Glendon

Thanks for the input you two. I appreciate it. For now I guess I'll flesh the business plan out a bit more and see if that will spark ideas as I write everything down.

I wouldn't waste your money on the cutting boards branded specifically for leatherwork. They are way over priced. If you like the vinyl cutting mats, pick up one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Healing-Green-Cutting-inches/dp/B0025189VE/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1336950968&sr=8-7 If you like the poly cutting boards, look in your area for a plastics supplier and ask them for a sheet of HDPE, or order one below. Just pick the size that works for you. A new HDPE sheet is on my list to pick up the next time I have some extra money. I have an 18" x 24" cutting mat I use for most of my cutting and a small 6" x 6" HDPE sheet I use for punching, but I'd love a bench top sized sheet for punching, but also to set down and use for dying. http://www.interstateplastics.com/Natural-Hdpe-Nsr-Sheet-HDPNE.php

The absolite rock bottom cheapest would be the hobby Crafttools. Those are probobly what you are seeing for $7 - $8. Just pick them up one or two a month.Just understand that you will probobly be replacing the ones you use regularly fairly soon. As Chavez said, the good stamping tools run $25+ on the cheap side.

I can't imagine how much work was put into the colors alone. I love it.

I am in the very early stages of working up a leatherwork business plan. The basic idea is to take a few designs I have been working up for the disability community, such as wheelchair backpacks, crutch pouches, and sling bags, and turn it into a social enterprise. Basically take teens with mild to moderate disabilities and give them an internship that exposes them to craft skills, basic business skills, and social skills, while turning out real products. What can I say, I'm a social worker by training. My ideas get a little grand. If this actually gets off the ground, it will probobly start out with me selling a couple products a week to finance a few basic leathercraft classes. Anyway, while I was futzing with this, I started thinking about business names. I was thinking about something simple like "Familyname" Leatherworks. Nice and traditional which is a feel I'm going for, but a bit long. My experience is with non-profits and their descriptive but unapproachable sounding names. I want to try for a busniness that people actually want to you know, do business with, not a social service provider that makes people think "such a good cause" as they promptly forget it exists. For those of you who sell under a company name, how did the name come about? For everyone else, what kind of names come to mind when you think of a good general leather goods business? I have a couple ideas I'm leaning towards, but I don't want to post them here and risk the domain name being snatched up. Part of it is a short family name that will be dying out when a cousin of mine goes and I wouldn't want to lose it.

As far as style goes, I much prefer the two patch designs. Very fitting given your name, and pretty memorable. I'll give the same advice as Cyberthasher. I would go with #3, but use the full FHL initials. That way it will stick in someones mind better what the initials stand for. #1 and #2 feel much too busy for me. Too much going on to take it in quickly.

Couldn't agree more. Diagrams are arguably better in some other books, but on the whole you can't beat them. Well either that, or you could drop a few grand on a decent leather sewing machine. And you'd still have to learn a new skill.

I'll second Stohlman's Art of Making Leather Cases series. It's a set of three books with projects that get progressively bigger and more complex. Vol. 1 starts with small sheaths and belt pouches. Vol. 2 moves on to briefcases, document cases, and other common bags. Vol. 3 is rifle cases, golf bags, guitar cases, and other big items.Even if you don't want to make your own variations on the patterns, it should keep you busy for quite some time.Some of the projects are out of date, but the techniques are exactly what you want to learn. We really need to get this thread or another one recommending the Art of Making Leather Cases series pinned. They get suggested a couple times a week it seems like.

It's purely a design choice, so it's completely up to you. I could see it looking just fine. The nice thing about custom designs is that only you would ever know if it's technically a mistake or not.

Hi there, I was glad to see someone who has a review of the the Leather Wranglers round knife. I've been considering a Leather Wranglers knife for a couple of weeks, but just couldn't quite justify the cost. How much more control do you feel you have using a good round knife? I've used a good utility knife, but still a utility knife, for most of my cutting for the year I have been a leather hobbyist. Because of a physical disability my hands at times can be a bit shaky. You can imagine what that does to long straight cuts or curves. Did you see a big improvement in control with the Wangler knife? Thanks for your comments. Reviews from impartial users is always helpful to us newbies.

What Andy said. I thought about that when I replied, but was on my iPad so I didn't want to get too wordy. No reason you can't do your first bag in 7/8 oz since you already have it, but 6 oz seems to be where you start moving from soft sided bags to more stiff sided cases. At lest with veg tan that seems to be the rule of thumb.

You seem to be on your way. Grab a copy of The art of Making Leather Cases vol. 2. Ii will walk you through a bag just like that which you can tweak to your own style.

Or order from their eBay pages. They are offering a pretty good discount to Leatherworker.net members right now to get their name out. I'm sure Jerry or Joyce will let you know about this, but just a heads up.

