Glendon

Did you have music in the background? It looks like EMI claimed copyright and had the video pulled down.

I love the look of this. That truely classic. I've wanted to work with patent leather for some time, but I knew there have to be some tricks to working with it I'm going to have to learn by doing.

Metal stamps are more durable, but the Delrin plastic stamps will still last years of normal use. Working shops would want metal stamps for all but small batch projects, but hobbiests I think can use use a Delrin stamp easily for some time.

I've used isopropyl to thin sprit dyes a few times now. Seems to work just fine. I have not tried it, but from what others have said, the 70% isopropyl is too much water to dry correctly. 90% or better seems to work fine though. I use 92% because it's fairly easy to get hold of

Springfield Leather carries a couple glue pots like that. Basic plastic jars with the brush cap, and a more expencive teflon coated jar. If you search for "container" at their site, you will find them. Though I would seccond the squeeze bottle suggestion. They are easier to control when you just want to glue down an edge.

Leather weld is garbage. You need a good rubber cement if sewing or contact cement if not. Leather weld might as well be library paste for all it does.

I haven't used sanding sponges before, but I was curious about them when I saw them in Harbor Fraight a couple months ago. If you try them, please let us know how it goes. I'm thinking they might be a little soft, but heck that might just give you a better curve on the edge.

I'll add my vote for the SLC 10 day deals. They do offer quite nice deals. The last two sets featured a good bit of deertan and garment leather. This month is more horse heavy which I love, but as Cheryl said, there is some nice sheep sheering and lamb up over the Thanksgiving week if garment weight is more what you are looking for.

We're always our own worst critics. We see the flaws in our own work because we have just been looking at them so long. The bag looks very well done to me. I'm sure you could improve some small things, we all could. But there's nothing on there I'd call a problem.

I tried a dremel sanding tool, but I found I can actually get better results with a good old sanding block and sandpaper.

Had to look up what a "corner" bookmark was. I had never seen one before. As to your question, my first thought is to check if the thickness of your leather is even. 2mm / 5oz leather is fairly thick stuff. It probobly has some high or low spots. That might be why it doesn't sit nicely. You might also want to check what you are using to make your corners. If you are pretty far off from a true 90 degree angle, that might push things off alignment.

Sounds like a little damage due to prolonged presure. Most people are just more used to a full hand falling asleep than one finger. I'd say give it a day. If it doesn't go away by Monday morning, then you might want to have it checked.

There are also the drum dyed horsebutts. They are thinner, but longer then the natural horsebutts. Not for wide projects, but great for strap goods, small sheaths, pouches and palm size projects. The price can't be beat either. http://springfieldleather.com/29876/Horsebutt%2CDrumDyed%2CBlack%2CEa/

I've actually been doing a lot with horse hide recently. That exact 5lbs box from Springfield as a matter of fact. The fibers are a lot tighter in horse leather then cow, so it does take a bit more power to get a good imprint on it. After working with horse hide for awhie, a tooling belly is like butter. I think it's just fine to learn with. Do a bunch of pocket items, wrist bands, sheaths, key fobs, card cases. Use up a box or two of that horse hide, and you should feel quite comfortable when you buy something more spendy.

I love this stuff. I picked up a box of this 5lbs box from Springfield last month. The largest sections were about 8"x8" and strips abut 3"x20" or 4"20". You're not going to make bags out of this stuff, but for pocket goods, it's great. And if you are a member of the Springfield gold club, it's $5 for 5lbs. It is horse hide so the fibers are a bit tighter then cow hide. You do have to whack at little harder to get a good stamp imprint, but I think it's a great deal.

Yep, you're right. This sort of situation is exactly why policies get written out. Personally, I agree. Neither sounds like a particularly good excuse to pull back on a deal. My response would be that once the project is started, the sale is final. You did not say so, but it sounds like one holster is pretty stock and the other is custom in some way, thats why it would be hard to sell I assume? For the more common one, I might suggest framing it in the terms that you would not give him a refund, but would be willing to buy it back from him at a reduced price for the trouble of having to resell it. For the custom one, I would say the sale is final since you would not have an easy time selling it to someone else.

