Tim Schroeder

Looks great! Good Luck at the show. I wish I could make some money doing leather.

Thanks for the comments. I really like black tooled items but my wife still likes the saddletan stuff she already has. To Jazznow, my grandparents were German immigrants.

Padded Tablet case for my wife.

Thanks for the comments. The inside and outside are 3/4 oz.. Spent some time skiving the insides down so they were really thin. Sanding the edges up to 400 grit made the burnishing fast and easy. I burnish everything by hand. The block of wood really straightens everything out nice.

I try to use the same method as Bob Park. His method is desribed in the How Do You Do It Forum. First I sand the edges with 150, 220, 320 and then 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around a block of wood. The only way to get anything flat or straight is to sand with a block and never with just your hand. Then wet the edges lightly, glycerine bar soap rubbed in and burnished with canvas with saddlesoap rubbed into it. Dye and then rub wax and burnish with canvas with wax rubbed into it. Then several thin coats of Wyo Sheen. Sorry for the poor pictures. I will try to post some better pictures today. Thanks to everybody.

Christmas present for some very good friends.

New wallet for my boat mechanic. Can't waite to build one for myself. I like the Kangaroo on the inside.

New wallet for my boat mechanic. Can't waite to build one for myself. I like the Kangaroo on the inside.

This wallet is for my wife's boss. Kangaroo inside.

Thanks. Magnets in the outside flap and part of a cork backed steel ruler for the case side. I checked for the magnets messing with the phone with my wife's Blackberry. The first case I built my wife had her Blackberry typing backwards in Chinese after a night in the case. The Blackberry case has a magnet in to turn it off when you slide it in a case.

A Grandma's phone case for work. She's cool, likes peace signs and drives a bug.

Had a customer who wanted the Kangaroo leather on the inside and veg tan outside. Holds checkbook, pen, 3"x5" notepad, 7 cards and a big pocket in every section. The Kangaroo leather is thin and is easy to skive to paper thin. Much easier to skive than the pig skin I normally use. It is very expensive but looks and feels really nice.

Here is another picture of a home made speed reducer. I have about $75 in this setup. 12" pulley to a 2" pulley. Most speed reducers are 3:1. This one is 6:1. I can sew at 10 stitches per min thru anything that will fit under the presser foot (1/2" of solid tooling leather) like a real hot knife thru butter with a #25 needle and 277 thread and still have variable speed control. That's speed control. The wood mounting box is really just a mock up. My metal worker buddy was supposed to build me one out of steel but didn't get to it before his surgery. I would recommend a speed reducer of some kind for anybody trying to sew heavy leather.

I build all of my wallets from scratch and can make it any way you want it. Here is a couple of pictures to what my work looks like. timscustomleather.com timschroeder6363@yahoo.com Thanks Tim

Yes, I agree on the operator skill part. I will probably have to use this machine for some time. When I first tried this machine the marks were more like cuts and could not be rubbed out. I didn't hesitate to start working on the feeddog rite away since you can replace it pretty easily. Cutting down the presser foot tension nut made a big difference. The lightest setting I felt was way to much pressure. I have ground and filed the feeddog down so much that it requires a little more skill than normal. I can just hold the material and the feeddog would just slip and it will sew in the same hole. But as you can see in the picture there is not any marks at all. I am completely satisfied with those results. I try to think I'm a perfectionist and one bad stitch will drive me crazy. If I hadn't been to lazy to build a support table to help hold it up it might have helped. No excuses, you should be able to make this machine work fine, especially for the price. I paid $600 with shipping for just the machine. I mounted it on a spare piece of Corion and can just set it in the hole my other machine sets in. I can change my machines out in just a couple of minutes.

I have a GA5-1 for lack of funds for a 441 clone. I ground the feed dog down enough to knock down the sharp edge on the teeth. I also cut off the presser foot tension nut. There was to much pressure to start with. The only problem I have found is stitch length because of the bottom feed. With a little practice I'm sure I could produce better results. I have another machine (basically the same as Cobra class 18) that is triple feed and it produces a really consistent stitch length. One day soon I'll have one of the 441 clones. Here is a picture of the backside of a notepad I made. I didn't rub out any marks. Like I said about the stitch length, it was hard to keep it consistent. This was the first project I had sewn on this machine. Thanks Tim

My workshop is in my formal dining room. My wife won't let me let it get to out of control. One question I have about stropping. I use a leather wheel on the side of my wet stone sharpener. Three revolutions on each side and the blade is back where it should be. Effortless stropping for me. Does anybody else use one of these stropping wheels? The one tool I'm looking forward to getting is a Bell Skiver. I skive everything by hand and it really looks like crap because it is not smooth enough. I need lots of tools that would make things faster. Thanks Tim

Sure. Where do you want me to post them. There is is also some pictures in the tools and shop gallery. Thanks Tim

Hi. I copy the images on a copying machine after I carve them and cut a 1/4" hardboard figure to match them as close as possible. Then lay the pieces over the carvings with a heavy weight on them and then spray the dye. Then a coat of Wyo-Sheen to block the antique. Wyo-Sheen from Sheridan Leather is the best total blocker I have found if you are using an antique on the carving to highlight the details. If you use satin sheen or super sheen two coats are usually needed and the antique will still tint the natural looking leather color just a little bit. You could also dye the background with trimmed sheep skin and cut it in close with a brush around the figures. If dyeing with sheep skin or spraying with a gun I use 4-6 thin coats sometimes more sometimes less. More thin coats will produce a more even finish. I usually thin my Fiebing's dye 2-3 parts thinner and 1 part dye Thanks Tim.

Bible Cover for my A/C Tech. First try at figure carving. Nice to be able to barter for services.