bruce johnson

Mike, Safe travel and good wishes. I cut back on wholesale work, so nobody selling my work this year. However,one of the belts in the Wrangler ad they show at home and on the big screen at Thomas & Mack - inlaid red roany hide, a few spots knocked off, a missing concho, other concho is a iron cross - I made it. That said, my travel guide for the NFR. My Highlights for the tradeshows, although they are mostly all good - Cowboy Christmas - Capriola's, Hamley's, Keith Seidel, Jay Palm (usually has some Ortega braidwork for sale), Tony Chytka's art Country Christmas (Sands Expo Center) - King's (and Barry will have tools there to sell and be working the booth), Dale Bass - great silver work, Custom Cowboy Shop (Don Butler), Whatever they call the show at Mandalay Bay - Platte Valley Saddle Shop, Rocketbuster Boots (you have to at least look) SASS Show at the Riviera - dressed up folks and kind of cool looking stuff. Kansas Saddlery is a good one here. Also good stage entertainment - one of our favorites, Dave Stamey, will be singing. Regulation nice guy. He is not going to be at the Monterey Cowboy Gathering this year, which is where we will be this weekend. Pace yourself to keep moving or you won't get through one show a day. My wife usually scouted on ahead while I BSed with someone. Tip - You don't have to look at every "Welcome Partner" wooden sign booth, after a while those do all look the same. Another tip, never say "I'll meet you at the Bob Berg booth", there is about one per aisle at the Sands. There is usually some young new guys with pretty plain looking booth setups. They will have some work to knock your socks off. You won't have heard of any of them before, but in 10 years we'll all know their names. Dining - Beef, It's What's For Dinner. I like the steakhouse upstairs at Binion's downtown. Spring for the lobster bisque as an appetizer. Another nice place is The Primerib Loft at the Orleans. Good primerib, some kind of interesting house dressing, and the potato is approximately the size of a regulation NFL football. Quiet places to eat after the rodeo, and you will be dining with some of the guys you just saw. You have been around noisy people and just heard Bob and Boyd yell it to sell it. Quiet dinner is good. Getting to Thomas & Mack - They have shuttle buses from most hotels. We found after a few years, it was easier to buy a pair of tickets, and just use them for the return. Cab it (find another couple and split it) or plan on a really early bus to get there. Coors has a hospitality tent there. The later buses fill up and say they will be back...... Shuttlebus back to your hotel or wherever you are going to eat after the rodeo. The cab lines after the rodeo at T&M are about 2 hours plus long, and it gets cold. Have a blast. Now I have to tell myself again why I have some days off next week and am not going. HMMMMM.

Wood, I think the carving one is worth the dough too. He has a tip for lining up angled basket stamping patterns that was worth the whole cost for me. I was having a heck of a time with my wife trying the angled patterns. I just couldn't explain the concept right. Jeremiah could. I think anyone could benefit from the carving set. He shows how to do stamping, different borders, and lots of different flowers. Also making up patterns. Good one.

K-man, His initials are V.E.A. We just got another one yesterday with a little scabbard, so he may do holsters too.

Skip, I was there last year. I took the different carving styles class from Jesse Smith. I also took the saddle classes from Jesse on covering horns and covering swells. We went to the banquet as well. Kind of a hassle being 20 miles or so outside of town, but worth it. I know other folks who lurk here were there, like Harvey Lutske. A few of the guys (and Belinda) I met at saddle week in Sheridan the year before were there. For those who didn't go, a little report (although there may be one archived too). It was the best non-Sheridan show I have been to. I have been to Ventura and Reno at least twice. This show was heads and shoulders above those. They offered essentially the same class lineup as Sheridan. About 2/3 of the major exhibitors at Sheridan were there. The trade show opened on a Thurs. I was thinking that opening on a Thurs would be lightly attended. Wrong, lots of attendees. Good time of the year to go, a nice town and good weather. We have a few friends who have winter places down there. My wife spent time with them, and shopping was good for her. Shopping at the show was good for her too, she found a few things we could use. The down side of the Wickenburg show was that classes were spread out over town. Some classes were moved midstream due to space or noise generation the hosts weren't counting on. There was not a central social meeting place like if it was all pretty much under one roof. The community center where the trade show was held was pretty maxxed out for exhibits. Two or three classes were going on at the VFW, so we were able to mix a bit there during breaks. Things that are either first year things or just have to be because of the space available. If they keep the same format, I see it as another good show and probably better with the first year learning curve out of the way. We skipped Sheridan last year, and are going this year. Probably doubtful we will get down to Arizona.

