chrstn53

You do have some good stuff in there and some good names. I've sold a lot of tools the past 10+ years and I see about $400 if you sell everything individually in the condition its in and if there is no pitting or issues on the working part of the tool. If you put in the time and elbow grease, you could probably increase that by a couple hundred. Your money is in the round knives, unless one of the gomph tools is an odd number that collectors are after. If you are looking to sell them and get a fair value, contact Bruce Johnson. Otherwise you would need to piece out the collection.

Awesome find. You have a lot of great tools, pretty much everything you need. The CSO unknown on misc page 1.1 is a freehand stitch groover. I use mine to cut the top of stitches when doing sewing repairs.

Are any of these still available?

Because the minimal order for the good stuff directly from Herman oak is 20 sides/backs last time I checked. Distributors like SLC let you buy small quantities, so its going to cost a lot more which is understandable. Herman Oak has been around a long time and they would never send out what was pictured and call it B grade, but there are plenty of companies out there that would buy the cheapest stuff they can in bulk and try to pass it off as higher grade leather.

Contact Silver Creek Leather or your local Tandy and tell them what your doing, they will probably at least sell you the basic stamp kits wholesale or at cost. Your council store can get you the basic 3d cub scout stamps for under $2 a piece. I also work with local youth and scout groups and 10 or so of each of the cub scout logos and a few different versions of outdoor style images are all you need as well as just basic alphabet sets. If your wanting donations you should post some pictures of you actually working with the scouts.

Day 1 is non stop leather all day long with webbing and other tack building materials. Last year at the end of day 1 they started on one of the tool tables for about 30 minutes. Day 2 is thousands of tools and basically anything you would see in a leather shop apart from leather, with machines starting a few hours into the day. The food at the auction is pretty good and the proceeds fund the local Amish school. As for evenings, I cant give you any help as I'm usually so tired from the day that I just head back to the hotel and rest in the nice air conditioning. There is a small town near weaver but there isn't much there. Last year I caught a movie that I wanted to see in Wooster and a few years back an Indians game in Cleveland. Hope this helps

I've ran into the owner a few times at some of the Southern Indiana leather auctions. The last time I encountered him, he spent probably fifteen to twenty grand on hides and equipment but he also purchased everything other leather workers would not bat an eye at. I made a mental note never to purchase anything from him after he bought several cases of Fiebings dyes and conditioners that looked like they had been sitting in a open air barn for 20 years and overheard him mention the retail price he could sell them for. If figured if he is willing to try and pass off questionable quality bottles of dye as new, then he might not be a person I would want to do business with. I don't know the man personally, but he seems to partake in shady business practices.

If this is going to be a one time project, you should probably just buy a double layer belt someone else has already made. If you are wanting to learn the craft, get a chisel and thread and start stitching.

The comparison between Cordovan and HF or butt strips stops after the fact that they all come from a horse. Ive used heavyweight veg tanned butt strips and really like working with it. I absolutely love working with Horween's Dublin Horse Fronts in the 3/4 ounce weight. At that weight I make most of my card cases and one of my wallets. I hand sew most of my smaller items and the Dublin HF is easy to sew, easy to finish the edges, looks great, smells amazing and patinas well. I work with many different leathers (H.O., W&C, Horween, Thoroughbred) and the occasional hides I pick up at auctions, but the Dublin HF from Horween is my favorite leather to work with.

Companies that ship in large volume ship large and heavy boxes for prices you wouldn't believe. The biggest cost SLC was eating is the cost of labor to package everything up and the cost of shipping materials. I grabbed a beer with my favorite rep the last time I went to pick out my leather and we discussed shipping charges. A few weeks before Christmas I needed three sides of 6-7 ounce leather to make some bags and I did not have the time to make the trip to the tannery. He shipped the three sides for free Fed-ex, so when we talked about shipping charges I asked him how much it cost to ship those three sides and he told me it cost about $12. They ship a ton of leather so they get great rates and that was a heavy ass box. With SLC I noticed a huge price increase on a few things I get from them when they started offering the free shipping deal. I used to buy the 20 pound box of Veg Tanned Horse Scraps for $30 and after the free shipping went into effect, the price went up to $55. Most of the other small things I order went up slightly but not enough for me to quit buying them like the horse strips.

A sealed letter mailed to yourself might hold up for something in small claims court, but I could not see it holding up in any higher court unless the other guy has very poor representation. I could see it working if all possible openings are sealed with security coded evidence tape and notarized by an actual official at the court house. Even if you do all of this and someone steals your idea and patents it, you would still have a hard time proving the other party stole it.

Save yourself some time from the get go and do a thorough patent search. Back when I was in school I spent a fair amount of time on patent law in my business law class. The professor specialized in Patent law and stated that about 90% of the ideas that walked in his office had already been patented one or more times. He would tell us about all of these crazy things that people would come up with that seemed unique, but there would already be a patent on the creation or some major function of the creation. According to my professor a big portion of the patents have never been produced and that there are people/companies who do nothing but file patents for everything they come up with in hopes that down the road someone will buy the idea. The plus side is that if your idea is already patented and you can improve the designs function you might still have a shot.

cloehorse the only other place I know to buy Jeremiah Watt tools is from his website. http://www.ranch2arena.com/home.html The website is a little difficult to navigate, but his tools (except for the quick change edger) sell for the same price as the wholesale price from Weaver. I'm not sure about the hardware, but I did see that he gives bulk discounts

If your just making a pair of boots for yourself, you only need a handful of tools, a good pair of lasts, a pattern and a lot of time. A sewing machine would be helpful, but I know a few people who still completely hand-stitch the footwear they make. You could probably choose a simple design like a chukka boot for your first pair and move up from there. The machines just cut down your work time by 80% allowing you to sell your product at a reasonable price. Be prepared to put in 50 hours of tedious work if you are going to make them by hand..

Good machines but a pretty tough sale these days. One sold in good working order at a leather equipment and tool auction I was at about 6 months ago for around $300. The old machines don't go for what they did several years ago, just look at the sale prices from the Whitman leather auction at the end of last year.