Mark842

For that type leather I like silver marking pens like these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leather-Tools-Silver-Marking-Pen-and-Clean-Pen-Kit-For-Leather-Craft-Total-11PCS-/331297528837?hash=item4d22df1c05:g:tyYAAOSwEK9T9mUA I didn't buy mine there but that was the first pic I found. They mark great and most leather you don't need the clean pen to remove it, just use a damp cloth.

http://www.rubbersheetroll.com/latex-rubber-film.htm https://www.buckleguy.com/double-tongue-buckles/

Absolutely correct! My point is some seem to think if you happen to do it for a business that in their opinion you hurt the trade. As for the product being art, I hear it every day in customer comments. IMO most of what I sell to them is not art. If you want to consider a piece of leather cut by a clicker die to a certain shape and sewn art, that is up to you. It is an excellent quality product that anyone with the correct tools and the correct leather can make. I can tool quite good, I have an affinity for it but when push comes to shove I rarely have time to do it. From the dollar and sense point of view it makes no sense for me make a "work of art" because in the same period of time and can make more money selling the stuff I click out. The thing I don't understand is why it obviously offends some that some of us do this for a living. Our goal is to make a quality product, have fun and make money at it on the way. I love the fact that there are tons of highly skilled artisans in here making awesome products. A lot of them with skill far past anything I could ever do. I would never knock them for doing it first as art and if they happen to sell it, a business. I guess I'll just go back to not commenting on anything publicly in here and just PM those that I have built relationships.

"Surprising that you see "being in business" and "making art" as two different things. " I do. I just consider the art the business and for the market I sell to I find the end product and the customers far more interesting than the leather product itself. If every business should only be validated by whether or not the product is considered art it really makes me wonder what the owner of Porta-Potty and countless other business had in mind. For some the joy is in making the product. For others the joy is in building the business and having happy customers. "For those "being in business to make money", how will i buy it if I haven't seen it?@!" My product is for a very specific niche market. Posting it in here is of no interest to me because most people in the trade would make my product for themselves. They are not my target audience. My target is those that can't or don't want to be bothered to make it. If part of my business was selling patterns for what I make I would be posting info about them in here. I have no interest selling patterns.

Damn! you figured it out that quick! Now I have to hide again...

Unless your trying to adapt it to hold dies for snaps and the like I have to agree with JerseyFirefighter (thank you for your service). I just use it for 3D stamps and such and never felt the need to do more than sit the stamp on the leather and press...

Yep, a lot to this. Trademarks are for Logo's, slogans, business names, etc. Many small business that are pressed for money can't afford them right away. Your looking at roughly $500 for filing a trademark. When I started my business years ago with just me in my spare room and I had a business name I really liked. Took me two years to get to where I wanted to afford to trademark it. That's when I found out that someone else already had my business name trademarked. Curious, I went and looked at their product. Half of what they were selling were exact knock offs of my product. Wasn't really worried about the product because it was obvious they were being produced with crap leather and they had no foot hold in my market. So, new business name was needed and trademarked. As for protecting product, that is a patent. I hold several patents on products. The cheapest cost so far to patent a product was $900. The average cost about $2k and the highest I every paid was $3k. Keep in mind a large portion of that is non refundable filing fee meaning if your application gets denied for any reason you don't get it back. Thank you very much for your application, have a nice day. Not exactly affordable for a small business starting out. There are a lot of leather made items that I personally feel would be a total waste of time to patent because everyone and their brother make a variation of it. That being said there are unique items out there worth trying to protect. I've learned my lesson several times over on this. And lastly there are some people in this forum of the opinion that the only product suitable for sale is the Bentley or Rolls Royce version of the product. They like to belittle other people who base their business on the fact that there are plenty of customers who can't afford or who don't want to afford a Bentley but would rather have a quality made Chevy or Ford. I can afford many Snap-On tools yet I own plenty of items from a well known discount tool supplier because I don't need Snap-On quality for the task or I just don't want to spend that much. Personally, I think anyone trying to make a product regardless of ability and business knowledge is awesome for trying. At least they are not inline with their hand out. As for me, I'm sure many in this forum know my business name and products because I am all over the internet with the intent to do business. As for posting my product here...been there and done that under my old business name, explained above is what it got me. As for those that think protecting your product, advertising your business and being in business to make money instead of just making art is not worthy of your respect. More power to you, couldn't care less about your respect or whether or not you would be my friend or want to drink a beer with me. I'm in business to be successful, I'll gladly and do make friends along the way but it is not expected or required. While I don't like posting products in here I love the forum! Many great people in here and tons of knowledge of which I don't mind sharing.