The handled splitter like the Keystone or Osborne 84 is the most single versatile splitter. I am not sure that I have seen a new Osborne 84 listed anywhere for a while. You can easily set the depth, you can push on the handle as you pull the strap to do lap skives, and it has a good width. The only issue is that sometimes a strap will ride up the bevel of the blade and chop off. Not very often, just at a bad time. The lower end models or oldies can have a bent frame and not have the roller level with the blade. Some can be shimmed easily, others not. That said, I like the old Chase pattern splitters. They haven't been made for a long time. Osbornes(s), Horn, Chase, and others made variations of them. They have two rollers top and bottom. If you adjust the blade so the edge sits right at the rollers, the leather has no place to go but straight into it. I have an 8" and 10" now. I can set them at different depths and do repeatable two level splitting. If they get out of level, you can raise one side or the other a tooth at time easily to relevel them. They really don't seem to sell for much on ebay relative to other splitters. Bob Douglas and I talked about that a while back. They just must be so different from what most people see as splitters today that they scare people off. The disadvantage of the Chase pattern splitters is that you can't easily do lap skives without a ramped jig. No issue for me, I have had Landis handcrank skiver to crank out lap skives and the dges of groundseat buildups for a while. Another piece of really handy equipment for me. I am attaching a pic from my shop before I got the 10" splitter. They now sit side by side, and the handcrank splitter to the right in the picture is being sold. Good splitter, I just don't use it as much anymore. The handcrank skiver is the gray handcrank tool in the foreground to the left of the rein rounder. The 8" Chase pattern splitter is behind that on the left side of the bench. I like the Chase pattern splitters, but they are not for everybody.

The Cambell-Bosworth is the real thing in that style of splitter.

Walsall Hardware in Scottsdale, AZ carries hardware in Italian Bronze. They have bolt snaps, rings, and buckles in Itl Br. Can't speak for anything in bronze but their buckles, which have been good for several years. Website is www.walsallhardware.com. I am not sure if they required my resale number or have tiered pricing. The last few orders I have got from them have been very good and good service. They do have a $100 minimum order, or a fee for orders falling below that. You pretty much have to call for prices. The way hardware prices change, they can't keep anything published current. As I recall it is hard to determine prices on the website. Quantity pricing and such.

My thoughts are a few here. First off, I would recommend buying from a company that sells machines set up for leather and stocks the parts. Sometimes the clone parts fit other clones, and sometimes they don't. Service is just as important as price. Buying a reputation machine is almost like sewing for free. The resale and trouble-free use is time and money saved. Looks like on Artisan's website that they have a few versions of the 797 leather machines. My concern is that the largest thread they handle appears to be 138. If that is OK great, but something that could go up to at least 207 seems more versatile, and probably could be found in a close price range. Dave from Artisan can probably chime in which comparable machine will do heavier thread. It just seems to me that sewing 138 max on 18 oz is a little light for me. An old time leather machine guy advised me one time to get machines that the capacity is about twice as much as what I am sewing. If I am sewing 3/8" regularly, the machine should handle uo to 3/4". I don't know how serious a rule of thumb that is in the industry, but it works for me.

I relined skirts on one and rerigged the front on one. It was a calf roping saddle - heavy thick bars. I think they are all glassed, not sure if they rawhide any or not. If you build on one, you have to deal with the issues of building on a glassed tree with a glassed in seat strainer. Anecdotally, some of the calf ropers really like them. I have also had a few Texas guys tell me they like Faith trees, but I have never found a contact for them.

