DavidL

I bought kangaroo chrome tan from an ebay seller. The cost of the exporting paperwork was including in the price (No duties), may or may not be the case for you. You can talk personally with the ebay sellers so you can work something out. Ask for a discount if you are buying in bulk as the export fee is less for a bulk purchase. You can also probably get a deal on the leather too. If you deal outside of ebay with these seller they may even further discount the items. Packardsleather if I remember correctly is roughly 10 dollars a square foot and the import fee is a one time fee 100ish dollars. You definitely need to buy in bulk to justify the cost. Ask them for a quote because it could have changed. Charles hardke sells kangaroo hides, they are located in the USA no import fees (already calculated). For selling them as goods I think you have to also get the paperwork from the company and include it in the shipment so they know where it came from - kangaroo is considered exotic. I have some chrome off cuts (had some shape) that was given as a gift and they cut really nice and the best stitches I've had were from those pieces. Kangaroo skins are tougher and denser than cow hide.

Il check them both out, thanks.

Sort of off topic. If you have woodworking skills already you can incorporate leather into chairs, furniture.. and vice versa, woodworking into leather products. Leatherworking is the easiest I think to get into. All the tools are straightforward, most of them you already have. Stitching is something that takes a while to get good. You can probably get by with 150 dollars if you had to. 300 should be enough, buy from ebay used sales or from leathercrafttools.com from japan. Tandy's quality isn't too great for what it cost. One thing that will save you a lot of money is buy Faux leather to practice and until you get good then start using real veg tan, avoid expensive threads and the different types of dyes and little excessories, they add up to hundreds little by little. Simple Olfa ultramax snap off knife - no need to even get a more expensive knife this blade will out cut them all because of how sharp and most importantly thin the blade is. Japanese awl - varies in size Japanese pricking iron/overstitch Scratch compass OR one of those compasses that you use for math that uses lead. Remove the lead and use that. needles cheap thread .58mm to 1mm white school glue ruler sandpaper edger* wont work with upholstery leather or faux leather only veg tan. = close to 50 dollars before shipping, without leather. 50 more dollars can get yards of faux leather (make sure it has thickness) or upholstery leather. on ebay there are plenty of veg tan hides for not too much. used tooling stamps can be bought on ebay too.

quilting squares are they for marking or are there openings so you can cut? I been having trouble with getting completely squared boxes. It usually ends up square. 1 out of 10 times it will be off by a fraction of a mm, its not much but if its not a square it bothers me a bit. It is also a huge time waster to draw 2 sides using a 90 degree ruler and then have to line up the ruler to cut -- very difficult to get the ruler to fall exactly on the line made by a scratch mark with a pen mark its nearly impossible for me. Do you guys have any tips? I been thinking about getting a solid metal sheet, very thin. Get that sheet and rest it in the tiny groove that the scratch awl makes and push a ruler against it and it will be exactly on that line Or the modified wood working square mounted to the edge of a table and then I could use an awl placed on the line to push the straight edge against.

Its for both. this japanese knife sounds like its a good contender, no rolling forward only push forward on heel of knife, pull on the tip or chisel cut (good for cutting excess or small straight edges). takes 1/8th the time to sharpen vs a large round knife http://www.japanwoodworker.com/Product/156498/1-12-Leather-Knife---Hidetsugu.aspx. The white steel is a good carbon steel above rc60 , vergez is sort of unknown steel and unknown rc hardness. If you want a budget knife get an OLFA ultramax knife, it will outperform a LOT of knives and round knifes without having to get a proper sharpening stones. Wish I wouldn't have bought an expensive clicker knife when I could of gotten an ultramax olfa with 200 replacement blades - 8 cutting edges per blade, each blade could last more than year. I had a regular olfa and compared it to a clicker knife I had custom made and they are similar in cutting sharpness, olfa beats it by a little bit because the blade is so slim it will cut more precise with less pressure and has less resistance when cutting through 10 ounce vegtan - 1 pass usually . Its a bit sad that my clicker knife is made so thick that the blade gets wedged in-between the leather and doesnt cut. Two things the japanese will always be great at are knives and sushi, taking years and generations to perfect them.

In woodworking there are combination squares that mark a perfect 90 degree line and I want to know if there are commercially made items are made for leather. My idea is to make one of those rulers and have it pushed up against the table so that way you can push a piece of leather with a straight edge into it to mark up a 90 degree line. The ruler will be mounted onto the table so it doesn't move and can move down or up to fit different thicknesses. Has anyone here tried to do something like this. It seems like It would work and would like your thoughts on it.