Have you looked at the motorcycle tool bag patterns around? Those guys and gals make bags like that all the time, handlebar bags and the like. One of those should give you an idea or might work as is.

Can't say I disagree with anything that has been said yet. I consider myself a very techie person, but when I'm doing leatherwork, I'm doing it because I want to use my hands. I want to create something. I do use vactor graphics for pattern creation. It just makes more sense to do it that way since I simply don't draw well. And yes, I would love a laser cutter to make parts and engrave some simple desings that are harder to find made into stamps. I have neither the money or space for one however. When you go too far into mass production techniqes, your end product will look mass produced. Pretty simple concept. You don't need an artists eye to see the changes either. You just lose the magic. I would guess that the large scale leather brands do use laser cutting and 3D prototyping, but that final process has to have human intervention tweaking along the way or the end result just doesn't come out right. And as for all of the smaller one man shops, we do this because we want to make things, not just ideas.

As long as you don't mind buying online, there are quite a few actually. First thing you will want to do is check out the banner ads at the top of this page. I know, they are usually worthless, but here at LW.net, they are a major community resource. www.springfieldleather.com I love these guys. Was a Tandy until it was bought by the then menager. Small business, but they still stock the bulk of what Tandy does. www.zackwhite.com Another all around leather supplier www.ohiotravelbag.com Hardware seller. $30 minimum, but you can get just about anything you might need in terms of project hardware. www.waterhouseleather.com Leather only, not a catch all store, but they stock some hides others don't. www.brettunsvillage.com Smaller outfit up in Mane, stocks all the usual tools, hardware, and leather. Havn't worked with them yet myself, but a lot of personality. The list goes on really. Hunt around. There are much better places then Tandy and the hobby stores.

Do you have any universities close to where you are? I would check with a computer science department to see if they have any job boards or ways to post projects for students. That would get you a good website at a fair price. Another option you might want to play with is www.squarespace.com. It's a system that lets you drag and drop a very nice website together. You can sign up for a two week trial completely free. They don't even ask for a credit card or contact info. Just an e-mail address. You can try it for two weeks. If you don't like it, just ignore it and it will be deleted. If you do like it, pay the $8 per month and it will stay up.

Are you looking for an actual tannery or a leather supplier? There are only a handful of tanneries in the U.S.

Check out Black River Laser. If they don't have what you need, they will do custom templates for quite cheap. http://www.blackriverlaser.com/leather-craft-templates-gauges/

I'm another huge Springfield fan. You're right, most of the Tandy stock is "okay". With Springfield, I've found that most of their "B" and #2 leather is quite good. If you want to try their Hurman Oak out without spending a ton on a large amount of leather sight unseen, they sell HO single square foot pieces. http://springfieldleather.com/30416/Piece%2CHermann-Oak9-10oz%2C12%22x24/ Would allow you to make a project or two and see how you like it. They also have some special purchace HO in single shoulders on sale right now. http://springfieldleather.com/34242/American-Single-Shoulder%2C-4-5-oz./ As for the weight question, I tend to run to the liter side, others go heaver. If you are getting charicteristics you like with the 9/10 oz, I'd say stick with it. It's a reasonable and common weight for holsters. Wettting does help for dye application. Applying in a circlular motion rather then painting it on helps a lot as well. A good rule of thumb is go heavy and wipe the excess off rather then doing multiple coats. Another method that has been brought up here, but that I personally have not used is dip dying. Can be messy and a bit heavy on how much dye is needed, but it seems to work for a number of people.

Yep, Cheryl isn't kidding. There are a lot of us here who sing the praises of SLC whenever the opertunity comes up. I love that horse scrap box. I use that as the raw material for a lot of small pocket items. Rather then just stithing along the curves for practice, perhaps cut out a fist full of belt loops, pocket knife sheaths, bracelets, or other small easy to assemble items and sew those. That's what I'm in the process of doing. Anything that comes out kind of cool you can keep or give away, and anything that turns into a learning experence, you can just toss since you're only out a dollar or two.

I have to say that your current one is better as a logo. From an artistic point of view, the tattoo is awsome, but I think it's a bit too complex to use as a business logo myself. You can't just glance at it and know what it is.