BDAZ

My 3 knives arrived this afternoon and all appear to be quite sharp and well made and certainly worth the $19.95 each cost. The speculation that these were made by children is ludicrous! While they are probably not of the quality for a hand made knife by one of the well known makers, they will do the job they were designed for at a fraction of the cost. Once I become proficient with these knives I may purchase a high quality US made one if it is justified by useage. Cya! Bob

I have been using Bank of America's system on my droid phone and tablet with great success. One of my out of state vendors uses Square for tens of thousands of dollars worth of my transactions annually with no complaints. Cya! Bob

Here's a technique I came up with yesterday when I was trying to transfer a design. usually use Stapes "Vellum" paper which is translucent, tough and goes through my laser printer with no problems. I couldn't find it and was in a rush so I printed out the design in reverse, taped it to leather then saturated a piece of paper towel with acetone and rubbed the surface. TaDa! The test example is on a piece of scrap and each character is 1" high. The actual piexe is double sized. The lines were completely eliminated by the cuts and beveling. Cya! Bob

Ewwww!

They were just about to fill it with sake because they first thought it was a sake cup. The owners English is not too good! I did place our makers stamp on the back..just in case! Cya! Bob

My local sushi bar is the best in the area, owned by a Japanese guy and nice folks. The treated me like royalty on my birthday and I wanted to repay the gesture so I thought I would trow together a pen and pencil holder to replace the ugly one (a coffee mug) on the bar. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn to make a cylinder. The back is stitched with a cross double bar stitch. They loved the holder and they gave me a free sake! Comments and criticisms welcome! Cya! Bob

I was watching a recent episode of Pawn Stars and they were negotiating over a bunch of paintings that bore the portraits of Jimmy Hendricks, Elvis, and a bunch of other R&R stars. There was no issue about copyright even though each was a reproduction of the original in an edition of 300. Cya! Bob

If the tragic event we've been discussing ever occurred, and the lawyer saw that the LLC owned an edger, a couple of round knives and a Tippmann Boss, then it would probably never get to court in the first place. The first thing a lawyer will try to do is "pierce the corporate veil" which means they will look for any irregularities that will dssallow corporate protection. Didn't hold a directors meeting in 2007? Didn't file a particular document with the stated 5 years ago? The protection of a corporation is over rated. Your best protection is to shield your assets so you have nothing to go after. Not a lawyer so take this as worth what it cost. Cya! Bob

I was good freinds of the photo editor for the National Enquirer, Bob Stevens when I lived in South Florida. The operative word is public figure, and they are only alowed to publish the images as news, not allowed to sell them on mugs or wallets. Bob, btw, was the first guy killed in the post 911 anthrax attack at their offices in Boca Raton. Cya! Bob

In general, the first barrage is a cease and desist letter. The copy-write owner is more interested in having you stop then taking you to court where he has to prove monetary damages.but can also demand punitive damages. Unlikely in the case of a mom and pop shop. Immediate compliance with a C&D will usually end there. I have some experience in patent infringement which is similar, but the best advice from the leather workers here is don't take our advice! Cya! Bob

Another option is the spray adhesive used for gluing in auto headliners available at the auto parts store. I prefer it to most of the 3M adhesives. It is designed to not be too viscous and goes on nicely and is tough as nails. Test it on scrap first. Cya! Bob

Brilliant idea! All component purchases, in this case, leather, thread, dyes and other consumables are allocated to COGS so from an accounting stand point it's all a wash at the end of the year. Once sales and overheads are allocated then I have an accurate accounting of P&L but that doesn't help me, at this stage, with initial costing. Again, I do like your idea of weighing the scraps from a piece after it's used and comparing it with the original weight. Probably the bsts method to compute waste percentage. Thanks!! Bob

I have stated buying drum dyed veg tan so I can produce consistent product and have been buying double shoulders and double bends but it's still problematic because i need continuous pieces up to 30" cut length ways so I need to come up with a smart way to cut as well as costing to allow for waste so I can keep my prices as low as possible to get volumes up while still making a profit. I am looking at a clicker press and dies to make some form of small item that would turn scrap into profits, but it will be a different market. Thanks for the suggestions. Cya! Bob

Sure looks a bit like the Cowboy 4500. The flat bed is available from Bob for $85. Cya! Bob

I did go back and look at your products extensively and as I mentioned earlier they are beautifully made and I am absolutely not trying to offend you. I figured $80 for labor whether it's 4 hours at $20 or 6 1/2 at $15. Just a guess as I have no clue how you value your time. No need to get upset. And let's not confuse thinking with over thinking. All I am interested in finding is how to cost the leather accurately so I can establish wholesale prices. Buying wholesale is a bit different from selling wholesale, and I have been doing the later for more than 35years. So what seems like over thinking to a retailer is just SOP for a manufacturer who has to worry about every additional cost being magnified up the distribution chain. One of my businesses uses three tier distribution. I sell to my master wholesalers, they sell to their dealers and the dealers to the customer. Add $.10 to the cost and it's $.50 or more at the register. Thanks RC for your help but so far I really haven't got anything I can use other than you turn your scrap into dog collars. I thought there might be some more commercial leather manufacturers that have distribution experience, that could point me in the right direction. Cya! Bob

