Don

My favorite finish that I use on everything is Tan Kote made by Fiebings. It gives your work a nice shine and will allow the end user to oil and condition the leather years down the road.

I use the same procedure as Randy does. I take the thread out of my machine and stitch the pattern into the paper, leaving the pattern in holes. The only thin I do different is I take about a nine by nine inch piece of clothe sheet(bed sheet works well) and lay it on the table. Then pour you a liberal pile of baby powder in the middle of the sheet. The pull all the sides up and put a rubber band around it at the top...incasing the baby powder in the sheet. This keeps your baby powder from getting all over your bench and you don't waste a lot of powder. When you lay the pattern on top of the leather just tap the powder filled sheet on the pattern going over all the holes in the pattern. When you pick the pattern up you will leave a perfect pattern on the leather to sew by. Hope this helps.

That roughout is absolutely fantastic! I am not a huge roughout fan but a roughout that catches a person eye(as this one definitely does) is an example of master craftsmenship. Great job...I can't say enough. Do you sand your roughout at all? I sometimes do to get a smoother look when my roughout is a bit shaggy. I ask because your roughout looks smooth without any shaggy spots. What kind of leather do you use when you make a roughout like this one? Very nice.

Don't know what color you would call that...But I really like the color. People like things that are a little different from the same old colors that are out there. I don't thing you can go wrong with that color. Try the sun thing, it will work.

Great job Mike. I like your tooling...great job on the antiqueing. Keep up the good work.

Thanks guys! I wasn't real sure about being on tv, but I guess it went okay. We had a lot of fun working with John on that project and appreciate the tv time. Hopefully we can do it again sometime.

Way to be Roger! Love that seat! Keep up the great work.

Clay, Your leaves look great! I have never been really good with oak leaves...I think its because I never really know how to pear shade the leaf, but now I think I have an idea...Thanks. Is your petal lifter a tool that you tap with a mallett or just push with your hand? Great job. Don

Great stuff Elton! Those chaps are beautiful. I love the over/inlays on the chaps...lots of work but their worth it.

This is my stamp. I decided to use my signature in my stamp. This is the signature I use on my drawings as well. My stamp was made by Harper Manufacturing in Las Vegas and I think they did a great job. It seems to be stamping better the older it gets.

Do you have any pictures of the tree. I have never used a superior tree, nor do I know anything about them. Do you use them often? Don

Here is a belt that just got finished here in the shop. I am not big on conchos, but that is what they wanted (conchos take up good tooling space).

Great point Mike! That is a must.

This is the way I dye/stain leather (if I just have to dye/stain), and by no means is the only way: I put a light coat of neatsfoot oil on the piece. In my opinion this prepares and lubricates the pores in the leather to accept dye/stain evenly. Then I apply the color dye/stain to the piece using a piece of wool skin(trim the wool so that it is easier to control application). If you are looking to lighten say a medium brown to a light saddle tan, you can add rubbing alcohol to the dye. Be sure to try your mixture on scrap, adding alcohol till you get the color you are looking for. Apply the dye as evenly as you can, not worrying too much about the streaks or uneveness. Let this dry for about a half hour to an hour. You can apply more to even out any holidays, but be carefull not to add too much or you will end up darker than you intended to. Once your satisfied with the color, apply Tan Kote to the piece with a piece of clean wool skin. This is a finish that will allow the piece to be oiled and conditioned later in its life. Some other finishes tend to seal the leather completely which will not allow for further condition later. As far as antiqueing a piece this is what I do: Oil the piece with neatsfoot oil to get the base color you want. Let this oil dry completely, then apply Tan Kote to the piece. This will prevent the antique from absorbing into the leather. After the Tan Kote is completely dry, apply the antique liberally using a trimmed piece of wool skin. Be sure to work the antique into all decorative cuts and the background. I like using the paste antique, just my preference. The piece is going to look really bad at this point...DO NOT FREAK OUT! Let this set for just a minute and then remove using a clean piece of wool skin (trimmed longer that the original piece). Rub in all directions to try and get as much of the antique off as possible. Done correctlly the antiqueing will remain in the cuts and bevels of the tooling amplifing the WOW factor of your tooling. Let the piece dry for a half hour to an hour (or over night) and then apply a final coat of Tan Kote to finish the piece. I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing how everyone else finishes their work. Great topic! Don

