electrathon

Sorry, but no. There are a pair at the local Tandy though. I may have to try getting all the measurements off them and go from there. I was just hoping...

Exactly. It is far easier to live off the ever flowing nipple than to work for what you get. The nipple provides just enough to keep you from supporting yourself. Historicly, America started out as socialist. People were starving to death. They switched to a capitalist system and very soon, there was plenty. This was a long time ago.

I am in search of the pattern for "gypsy shoes". It was a kit offered long ago from tandy. The are basicly womens flats. I don't think there was ever a pattern released, but the shoes were sold as a kit. I am hoping that someone has a set that has been copied. I want to make a pair for my girlfriend, because I love her and she does a lot for me. Aaron

Your work is stunning. Can we see the back? You are new and posted in show off. Are you selling? How about a price and time frame? Aaron

Remember, in our system, the bottom 3-4 do not pick up the trash of the wealthy. They live off the government nipple. It is a step or two up that are the honest, hard (often increadibly hard) working people that do that. If they do well, and work correctly, they get to move up. If not, they never make it any higher. The bottom 3 sucking off the nipple are the ones that complain they are not getting more from the gready rich. They are held back by drugs, alchol, attitude, and the inability to wean themselves and go and fend for themselves. I also feel it increadibly sad that the tax structure and other issues has made it necessary for the top to leave the table and eat elsewhere. Yes, they left the table. It was necessary for them to do in order to be about to support the rest of us. So sad. I personally do not care the color of ones skin. I am a mutt personally (but would definatly be considered white). I do not know where I come from, except maybe Oklahoma. If one wants to work, they should be paid. If one wants to sit at home and reherse to be on Jerry Springsr, he deserves to be hungry. Yes, differant jobs pay differant amounts. Ed, you are a good example of this. You have a very nice product that you market to the top couple percent of income earners. Very few average people (likely no below average people) could ever afford to purchase from you. The government could step in and force you to lower your price so that the masses could afford your work. That would make it "fair" for everyone looking to buy. I am betting that the quality of your work would suffer with that sort of government assistance. Think of all the people it would help. I am guessing you would either stop producing or start selling elsewhere. You would be the man at the table that has to leave. I hope and pray that this does not happen. I personally feel that you should be able to price your work as you see fit and let the market decide if it is over or underpriced. I do agree that we see this diferantly. That is OK, maybe even good. It does surprise me that someone who relies on the wealthy to make a living would want them to be less wealthy, as your income will drop in relationship with their wealth. Possibly if that happens you will be able to find a new market, selling to the masses instead. I think that choice should be up to you though and not up to the government.

Very cool deal for someone. You are very far from me though.

I think that is a major part of the answer, almost prophetic. The American people now feel entitled to things they did not earn and can not afford. This debt brings everyone down. If people would live within their means, we would all have more. When you were in Europe, did you see people living beyone their means like people do here? Was it even possible to live outside your means like it is here?

So easy. It is going to pay the way of the 4 men who do not pay for dinner. The guy who "is not willing to pay his share" is already supporting almost every man at the table. You once again are missing the 4 who pay nothing. Yes, we are already so close to socialism is is frightining. The 4 men at the bottom have beem living off the milk of the public nipple so long they have no ability to go and harvest thier own meat. Socialism weakens peoopel that way. It weakens the whole economy. Yes, there are those that have physical reasons to be nipple fed, but the majority just find it easier. As another clarification, I personally have lost magor usage in one of my legs from an accident when I was 15. If I pushed for it I could be collectig Social Security Disability, I do not. Imagine how great our economy would be if most of us were producers in one form or another. If those 4 men paid into the system, we could move so far so forward so fast.

The numbers overlap. Without looking up any numbers, I think yours look pretty close. the 1% at the top pay 40% of all taxes the 5% at the top pay 60% of all taxes the 10% at the top pay 70% of all taxes the 5% includes the 1%, and so on. In your example, the bottom 50% of all people pay only 3% of all collected taxes. Remember, we have social welfare unheard of in other countries. In openly socialistic countries, they do not have the "free" things available to them that our "poor" or non-working have here. The tax system we now have supports those people. These are the 4 in the story that pay nothing for dinner, they are supported by the others (mainly the one) who pay more. If other countries gave away what we do, their tax structure would be far higher than it is. And yes, the top percent are very afraid of what is taking place in this country. Yes, they have stopped coming to dinner. Yes, it is a crippling blow to the country. Yes, the rest of us are having a very tough time paying for dinner without them. Just to clarify too, I am not wealthy. Very far from it. I would fall low into the lower middle class. I just understand how socialism has damaged so many countries around the world, and how it is destroying us here.

