewing, but that gets old pretty fast.

Yep that's the one. Inch diameter, and about an inch high. I'll be trying it out tomorrow. I'll try it in my arbor press and with a handle and post some quick pictures if you like.

Just got my second order from Black River Laser in the mail today. Picked up the centering template, and two of their lesser advertized templates, a five piece key fob set, and a leather fly swatter template. I also picked up their new "saddle stitched by hand" delrin stamp. As always service was quick. My order was out the door inside 24 hours. Ordered early afternoon on Monday, have everything in my hand Wednesday. The key fob set looks great. Perfect sizes. The Tandy key fob blanks always seemed too large for me. They'll always feel like a camp project just because of the size. These should be perfect. A little simple stamping and the projects should sell nicely. My curve cutting is awful. I need the practice. These should help a lot. The centering aid is what it is. BRL quality little tool. Real time saver for laying out stitching, strap holes, quick measuring, all sorts of things. The fly swatter pattern is interesting, and I think I have some good ideas of what to do with the basic idea. Print off some letters or simple designs and punch the friction holes out around them. Maybe pick up some of the cheaper exotic woods like Purpleheart and Mahogany that would be like $2 per handle and do something with that rather then using paint stir sticks or wire handles that everyone else uses. Haven't tried the stamp out yet. Plan to do that on my next project, but it looks great.

SLC sells the pump money clip as well: http://springfieldle...ar%2C75mm%2CBp/ Fair bit cheaper there then walletgear if you add it to a bigger order to off set shipping.

eBay is also a good resource for cheaper tools when you can spend a little money. You definitely want to do your homework first, learn brands, the big names in leather tools, and the like, but there are some good deals out there. The stamp sets can get over priced, but punches, knives, and supplies can be had at good prices.

I've been doing this for about a year and I still have trouble spearing the thread. Even though I know I should because most shortcuts in this work really do hurt the final product, I tend to not bother.

Yep, that's chrome tanned, and a crappy run at that. HobbyLobby likely sells it for scrapbooking, making ornaments, and stuff like that.

Is the blue in the center or actually on the bottom of the leather? A lot of cheaply dyed chrome tanned leather has a blue core because the the dye didn't penetrate too deep. So you can still see the "wet blue" from the beginning of the tanning process. If it has a blue core, it's most likely not veg tanned, and therefore not toolable. I'm guessing they sell this as "craft" leather or something similar.

That was my solution as well. Scoring the line just enough to see using the straight edge gets you set. Then remove the guide and just let your blade follow the started line. Best advice I can give is don't rush. If you try to rush through the cut, the blade might slip, but if you take your time it will follow the shallow cut easily.

My personal experience has been, and others have said the same thing, that the USMC black is particularly bad about rub off. It's the only black I use now because it does look great, but you do have to buff the holy heck out of it each time it gets wet. There is just something about that formula that leaves a lot of dye partials on top of the leather. I just bought a rotary tool to use with a set of burnishers I have on order. On my next use of the USMC dye, I'm going to try a buffing wheel in the rotary tool and see how that goes.

I'd be curious what those batteries cost to run? A gas generator would be easier logistically I would think. If you end up spending an extra day at an event or power is out longer then expected, always easier to get a can of gas then find replacement batteries.

I'll put my vote in for the little Honda generators as well. My uncle just replaced a much bigger wheeled generator at his hunt camp with one of the mid range Honda models. Much quieter, and very fuel efficient.

Very nice little duffel design. I need some serious practice with welting myself. The only thing I might change in the next ones is move the handles to the other side of the buckles if customers want them long enough to shoulder carry. That might make the length look a bit more in proportion.

Dale said in an earlier post that they were going to send him a couple of samples when he called about a quote. As Rayban posted, would be worth getting in touch with them and asking. I will be sending an e-mail shortly, and the next time I call for an order at Springfield I will let them know that I would be a buyer if they looked into being a retailer for these buckles.

1.14 per for 1" roller centerbar is not too bad at all. The cheaper non rollers I buy are usually between .50 and 1.20 depending on what is in stock. Has anyone straight out asked what kind of volume Philips usually works in or what kind of minimum they would be looking for? I use both 1" center bars for bag straps and 1 1/2" heels for belts and utility straps regularly. I'd be willing to go in on a run of 50 of each or so.

Personally I use it more for personal or shop projects. Tool sheaths, handle straps, like that. I've also used to for some wrist bands and the like. Yes, you would use the same weight leather as you would for anything else. As JJ said though, gauge your customers. Some people will just laugh if you tell them their wallet was once a horses backside. Other people might be upset. Besides it typically being stiffer and a bit different in color, the opinion issue is the only major difference between horse and cow leather you should really notice.

You will probobly have to buy a sewing coat pattern. The patterns are the main reason I don't do clothing. Because there are so many sizes of clothing, you usually have to scale and alter patterns. I usually find them confusing as all get out.

Anything solid like metal would put ware on tools. Edges would get worn down or damaged a lot quicker. I would also assume that you would have to be a lot more careful about errors from tools bouncing. Really, you want something that will absorb the blow, both to protect the tool and to make sure that you get the most stable blow that you can.

Quality does still matter to some of us. I've been thinking about this sort of thing quite a bit recently. Over the last year, I've been buying quite a bit of furniture. You know, replacing the cheap wally-world and thrift store college crap. Where I have been spending most of my money is a local unfinished solid wood place. I'd rather pay $70 for a solid pine end table then $40 for MDF garbage. Is it the best you can get? No. They are still comparatively cheap, but they will last for a good while. I think most people still go for what years ago my mom dubbed "middle shit". Good quality, more expensive, but still within their budget. They can't or won't pay the high end prices, but still don't want to replace things regularly

If they realize there is a market, even a small one, they will probobly want to get something for it. Then again, depending on the situation, they may just shake your hand and tell you to have at it.

Depends on the application. Do you want a soft lining to protect something? Do you want a lining to add a little water resistance? Do you want a lining to protect your work from spills? There are suede linings, non-suede but still soft cow, goat, or deer linings, pigskin linings, braintan lining, and a ton of others that aren't coming to mind right now. Any thin leather can work as a lining, depending on what you want it to do. My goto choices are usually a somewhat stiff cowhide, lambskin, and glazed pigskin, because they are cheap. For holsters, I'd probobly go for a basic thin cowhide, vegtan would likely be the best option so there is no chance of the tanning chemicals damaging the weapon. For a notebook, depending on the look I was going for, I'd use either the cowhide or lambskin. Though for a more rugged style like scout manual cover, I might use pigskin. As for where to find lining leather, you can usually find it at the same place you get your standard thickness leathers. I get most of mine at www.springfieldleather.com. They have a nice selection of lining leathers.