Have a look at the Cowboy 3200 A lot of bang for the buck and you are not paying for a machine you don't need. This is similar to the 4500 but slightly less capacity. Cya! Bob

LW, really good food for thought! Actually about all products. A strap that breaks and drops a $10,000 guitar on the concrete? Lots of lawyer chum. I'll be talking to my agent and accountant tomorrow. Cya! Bob

You stated you get two sets of blanks for $160 which is $80 a case for leather. I am guessing at an additional $20 for dyes, oils, hardware, etc. I was assuming 2 hours labor at $40 an hour to make $80 and an additional $20 (just a guess) for lights, rent, etc., even if you are working from home. Your cost would be +- $200. Then a typical manufacture margin would 100% resulting in a wholesale price of $400. From a few calls I have made, the retailer is looking to double his cost so the final cost to the end user is $800. Scenario 2, also plausible: Your costs remain about the same at $200 and you mark it up 1/3 resulting in a wholesale price of $266. The retailer (maybe online with lower margins) only marks it up 1/3 as well resulting in a retail of 353, which would be in line with some of the prices I have seen. These are NOT the percentages I have encountered but maybe in the pool que industry they would work? If I have made some wrong assumptions, please let me know where I have erred. Thanks, Bob

There seems to be a dearth of folks that actually run some form of leather business where they sell multiple copies of an item to a distributor that resells to the end user. It seems that most of the folks here are on Etsy or have a retail operation where they are dealing directly with the public, either in person or online. Lots of wiggle room when dealing direct with the consumer. Issues like making sure the picture in the catalog matches the item you deliver 6 months later don't apply. Also one has to be more efficient in time and materials to allow for the re-seller's margin. So I guess I'll using some templates, try to estimate how many items I can produce for a side and then figure the cost per square inch. (Each case requires around 2 ft2) or simply use a thumbsuck 25% waste to determine the approximate cost per square inch and run from there. I was hoping there was some rule of thumb, but I guess the great variation in leather production, from shoes and wallets to auto upholstery makes that impossible and other than spending $350,000 on a full hide scanner and laser cutter, I'll just use my pencil. Thanks, Bob Thanks! Bob

Do you sell wholesale? Assuming $80 a case fr leather and another $20 for other consumables plus $80 labor and $20 overheads your wholesale would be $400 resulting is a retail of +-$800. From your website (beautiful cases, lovely work) I see your retail price is around what the wholesale price would be thus either your retail pricing is way low based on the market, or you would be priced out of three tier distribution. After checking pool cue distributors, the highest price I can find is $499, clearly well below the $800 your products would have to sell for to achieve your formula. Thanks! Cya! Bob

The cost of shipping 3 knives to Oz would be +- $US15.00. I'd be happy to help out and reship to Oz or Spain. The cost to Spain was more..$US21.00. Tandy charged $10 for domestic shipping on 3 knives. So by the time you paid domestic + International shipping you are looking at +-$25 and $31. Cya! Bob

This system may result in 15% waste: http://www.expertsystemtechnik.de/reduce-material-waste-significantly-using-the-expert-scanning-method Great video! I'm way higher than that, in terms of the pieces I need for my products. I read a UN report on the shoe industry that stated the minimum wastage was 18% and often exceeds 25% and as high as 60% for premium products. Cya! Bob

I have been manufacturing scuba products for many years and also produce wide format graphics in another business, and soy based solvents in another, so I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. The problem is that when I buy a 55 gallon drum of chemicals, I know that I'll have 3% wastage and the net amount will yield x products and x cost per bottle. The problem with leather is that each hide is different and with the range of products required, I am not really sure how many of each product I can get from a hide. If I had an order for 500 widgets, then I could probably use a greater percentage of the hide, but having an order for 5 or ten at a time, I'm guessing I have a 20% to 25% waste. For example I needed a 9" x 20" piece but was only able to get 9x19 so that almost piece is waste. I may eventually be able to use a part of it but chances are 50% of that piece would end up in the scrap heap. For example, I can buy a side from Tandy at $6 a square foot. Assume 20% waste, it's now up to $8 IF I can get 100% use of the remaining leather. So that wasted piece was 1.25 square feet and cost me $10. Surely there are some basic guidelines for costing leather commercial without getting into the world of computer controlled laser cutters? And I am not concerned about retail as there is a lot more wiggle room for margins and I am not sure I am even interested in retail, but when my wholesale customers mark up the product 60% -100% then I have to have solid numbers to establish the lowest possible price while still remaining viable. Cya! Bob

I bought exactly the same setup a few months ago and am as happy as a clam! Enjoy! Bob