DavidL

In my experience you have to wet the whole leather piece, wetting single spot you can see a mark after the leather has dried.

I've done some research on the search and the conclusion is to use a marble slab, over that, a poundo board and piece of leather. I have a marble counter, which I put a pound board and piece of leather and there is still a lot of sound. It is most likely because the counter has some drawers that echo the sound. On the ground there is the same issue, nothing is softening the hit and it sounds like iron hitting a poly board. If there is no way to reduce the noise I am looking into arbor presses 1/2 or 1 ton to press the pricking iron. How the impression will look I don't know.

il check those paints out, I'm currently going to go with angelus acrylics, if the ones you recommended are better than il have to do the switch. I seen custom shoe painters leave the paint w/ no sealant and they seem to last. What is the difference between a dye sealant and a acrylic sealant. I use atom wax on dye can it be used to seal acrylics? what ratio for the duller to paint?

very nice. You could probably sell a few since fred stopped making them.

anyone know how to reduce the sound of a hammer? Im moving into an apartment and the sound of the hammering is slightly too loud.

The type of people that are really picky tend to be customers for life, if you provide them with excellent customer service. 85 percent of people will not rebuy if they had a bad experience, there are so many other options. If your too stacked up in orders send a rough estimate and once they confirm the deal order the additional leather. You could find the cost of buying the leather plus shipping and factor it in and break down the cost in front of the customer. Customer will have to end up paying for the cost of shipping and hide. The price will be high to buy an entire hide so at least the customer will walk away with the thought that they were treated well and a future purchase wouldn't be out of the picture. Other options like finding a small piece on ebay or garment/upholstery leather could be used. If anything you could find a segment of the market that you may have not know was there, exotic holsters or holsters made specifically for women. Just my 2 cents.

abbey england has some soft french sueded leather that would feel like velvet but hold up like suede. Worth a look.

trip to home depot? You will be able to test the weights of the hammers.

If he was a regular member of the community I may help them out or if I knew them in person. Also don't take a loan out to get started you will end up trying to manage a company and make payments at the same time.

Thats the best way to use a scratch awl on the edge. You could alternatively make the pattern so there aren't any 90 degree corners, or curve the edge of the wallet so the stitch is curved at the corner. Anyone have any luck stitching through 3 layers of 2/3 veg tan and getting the pricking iron to press through to the backside?

A video on his channel he makes a round box w/ curves using a regular iron.

8.90 is a good price for bends, as long as they are blemish free. For me I would rather have consistency than more average leather. HO I hear good things mostly and sometimes there are bad reviews maybe 2-3 bad hides out of 200 as a guess. W/C I haven't read any bad reviews, could be not as many people has bought compared to HO, don't know why since the quality looks to be very similar. RJF only hear good reviews looks like he sifts through all the A grade leathers and only takes the top of A grade and sells it to the customer. W/C and RJF are my top choices right now, HO is also hard to get at tannery rates. Horween could be a runner up as the shipping is cheaper and I can order more choices. Haven't heard much about their natural veg tan leather and their grading is rather vague (regular is A grade and B grade or maybe just A grade). any insight would help.

Tooling leather A grade - Which has the best Feel most even consistency most blemish free, clean leather best flesh side I had my mind set on Wicket and craig leather as they are the only tannery out of the three that wants to process my order and ship it to Canada. RJF hasn't replied but their leather in the pictures are completely blemish free and are the best looking leathers I have seen online (HO and WC doesnt have any pictures up close). Only issue is I don't have the pricing for RJF or know if they split leather down to 3.5 oz like Wicket and craig. Which leather do you prefer HO, WC or RJF? Why? In your opinion is WC the same quality as RJF leather?? Which tannery does RJF get their leather? In the end are all 3 leathers comparable when comparing the grade A leathers, all with ZERO blemishes?

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=vb.182186731147&type=2 mando.fr for the heat tool.

I suppose so. USPS has good fees for small packages 5 dollars for the brokerage fee plus HST tax. Larger order of 200sq feet I don't know what to expect in terms of brokerage fee for an item so large. It is under NAFTA so there should be no duties. Id like try to not pay extra 400 dollars from the wholesaler markup if I can.

How larges the hole in the ram? Big enough for a dixon or vergez iron?

whats the brand name, I'm looking for a press w/ a hole already pre cut.

Same dye, same finish and I have the same issue. Comes out purple in some areas.

Its more psychological than anything. 97.50 feels cheaper than 100 even though its only 2 dollars and fifty cents. People categorize these things in their head, in this case 97.50 your item is under 100 dollars. Value of currency also takes a roll if an item is 19.99 or 20 then people will say I can buy this with a single 20 dollar note, although its not a deal breaker to price 23 dollars. For trade shows a round number won't make that much of a difference and I would go with a whole number since it isn't a retail store environment. Pricing at a whole number gives off that the product is good quality and is not an item that is expendable. For instance any high end boutique store for men or women majority of the time don't advertise the price on the wall and prices always ends in a whole number. Same goes with cars. Another study also shows that if an item is priced low enough (under 30) whole numbers like 10, 15, 20, 25, placed at the front of the store (where retailers placed most of there clearance/ on sale items) will give off the feeling they are on sale, even if regular price was 9.99 and you sell for 10. You will mostly deal in cash so I would go with 20 dollars instead of 19.99.

top row is western style stitching, thicker and straight. Bottom row is european style stitching that is harder to master. the stitch should touch from one end of the slit to the other, in this case bottom left hole to top right hole if you stitch towards your body. Both give different looks.

il check them out thanks

only been a day, tomorrow morning il bet a message will come. Figured someone here would know

Do you happen to know the pricing of single bend veg and european bridle? Still waiting for a response from RJF.

I agree with what your saying. However, a certain tool will limit your ability to do a certain task. For instance I use to ride a regular bicycleand now I enjoy riding on trails. The Bike worked great until I took it on the trails, so I invested in a proper mountain bike and it suited better. The same goes with the tools you use in leather working, especially hand stitching since it requires precision. The chinese pricking irons I seen are wide diamond shaped holes and european or british irons are thin slants. I never dealt with the chinese pricking irons, the japanese ones I have used and are very similar and the holes open up too large in my experience. 80 percent of the end results does come from skill. If you don't have a razer sharp awl, properly aligned pricking iron, it makes it more difficult, every tiny change in tools changes the stitch. Larger awls, create larger gaps in-between stitches and so on. Ease of use for beginners is why I recommended him to upgrade certain tools. He wouldn't have to wonder if the reason he's not getting the proper stitch is because of the tools. That shouldn't be misunderstood as to buy the tool and the problem will be solved.

Cletus, try all the different size threads from other brands. If you want professional results you should have the proper tools, the chinese pricking iron is your weakest link. Work at it for a while and it should come together.