Ed in Tx

Enjoyed my time there as well. I was however, very disappointed at the obvious decline in the number of vendors again this year. Several of the larger vendors that have been at the event in the past for many years were visibly absent. I hate to say it but the way things are looking there may not be a Boot and Saddle Makers roundup for much longer. It would be a really bad day if the show were to discontinue. As far as I know it is the only leather related trade show in the entire State of Texas. I sure hope this won't be the last show. In my opinion one thing that might bring in more people would be to expand the scope of the event to include holster makers, belt makers and other general leathercraft folks. Having a big name holster maker give a seminar would be fantastic. In any case, I still got to visit with some friends and picked up some things at great prices.

I plan on being there as well. Some people may not have responded because you didn't say the Boot and Saddle Makers Roundup in Wichita Falls Texas. Been going for several years, it has been the best place to buy anything related to leather work, some of the exotic hides are just amazing. Prices have been great as well.

The best place to buy that type of screw and just about any other hardware is McMaster-Carr. I have ordered mine from there on a couple of occasions. They have a variety of sizes to choose from. Here is the URL www.mcmaster.com

There was an excellent example of how Tandy has lost touch with any reality in their last add I received in the mail. They have a new item which they seem to be very proud of, it was a paper poster of "Cattle of the World" and their asking price was $39.99. The description stated that there was a brief description of the country of origin for each of the different breeds. I thought there must be some sort of printing error when I saw the almost $40 price tag.. I would say that this single item is a clear indication that someone in Tandy upper management is absolutely insane!!! Seriously now, do they actually think anyone in their right mind is going to pay $40 for a poster?? It is very obvious that Tandy has no interest in serving real leather craftsmen, they are only looking to sell to beginners and people that are not aware of other choice for their leather needs.

The Great State of Texas is my home by choice. TexasJack has it almost right, it is more like being invaded in Texas. I have a feeling if some of the elected morons in Washington DC were having their home states overrun by illegals like we have in Texas they might actually do something about immigration enforcement.

How about keep fingers a safe distance from sewing machine needle when sewing. If it sews thru almost an inch of veg tan leather it will go thru your thumb without a problem. Luckily it was just the edge of my thumb and the needle was real sharp... Forgot I was using a right foot and not a left, so no guard for the needle. Guess this also applies to the blood ones..

Using clamps is the way to go. I use them on any long cuts I need to make with my 5 ft. aluminum rule. My spouse isn't real keen on me using the kitchen table but when I do it I use cutting mats at least! I also started using a rotary cutter on the long cuts and it helps. Also laughing my ass off about the Mexican Tire versus Canadian Tire comment!! I was born in Canada but have lived in Texas for 35 + years so it has a bit more meaning to me..

I think Big Sioux may have hit on the problem with the comment about the punches. I tried using crappy punches from Tandy and about pulled my hair out, I finally got wise and bought some high quality punches and with the better punches I can punch thru pretty much anything without much effort. Bruce Johnson has all sorts of punches on his web site, the ones I have bought have worked like a charm. SLC also sells punches from Osborne and they work great as well.

The bag looks great. The event sounds like a few of the ones I attended when I was younger. By the third or fourth stop everyone forgot about the running and just started the drinking and debauchery..

I am trying to help a friend in locating leather for a pair of boots he wants made. What he is looking for is Pirarucu aka. Arapaima leather. It is a South American fresh water species and is one big fish. I have seen some boots made from it on a couple of different sites and they look great. He has a boot maker but wants to find the hides since the boot maker doesn't normally use it. I suggested he call Jerry Van Amburg but I am not sure if he carries Pirarucu. Does anyone know of a supplier that has Pirarucu and sells retail? Thanks.

Is the thread size actually a #138 not a #135? I haven't seen a #135 thread for sale on the Thread Exchange. On my Cobra 4 machine the manual calls for a needle size of 23 for #138 thread. I assume the needle and thread sizing is somewhat universal so possibly your needle size could be creating the fraying. I made that mistake before using a larger thread than I should have with the needle I was using and had a problem with fraying. Just a thought.