Back to the origional: I read too that you can deduct half of the self employment tax from your gross earnings. Self-employment tax deduction. You can deduct half of your SE tax in figuring your adjusted gross income. This deduction only affects your income tax. It does not affect either your net earnings from self-employment or your SE tax. This is similar to if you were working for an employer. Your employer is also paying the 6.2 percent match that you are paying. This is part of your salery. You are not deducting that part, so it is a similar situation. Just that you are seeing both sides of the unfair way business are treated in our tax system. In some of your posting you seem to be mixing the understanding of social security taxes (government retirement) and federal or state taxes (funding the bowels of government). They are differant.

I'll jump in so you are not just talking to yourself. This is a few years old but the numbers are still very similar: Understanding the Tax System This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this. The first four men -- the poorest -- would pay nothing; The fifth would pay $1: the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; The ninth $18. > The tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $59. That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement -- until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. "So dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six -- the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fairshare?" The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being *paid* to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth Man with a of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!" "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They're $52 short! And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. Not the answer to your social security tax question, but addresses your tax percentage part.

Nothing about working with leather bugs me... Except the breathing and smell of the leather dust. It just seems icky. Aaron

LOL funny!

I will be looking for it. I am going to donate it to the local Tandy to put up on the wall with the rest of the "historic" stuff they have.

This was likely the first snipe on Leatherworker.

Money has been sent.

I just saw this with the east coast closing time. You said the rules are fluid... It is not midnight here. I am bidding $23.50 Aaron

As always, your work is stunning. Is this a pattern that you drew? Do you draw your own normally? If so, please think about putting togeather a "book" of patterns. Nice looking modern patterns are very hard to find and for those of us who are drawing challenged it can be frustrating. I am first in line to buy, if you do. Aaron

I agree with Johanna. Please post a pic/descriptions of the books and patterns. Aaron

When I case I use a spray bottle and wet the piece a little while before I tool it. If I am not done that day, I let it dry. A few days, or weeks later when I am going agoin, I respray (I use pro-carve in the water). I have neevr noticed any negative side effercts from doing it this way. Aaron

Yes, even handling hardened lead can be an issue. Hard lead like tire weights are safer than soft lead though. As long as you wash your hands after handling it the risk is minimal. There is a posability of the concrete exploding. VERY minimal. I have spilled lead and things far hotter on concrete and have never seen it happen. If you need lead just go to the local tire shop and buy the scrap tire weights from one of the guys. Do not ask in front, walk in the back door and ask one of the workers.

Can you explain this? Is it a local concealed carry issue? I have never heard the term used here (I live in Oregon). I have a derringer I have been planning on making a similar holster for thay can be fired with the gun still inside. Aaron

A couple issues are merged together here: When you work with leather, try to carve and tool about half way into the leather. The above posted wallet was carved on 4-5 oz leather. I was having trouble not going all the way through whan I did it. If the leather was thicker, it is easier to get more depth of carving. I have another post (clutch purse) that was a little thicker leather. I was able to tool a little deeper into it. The turnback issue is differant than the thumbprint one. Turnbacks are the end of the flower petal that has rolled around so you see the back of the tip. There is a tool that is used to help with this, but you do not need it. It is usually drawn into the pattern. None of your flowers had any, it seemed to me that it would have been better if it has a few. Sheridan style patterns usually use a thumbprint rather than a pear shader. It is narrower and does not push as much of the background down. The more intricate Sheridan designs usually look better with the thinner impressions. This is similar to the Sheridan bevelars being steeper than the western floral bevelars. I am still learning this too. If I am explaining something incorrect, someone please step in. Aaron

The reason I would have turned the basket weave is that a basket is normally "woven" with the straight fibers going up from the bottom. The sides are then twisted in as you go around the basket. The way your pattern is laying is not the natural direction for a basket. Many leather patterns the basket is laying at a diagional, so there are a lot of rules broken when doing it, but your purse design could have actually been done as a real basket weave. When I looked at it, the first thing I thought is, "the weave is not correct for a real basket". If it is the effect you were looking for, then it is not wrong. Not taking anything as an argument. Personally I prefer people to point out issues. Then it is up to you (or me) to decide is there is a better way. I am very much still learning too. Chan Geer and Pete Gorrel (sp?) both have told me I am horrible at decorite cuts. I am better at them than I used to be, but still really struggle with them. Look at my "wallet" post for the answer to the turnback question. Aaron

Overall the tooling is very nice. Things I would change: Loose the pear shader and get a thumbprint. The pear shader is too wide. It looks like there should have been a turnback on at least one of the lower petals. The flower would look much more three deminsional, not flattened out. The basketweave is sideways, turn it 90 degrees. The next one is where I also have tremendous trouble too, work a lot on your decorative cuts. I have something posted in floral sarving, interested in your input back too. Aaron