Sylvia

"Iron Horse Leather and Accessories"

I would probably approach this a bit differently from the others. Cost of goods sold should include. Labor, materials, advertising (website), trips to shows, etc. But rather than charging by the square inch or by the unit, I would weigh my leather and my dyes when I first get them. Then divide that by the $$ paid (including shipping) and then after each cut or dye job I would weight them again. Then make the units and such in your spreadsheets. Debiting and Crediting as new inventory comes in and leaves as finished goods. I highly recommend that you take a bookkeeping class or a first year accounting class.

Those are really nice.

Baron Tool #903 is a Bamboo image stamp. If you have this stamp could you please measure the stamped image for me? If you have time perhaps you could stamp a hunk of leather and place a quarter by the image? I would really appreciate your help.

You are welcome. A humidifier might help some but so will a pot of boiling water on the cooker. Just don't let it boil dry. LOL Plants help with household humidity too... if you can keep them alive. lol. Good luck.

Wink: While I tend to agree with the others.... in this case I'm just going to remind you that your ambient humidity is going to play a factor on the leather drying out. It's only about 20% humidity in my house right now and in that case I have to re-dampen the leather frequently. Case it well, then have a tub of water and a clean sponge handy. As you work, you'll notice it drying out a bit re-dampen, let it blush... and begin again.

http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/10144517-AA.shtml Dharmatrading rocks.

Thanks TR. I did try a sample and the color turns out bright.. Yay! I was just worried that it would require some sort of special process. thank you for taking time to answer.

LOL Mike... I am sensing a theme and it seems to be ass heavy. LOL

I have read some tutorials on how to tan hair on and what happens if you don't get it just right. (The hair falls out) I suspect that is what happened to these and they just put more acid in the bath to make the hair that was staying stay for good. This is an example in my opinion of Marketing a mistake as a desired item. If I can find it again, I'll pm you the tanning tutorial link so you can read through it. If

Why not use a french edger or something similar and counter sink it a little bit on the flesh side of the leather?

Looks like an Ulu to me. But I tend to believe that head knives were based on the Ulu. http://www.icollector.com/images/174/2671/2671_0270_1_md.jpg

Ear muffs Guitar strap lining.... Moccasin lining... ooo can you imagine that mink on your tootsies? Hat bands

There is a leather supplier that goes by Maverick Leather Company, so I think that might cause you issues if you go with oneof the Maverick names. Just saying. Ryan and Son Custom Designs. Might work ok. It leave it open for your other media. Two Dude's Customs... anything like that.

I got a great deal on a side of chrome tanned leather. The color is a sort of grey white. I would like to use it in some projects but I am wondering if it can be dyed. Have any of you tried redying chome tanned leather? If so, are there any special processes or things I should be aware of?

Very nice stuff. And thanks for sharing the legend. I love stuff like that. Uh, oh... my marketing degree just kicked in.... May I suggest that you have some tags printed that outline the legend and attach them to the bags?

I went through this with black dye. I deglazed it twice and redyed but had the same results. Some folks here said to mix the dye with neatsfoot oil. That didn't work either. It wasn't until I said screw it and put some eco-flo dark cocoa brown that it evened out and looks black. Weird. The leather I used was fairly old and had a nice golden color I don't know if that would cause the problem or not but it sure was a pain to fix. Good luck I hope you find a solution.

That's ok, I just wanted them to see it. The telecaster gurus there are pretty excitable... I wanted to see how they respond.

Sweet... I'll just post the link since it has the Waylon Rose on the entrance page. ) Thanks! S

Terry. May I borrow one of these pictures to show a telecaster fan at a guitar playing site? If you give me a link to your website I'll make sure it gets attributed to you.

Unless you WANT wrinkles. I kind of like the texture myself.

lol This is true. That was one of the things I pointed out to TLC when I wrote the letter. That if a novice's first experience is with the tools in these kits they may as well just not expect them to buy from them ever again. Like the one fellow here who broke the head off his beveler... Tandy did him right and replaced it.... but that beveler is a completely different size even though same number sans "Z." and he was in the middle of a basket weave project! <faint> Anyway... I think that if enough hobbyists toss a fit about the tools in the kits... they may return to putting quality tools in them. Any one want to join me on facebook and start a campaign? ha ha ha

I can't speak for the Ultimate set, but I recently got a "deluxe set" The tools are pretty sad... so much so I wrote a long letter of disgust (in a nice way) to Tandy and "strongly urged" them to bring craftool back to the USA. I have old tools and these tools and the quality is not that great in the Deluxe kit. I knew that from the folks here but I was seriously shocked at the extent of the poor quality. I mean I could see where the head was welded/pressed on. Pfft! But tools aside the deluxe kit has plenty of projects and other goodies to make it worth the $50 I spent. (it was on sale) If you order from Tandy... google search for Tandy Coupon Code or Tandy Promo Code... there is a $10 off online coupon. Every little bit helps right? My suggestion is to spend some good money on a decent swivel knife first off. I got a tandy "deluxe" adjustable knife with the kit which is better than the basic swivel knife, but the Barry King is far superior compared to those and it's moderately priced. The others can tell you the name of the Rolls Royce of swivel knives, SKS? I'm not sure of the name and I couldn't afford it either. Anyway, you can get by with funky kit stamps and mallet while you are learning but a knife needs to work smoothly and feel good in your hand. I really like my Barry King Knife... hes also a member here. Barry also sells tools but expect to pay around $30-50 for each stamp.

That is a good idea. The extra diameter would provide the needed flexibility for different stiffness's of leather

That's very generous of you Elliot. If CC doesn't want them I would love to have them.