I can sum it up real easily.. too high when it come to using eBay. Paypal as a stand alone is not that bad. On the other side there are definitely benefits in using Paypal as a method of collecting from customers as well as paying for products. Whatever your means of paying Paypal are be they a credit card or bank direct transfer remain anonymous to the seller if you are buying. Your credit card is somewhat protected.

Have you considered using weight lifters style gloves? They generally have a padded palm area and the fingertips are cut off. They are fairly durable. On a side note I had a similar quack that did my back surgery several years ago, went from bad to worse after he butchered me. Fortunately they finally caught up with him and he is no longer in practice. Pain management doctor I go to is the only reason I am able to function on a daily basis.

Been there done that.. the rotator problem not the crash part!! I have had more surgeries than I care to count, back several times, knees, etc. but the one that took me the longest to recover from was the rotator surgery. My rotator was torn and my biceps tendon was shredded, luckily I had a really good surgeon and he was able to repair the rotator but the biceps tendon was beyond repair. I woke up from surgery in a sling attached to my body and had to wear the damn thing for what seems like months. The bad part was when I started with physical therapy, they had to get things moving again and I thought I was going to pass out a few times. After about 2 1/2 - 3 months I had most of my range of motion back and was able to start doing things again. I am right handed and unfortunately it was my right shoulder that was messed up, wearing that damn sling for weeks on end was a hassle. Not to be crude but just think of some of the things you might need to use your right arm for on a daily basis. Start practicing with your left ASAP. Important thing is having a top notch surgeon that specializes in rotator surgeries, DO NOT use a jack of all trades who does knees, elbows etc. etc. Best of luck to you and hope you have a speedy recovery.

Just to clarify, the punch wasn't just a little over size it was almost 1/4" larger than stated. I received my punch from SLC yesterday and it is an Osborne English point and it sits exactly as it should just to the outside of a 1 1/2" belt strip. It measures just under 1 5/8". The 1 1/2" Tandy punch would have worked great for a 1 3/4" belt but not 1 1/2"

All one needs to do it watch television for a few hours and you will see several advertisements for lawyers willing to file a lawsuit for just about anything. It is really sad in my opinion that so many individuals in our society want to place blame on someone else rather than accept responsibility for their own actions. We would all be a lot better off if we had a few less lawyers and more people willing to be accountable for their own stupidity.

A few weeks ago I bought a Tandy Pro strap end punch in 1 1/2 inches on sale at what I though was a good price. I needed a new one as I made the mistake of buying a used one on eBay that ended up being useless as the previous owner had screwed up the edge on it. I finally got around to trying out the new punch a couple of weeks later on a belt I was making for my son. Well when I laid the punch down where I wanted, the edges of the punch were no where close to the belt edges, I knew I had cut a 1 1/2 inch strap from the hide but thought maybe I messed up so I measure the strap and it was 1 1/2 inches. Then I measured the Tandy punch and found out it was not even close to 1 1/2 inches, I looked at the stamping on the punch and it said 1 1/2". I took the punch back to Tandy and told them what happened, the store manager took another punch and measure it and it was also larger than stated. Ends up that NONE of the punches they had were of proper dimensions, they were all more than 1/8 of an inch bigger than indicated on the punch. Luckily the store manager gave me a refund. I have no idea how Tandy stays in business, the punches all say "made in the USA" but the packaging shows the dimensions in metric terms and the punches are stamped with SAE measurements. Since I still needed a punch I called SLC and added one to my next order, I know it will be the correct size.

Here is a super easy pocket wallet that I made for a friends Dad for his 70th birthday. This particular one is made from shark hide and lined with a 2/3 oz. veg-tan. The dimensions of the pocket for cards is 3" wide by 7 1/2" long, the strap part is 1 1/2" wide by 10 1/2" long. The strap is attached on the top of the backside of the pocket before folding the pocket over and sewing it. I tried a couple of different places to attach the strap but decided the top back side was the most sensible from an ease of use stand point. I used a ligne 20 snap to close the strap but you could use Velcro or a larger snap if you wanted. I experimented with a few different type of leather and found that a more pliable leather worked best. Initially I thought I could use a 4/5 oz. veg-tan tooling leather but it was too rigid and limited the number of cards I could put in the pocket. This was a super easy wallet to make and I have sold several of them in shark, elephant, hippo and even did a couple in gator belly.

