DavidL

Off the subject. What type of finish do you recommend to seal my stitching pony and unsealed awl handle from dyes.

Thank you. Thanks for the pricing. I will look for squirrel or rabbit if I do play around with tanning skins.

Im unsure of natural pigments. You may be able to find the ingredients online - Every company is suppose to have a material sheet of the ingredients in a product that could be found online. It may be called MSDS or SDS, someone else may be able to give the actual name.

My order also had an error but was fixed free of charge. The quality is hardly better than tandy. Every retail leather business I ordered from has had a problem or horrendous customer service trying to prove your wrong before they even see if they are at fault. A personal attack on your business is also childish for a company to make.. Not going to name the company since its going to get deleted as they are a sponsor to this site but they were also combative from the phone and I had to trouble shoot the issue myself before they would re ship. They did fix it but I would have to think about it first to re buy.

Angelus is non toxic. http://www.amazon.com/Angelus-Brand-Acrylic-Leather-Resistant/dp/B00B8BSUR0

yea.. I suppose its just coincidence that they all are business owners not because they are persistent.

I come from a family of business men. My father, uncle, grandfather and my great grandfather all did business. I suppose stubbornness of not allowing other peoples biased opinions was what made them successful - they all had original thoughts and didn't conform to people telling them they are wrong even though its a matter of perspective in most cases. My mother side was mostly tailors, artists, hairdressers and businessmen. Both of those skill sets from my fathers and mother side is a mix between business and art which is what leather working is in essence. I enjoy the art of business as much as I enjoy the art of leather working. I also try to learn about, tanning, screen printing, different types of manufacturing and how the end use would be affected the manufacturing process to customer. That way when it comes to start my business if I'm thinking about screen printing, embossing or hot foiling I would understand how it works out before its done, which is the reason people write business plans before they start producing so they know roughly how it would work out before they started producing leather goods that don't sell to a particular demographic. @macca - yes they do start with a business plan before they have the product to sell. Most companies do that. For instance if you were to think about selling t shirts, the first thing you would do is lay out a business plan to see if there is a market. Everything from profit margins, competitors, SWOT analysis ect. are outlined in the business plan, then you would go and produce the product, obtain suppliers, transportation, staff, book keepers.. Business isn't something you take for granted. You could go in debt, lose your house if you take it lightly.

high end goat skin, some where around 1.5 to 2.5 ounces. Usually very consistent thickness.

Stelmackr where you the person from a post nearly a year ago who had a copy of the leather working manual from The leather connection? I been trying to contact the owner of the site about information on the books and haven't heard back. Do you know if he's still selling his books?

I will look into brain tanning. Im with you on this one. Just curious if there are a few shortcuts (without hurting quality too much) that me as a diyer wouldn't mind as much as a tannery would. The leather I asked about from baker leather I thought was Oak tanned leather for bags and wallets. Turns out the leather is thick sole leather for the year long tanned leather - so around 12 ounces. From the leather working handbook by valarie michael she wrote that leather shouldnt be split from 10-12 to 3/4 ounce for structural issues. Is this correct? If so are all leathers that are 3/4 ounces structurally weak or just made from thinner/smaller cows that provided a 5/6 leather that is split by 2 ounces only. Thanks for the link. Would you know where to find the salted hides or fresh hides for small quantities? Questions Im confused about: If two identical hides were to be oak bark tanned, one for 1 year and the other for 5 months: The one year leather would be sole leather. Would the 5 month leather be around 6-8 ounces or would it be not tanned fully? Basically what I'm asking are all cowhides tanned and turn into 10-12 ounce leather and then put through a splitter for leather that is 3.5, 4/5, 5/6 ect.

Thanks. I've seen the first link and that was what got me interested in oak bark tanning as the equipment is minimal and you just need to cut the hides in half to fit in a few containers for a d.i.y. Im wondering if its possible to quicken the process to 2.5-3 months.

Few options: There are likely to be some saddle making schools nearby if you have the cash. Saddle making books and dvds are available too Find a saddle maker who is near retirement and looking to pass down his knowledge. Be persistent to those who say they think your not young enough to work, so they know you really mean it when you say you want to be a saddle maker. There are other options like shoe making, bags ect.

Im interested in leather tanning and am looking for some knowledge of anyone that has tanned leather before. I may not be tanning leather anytime soon but am interested on how leather is made so that I can understand more about leather. From what I read and am reading hides must be soaked first, limed, hair removed, delimed and then tanned and finished, its more likely multiple steps are inbetween, but that is what I understand of the process. Is there any thing I'm missing? Im having a hard time understanding where to source the limewater and contacts to the abattoirs or where to find untanned preserved cowhide,goat,calf,ect. (can these be bought preserved and then tanned and finished myself for oak bark tanning - wet blue leather?). This may be a dumb question but rawhide at retail stores are finished products and can't be tanned? What is the technical name of leather ready for tanning if its not called raw hide?

Thanks for the post NVleatherworx.

