leatherjo

I'd go with buffalo (aka bison) for the leash and collar because buffalo is soft yet very strong (stronger than cowhide). Unfortunately, I think you'll probably have to buy a side--you'll have leather left over for other things. I'd line the leash and collar in deerhide. My dog, a great pyrenees, now weighs about 170 pounds. The picture next to this message shows him when he was only 5 months old. Any way, he used to pull a lot and bite his leash. The harness helped (has your friend considered a harness?), and I had the first 2 feet of his leash (closest to him) done in heavy brass chain, so he couldn't bite through it. The chain then attaches to a leather leash for the remaining 4 feet (total of 6 feet). BTW--if the dog is large, you might consider a choke collar so the dog can't slide out of it.

Yes--I considered a laser. In fact at a recent show, I asked Epilog to cut some leather for me since they said their laser will cut leather. It cuts it, but it burns it badly. I have hopes that they will eventually figure out a wavelength that will cut leather without burning it. But until they find that sweet spot, I'm going to try the Handibot. The standard desktop Shop Bot is more than I want to spend for appliques.

I've seen that Donek video many times, and I considered getting a desktop shot bot with a Donek knife. I have 2 problems with that idea though. One, if you watch that Donek video carefully, you'll see that one of the points on one of the designs is pretty ragged (probably tore when he separated the design from the rest of the leather). My second problem is that in an earlier thread on this forum, one of the frequent contributors to this forum wrote that he had used a CNC router repeatedly to cut leather without a lot of success. He did not say how thick the leather was, and I do not know whether he used veg tan or chrome tan -- but my guess would be veg tan. In any case, if I am going to have to limit my CNC use to thin leather, I don't want to invest in a full size shop bot. The handibot is a better fit for me. If you do get a shop bot, be sure to tell us how well it cuts leather!

When you get up there, some day for fun you might go over to Wickett and Craig. They are located in Curwensville, about 2 hours NE of you. They have great veg tan!

Great discussion here!! WyomingSlick and Bad Hide, you gave me a lot to think about. As far as the difficulty programming, I was planning on using Illustrator drawings imported into the Handibot as SVG files. Glendon, I looked up the URL you provided, but I could not find what kind of knives they are using. One of the reasons I like the Handibot is that they are using Onsrud knives - so there are a lot of knives to choose from. I also like the Handibot because they have a good size company behind them. As far as the Cricut (and larger machines like the Black Cat Silver Bullet and the KNK Maxx-Air), I question the sturdiness of those machines and whether they can consistently cut anything over a mm without giving me fuzzy edges. Ioline also make an applique cutter, but it also does not look very sturdy, and it's $6800!! BTW -- I'm interested in appliques because I intend to decorate high-end evening bags with multimedia embroidery done by machine (sorry WyomingSlick). So I'll be using Illustrator files any way.

Have any of you heard of the Handibot? Here is the URL: http://handibot.com/index.php Its made by the same people that make the Shop Bot. Basically it's a small CNC router. I'd like to use it to cut out small thin leather appliques (held in place with some kind of two-sided adhesive). But it occurs to me that I also might be able to use it to engrave metal hardware. I've sent the company a message asking them about the leather appliques. What do you all think? Do you all have any other uses for this bot?

This article appeared in the "Purse Blog." I'm including it because perhaps we should consider reason #6 when we price our products. Do you all think it is true? http://www.purseblog.com/listicles/8-reasons-spending-1000-bag-worth.html?all=1

I suggest you ask Dan at Campbell-Randall. He's very knowledgeable about these large clickers.

Beautiful design!! But I agree with Matt about the lining.

Eden Workshops in France has some incredibly detailed tools in many different categories (I love their ship!). They have toolsets as well as individual tools. All of their tools are brass, so they will last, but they are not cheap. You can find them at: http://www.edenworkshops.com/ Click on "brass finishing tools" in the menu on the left. Then click on "hand tools, gouges, and pallets." You can download a catalog from the last page. (I was unable to attach the catalog due to its length.)

Art -- Is this the same Linhanyl you referred to in your post above: http://www.linhanyl.com.br/produtos/couro_eng.asp By "regular twist" do they mean "left twist"? I'm not sure what colors they carry, but it might be worth checking into -- even though it does not look like they still have a distributor in the United States.

You might check out presses from Baileigh Industrial. They are cheaper than Dake and I am sure you can get them in Canada. You can operate their presses by hand or by foot pedal.

Very clever design!

You can buy saddlebags for dogs on the web. My dog has one. Unfortunately, most of the ones I have seen are for large dogs. I have 170-180 pound great pyrenees, so he can handle the weight. Your dogs don't look that big, so be careful about overloading them. If you look at the pictures on the web, I'm sure you'll figure out a pattern. Google "backpacks for dogs" to get a list of vendors.

If you want brass letters, Eden Workshop in France has a wide selection of fonts. Brass is expensive, but it will last and Eden seems to have pretty good prices. Here is their website url; http://www.edenworkshops.com/ If you click on "brass finishing tools" (menu on the left) and then "handle letters and type" -- you'll see their prices and font selection. I haven't used them yet, but I plan to since they seem to be the only ones that carry a font that I want.