FJ, They are pretty OK guys to hang out with. I have not used one of their trees. I talked to one guy who did, and he thought they were alright. Not sure if they hold nails very well, but he felt the screws got a good bite. The material is supposed to be lightyears ahead of the comparable Ralide material. THey have been around maybe 5-6 years now? The issue with any of the molded trees is you get what they have in their mold. You can't get a different bar pattern, a little here or there, or anything else like with even the options of most production wood/rawhide trees. Some of the guys back in that area that have built on them may have some other thoughts. Cable rigging isn't a new concept. Hamley's tried it a few generations ago. If it was so great, we would all still be doing it today. My thoughts on it are a few. We strive, make gauges, tie strings, measure, remeasure, and laser to make sure our rigging rings are equal front to back so our tree doesn't twist. I can't believe that a latigo sliding on a cable will seek the same equal position on both sides every time. Not only that, what prevents it from settling at the 3/4 position one time, and the next time at 5/8 of full. Blake has talked about different pressure mappings with the same saddle just changing rigging positions on the same horse. If my horse humps up one morning, or is standing downhill in his dugout hole next the the tie-post, it may settle differently. The smaller diameter of the cable is harder on the fold on latigos that a thicker ring or dee. Finally a little philosophy. I think if I am handmaking a product, my gut level tells me that as much of it should be as handmade as possible. I am not saying we need to tan our leather or make our own trees, but I want to have a tree that someone touched. I don't even have to know them. I just want to know that a person nailed and screwed it together, the rawhide was laced on by hand, and a part of them is in my work. I want to know that someone engraved the silver, it wasn't stamped. What I do inbetween those two things then falls on me to not mess it up. Wow, maybe I have been watching the bootmakers too long.

Mike, I used to have dial-up. Very slow dial up. My normal connection speed was 14 kbs. On a good day I could hit 24, and one time hit the dizzying speed of 26.4. I was in tall feed when I traveled and got free high speed. My ISP was telling me that I needed an antennae, a dish, or whatever. Curious fact, my landlord was one of the inventors/developers of DSL, and I can't get it where we live. A few months ago, I learned about cellular wireless. Basically anywhere there is cellular service, I get highspeed. A little antennae thing hooks up to my USB port and I am off. It can be taken from one computer to another. For the heck of it a few weeks ago I pulled off the road between Kaycee and Buffalo WY (not much there for 40 miles besides me and roadkill). I got three bars and a fast hookup. If you can get cellular service at home, it might be an option. Smarter folks than me will have to help with the Paypal, ebay sales, and website deal. I know when I started receiving funds on PayPal that were not through ebay, I had to update to a Premier Account I think they call it. I have only had a few minor kind of things paid on the Paypal account. I added a few bucks onto the cost to cover the fees.

Equipro, Another magazine subscription would be ShopTalk. They have a lot of advertising from equipment sellers that LCSJ doesn't. Also a little more candid industry news. They also publish an annual directory of suppliers called the "Big Book". Although it isn't as big as it used to be, still a good resource. Their website is www.proleptic.net. To see a good cross section of sellers and do some comparisons, it is hard to beat the leather show in Sheridan WY in May. Most of the equipment and handtool/stamp makers are there. You can see tools from makers and decide if you like a $45 round knife or a $245 round knife. The stamp sellers about all have scraps of cased leather and a rock. You can walk from one to the next and carry a piece with you do literal side by side comparisons of each maker's version of a stamp. You can also see old tools from guys like Bob Douglas that may not be made anymore. Kind of like a museum you can buy at. For exotics, Sheridan Leather Outfitters have some, and I like Jerry VanAmburg too. I haven't dealt with the El Paso sellers or John Fong, but some guys who have can comment.

Kristina, Unless I am not thinking of what you are, about everybody makes them. I have one from TLF that makes a pretty good impression, within 5 years old (not one of the celebrated "pre" prefix era stamps). I have a custom waffle from Barry King that is good, reeeally good. Hopefully the rest in the set are in the mail. Jeremiah Watt has a good one. Some people refer to what I call "block" stamps as "waffle" stamps. I have good blocks from Jeremiah, and also Wayne Jueschke. I think Wayne makes some of the best and most interesting centers. My wife and I never agree, and we usually end up with two. Personally I think across the board, Barry King's stamps are among the best value. I kind of fill in from Jeremiah and Wayne what Barry doesn't have. I pick up a few others here and there that are either relics or match up an old pattern I like.