Do you have a tap and die set? That would be my solution to not having to line up the "little ball catch". I'd just drill a hole in the side of the ram, tap it, and throw a bolt in it like they have in the tandy hand press to hold the dies in. I have one of these in the shop that I just use for pressing the 3D type small stamps. I just have a little 4" square steel plate I throw on the bottom. Depending in the leather I'm stamping sometimes I use a cutting board base, sometimes a piece of rubber base. Just depends on the thickness of the leather and how deep you want the impression. A little practice and they work great!

Yep, I can get them, don't stock them though. They have two under the 4070 part number, the 1st pic with the black accenting is slightly more expensive. At your volume level I would be paying the price for one at a time. For the 1st pic I can do them at $5 a piece and the 2nd pic $4.50 and you pay actual shipping from me to you which I can do for 1st class parcel pretty cheap. One buckle at time is usually like $2.60 with tracking. We could probably get 3 or 4 to a package before it would bump up to priority. This would require a little bit of working together for you to not be out of stock. I usually have at least one package every week or so coming from Weaver and throwing in your buckles won't change my shipping cost. If you are able to buy the years worth at once, 60 units, I could beat the price by 50 cents a piece because they would give me a 50 cent discount for 50+ pieces at once. Anyway, let me know if any of this will work for you. Mark

What is the weaver part number for buckle you need. I'll see if it's one I stock. I buy a bunch from Weaver. For all those being mad about them enforcing limits for wholesale pricing, sorry you feel that way but for the record, in the past few months I've had at least two prices on leather drop significantly that will save me a boat load of money. Both dropped from $4.20 a SQFT to $3.60 a SQFT. Anyway, throw a part number at me and I'll see what I can do for you.

Hi Jen, Unfortunately without being able to see/hold the leather in question you will probably not be able to get a good answer. There are a ton of different tanning methods. Mark

Yep, we are in agreement on that. Selling models aside, my customer always gets their item or their money. My exception is the same as yours. if tracking shows it was delivered to them and they say they didn't get it, they are S.O.L. as far as I'm concerned.

I get a volume discount. The most expensive first class item I ship costs me $2.39 and I do have tracking on all my first class packages. You can get tracking for first class through the P.O. but you can elsewhere online for free. I ship in poly mailers purchased in bulk. They cost me .012 cents a piece. I insure in bulk using a third party insurer that plays no silly games on claims and last year the cost came out to just under 50 cents a package. While it may be worth it to you to pay the extra $2.80 a package, that would have cost me just shy of $48k in the last 12 months. Not to mention if I switched to box instead of a poly mailer it would put my shipping weight up 3-5 ounces and my postage cost up 20-40 cents per package. If tracking shows it was not delivered or if the buyer says it was damaged they pay immediately. No inspecting packages or other crap. Insuring through the postal service is a joke. Their rates are insane and filing a claim for damage is all but impossible and a major burden on the customer who has to take everything to their P.O. for inspection. That being said I've had two damaged packages last year out of just over 17000 shipments. So all that stuff is for items I sell that cost $100 or less. Items that cost $100+ all ship priority just so they have less time in the system to get lost. Items over $100 only account for about 2 % of my sales. I know you run a different business model and I respect that. I've seen you post about other sellers being the "King of $30 holsters". Well I'm the king of $30 products in my market but the reason they sell good is because they are good products. I have the ability to make high dollar custom products and years ago when I started it was about 75% of my business. Through the years though the cookie cutter products I was selling became more popular and got to the point where I could spend 8 hours a day making 60-70 $30 items or 1 $300-400 item. One pays the bills and employs 3 people and the other, not so much. I found its a lot easier to convince a bunch of people to spend $30 every day then it is to convince one to spend $500. All that being said, here is my rant for the day...International buyers that do not understand what customs duties are! I get so tired of the messages complaining that "insert their postal system name here" won't deliver their item till they pay $x amount. Why didn't I tell them about this extra shipping cost. Like I get the taxes from their country paid to me. That's all I need is to have to know the global tax code. Bad enough we will all be buying software in the next few years to collect and pay sales tax for every city in every state in the US if Uncle Sam gets their way. Ok, rant over.

