kwelna

To be totally honest, it was a little depressing to hear, but then again if no one tells me the truth, how will I know what needs improvement and how to improve. I am in the process of moving all of my leather working and glass lampworking equiptment back into the house for the winter, as well as switching out and updating my reloading bench(s). I am trying to make more room for this leather stuff. As soon as it is all back in order (in about a week) I hope to be back at it once again. So hang on as I am sure I will have more questions and ber looking for more honest opinions of my work as well as sugestions on what I can do to improve. Sans the hand slapping hopefully. Looks like I need to do and try a few different things. Thansk again I do apprciate the honesty

Not that tall, but with this pony I can sit in a "normal" chair with the pony on the floor and stitch comforatbly with my work about 8" below eye level. I use my feet to hold the pony stable. It works great and now I can watch a bit of TV while I work. Plus, this gets a bulky piece of equiptment off of my bench. The tightenting system, "carridge bolt and knob - LOL" can be moved up closer to the jaws should you need extra holding pressure. So far I have not had the need.

I am still a bit confused on the thread size I should be using, I am stitching either 4 layers of 4\5 oz. stitched with a 3mm spacing ( I think) for my 22 rimfire mag holders or 3 to 4 layers of 2\3 oz. for my billfold\money clips stitched with a 2mm spaced stitch. Here are some pictures of each suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

35" high, I decided to make a pony that i can use while (sort of) watching TV. Just getting ready for the cold MN winter.

Interesting, I thought linen was made form flax and hemp from hemp. The thread actually broke under little stress, it has only happened a coulpe of times and all on the same 'roll" of linnen thread. Once bitten twice shy I guess. I think i will try it both ways, with and without rosin, I can get a "cake" of rosin for about $2 so ithe cost is not prohibitive. Tried to go to Abbyland and the server looks to be down, I will try again later. I am in a fairly cold climate, Minnesota, but I will be moving wm shop into the basement later this month. Still it is a bit chilly down there as well. I any case, looks like I need to use smaller needles, smaller awl, learn to sharpen my awls and wax up my own thread. then maybe I can start stitching....thank god I all ready made my own stitching pony. LOL Really I do appeciate the assistance. Thank you all again. There is a lot to learn and i am enjoying the journey. I suppose I had better start posting more of my work..

The idea of having a bit extra of someithng to help lock in the stitches , especially the ends after you back stitch a couple of times is attractice to me. A bit of CYA as it were. Forgot, Katsass, I do do business with Springfield and they are great. I am planning on another order in the near future. I will look at their prewaxed thread.

thanks!

I have been using the Tandy linen thread and it is OK but i find it a bit "chunky" at times and once in a while it actualy breaks while stitching. I have tried other threads from Tandy and they are all good, but are not what I am looking for. Their linen comes the closest. It seems that on this site, eveyrone really likes the Barbour linen thread so i am about to jump in and go this route. My questions are: (Yes, they are numbered as I am that analy retentive at times......LOL) 1. Waxing the thread. I can get of bees wax (Wife makes candles and hand balm), but I need to know about rosin do I just use violin rosin which is quite hard or bass rosin which can be quite soft. (I have a small crock pot that I can use to melt this stuff down.) 2. Why the rosin - does this addition help secure the stitchand thread? 3. What proportion of wax to rosin? (Is this by weight or volume) - Ha! I slipped an extra question in there. 4. What weight\number of strands. I am thining 4 strands of like an 18 weight? 5. When I look on most sites for the thread, they list barbour and the number of strands, but no the weight, is there only one weight? 6. Is there a source for smaller amounts of this thread? I would like to determine if this is infact what i am looking for before I drop $50-$60 on a whole pound. Additional information: I do a bit of everything in my leatherwork but mostly Mesenger bags, mag holders, wallets\moneyclips and a few holsters. I work mostly with multiple layers of 2-3 oz. and 4-5 oz. leather. Sometimes 7-9 oz for holsters. I am lookng to expand into purses using a softerhanded leather, but that is a ways out yet. Thanks for the help

Well Biggundoctoryou make many good points and I hope for their sake it does smell like leather. I read the article and it is interesting. If offered I would gladly play with some to see what it is like. to me the trick will be to produce leather that mimics not only the feel and smell, but also different areas on the animal. I am not expert, just a novice, but I have gleaned from others that differnt areas of the animal lend themselves to different leather products. That being said, it would be nice to have a perfectly square piece of leather to work with especially when making messenger bags of a consistent thickness, desity and hand. Again I noticed in the article they talk about toxic chemicals used in the tanning process. I can see this with chrome tanned leather, but what toxic chemical(s) is used in the tanning of veg tanned leather? And the even with chrom tanned, how toxic and how much is needed and lost to the environemnt? How does this compare to other industries that use the same chemicals? I wonder what toxic chemicals will be used to produce the leather itself? Cool article though and it will be intersting to see it it ever makes it into the main stream or luxury itmes. I some \most cases synthetic or lab produced products are looked upon as inferior or less desriable especially when you are talking about luxury items. Like diamonds and rubys high end\quality leather products etc. Time will tell.

