Studio-N

I think our own webmistress Johanna offered this as a service. check with her.

No. Suffice it to say, they were not very nice. But then, neither was I.

Hello Folks, I know many of you have purchased stamps from me in the past and I appreciate it very much. I will no longer be using eBay. All my listings have been removed and the stamp store is closed. I will continue to use etsy and of course I still have my own website that I can be contacted thru. So if you need a maker or custom stamp I hope you'll find me here or on one of the other sites. Cheers!

Just the facts : The majority I produce is 3/16" which roughly matches the evil empire's 2d/3d stamps. Deeper is possible but you do risk some melting as the beam brushes by the previous level. The laser is perfectly perpendicular to the stamp so it produces no bevel. A bevel is possible if a rubber stamp approach is taken (a setting in the software). This all produces a 2D stamp. 3D mode is really difficult to do on something as small as a stamp mostly because it uses a graduated grey scale which isn't 100% smooth. I'm investigating a cnc router for this. Cheers!

I have (copper) riveted two straps together and we then played tug-of-war with the straps. It did not give.

You need to shop around. TLF does not care about businesses small or otherwise. The margin is just too small. They only pay $1.25 or so for the stamps from China so at full blown retail $10 they are making an 87% margin compared to a 37% margin at business cost. which do you think they want? Thier goal is/was to make $100 million in sales. They didn't make it last year and so they went to a flat price scheme to make it this year mostly off the retail customer. I say scheme because now thier 12 sq foot shoulders they send cost the same as the 18 sq foot ones they advertise at thier flat price. They of course are still mostly buying hides at a square foot price from South America and Mexico. Best way to save is to go in with some friends and buy 10 sides or whatever from some of the other vendors be it Herman, Wicket, Springfield or some of the others when they have good leather at a good price. And you always pay for size you got versus what you should have gotten. Cheers!

Oh they give a LOT of lip service about their employees being their best asset and yet the have replaced almost every manager in their system with new younger models with little or no actual leather experience. Their new philosophy is that you don't have to know the product to sell the product. sell it. just sell it. Their goal is still to reach $100 million in sales so they can get the stock up, and they plan to make it on our backs. hell, the ceo and vp didn't even have the dignity to come out of their office during their corporate Christmas party to say hi to the troops they work with everyday much less giving a crap about the ones out in the field. But don't worry, he'll give the speech about about their employees being their best asset at the next quarterly stock meeting. same reason, they only hire sales help, not leather experienced sales help. Not a requirement. So if they act like a used cars salesman - they probably were.

I usually use my 12 ton clicker press for something that big. But it can be done with an arbor press. Assuming it has a 1" square ram like mine - I usually press in the middle one time. Then move the piece over 1 inch and press again. Rinse and repeat. Incidentally, Occasionally there is a troublesome spot where it doesn't want to press in. The solution - flip the piece and stamp over and press the leather at the right spot into the stamp. Cheers!

for the amount of power it will take to cut 14 oz, you'll also have lots of carbon residue which is drawn across the leather. The solution there is to simply wash the leather when done. Unfortunately, you then have to wait for it to dry. Another trade off is that you can raise the speed so it doesn't cut as deep and create a lot of soot, but you'll have to run multiple passes which means time. Nick

As I understood it, denatured is free of any salts.

they are there in their store, you just have to sort thru it. But, if you have a local dental supply house that's good too. Keep in mind these are 1 use only bits, so if you may also persuade your local dentist to same them to you.

Hello. The real problem is speed versus torque. A regular rotary spins at about 20,000 rpm and has a lot of torque. Compare that to a dental type drill that spins at 100,000 rpm but has little torque. That is why a dentist has such finesse (some would argue that!) when drilling teeth. The large torque of a rotary wants to take large chunks which causes a lot of tearing of the fibers. The dental drill which also uses smaller bits makes much smoother cuts. Remember all you're really trying to do is cut (not tear) thru the epidermis layer of the leather to expose the fleshy part which will then absorb a stain. Having said that, you can improve your cutting if you use the smaller dental bits like these. You have to take lighter cuts than with the dental drill but you can still get good results. Cheers!

thanks guys. I think I'll leave it as is. Cheers!

Hello. Another simple buckle with a biker praying at the cross. SaddleTan antique gel and leather balm on it. I'm thinking of adding some text to the embossing plate. Maybe something like "In Memory Of Fallen Bikers" around the image. Thanks for looking.

I love the belt. And I've always liked the barter system. And for Benlilly1 - speaking for myself words and nudity don't bother me. I sell a lot of engraved girly wallets and bad MF stuff. Certain iconology does bother me though. The only work I've had to turn down so far was someone wanting me to do some Nazi SS stuff.

1+ on the kudos. It isn't just little girls that like stuff like that. We have a customer that wants all her puses just driver's license size on the inside. Enough for a card, keys, and some bills. Her name is Martha and we call them Martha Purses. Cheers!

Also, make sure the tool is straight up and down. Make sure you are hitting it with the mallet directly perpindicular to the tool. If you're hitting it an angle or the tool is at an angle, you will split the tube at and angle rather than rounding it over evenly. Cheers!

Has anyone noticed they are not doing web specials anymore?

This works for people belts too.

I have used JB weld to attach a chicago screw to the back of a domed coin. Worked out real well. But I will say the concho itself is not under a lot of stress either. BTW, you can get the doming kit at harbor freight. Cheers and GOOD JOB Pitman.

I don't think one would be any better than the other. the bottom line is that it only has be harder than leather to work (which is why the delrin stamps work). So unless they abused, the metal ones should last a very long time.

welcome. well I make stamps but so it doesn't sound like a commercial I'll stick to the 2nd part of the question. Ian was correct that Chrome tanned leather doesn't take a stamp well (generally not at all). The softened leather will bounce back up. Veg tan will easily take a stamp impression and hold it. Other leathers like latigo or a harness leather can take a stamp depending on the actual tannage. Most latigos will take a stamp under pressure - in otherwords with a press rather than a mallet stamp. These are basically a retan of some type so while they have a lot of the characteristics of vegTan it also has chrometan characteristics mostly for weatherizing the leather. A lot of the markings you see on soft leather has been hot stamp embossed. A heat press is used to heat and stretch the leather and at the same time a colored foil is bonded (heat activated glue) to the leather. If no foil is used the mark is still there because the heat has stretched the leather around the die. I had a brother who worked for a company that impressed things like large notebooks for companies. They had machines that used some sort of radio wave to heat and stretch the leather. Pretty impressive and fast. You can look for hot foil embossers on eBay. Kingsley is the model I have. Cheers!

BUMP. Any new developments in this area? SubToner removed their link for using the monochrome sublimation on leather so I don't know if anyone else is having any luck.

Ditto on Pro DIes. I have one of their dies and it is very well done.

when I fit a belt for someone, we measure to the middle hole (of 5). I then cut 6" from the middle hole. So in theory, that's 4" from the first hole. So far, that has never been short of going thru anyone's belt loop. Although we do get customers that really want it long past the belt loop.