Tex Shooter

Glad to have you here! -- Tex

How about "Hand cut, hand saddle stitched and hand riveted". I tag every one of the leather sheaths that I sell like that. -- Tex

If hand sewing, you might want to invest in a poly pad for pricking. -- Tex

I hand stitch repair on small items like knife sheaths. Most of what people want repaired were not stitched well either with a machine or by hand. You will very seldom see items that need repair that are well stitched with a machine or by hand unless the item is quite old. Like Electrathon I think on most items it is a appearance issue. Because I use mostly thinner leathers I don't cut grooves. I also don't cut grooves because I sell a lot of what I make wholesale and keep the finish work to a minimum for price point reason. -- Tex

I make slingshot band sets with formed leather pouches. I have settled on top grain boot leather because I have a supplier that I can count on. -- Tex

I have heard so much about Roo leather strength. I make a product that must be strong and soft and have tried Roo from several sources and have been very disappointed with it. I have even had customers send Roo to make the product for them and tell me how great it was. Later they started using my product made with USA cow hide because it held up better. Roo can be a great leather, but it is hard to buy consistent quality and is quite expensive. -- Tex

I have used QuickBooks for years. It works very well. -- Tex

Avery nice start! -- Tex

There is a way to use a one ton arbor press as I have done it. You pull the ram down on the clicker die (must be a good one like Texas custom dies) with the ram handle and while holding it down hard strike the top of the ram with a soft faced hammer or mallet. You must hold down on the ram handle to keep from damaging the gears. This takes a little practice and is only good on small items. -- Tex

Welcome Ron! I have spent some nice days at Crivitz. -- Tex

Leather supplied to boot companies with special characteristics for there trade. This leather is sold by the bundle (about 3 or four skins) or greater only. The leather that I buy is for the uppers. -- Tex

I recently added this little folding sheath to my line. I have heard it called a watch pocket sheath, but It would not work in some jeans as the pocket is too shallow. It is carried to help prevent worn pocket holes. This one is 3 1/2 by 1 1/2 inches flat and it has a 3 inch lock back knife in it for the picture. As with all of my sheaths it is made to appeal to the working ranch hand or Cowboy, therefore it is plain with a a minimum amount of finish work.. Also all of my Folding knife sheaths are saddle stitched. I use only Boot leather and this one is made with a low salt chrome tanned leather of about 1.8 MM in thickness. I buy USA Boot leather by the bundle in chrome tanned, oil tanned and vegetable tanned leather. The vegetable tanned boot leather leather is not made for tooling, but is stiff. Recently I have also started doing saddle stitch repair on small items. I have found that there is a real market for this. -- Tex

Here is a couple on eBay -- Tex http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-New-John-James-Saddlers-Harness-Needles-Leather-Hand-Stitching-Sewing-Blunt-/321288416257?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item4ace482c01 http://www.ebay.com/itm/C-S-Osborne-517-Harness-Needles-Size-0-Pack-of-25-/111070863093?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19dc56def5

It depends on what you make, how you sew and what look you want. I do nothing but hand stitching and use Osborn 0 needles for what I make. -- Tex -- Here is a size chart. www.csosborne.com/no517.htm

Hi Penny, I have been a wholesaler in Texas for years. What you are going through is called a "cold call". I always enjoyed them and was told that I was very unusual in that respect. There is one major pit fall that happens in wholesaling and that is making or carrying a item just because one account ask for it. I did this many times and got burnt most of the time. The main thing in wholesaling is to understand your market. It helps to talk to end users and find out what they like and want. -- Tex

While watching TV yesterday I heard a quote from Henry Ford that I thought was worth while. Here it is but maybe paraphrased a little. "some think they can do it, some think they can't do it and they are both right" This bit of wisdom causes me to think about my attitude some. -- Tex

It depends largely on your situation! Where do you live, in a urban setting or rural setting? What kind of life style do you aspire to? do you own your own home? How well do you like to do leather work? What is the tax situation where you live (Income, sales, inventory)? Will you be working under a local license situation and under local manufacturing rules? Do you live by your self or have a family to support? Do you have health problems to consider? Do you have room in you living conditions for a work area? And etc.and etc.! There is just no one answer that fits all. Hmmm, where have I heard that before! -- Tex

I help them sharpen and polish the blade to size! I also show them some good tools for hand stitching. -- Tex

I label all of my leather products except my clicker products, hand cut and hand stitched. I still get ask if I am doing them on a machine. For anybody that has been around leather very long it is pretty easy to tell hand stitching from machine sewing. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with a machine sewn product. It is just not what most of my ranch stores and customers want. It is just a little nitch of mine that I have been selling to for quite a while. -- Tex

I have been up the to Aquilla many times when I lived in Waco. We used to pick up cans along that road for gas money. Welcome to the forum. -- Tex

Yes I know that there is a forum on sewing, but It is dominated by machine sewing. I would like to see it split into two forums, one for machine sewing and one for hand stitching. -- Tex

I use a 1/8 inch wide diamond awl most of the time with Springfield Leather waxed poly with Osborne #0 needles. On some of the thinner leather I can pull the needle through with my fingers, but it is hard (tip finger cots give you more pulling strength). I use a pair of pliers that I modified to pull most of the time. Nyltex is harder to pull and I always have to use pliers to pull it. Linen varys. Springfield poly is a little heavier than other threads that I have used, but I like the heavier thread for hand sewing. I sell a bunch of items to Working Cowboys who like the look of hand sewed items. I recently went shopping with my daughter in a tourist type uptown and noticed that some of the best selling leather goods were very crudely hand made. Like lots of rivets and 1/4 inch long single stitching. Go figger! -- Tex

Here is one of the things that i use my soft scrap leather for. Deer, Elk and Kangaroo make nice mystery lanyards. I could not find my Elk so this one is made of soft chrome tanned Cowhide. -- Tex -- Sorry I stuck this post in the wrong place. Would one of the moderators move it for me?

I have a heavy hunting knife that has dropped many times over the years in one of my hand made riveted sheaths and still weould shave. I think that the way I set rivets (double set) that the edge never gets to the rivet because it is so tight. Also I use a little silicon rubber to glue the sides together and it squeezes into the pouch a small amount forming another barrier for the edge. I also had this round knife in a stapled cardboard sheath for years and never damaged the edge, but of course I never dropped it though. I have also been ask if I will stick to my simple patterns. Here is a sheath that I made about 20 years ago. It is one of 3 patterns that I had clicker dies for (I no longer Have these dies). I was selling these wholesale for $3.50 and would not want to guess how many that I sold. I still have about 150 of these old clicked patterns and I have been modifying them and stitching them today. My Hand stitching has improved quite a bit as you can see from other post. I tried selling fancy leather products at one time and can make said same, but I never sold that many. Right now I have a lot of repeat customers for my folding knife sheaths. I have known a lot of these customers for years. -- Tex

I have had this C. S. Osborne round knife for years and always had it in a cardboard sheath. I found a couple of pieces of oil tan scrap in my box today and knocked out this simple sheath for it. I don't know if this knife was made that way at the factory, but the radius and angle is different on each side of the knife. If someone reshaped this very old knife they done a excellent job of re-sharpening it. I have never been one to make anything fancy, but have always made my leather simple and functional. I have found that the ranchers that are the end users on my products prefer that. -- Tex