Wolvenstein, I used to store my stamps in 4x6 sections of fencepost that I cut to length to fit into tool boxes. I drilled the holes in the grid pattern, and it worked out just OK. Whenever I got new stamps, I had to the left shift/right shift to make a place for them. I would take some out for my working rack. When I put them back, invariably I would forget one, start in the wrong hole, and not have room for everyone. PIA to keep organized, had to open 3 boxes to get all I needed for one project, but they did look nice. I went to a more open system. I bought a stack of plastic juice cups on the aisle end display at Target, drilled a hole in the bottom for the pegboard organizer to go through and hung them up. I sort them by type of stamp only now. The old guys used to use soup cans on their bench, my stamp bench is a little shy on space so this way works out for me. These are my most used stamps. The extras that I can't quite part with yet are rubberbanded together by type and kept in an old tacklebox. The only problem with my system is that I have a few stamps by one maker whose stamps are about 3/16" shorter than most, and they tend to hide under the others in the cups. Probably ought to just put all his together in one cup. I have a little block holder for the project at hand. Usually 10-20 stamps are out, and then they go back into the cups when done. For travel, I made a little rollup bag to carry the stamps and knives. My tooling neighbors at the Wickenburg classes gave me crap about having an 18" strop, and then carrying tools in ziplock bags. Since one guy was going to be at the Elko class too, I made it to shut him up. I attached pics of my wall, the at-hand block, and the tool roll.

Randy mentioned lasering on quotes, and for vegtan leather I think it works well. I am attaching a pic of an item we bought last year. If you are doing very many of these, looks like lasering is the way to go for me. I recently did a planner with pretty small lettering and a logo. It was too small and detailed for knife work. My neighbor has a laser and it worked out well. Johanna mentioned foil leaf, and I have a bit of experience with that too. Several years ago I had an order for some report covers, and "souvenir" coasters for a meeting. They wanted dark chrome tan leather, a logo, and each director's name on them. A local printing shop had the equipment and did it for me. They have since moved out of state, but I did have a local Christian bookstore do some foil names on a couple things since. They have a lettering foil press set up for doing names on Bible covers. That might be a suggestion too. I think their press handled up to a little bigger than business card size. If a person knows what they are doing, and looks around, there are several models and price ranges of foil stamping setups, I just don't have the demand.

Ryan and Calleather, The electroforming deal sounds kind of neat. They don't give that processing away. but like you say for 4000 pieces, that dilutes it out quite a bit. I found the info and sample on the stuff from Reno. It is a hard plastic material. The design is pretty crisp, probably lasered, and like I said the price was good. I think it was priced for one or several designs on the sheet. This company exhibited at the last LCSJ show they had in Reno. It was Nevada Rubber Stamp Company. This stuff is a dark amber to greenish looking color and hard. They stuck it on a wood block and used a hand arbor press to press it into the leather when they demo'd it at the show. I don't know of anyone who has tried the magnesium embossing plates, but it looks like it is not handwork so might be priced OK and should work. With all the different people getting the laser engravers (Ryan, our neighbor has one), there are more sources for getting that done too. I know Richard and Jeff both laser maker's stamps out of delrin rod, and they seem to hold up really well, and are not all that spendy. The detail on some of my press plates is pretty impressive. Some of my delrin plates have quite a few pressings on them, and they are still good.

The cutting plates I have are more for use within a pattern or outlines, not doing a whole pattern if I understand what you are asking. I have outline plates, some people call them cheater stamps or plates, that will press just the outline of a flower or leaf. Gore used to make them, I think the stamp place in Las Vegas may still do them, probably others. Basically they make a reproducible outline, every flower or leaf is the same cookie cutter pattern. The line stands up enough that you can lightly press them, and they make "reverse" tapoff. The lines in the leather are depressed instead of raised like with a regular tapoff. If you press or tap them with enough force, they will cut the line, replacing swivel knifing for that element. I have most of these in metal, and a custom flower or two I had done in delrin. The delrin is cheaper than metal. He makes a master from the delrin on the laser, then uses that to make the pour for the metal plates. I think Jeff does the reverse tapoffs (lower lines), but not cutting plates. The pressplates I have are three dimensional. I have all of the standard rodeo events, plus cutting and the "kneeling cowboy at the cross". These are dimensional, and make a 3d impression in the leather. Some people refer to these as embossing plates. I have them in delrin and some metal too. Richard Fletcher does these custom also. I don't know if Jeff is doing the dimensional plates. I know that the bigger saddle companies using clickers and then heavy presses and embossing plates for the whole design like on a fender or jockey. These are pricy. Richard Fletcher has/had some plates for checkbooks and maybe wallets. I tend to remember them as being outline patterns though and not full embossing plates. A while back he would do custom embossing plates, but you needed to have a bunch of the same orders to make it pencil out as the user. At one time I was looking at an order for 150 dayplanners with all the same cover. I think he quoted me about $700 for the plate. That would have been great and worth it in time savings, but the order fell through for other reasons. I have seen some of the embossed basket stamp patterns. They never get the impressions round enough, and it never looks right to me. One of the guys who used to work for a big saddlery told me that they can press florals or oaks and add some cuts to make them look pretty real, but they can train a chimp to basket and it looks better than pressed baskets.

