Tim Schroeder

This Lady said she would like a Lily Of the Valley Flower, Roses, Angel Wigs and a snake in a busy Floral pattern.

This is one of my wallet insides out of Tandy's Pigskin lining material. I'm looking for material already thin enough to use without skiving the back of every piece. Hard to imagine having to carry all that excess in your pocket. I know the pile is fluffy but squeezed down to 3 1/2 x 4 1/4 and compressed it is still pretty thick. These insides still come out about 3/8" thick sometimes a bit thicker. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. The pockets are all leather, no nylon anywhere. While using nylon saves a lot of leather and skiving time, it takes more time and the part of the pocket you see is thicker. Thanks Tim

Hi Ben, Thanks. I didn't keep good track of my time. I probably had 50 to 60 hours. It took about 25 hours of tooling and the rest dyeing and assembly. I could do it in a lot less time now. I still think 40 hrs min. Hi Jesse, Thanks. I used Fiebings dye. Took some time to come up with that color. The dye is sprayed on with a gravity fed automotive type paint gun. I needed to thin a little more. I was only able to spray 7or 8 light passes before I achieved the color I wanted. I usually thin everything enough to spray at least 10 light coats. I think this is the best way get more even results. 4 oz. Oxblood 3 ml Light Blue 24 ml Chocolate Brown 4 ml Black 80 ml Thinner Thanks for the comments everyone.

Hi jayjay, Thanks. It's all made out of 3-4 oz. An Econo hide from Tandy.

Hi Kathi, Thanks. My machine is the same as a Cobra Class 18. $1695. Mine is a Mitzi. I bought my machine from a local sewing repair man. ($750 for just the machine new) and bought a stand ($49) then built a much bigger top than most you can buy. Piece of Corion counter top out of a place I remodeled. I built my own speed reducer. 12" pulley to a 2" pulley. 6:1 reduction and I can sew thru 1/2" veg tan leather as slow as I want, still have variable speed and it feels like you are sewing thru fabric. There are many different servo motors. I paid $125 for a half horse Consew Servo motor and it is more than you would ever need for 1/2" and under with a speed reducer. It is a walking foot needle feed machine. Thanks Tim

Thanks for the compliments. Here is a couple of pictures of the front. I did have it done for the first day of school so she was happy. She already knew what she wanted with the Fighting Farmer Logo, her name and initials then said I could put tooling anywhere I wanted. Just used an old backpack to get some starting numbers. Thanks to Leatherworker .net I am drawing my own patterns and my tooling is much better. Thanks Bob Park. I do have some leather zipper pulls made and need really small black D Rings to attach them to the zippers. Thanks again Tim

My daughters backpack for school. It's not finished yet, still have a pocket with tooling and her name on it to hand sew on the front. She starts school Monday.

Looks Great!!! Love your style of tooling. Tim

This is actually a remake for some good friends. I like the way it looks before dye.

I have a BK swivel knife with a 1/4" thin blade I have used for at least a year without sharpening once. When I first got it I resharpened it using #320, 400, 600, 800, 1000,1500 and 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper laying on a piece of granite. Just spray the granite before you put the paper on it. I have a 9" wetstone sharpener with a leather wheel for a strop on it. I usually can carve 2 flowers in one of my patterns and then a couple turns on the strop and it's like a hot knife thru butter. I can easily cut all the way thru properly cased 6/7 oz leather. I would like to try Leather Wranglers, Bob Beard and all the rest just to see the difference in how long you can cut before having to strop the blade again. Hard to beat the price of a BK. I have 4 with different size blades but do everything with a 1/4" angled thin blade. Proper casing is key to getting the right results. Tim

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