Depends if you like the stitches with a thick stitch, fine stitch or somewhere in the middle. I've done 5 SPI using tiger thread .8mm and to me that looks about right for that size of thread. I prefer it finer so I use .6mm for 7spi and 8spi. Just my preference, for your #7 vergez (6 SPI) I would use something in the .58mm to .7mm, something around .6mm would be about right. If you making something that takes a lot of stress then you would want the thicker threads, although Peter Nitz has used .58mm thread to hold together the seams of a purse at something like 4-5 SPI without an pricking iron just with scratch marks for reference.

The fact that not a lot of people sell hand stitched bags didn't even occur to me. Now that I think about it only big branded companies sell bags and usually in the 700 - 1.2k range for hand stitched and hand cut bags. The skill it takes is probably why, those who only make wallets haven't learned to make bags or briefcases. If you compare the workload and cost it takes to make a single bag vs a wallet you can get a larger ROI on your time. Ex. if the bag costs 700 dollars and takes 6 hours to make subtract the cost of the materials and you will make 600 dollars for 6 hours of work. If you can make 6 wallets in the same time you can make a single bag and each wallet fetched 40 dollars profit ($240 total) you would not make as much per hour a bag. Which is why some companies opt out against hand stitching for machine stitching to speed up the process and in turn increase profit. Great thing about doing more expensive projects are that they may get more coverage on websites, I have seen it a lot on blogs and style websites that are always trying to write new articles about made in america type goods and look for things that will get more clicks on the articles. Another thing that new products does is make your website easier to find through google or google images. Even if it doesnt sell it is a win/win situation, where the product can bring in potential customers. You don't even have to make the product if it doesnt sell and you can sell it for a decent profit if it does. Another thing it does is increase the way customers view your online store, much like the same way you enter a high end store and all the top of the line stuff is beyond what you expect, everything else lower in price is viewed as using the similar quality control, similar equipment, similar materials without the flagship price. Ex. Going to a bar on a special occasion and the price of the highest shot is 50 dollars and the second is 18 dollars, majority will go for 18 dollar shot. The high dollar item is there to get people to up the value of the other items seeing as the 18 dollar shot is better for the value than 50 dollars a shot while still getting a good deal. So the prices of your lower priced small items can increase slightly without much change to your Supply and demand. Too much and you will see negative results usually.

Does it still have the label on it Id really like to add that to my list. What pricking iron, and awl size are you using as well, the stitches on the inside border look different than the border stitches, was that intentional?

Thats a great wallet. What brand of thread is that it makes the wallet look really sleek.

They are generally all the same in function and are very similar. French tools - vergez in my opinion are the highest quality besides vintage, new american custom tools are a close second in the list, dixon then japanese modern tools. The korean tools from custom makers are impossible to find, you may need korean contacts to find them. For knives the Japanese chisel type knives (white steel version) are one of those rare items that are worth triple the price, I have the cheaper 15 dollar version and its just as good as my custom clicker knife. Olfa knives and rotary are also better than common blades.

Looks great. Can you explain the steps on the last picture? How many layers are in there, what type of material is the white pieces around the perimeter. How do you get the corners in that same pic to fold that way

cool site. How are you going to direct traffic to it?

A speedy awl and saddle stitching with an awl are different things. Google or search for it first so you know the difference. The easiest route would be the speedy awl, not best results but I have seen a fairly decent sneaker recon with a speedy awl using the fine needle. The best route in hand stitching is a regular awl saddle stitch although it may be difficult to do it on fabric. Machine stitching is fastest and will work on whatever material within reason. I recommended the speedy awl because you can be able to stitch within an hour of practice. Saddle stitching and machine stitching takes several hours to days even to learn to do it correctly with different materials, curves, different stitches. Heres an example with the speedy awl that I was referring to http://paintorthread.com/2010/09/01/vans-sk8-hi-ssd1-with-how-to-customize-by-fresh-fly-customs/

Dixon's sizing and vergez sizing are one number off. A vergez 7 is a dixon 6, they could be fractions of a mm off. If you are planning to buy more irons at the same size then you may want to get the same brand so they are same sized hole and distance. If I was buying an iron now I would get a portmanteau, the corner stitches angles are uninterrupted vs the regular iron that goes upwards rather than portmanteau downward stitch. Regular irons - stitches are flat around the corner, portmanteau angled downwards around the corner.