I think you have to look at this article in many ways. First as with all greenies instead of working with the current situation , they again want us to alter out entire life style overnight to suit their paradigm of how things need to be. This paper must be an alternate front for PITA. Second notice how all tanning processes according to the arrticle uses toxic\dangerouse chemicals? I am not a tanner, but insn't i t mostly just a solution of tree bark adn water (for veg tanned leather anyway) This article is being used to spread incorrect \inaccurate data to be used later by another writer that will site this article as a source. Again a trick used buy these groups. Third is the lie that all these animals are being killed just for their skin. One of the above responders is correct, leather is a byproduct of the meat industry as is glue, Jello and many other businesses. Notice that none of the inaccuracys are truely egregious and are at least 1\2 way truthful. This is intentional, and that makes it worse as no one will call them on it or challenge the statements made by the author. This allows them to perpetuate these 1\2 lie(s). In time the lies will become facts. This process has been used for years by politians on both sides, but the left seems to be a bit more adept at its application. Remember, these groups are about control.. Control of your life and how and where you live it. Thankfully these mental midgets are in teh minority. Unfortunately they are a rather vociferouse group and tend do do wata ever it takes to get their views into the mainstream of america. HMmm they work of the premise the Ends do justify the means.....There as a popular book written a few ( ~2000) years ago warning about this.....;-) Finally the basis of the article. I find it fascinating,especially if they can some how utilize algea or bacteria to grow the stuff. What a great source for a homogenous and unblemished material. It would be great for gussets and some clothing articles. Alas, there are few if any man made materials that will out perform what nature has wrought. I no doubt that what ever they come up with will be in some if not may ways inferior to the real thing. Getting back to the "homogenous and unblemished material", I agree with one of the other responders, it is the imperfections that make each leather piece unique. This can only drive up the value of "real" leather items should this ever get that far. Lets not forget the smell! That smell is at lest 20% of the charm of leather! Oh yes, one final thought. Once they grow the stuff, wont they still have to tan it or is it "self tanning" Huh, so much for saving the envirnment looks like they will still need to use those "Dangerouse and Toxic" chemicals. So where exacly is the gain in this?? Oh yea to control what you can and can not buy\aquire.

Going to Tandy this comming week end, I will look into the lamb skin. my tandy does not carry any calf skin. thanks for the heads up.

I was lookinga t a friends wallet the other day and it is made of very thin and smooth supple leather . I have some pigskin leather (From Tandy), but it is rough, a bit stiff and actually thicker than the leather used to make the interior of his wallet. where can I find this leather? Any ideas? I figure this has to be about a 1 - 1.5 oz thick leather. Kangaroo maybe?

I am woring on a simular idea, and messenger style\range bag. I was going to stitch a holster (Actually 1\2 of a holster to the back of the bag with a tretension strap holding it in. In you r case if the user wants easyeays\quick access then this is not the answer. if it is just for transpor then maybe it will work.

You may have greater issue than that as when Obamacare hits you may have to provide affordable health insurance as well. I have seen and heard differing views on how this will actually effect small employers the opinions tend to be a bit sumlar but still no diffinitve information and I am too lazzy to read a 2500 page document of government speak that basically leaves them any number of loop holes to nail an business they want. This is one of the reasons the economy is slow to pick up. Many small employers are taking a wait and see approach to addding employees until they actually know how the system will work and how it will effect them (Read that as How much will it cost them.) But make no misrtake, if you provide material, equiptment etc. and direct their work, they are considered employees, Its very easily to this spiral into a big mess especially if the person is some how injured on the work site. In my experience as a contrator for 4 years back inthe 80's, they (the government) seemed to take great pleasure in shafting small businesses. They are greedy for more money, they have collected all they can from us for now. So they are looking for alternative ways to add to their tax coffers. I would look at "selling" your friend some tools and a sewing machine (say for $10) and pay him by the piece and have him work from his house or rent space in your shop. Have him get a sales tax id # and keep records of all financial transactions between the two of you (Rent, % of utilities, supplies and payment for items made) as proof that he is a contractor and not an employee. You need to make it look like he is not an employee but a person doing contract work. Let him come in and learn as a hobbyist. " NO pay but grant access to equiptment and have him make a few items for himself from berginning to end (Cutting out pieces to sewing, finishing etc. to learn). Once he is competent and confident, hire hime as a "contractor". But in any case talk to your accountant or a labor lawyer to make sure what ever you do will pass muster with the government before you try anything. I will only cost you about 200-500 dollars to speak with an attorney for an hour or two and may save you a lot more. Also, realize that he (Your contractor) may at some point wish to breakaway and start his own simular business. YOu may be creating a future competetor. Good luck and realize that our government be it local, state and national do like small business' . They have not liked us since about the 1950s. Anything they can do to squeeze money out of you they can and will . Once you are on their radar you are hosed. There ya got my $.02 Good luck!

Do all of you deglaze your leather before you dye? I was just onthe fiebings site and they talk about deglazing the leather before dying. Sounds like a bit of a sales gimmic to me. Yep, i am still trying to put all the pieces togeather to get a "great" dye job on my leather.