Ryan, I have some press plates that are cast metal, some in Delrin. I think Delrin will work for what you are needing. The guys with the laser engravers can do them with Delrin. A couple are Richard Fletcher (www.leathertool.com) or Jeff Mosby (www.greyghostgraphics.com). Call me on this. There is another guy who just got a laser engraver, but I don't know if he is up and taking orders yet, and so don't want to steal his thunder until he says so (and he gets my other stuff done). There is also another material that some places have tried, a tannish colored hard plastic that is light activated and makes a 3D plate. Supposed to be good for about a hundred pressings at least. A few years ago, as many as you could fit on an 8-1/2x11 sheet for about $100. The Delrin will outlast it. I'll see if I can find their contact info. They were in Reno.

Darcy, I like reading and talking this stuff. Good points, and just a little clarification. My questioning conventional wisdom is a little tongue-in-cheek. I am not real old, but am kind of a student of history, and have read and seen examples through the years. The individual sadldemaker is probably a pretty recent phenomenon. In the glory days, the shops produced the higher caliber saddles - Visalia, Hamley, Porters, and such. Hard to name many individually made saddles stamped with a makers name from that era with the same weight as a shop saddle. Saddlemakers may have moved around, but when they built saddles it was mostly in a shop, with the shop's name on it. The shops (production saddleries) lived on their reputations and tried for the best employees, best materials, and generally put out a better product. The guys buying from them were serious horseman, and demanded it. Saddle were also sold by Sears, Montgomery Wards, and other in lower quality, but the buyers and sellers knew it. When leisure time came in, and horses became a hobby and recreation, so did factory saddles. Horse were not used as hard, and saddles became a price point item rather than materials, workmanship, and quality first. It opened the door for the individual maker to cater to the market that wanted quality. That is where the guys we look up to now developed their name and reputation. The roles became reversed, and the production saddles became second fiddle to the individual maker. Unfortunately for many of the customers and new makers today, Circle Y, TexTan, and Billy Cook are the yardsticks. New people are taking up horse activities - team roping, barrel racing, cutting. Pay enough and buy a good horse, have them trained, lessons form the trainer, and go after it. These are the guys riding the trees "with room to round up into", shallow cut Arizona bars, fiberglass strainer seats, embossed tooling, running stitched bindings, and the like. These have been around long enough, they are now accepted as the norm, and good technique by some. For a lot of the new makers, that is all they have seen, and is accepted as conventional wisdom. Personally I think the best thing to happen in the last few years was for a reasonbly popular "name" production maker to sell out to Equibrand. They raised the price to $2500, farmed some of the work to Brazil or someplace, and put out a lower quality product. Makes it easier for the guy who is starting out to justify raising the base enough to make something back and get experience. These middle ground guys are not a threat to the upper level makers, and I doubt Equibrand is particularly worried either. But they are the guys who the new tools, shows, and resources are pointed at. Dale Harwood, Jeremiah Watt, and others didn't make those DVDs to sell to Don Butler, Troy West, and Chuck Stormes, there is a middle market segment that wasn't there 10 years ago. That is where a lot of us are coming from. Whether we will go on, become fulltime and hit the upper 20% or make two for ourselves and quit, time will tell. I am on another forum that deals with boot making. I will probably not make boots but they are really philosophical and I like to follow them - traditional back to the 1600s or to 2007 depending. But they are in much the same condition as us. There are 2 week schools, DVDs, forums, classes, and such. They are handmaking a product, and having foreign factory competition. There are not the numbers of new young people coming into the trade to make $3000 custom boots, but there are the midlevel makers learning from the high end. It is middle-aged hobby or retirement age guys mostly. Celastic and some man mades are viewed as "conventional". a real parallel.

