Cyberthrasher

Do you have a Tandy anywhere nearby? You may be able to call up a specific store and ask to order some to be shipped out to you cheaper that way. Or, if you have one in your local vicinity you can obviously go get whatever you need.

That's where getting the baselines comes in handy. I always give people an estimate and make it clear that it could be more or less. I usually come out within an hour either direction - usually more like 30 minutes because I've really focused on how long it takes me to do different types of tooling and design complexities. But, right now I'm getting ready to start studying a lot more of Paul Burnett's victorian stuff, so any baseline I have for my tooling right now will be 100% void when doing that because I'm essentially starting over.

Don't sell yourself short on that one. You're making money and have a focus on business. I'd say what you're doing qualifies as a real job.

I would if you don't have a good baseline on how long it takes you to tool various things. Keep two separate time logs. 1 for the tooling and 1 for everything else. Just do a design of "standard" complexity to see how long it really takes you. Once you get it in your head how long it takes you to do various things, you'll be able to give good quotes (or say "sorry, outside of my league").

Right now, I find that lacing and hand stitching take me about the same amount of time. But, I just started stitching. As of now the main cost difference for me there would end up being the difference in cost of the lace. I charge all of my tooling based on an hourly rate. So, if I do a wallet, i make one that's not tooled and just dyed, that gives me a baseline for how long it takes to make the wallet, which usually falls in line with comparative items. From there I just tack on the hourly rate for the tooling. From my point of view, if you say "all tooled wallets are $60", then someone is going to come to you with the most complicated artwork possible that will take 6 hours to get all the detail right and you'll have given up too much of your time and work for free. Keep in mind that the $20 p/h figure is a good number that I figured out based on my current skill level and the going "value" of comparable items. If I get quicker, my "hourly rate" will go up, which will keep the prices the same. On the other side, if I double my speed and keep the rate the same, I'm essentially devaluing mine and everyone else' products by 50% - not something I want to do to myself or fellow craftsman. I mention it all the time, but for Android, I use FTS TimeSheet as a time-tracker. I used to just keep track by the clock. Now I find that my time accounting is a lot more accurate. That's the one I decided to stay with after sampling several different apps that do similar tracking.

Your crossbars do appear to be quite a bit thinner (from memory since I'm at the office right now). I know some people who would still be able to cut themselves there, but that should do a fine job at preventing the common sense folks from an accident

You just have to have faith in yourself and remember that they came to you knowing what you do. I always look at my stuff and say "man, I hope this is what they're expecting to see" until I realize that they came to me after seeing pictures of my work and admiring it - it's EXACTLY what they were expecting to see because it's in the style they've already enjoyed. From there, you just have to keep in mind that if it's something they have an option on, it's easy to make sure of their wishes before hand. One I'm doing right now, he requested "the color like the 'kevin' strap", which wasn't even the strap he was looking at, so that was almost a disaster. By mocking things up and verifying every step of the way, we ended up getting on the same page and found out which strap he really wanted to duplicate the color from. Then he came back and said "I want this part burgundy" - google burgundy and tell me how vague of a color that is!!! So, I start light and leave myself room to adjust to the shade of burgundy that he wants. If you make sure you're working WITH your customers instead of just doing a blanket order, then there shouldn't ever be any surprises for them, which means nothing to be nervous about

EXACTLY what I do whenever I want to start on a new product. It gets me a good overview of what type of stuff is out there for handmade items and gives me an idea of the average cost for stuff that's at "my level".

Springfield is a top notch company for sure!! If you plan on doing leatherwork for any length of time, I suggest their wholesale membership. You pretty much get all of Tandy's elite pricing for a fraction of the cost and it pays for itself within the first order or two.

Quick answer is yes! Especially since they know you're learning still. There's nothing to be ashamed with in those pictures. If you think you're not good enough to sell now because you're still learning, then where do you draw the line? We should all constantly be learning new things and improving what we do. So, if the fact that you're still learning stuff is reason not to sell, then you'll never sell a thing. Plus, I find that I refine my techniques and get even more OCD when I know that there's customer orders on the line

Don't think product, think pattern/detail size. If your image has detail and you need to get into tight spots - small/medium. If you're doing a big line or the kind of work that requires big tooling impressions, than large would be it. I know if you give him a call and tell him what you're trying to do he'll be able to get you going int he right direction. I just bought my first BK bevelers (000, 0, 1) and I'm in love with them already for the work I do. I'll buy out the rest of the set shortly since I can use all the sizes at some point.

Do you ever find it opens up on you at all while you're pulling the leather through? I usually slip it over the end of my leather and then make sure the thickness is set right from there, but I also occasionally leave marks because it's not quite loose enough.

put those photo skills to use and post some pictures I think they might have made the crossbar bigger since I adjusted it for some thick paper once and don't remember the blade sticking out, but that was such a quick little use I don't really remember how it looked.

What costs $25???

Maybe they all have basement data centers where they access the web in secret. If you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist, right?

yeah, they could definitely use a hair wider slot on that. It holds the blade securely, but not very fun to get in there.

I just posted those last night as I was finishing up some pictures for customer updates. The first time I put the blade in mine I had put it in front of the screws because it was so tight I couldn't get it to go that far back. The second I tried cutting a strap the blade popped out. I ended up prying the slot open a little with a small screwdriver and using that screwdriver to push the blade once I got it started.

I think I need to start doing the same. I'll add a couple more to your list right now

I always go view their page and see if they like leather related stuff. From there I usually find that they either saw one of my Springfield spotlights, they're from here, or they're friends with Kings X. I honestly have no idea how he's drawing people to my page since I don't think he's liked any of my posts recently and I only like his stuff from my personal account, but I'm not gonna complain about it

How long's your blade? I know some people leave a little exposed to pull up a fresh section, but I just put the whole thing in there so it's all covered by the wood.

I just reached a whopping 67 I think about 20 of those are from people here, 37 or so are my friends from my personal page, and the rest are friends of people here. Needless to say, most of my customer base is in the 37ish who happened to be friends with me already and are part of my blues guitar group.

FYI, Springfield just announced that they are a new Horween retailer. They're still working out the specifics, but it would be a good chance to give them a call. It was last week when they said they were still working out details.

That's usually what I try to do - artwork, tooling done, dying progress, finished product. Sometimes if it's a larger tooled piece I'll do a few progress pictures in the middle of the tooling to show how much detail goes into it all.