Cool I will try that as soon as I get a bottle of #4

How are you applying the mixture?

Hey Grumpy, I am still working the air brush and it is getting better, I bumped up the pressure as you suggested and that helped a lot. I do expect some variation in color adn hue on the leather, but what i am finding is that I end up with lighter and darker areas mostly due to my lack of ability to spray evenly so I am looking for a way to compensate for my weakness. I will take a sample leather piece and try the neetsfoot oil and sunlight approach. It sounds great. I havea specific color\hue in mind, and I just can not successfully achive it every time. I have halve a mind to assemble the entire bag un dyed adn then dunk it all at once in a big tub of thinned dye adn see what happens LOL. I really only get to play on weekends so I have to plan my experiments for then and try and gather all the supplys durign the week so i can just got outside and go..... I will say that it has been an intersting journey in learning. I thnk I am getting there......just not as fast as I would like!

I am still trying to come up with a good way to dye leather to a lighter color and so far it is only working OK to good. Here is what I am currently doing: Using Fiebings standared dye ( and thining it 9 parts acohol to 1 part dye) Wet down the leather with water to moisten it so the dye flows over the leather more evenly and gain better penetration Spray teh dye onto each cut out leather piece with a "Cheap" Air Brush " Let dry and hope it looks even and the color is what I am looking for .... Talking with the folks at springfield leather, they mentiond that since I am using a alchohol based dye, as the alchohol evaporates, it pulls additional moisture out of the leather making it stiffer, (make sense to me) So new plan : Mix 1 part dye with one part neetsfoot with 8 parts alcohol Wet down the entire leather side with water Spray dye on to the entire side with an automotive touch up gun Then cut out my peices I am hoping that the touch up gun will throw out more dye and I will get better penetration I am also hoping that since i am spraying a larger area with a larger spray pattern it may look more even I am hoping that the neetsfoot will help keep the leather a bit softer and mitigate the effects of the evaporating alchohol as well as retard the evaporation process so I get better stain penetration So any one have opinions on this? Will neetsfoot mix in with the dye and alcohol? Any one have a better idea? Is there a downside to my approach? The goal is to get a nice even and light color on my leather messenger bags.

I am getting ready to starton my messenger bags, but all I can find is brass plated square rings and cross bar rings etc. I am looking for a single source vender (Small Quantities) of solid brass bag hardware and strap hardware. Welded square rings, cross bar rings, center bar buckles. Nothing fancy , just good solid hardware. Any suggestions??

Pleae let me know ifd you get an answer, as I have about the same question but got a lighter messenger bag

Wow, did you contact them to tell them of your dilemma? I am not a big time leather worker, just a hobbyist, so to put out $250 for unseen product was a big leap for me. I was ready for a fight and then the leather came and I was extremely happy. I do not go through that much leather in a year and I figured after a bit of calculating that buying the good stuff and having less waste ultimately made the more expensive leather cheaper or at least equal to the price of Tandy's regular grade leather. The nice thing about Tandy is that it is right here, no waiting and their leather is ok to pretty good, but sometimes ya gotta pick through the merchandise to find a good one. I still need a side of 8/9 or 9/10. But that can wait till the boss says OK. I will again go to Springfield and see how that turns out. Right now I have enough to make a couple of messenger bags (my own design) and learn from my mistakes. I also got it made in that a new shoe repair guy just openend up shop 4 blocksa from my housse so maybe I can get m him to do some machine stiching on parts of the bags.....especially the borders. We shall see. Good takin with ya Kevin

"Our Top Grade Tooling Sides are what most companies would call their #1's or premium...clean, white, and pretty doggone nice! These sides tool and finish very well. Available in 2-3 oz., 3-4 oz., 4-5 oz., and 5-6 oz. (*Note: 2-3 oz. has a very soft hand and average 19-20 sf.). Item # 133-72123." I bought a 2-3 and a 5\6 side. they are both quite big and Iowuld say are 95% usable. a few clip depressions on the very edge of the skin on both from tanning (This was expected) and one small hole on the 2\3. really impressed. also the 2\/3 is soft for being veg tanned even the belly parts of the sides look really good.

So I just ordered a couple of sides from Springfield leather (2\3 and 5\6) as i am about to attempt making a couple of messnger bags as well as fill a couple of orders for .22 mag holders. WOW! so far I am totally impresssed. They are very clean, smooth, very blond and have a very consistant thickness. Don't get me wrong, I like Tandy Leather and I think they provide great service and products especially to\for newbies such as myself. I will always patronize their establishments, But I have to tell you this leather is better than most everything i have seen at Tandy (in their lower grades of leather) and is competatively priced even including shipping. Plus I received the leather in less than a week (5 days). Super helpfull and super nice people that put up with my numerouse phone calls and questions. I was a bit nervouse buying leather on line, especiall since I could not see the individual peices and I had to rely on others to pick out my leather. For you newbies, all UI can say is give them a call and give it a try you will be happy you did. Will I still buy Tandy Leather? You bet. Especially if I need it "right now" But I wll also be buying from Springfiled on a regular basis as well. Thanks for the great customer service Springfield you now have another, "albeit small" loyal customer.