Good Topic, Denise, I would probably wager that due to books, videos, classes, and a more open attitude, there are more individual saddlemakers on some level than ever before. Saddlemaking has followed leathercrafting (and all crafts for that matter), and moved from a vocation to a hobby. Until the mid 50s and 60s most people were making a living at their "job", not going home from a job to make a wallet, belt, or saddle. The information explosion in the last 20 years has accelerated that. Twentysome years ago, I had some free time one winter. I learned to handsew my own repairs, stamp a little, and watched over some guys' shoulders as they built saddles and did repairs in a shop. I didn't ask too many questions, but did learn from what they shared. Some water under the bridge since then, and some mangled leather. As time progressed I got more into it, and have only had one or two guys flat refuse to help me. Some guys feel threatened with sharing, and some guys feel like they are passing on what they were taught. Some do it willingly, and others paid for their education with time and/or money. You can't expect to learn everything for free, nor should it be closed and carried to the grave either. The answer is somewhere in the middle. This is not unique to saddlemaking - horse trainers, silversmiths, knitters, quilters, fishermen, and golfers all do it too. There is a difference to some guys with questions being distracting or questioning the conventional wisdom, and a sincere quest for "I don't know, and if I don't get it soon, everything that builds on my ignorance is too much". As an example for saddle week at Sheridan. I was there last year, as was Mike Craw, David Morris, and Go2Tex, maybe some others. The first year was 60 guys in chairs sitting for 10 hours daily or so watching of 5 people making a saddle. The next year was reportedly a little freer with getting a closer look. The year I went, I didn't know what to expect. First morning we were sitting there. Two hours later, nothing was being done on saddles, one guy was asking a lot questions, and I was thinking " Five hundred dollars for this, shut up already, and let them get on with it!" I realized that I was learning more from his questions than watching a guy cover a horn at that point. Ok, Bruce - patience. They kept it going, did build the saddle in three days and some change. We spent the time getting up and standing around whoever was doing the most interesting thing to us at the time. I spent more time with flat feet than a flat butt. A lot of questions with the instructors, probably learned as much again from each other, and shared a lot of philosophy of life - "Don't weaken NOW!" Biggest things I see are the books videos, and classes available. People who never would have thought of building a saddle can make a stab at it. There are fulltime big-time saddlemakers and the guy who will make two. If he makes two better ones because of something that someone helped him out with - that's as good as it gets. Now what I see as some problem areas. Materials and tools. With more guys making saddles on some level, there are choke points. Tools have changed. Some are better than they used to be, some are worse, and some aren't made anymore. Some guys need a rack of tools, and if you watch Bruce Cheaney's videos, a pocket knife, strop, hammer, and some pipe nipples and fittings to make a drawdown about do it for him. Some of the not-made-anymores show up on ebay, estate auctions, and Bob Douglas' tables. There only so many of these oldies that are out there, and more guys wanting/needing them. Same with materials. As an example, I guess we don't need to tell anyone there is a shortage of handmakers of trees. Some of these customers riding grandpa's old saddle want a new one. Ideally we would all like to stick Dennis' cards on their horse, call up Rod/Ric/Bill/Ben/whoever and order one and have it in a few months. Real life, not everyone can do that, and the guys looking for trees need to know whose would work better, even if not ideal. Even the basest current production tree might be an improvement over what these customers are riding now. Since we all have different backgrounds, expectations for ourselves, customer economics, and customer expectations, there can't be a single right answer. Hopefully we can be pointed to some closer choices. I have had some good people help me with telephone questions, going to their shop, classes/books/videos/DVDs, and the sharing here. I have paid for some of it, some has been free, and all is appreciated.

Ed, Yessir, it can get red. Must be some kind of oxidation reaction to air or metal. Should have told you, what I do now is to line my lube pot with a small plastic bag. Stick it in, and fold the sides back over the top edge of the lubepot and fill it. I haven't had it discolor in the bag as much (it still will a little), but easy to lift out and replace if need be. I figured this out after taking the pot off and washing it for the 4th or 5th time. LOng enough ago that I forget some of the learning curve.