Beautiful work. I hope to get that good with time. I have a ton of ideas I would love to do in that style.

There's an idea. I hadn't thought of using those plastic paper protectors to hold them. I was planning to grab a piece of scrap leather and make a fold over pouch holder for each set. Cut a base to the size of the largest template in the set with a flap that folds over the bottom of the pouch and comes to about half way up the template. Then rivet on a strap to hold the flap closed. Pretty simple little project.

Yes, the leather gauge is a handy little thing. At least for us newbies who haven't been around long enough to eyeball it yet. I used one of the tab end template to make a belt loop for a pocket knife sheath yesterday. They do work great. If I have one complaint about them, is that they are just on the edge of being too thin. They should hold up fine, but they are just flexible enough that I feel like I need to be careful with them. When place the order for my custom template, I think I'll pay for it to be made 1/8" instead of the 3/32" acrylic that's the default. Other then that, I'm quite happy with them. I'll be doing a belt from scratch next weekend, so they'll be put to the test then.

Depends on the quality of the stamps. If we're talking solid high end stamps, maybe. The cheaper Crafttools aren't solid metal. They're plated, with nickle I believe. So a high power wash like that could chip them.

Any kitchen degreaser would work. Though to preserve your tools as best as possible, a low / non corrosive cleaner would be best. I've been sticking with Simple Green since I bought it for another job and it's worked well. However, in a pinch, a kitchen cleaner might work if you have something designed for metals.

Huh. That's an interesting idea. Misting or steam wouldn't work for leather. Most leather hats are either stiff hats similar o a top hat, or sewn together sections like a paneled baseball cap or a beret. Vegetable tanned leather can be wet molded though. When soaked, Veg tanned leather will easily mold over a form. Many pouches are made this way. Using it for a hat would be an interesting experiment.

Can't emphasize this enough. You are working with materials that are designed to dye flesh. If you go at a project without gloves too quickly after a dying, you'll be living with your mistake for a little while. If something comes out a little off, it;s best to just step back and think for a minute.

Sounds like WinterBear is on the right track. Most of the cheaper buckles are nickle plated. Stainless or if you don't mind the change in look, solid brass buckles should avoid this problem.

There are also some great books. I seem to be recommending this set a lot, the Art of Making Leather Cases set by Al Stohlman. Great for learning gussets, straps, stitching allowances, fold lengths, pretty much all those basic pattern questions that drive you crazy. They're all the Sheridan and Western styles, but can be tweaked very easily. The Leatherworking Handbook is another good one. It's more of an English leather style. Those should get you well on your way.

Honestly, that's exactly what I'd probobly do. You made the deal. I'd personally never go back and say oops took longer then I thought, you owe me more. You have to stick to your word, even if you have to eat a mistake. Lesson learned. My guess would be that this customer will be back and happy to buy again, even at the higher price.

Just received my Black River Laser order in the mail. First off, they look great. I ordered 4 templates from them. The buckle end templates, shield and tab templates, and two new templates they just released. The new strap end templates they offer include both the standard strap point, and the English strap point. The final template I got was their radius strap end set. Buying the new dual strap end set and the radius set is actually cheaper then buying the standard and English point strap end sets. Since bought a few sets in this order, they were nice enough to include a handy little leather thickness gauge, Much quicker and easier then the calipers I was using for that job. Shipping was a snap. I placed my order though their eBay store and the templates were in my hand 4 days later. I'm completely happy with the quality. I haven't had a chance to play with them yet, but I'm sure they are going to get a lot of use. Service as also great. When i had e-mailed them about placing an order, they had not yet lined the eBay store off their website. So I wanted to ask them about the order process and to discuss a custom template I was thinking about. I had a phone call from Jerry that day. He walked me though the ordering options and gave me a quote right then off of the sketch I had e-mailed. If you're thinking about one or two of their template sets, I'd absolutely say go ahead and get in touch with them.

I would have to agree with Chancey. For things you've turned out a ton of times and know your time for, you can set a final price. For custom work, you need to give yourself some wiggle room. I'm still only about a year into this work, so I set my personal hourly at $25. So straight cost of something that took up a square foot of leather, some misc. hardware, and some finishing products, and took a half hour to make would look something like this: Leather: $6.50 Hardware: $2.00 Finishing: $0.45 Labor: $12.50 My Cost: 21.45 That's still not what I'd sell it for. I would double that for the final retail price. x 2 Final Price: $42.90 Does that feel over priced to you? It sure did to me at first. But it's a fair price. You are doing two jobs. You are the craftsman at the bench who deserves that $25 an hour, but you are also the manager / owner making the final sales. If you were to hire someone to do one of those two jobs so you could focus on the other one, that's what you'd have to charge. If you want to be generous, knock 20% 25% off the final retail price. Your friends will still get a deal, and you'll still get value out of your work. .