Having 2 sons that are police officers I have some knowledge of what the requirements are. The requirement of a college degree will vary from city to city, around the DFW area the larger cities don't necessarily require a degree and the cities that do require one do not specify as to the major. Some cities may not require a 4 year degree but do require a certain number of college hours in conjunction with other factors such as military service. A criminal justice degree focuses more on the background of the justice and penal systems, in Texas they also require foreign language courses specifically Spanish (what a shock and also a load of BS). Both of my sons have criminal justice degrees, when they were hired they were also required to attend a 21 week police academy. The police academy focuses on Texas law as well as training the recruits in the techniques of daily police work including use of the vehicle. The vehicle part teaches high speed and low speed maneuvers. As in any profession there are always going to be good and bad employees, a police department is no different. Unfortunately the media seems to focus on the bad not the good things that police officers do on a daily basis.

I am not at all surprised by your experience at Home Depot. I retired in 2006 and wanted to work at Home Depot part time for some extra cash. I have done all sorts of work around the house from electrical, plumbing, ceramic tile and a lot of wood working. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the tools needed to accomplish most tasks around the house. Well when I applied at HD they wanted the typical background information, I had worked at the same company for 30 years and when I retired I was a manager level with several direct report employees. I included in my resume the fact that I had no desire to manage others and was willing to work in several departments they had listed. I was told that based on my experience they didn't think I would be satisfied in any of the jobs they had because my background and experience was too much. Based on that brilliant statement I realized why they had some of the people working at Home Depot that had no clue what was going on.

I have used milled veg tan in the past for making pouches for tobacco pipes. The milled leather is soft but burnishing it is no different than a firm veg-tan. Just dampen the edges and use a grooved burnishing stick. The edges will darken but will definitely be firmer. Using glycerin will also help. I bought a bar of pure glycerin soap and cut it in thin slices, then put in a jar with water and shook it up really good. It looks like a foamy mess but let it sit over night and you end up with glycerin that is soft and can be rubbed into the edges while burnishing. It takes a bit more work since the leather has some give to it but holding it firmly while rubbing will do it. You can even form it around a shape if needed.

You might want to check with Jerry Van Amburg for the stingray. Jerry always has a wide variety of exotics and is a great guy to deal with. His web site is Van Amburg Leathers www.vanamburgleathers.com He usually has a lot of different stingray prints

Tallbald.. I have made several dog collars and I use "Chicago Screws" rather than rivets to fasten the buckle fold and "D" rings. The only issue with the screws is a potential for them to come loose, I avoid that by using thread lock. You can even use nail polish but thread lock is made specifically for that purpose. As far as leather goes, I have used latigo as well as veg-tan. If tooling is required the veg-tan is the way to go. On a few of the collars I have made I actually used veg-tan horse hide on the under side as a liner and exotics like shark, elephant and hippo for the outer side. For sewing the important thing is to use a lighter thread such as a 137 with a size 23 needle. Like Matt T mentioned the perforations can weaken the leather, using a larger needle and thread could potentially make it worse. Any good quality bonded nylon thread will work, personally I don't think a "waterproof" thread is needed. I am sure other folks will have different ideas but these have worked for me. Best of luck in you venture.

Thank you for sharing the pattern ducjes. This will help me out with a badge/ID wallet I am making for a local police officer. He wanted additional slots for cards besides the badge and ID. Thanks again!

Thanks for the replies. Kevin at Springfield Leather was able to help me out, he found a strip of English Bridle in the store and the price was right. I found the sides they had but I wouldn't use a side of bridle leather in 100 years with the work I normally do. Fixing the bridle looks like it will be straight forward. I am just happy I didn't have to spend an arm and a leg doing something for free. I am more than willing to help out a non-profit group that helps kids but a $200 price tag would have been too much for such a small piece, I could have bought a used bridle for less I would think.