One other consideration is the name itself of your business. If you don't use your name, then some places require you to file for a "fictitious business name", and have different hoops to jump through. In some areas you have to use your complete name (like mine is "Bruce Johnson Leatherwork") in the business avoid that. Bruce's Leatherwork or Johnson Leatherwork would be fictitious in some jurisdictions. By using my whole name and having the business at home, I can have the same phone number and have Bruce Johnson Leatherwork as part of the answering machine greeting, and it works. If I was Snaffle Bit Saddlery, it would be harder to track me down. I would need a business phone listing and that expense. Some suppliers won't sell to you if you don't have a separate business phone, storefront, and/or posted retail hours but they have been few for me. Weavers equine side stands out in memory. I had one company that told me that, and then we got to an agreement. Since I only wanted one or two things they sold, they agreed to sell to me those specifically with a minimum/maximum order deal. Anything else was straight retail and on another order and shipment. UPS is always a little iffy on whether I am a business or residence. The criteria seems to change with the day. Attached vs. not attached to the house? Signage visible from the road? The best one driver told me was whether there was a bathroom in the shop, or is it in the house? My bank required a business license to open the account, but treats me well. Like Kevin said, I can transfer with a click. I can keep everything separate. One of the best things was when I first got my business license. At that time there were small business advisers similar to SCORE. Retired guys who liked to help out fledgelings, invitations to seminars, that sort of thing. I think I got a year or something like that - the golden period when most new businesses fail or set themselves up to fail.

Kevin, Yep, I think about them constantly, as in, will it ever rain here so we don't have to feed? Why did my son decide to buy a few bred cows to trade? Well, we did have some feed then and they were cheap. There are a couple of allied threads considering our bovine hide donors in the "Off Topic" section. One has to do with the best steaks, another is suggested bumpersticker slogans for meat producer groups to consider. I drive a card-carrying "Beef - It's What's For Dinner" stickered pickup. I come from a cattlefeedin', packer buyer, upper midwest family, and my son is an auctioneer/cattle buyer.

As some of you know, I am the board president of out local cowboy museum. We were recently contacted by an older maker who wanted to donate some of his work. We get these requests from time to time, but this one is different. This guy is from North Dakota, and his shop is 6x10 with bars. He is 76 years old, and he won't be changing shops. He is limited on tools obviously. This first saddle he sent us has a 2-3/4" seat and a 7/8" gullet. He based it on the California equitation seat western saddle. Obviously his tooling is a bit large, but he is working with what he has, and I am sure age is a factor too. He made everything but the hardware. He wove the cinch and made the stand. Everything pretty well lines up the way it should, and is to scale. We have quite a few saddles from different makers, and are glad to have work from this maker too. I attached some pictures.

Mike, As Wolvenstein pointed out, each state is different. I think the biggest reason to get a business name, license, the resale certificate is to be legitimate. Before I go any further, being legitimate has nothing to do with the quality of work produced. The business name and license shows customers that you are serious. It costs a nominal amount of money here, something like $50 for 2 years. Even for home businesses it is a plus. I also have a resale certificate. What an advantage. I can order from suppliers who deal with wholesale accounts only. I get preferred wholesale rates from suppliers that also sell retail, but would charge to join their club to get the same rates. Sometimes business rates that are lower than wholesale. The resale certificates are no cost here. Many craft and trade shows around here want a copy of the certificates to exhibit. I do have a separate bank account. It is a low activity business account. Lets me write about 15 checks a month and unlimited debit transactions for $5 a month. The separate account and bookkeeping are one of the factors the IRS looks at to establish hobby vs. "real business". Here at least you don't need to have a separate phone number. The down sides. I have to keep records of my business. I am anyway. I collect sales tax on retail sales, I don't charge it. Collecting sales tax in itself I have found adds legitimacy to your business. I get it every place I buy something for personal use. Makes you look a little more "real". It is also really nice to have these things in place when you get a big order away from someone else. This happened, and I had my ducks in the puddle, a week before he turned me in. My sales tax is due once a year. MY chance to live on the government's money for a change. You have to keep income tax records and in my case, file a Schedule C with my income taxes. The records needed for this I keep anyway. TurboTax does it in a flash. Income tax? Yep, I also look at business deductions. I can write off mileage to get supplies, even though I am going to Walmart next door anyway. I can write off travel to things I am going to anyway, they have a tradeshow and I am meeting a customer there when I was doing wholesale - market research at the very least. Trips to leather shows like Sheridan or Wickenburg - the whole expense comes off. Dues, magazines, books, DVDs, tools all are deductible. Some equipment purchases can be depreciated, others you can take a 179 directly against income. Lets me build up equipment and skills at a time when the other income helps support it. When the leather income becomes THE factor, I am not reducing what I eat to get something.