Best way would be either to machine stitch or hand stitch with an actual awl (with all the tools I posted above), the learning curve is steep. There is a bit of a learning curve for the speedy awl, a bit less than actually learning how to sew on a machine or saddle stitch with a normal awl. Speedy awl can get the job done (i've seen decent custom reconstructions using a speedy awl) w/ thick thread or thin thread you just have to buy the thin needle version or normal needle version. It wont be as good as the regular hand stitched way obviously but would be a good way to not buy a sewing machine if you don't have the money. Either way you will still need a speedy awl for certain nike shoes or other branded shoes that have stitches that connect the mid sole to the upper. Another tip that I have experience with is to start off with converse all stars, you wont have to shape the toe box because that part is plastic. very straightforward. The hardest part of recon, is 1. taking apart the shoe since sometimes it can take 2 hours or more and 2. getting the shape correct (no shoe last).

upholstery sewing machines or medium weight sewing machines should be good enough. I have started a converse reconstruction that I have set aside for a while, its nearly half done. Even hand sewing would work if you are willing to learn, all you need is an awl, needles, thread, scratch compass and either a pricking iron or overstitch wheel. The easiest route of hand stitching would be with a speedy awl, only the speed awl and thread is needed. If your going to do sneaker construction right then don't go with cheap fabrics like some of these customizers use. You also can't use any leather over 2 ounce (for the most part) and you must thin down the edge with a skife or sharp utility knife or else when you turn the edge over it will look too bulky.

had a heat lamp for reptiles that would be hot enough, any pet store should have it.

One is too thick usually. 3 to 5 is normally good in general for painting for leather is probably the same. If your problem is you are trying to get a solid colour for red or yellow try painting white or tan as a base coat and see if that works. Airbrush would be my choice of equipment if I had the option.

Cant you throw blankets and towels over your stuff or make a box lined with something.

In that situation I would talk with the store owner for the price that they want to sell it for retail. Once you both agree on a retail price find the price you are willing to sell it wholesale - 85 percent, 80 percent, 60 percent retail. Do try to get them to buy it as inventory, rather than on consignment as they already shown interest in buying your product. Also get paperwork, bank statements or email of the deal to prevent legal headaches. Any extra items you can try to get on consignment with the store. Make sure to have paperwork done proper.

Most people use resolene to seal leather and it seems to work. Im trying to explore different types of sealers that tanneries use to seal their leathers. As far as I can tell they don't do too much rubbing out dyes and either air dry or put it through a heating unit. A few chemicals/ products that I wrote down and am still trying to find out more about them are: phenolics melamine acrylics, polymers naphthalene ​What are some commonly used products that tanneries use?

to be honest I don't believe the price is over inflated. When you only count the tangible then yes, but the intangible things are the main selling points. For instance dollar for dollar a toyota would be great bang for the buck, where a ferrari is more luxury. If I had the money I would easily buy a ferrari. Dollar for dollar a premium product would be better than a luxury one. Brands like LV, Hermes sell a majority of their product from their stores, and certified wholesalers(I don't frequent these stores, so they quite possibly don't sell at other stores). There isn't a mark up when it comes to luxury goods seeing as they are vertically integrated - they own or control every aspect of the supply chain, being the wholesaler, manufacturer, marketer, retailer, designer and controlling the shipments and which stores they go to. They would find a price to sell it for and sell it business to customer through their retail stores (getting 100 percent of the retail price) and possibly sell wholesale(getting 60-80 percent retail) in large shipments to the high class stores. The retail price would be the same from a wholesaler as it would from their own retail, just that the wholesaler gets a discount in order to turn profit. The difference between a premium brand vs a luxury from what I learned is that premium brands don't control manufacturing and often neglect the craftsmanship Ex. diesel, fossil, oakley.

Are there any cutting mats to fit a workbench around 4 foot by 7 foot that aren't 250 dollars like the alvin mats.

My idea on luxury goods is that in a 3000 dollar bag a majority of the price is to pay for the costs of running the business, and the legacy/lifestyle of the company. The rest is spent on time.. the time it takes to learn the skills, to source the materials, time to make the product and to research and test the product. Does any one have a take on design, material, ect or what luxury/high end brands not even in leatherwork create that allure that regular brands don't have? Is it the fact that ferrari, apple iPhone, hermes breaks the mold of the norm to create a product thats a "dream product".