I have not bought from them. The calf looks like its good quality though.

Thats very true. I believe it starts out as a passion for anyone to want to even start doing this as a hobby and gradually is turned into a business, where first there needs to be a market and second you need to have a business plan and obviously a need to hone your skills. Unfortunately, if you are missing the skills there are always shortcuts like CNC machines or hiring the talent. For the business side of it relies on you as the overseer, in the direction that the company moves and its generally more important than the leather working side of things. Otherwise with no business plan its more of a hobby, working at this part time or under another persons business, with the exception of high end $1000+ leather goods that require 80 percent skill and 20 percent marketing. Its interesting to see so many people starting to look into jewelry making, leather working, woodworking and get back into physical labour, especially with all the available information online to be able to create beautiful looking products with minimal tools. I'm curious to know of any one who owns a business if there was a lightbulb switch moment where your thinking changed for you and your business saw improvement. OR The best skill, habit, ethic or "message/knowledge" (for lack of a better word) that got you to where you are now in your business.

Has anyone tried oak bark like the way baker leather tans their leather? From what I read so far on the few sources on barker leather is that after removing the hair still in rawhide shape the leather is put into a lightly concentrated bark solution, then progresses a few times onto progressively stronger bark solution mixed with other natural material. My questions for people that have the knowledge: How long does the mixture last in a container? How many uses is it good for? Can you buy the same rawhide as the tanneries and get it shipped to you? Does the leather swell up a few ounces after being in the solution for 3 months - year?

Make sense, a guy that spray paints cars would be a good fit. What tannery are you buying from that sells 13 dollar a square foot for shoulder leather, which is the second cheapest cut of leather.

At nearly 10 USD the quality would be good I imagine, do factor in VAT if it isn't already factored. At 75 USD for Angelus paint for a gallon - 3.7 litres, you can probably do 10-18 sides or 20-34 shoulders (2 thin coats) if you cut out patterns then spray - just an estimate, someone who using acrylics on whole hides or paints with a spray gun may know a closer estimate. $8 USD X 10sq shoulder =80 75 dollar paint / 28 shoulders = $2.5 per shoulder = 82.5 USD own shoulder vs 100 USD pre dyed shoulder (Do try to find out what process they use for dyeing - drum dyed or hand dyed) After 4 shoulders dyed yourself it would cost you the same amount of money as 4 pre dyed shoulders. After 16 more shoulders - 360 USD dollars saved, downside is that you have to provide the labour and pay for mess ups if you can't get the consistent quality. Dyeing yourself can increase your profit margins if you can get a similar finish as store bought. Typically painting leather yourself is the cheaper route, more time wasting and if your a beginner there is a learning curve I would imagine. Upside to it is that from one hide you can get different colours and colours can be mixed. From what I know tanneries use very similar dyes to the ones leatherworkers use, although they could very well be fiebings or custom made dyes. Drum dyed leather is unlikely to be replicated . Other companies like Horweens have a multi week finishing process that would also be nearly impossible to replicate. Good Luck

Thanks for sharing. I also got interested in leather working from seeing another person make shoes, although it was from a video in class since leather working is not as common as the past.

I would like to hear peoples take on how they started their business. Did they take out a loan, get a government grant? Sell through the newspaper? locally? How much money did you start with. Also would like to hear of any things that you would consider beginner mistakes that you encountered. Breakthroughs in your business plan or in your thinking. Connections you made with suppliers and manufacturers. or anything else.

Hopefully they let you set up a sign. Have you considered Search engine optimizers, google adwords or a blog?

LOL. They are worth the money at least. You could try Vergez blanchard's website. Last time I checked all the items are the same price as fineleatherworking.com, probably more because fineleatherworking buys in bulk and pays less for duties and shipping than it would for you to get it shipped from france. Free shipping over 100 within USA but not Canada, which is dumb, shipping is nearly the same price. Contact the owner and he replies within a few hours. First I would figure out : how many prongs(4 prongs, 6? 10?) 4 teeth IMO is time consuming and a lot of times lines come out crooked on thicker leather. Many use 4 teeth from what I see and it works for them. For production use the extra 50 dollars or so for a few extra teeth will save a minute or two per piece. regular or portmanteau(cost extra) How many SPI (if 7 SPI and 6 prongs it will be similar length to 9 SPI 8-9 prongs) Going rate is 229 for 10 prongs (too many prongs for small wallets IMO, great size for bags) and somewhere near 130-150 for 6 prongs I believe I was quoted, could of been more. Also factor in that you may want a 2 prong iron too for curves.

I read that suede is made by splitting leather or sanding on the flesh or grain side of calf or goat leather. Are there any made from cow hide? How would this look like in a manufacturing plant? With a large electrical sander machine, pulled through device? or can this be done by hand with a roughening tool? How about velour leather?

Thanks dwight. Always a great answer when I'm stumped. If a customer that wanted water protection but not with the un- natural gloss of resolene what would you personally use to finish?