This conversation is making me wonder what services people are using with the USPS. 99% of my shipments are under 13 ounces so they are shipped 1st class package with delivery confirmation. To answer the percentage question, that is about 10%. It's driving me nuts! However, the only other shipping options cost 4-5 times more and with other carriers the delivery time drops from 2-3 biz days to 6-8. And frankly if the delivery service I get from UPS and FedEX match there service everywhere I'm less than impressed. I've had 6 deliveries of leather this year that were delivered to a wrong address. Each time the carriers delivery person claimed he delivered it to my business. Luckily I have a video security system that records all motion at the front door. Proved them wrong each time and after providing video that clearly showed customers coming and going all around the time the tracking showed delivery. Video showed everyone but their delivery person and the supposed thief. In each instance they sent the driver back to my business at which time they had a revelation that in fact they delivered my stuff somewhere else. So far I've been lucky, every package was recovered. Just a little side plug for a product...may I highly recommend Ring video doorbells. The $200 I spent on that gizmo has saved me thousands.

Curious on your volume or if the postal service in my region are buffoons. I average 10-12 lost shipments a month. Biggest offenders seem to be the Salt Lake City Postal distribution center and Dallas/Ft Worth. They are the roach motel's of the postal service. Thinks check in and they never check out. However, to the original subject. I agree. I never stick a buyer with a loss. they always get their item, with exception of one guy who had his package lost 3 times. He got a refund. If your running your business as it should be run you are insured for such losses either through your carrier or you self insure as I do.

I'll jump out and ask this even though I won't be here to see the reply, important to know none the less. What type of dye was used, water or alcohol based?

One thing I learned long ago when it comes to designing and selling new products. Never throw out a product idea because you don't like how it looks. For every person that doesn't like the way something looks there is probably one that will love it. The paint job is not to my tastes but I don't think it is ugly. I just wouldn't pay extra for it.

Guess that is my unofficial plug for Texas Custom Dies. That being said I have no one to compare them to. I did a lot of research before I purchased and they have made all my dies. Never had any problems at all. They even talked me out of a few mistakes that would have made them a whole bunch more money off me. Not sure how their prices compare to all the other Die manufacturers but as long as I get the quality and service I need I ain't looking elsewhere.

The die shown is 26" long. I've been using that die daily for going on 3 years now, approximately 30-40 cuts a day. Its perfectly straight and level. I hit it with two shots on the swing arm, never in the middle. I always move it around on the cutting surface to keep the wear even and the board gets resurfaced every 3 months. I have a Fipi F-36 that was purchased used 5-6 years ago. Not really sure what the ton rating is on as I have seen them listed under that model number from 18 to 25 ton. There is nothing on mine that indicates which it is but it gets the job done. I will be buying a new press in the next two weeks from CJR here in Utah. I have an appointment with them to have them use my largest die to see what size press I need to go with. I'm curious to see how the old compares to the new. Outside of a few switches on the handles the Fipi has been an extraordinary workhorse that shows no signs of giving up. I'm just getting to the point where I need 2 presses going at the same time.

Nope, Motorcycle stuff.

Not good at this picture stuff. Had to reduce the size to get it to fit. Hopefully it is big enough to see...

It works well. I was going to have the die made to cut two at once but Heather over there at Texas Custom Die warned me off..too much cutting edge. I hit it 2 times moving the swing arm from side to side. That will cut the design from the hide. I can then pick up the die with the leather still in it and move it a little bit on the board and hit it again and it's perfect. Sounds like a hassle compared to my one shot wonders but I have it down to about 20 seconds a unit. Slightly better than 20 minutes a unit by hand with a Tandy table top fringe cutter that was less than accurate. Took my average work day from 8-9 hours to about 2 hours without having to hire another employee. i just have ejection rubbers on the body, not on the fringe. I can just grab the top edge and all the fringe pulls right out. This is with 7-8 ounce oil tanned. Not sure how it would work with a veg tanned. Probably be hell to get the fringe out.

The most expensive I have has 260 linear inches of cutting surface. Cuts out the product shape and 11 strands of 20" fringe and has 36 holes.

Thanks for the in depth. Helpful info, even though I was just curious. My products don't have a left and right or front and back but I can certainly see why you would want it for some products. Tx Custom Dies has made all my dies with some costing over $1K. I can imagine hitting the sharpened side with 20 ton even though its aluminum to high carbon steel. That being said I get the feeling you would laugh at how I baby my dies but I have a boat load of money tied up in them and I click high volume with them. Would be curious to hear what the life cycle is on a double sided die compared to a single.

So you click right against the cutting edge, metal on metal? How does this not destroy the cutting edge? that's what my Fipi press has also...aluminum plate on the swing arm. This is hurting my brain...