LA Pat, I have been making and repairing leathergoods for people since I was in high school, but I have only owned a full retail, custom, and repair shop for four years. When I made the decision, after college, to go into the leather business full time I had no idea how challenging it would be. Art mentioned "half your time to leatherwork, half to running the business, and half to promotion." This could not be any more true. I have a lot to learn yet at my stage of business ownership, but the one thing I do know it that you have to concentrate on all three of those aspects in order to be successfull. And in doing this you spend an unmeasurable amount of time trying to develope and grow every part of your business. I came into this as an aspiring artist and craftsmen that wanted to make a living doing what I truely have a passion for. What I soon found out (and am still learning) is that you have to work on becoming good at all aspects of the business, not just the art side. I have many friends that own other businesses (lawyers, veterinarians, farriers, horse trainers/clinicians, hunting/fishing guides, etc...) and their goals, successes, and struggles are not that different from this industry's. I think all industries have potential for success and/or failure. The only thing different between the other areas of the industry and the one that you decide to dive into, is YOU. If you are willing to devote the time, and you have the "want" to be the best in that market, then you should be able to make a living doing that. As far as what a craftsmen can make money wise, I am still too young in the business to tell you that. I do know that the man I learned to build saddles from was full time in this industry(and still is) for 40 years...he seemed to be doing as well as any other. I think that you have total control over what your base salary is, and that is any time you own a business. If you do the kind of work people appreciate and you fill a need within your selected community, then you can name your price. I agree that many charge too little for their work, I do that on occasion. I believe that we all sometimes look at it in a way that "If I am too high then I won't get the job and I'll lose money." When really all we're doing at that point is adding expenses and not adding any income. I finally started looking at it like this "Wouldn't I rather not have any work and not make any money rather than having a pile of work that is costing me money?" Charge for your work and people will gladly pay you for it. I am not sure if any of this helps you or not but those are my thoughts. Good luck in making this life changing decision...NO PRESSURE. Don

Weaver leather carries the elastic your looking for. Unfortunately you have to buy a roll. I ran into the same problem needing only a few feet to do a couple repair jobs. After looking to buy only what I needed, with no luck, I just finally invested in the roll from weaver leather. I have a whole roll that I use more than I thought I would. Now that I have it we are doing a few more english repairs in the shop. Is it worth buying the whole roll? Maybe not, but it is nice being able to make those repairs happen...they are easy money. If you do need just a bit to get your jobs done let me know. Good luck. Don

Steve, those are some beautiful cuffs. I really like the color you got, very elegant. Does each cuff have a different brand. Thumbs up on the rope bag also!

Yes I do draw all my own tooling patterns. It takes up a lot of time, but I draw new patterns for almost every saddle I build, unless the customer picks out a tool pattern that I already have drawn. But I find it more fun and freeing to just draw new patterns for each job, not to mention it brings a lot of uniqueness to the piece. Here are some closer pictures of the tooling on the wade from before. This saddle is the Centennial saddle that we built for the 4-H of Texas. This was a very fun saddle to build and it was for a wonderfull organization. The saddle will be given away at the Centennial kickoff in October. All the silver on this saddle was done for us by Tim Hansen of Hansen Silver in California...wonderful work.

Like he said, Ohio Travel Bag. If anyone is going to have it they will. Good Luck

Great job! Your tooling is very clean, I love your style, beautiful flower.

Fantastic job! Very clean work Steve. Keep it up.

Those look great! Nice format on both flask, great job!

Greetings to all leather heads... I am so excited to be on a forum with such talent. I own a custom saddle shop in Bryan, TX where I spend every day trying to perfect my craft within a medium that has, at times, a mind all its own. I have been building saddles for only five years or so but have been a leatherhead since I was about 12. Anyway boring you with my life story is by no means my ultimate goal so thank you again for having me on this forum and I look forward to swapping ideas and tricks with all of you.