Mark Moss

With the time you put into it, minus the cost of the materials you are around minimum wage. I have seen photos of your work on other postings, you are a very talented, (obviously not new leather worker) and do really clean, nice work. Personally, I believe you are greatly undervaluing the value of your work. It took you years to acquire theses skills and the tools to do it. What is 4 hours wage for the person buying it? I believe your work is well worth $90-$100 minimum. If you had the pattern already done, clicker die made, and spent less than an hour to make, it that is one thing, I believe you should charge according to your time and effort. I believe a person of your talent should be compensated for 4 hours of your time/skills. What would 4 hours of work cost you from a plumber ?

I have his bench top self centering presses, which acts similar to the weaver machine, but is a totaly different design. Dan also makes two larger foot press models of the press as well. The press works extreamly well and is built like a Russsian tank, all metal, no plastic on it. I got the press and two set of dies (front and rear set, 4 dies all togeter) for right around $ 600 shiping included. The press alone runs around $350. Dan will make the cutting dies for the belts to your specs. He does great work, the dies are very well made and very sharp. Dan also makes several other machines such as strap cutters, embossers, foot press, etc. Dan makes hand tools such as hole punches, English and round strap end punches, bag punches and clicker dies. I would recommend anything he makes. The prices are really good, truth be told he should charge more than he does for his products. If you write him he will send you a price list of his products as well as photos. He responds quickly and is great to work with, he even takes personal checks. He recently moved, so I will put his new address below, if you send a letter to his old address he will not get it. He does not have a phone or email. Hope this helps, if you have more questions you can email me off line. My email is mark589us@yahoo.com Dan Byler 881 Ivory Road Frewsburg Ny 14738

Hello to all- This is my first time stamping a knife sheath. I made a old school inside the pants slip sheath with a brass frog button for my well used Winkler field knife. This is the first time I have made this style of sheath as well as any type of stamping. I usually make the regular fold over type, but wanted to try something different. I used 7/8 oz veg tan leather for the front and back with 10 oz for the welt trying to strike a balance of being durable but thin so it would slip inside the pants easy. I really wish I had used brass rivets to match the brass frog button. Any feedback on improving would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone! Mark

Hump, Steadybrook, and Itch. Thank you for the replies, I was unaware of wetting the leather or using a rivet. I have read in several post about Ohio Travel Bag and their huge selection, I will stop procrastinating and contact them for a catalog. All good ideas. Mark

Thank you for the response and the links I took a look at them, unfortunately they are the size I am using.

Thanks for the reply. I am using line 24 snaps with a 5/16" post on both the caps and eyelet. It just doesn't leave enough post to peen over the snap pieces to make it as secure as it should be. I can not find any snaps that have post that are longer than 5/16" . I am trying to come up witha idea that will not make me have to to compress the leather around the snap or to skive it out. I have looked in all of my books, but I have been unable to find a solution. Any help is much appreciated.

Hello all I am having difficulty with snaps in thick leather. I use a fair amount of 10/11 oz leather and often have a need to put snaps in. I have been unsuccessful in finding any line 22 or 24 brass snaps that have long enough post to do a good job. I have often had to skive the leather down to make them work, but this has been less than ideal. Does anyone know of a source for extra long brass snaps that I could use in 10/11 oz leather, or any other ideas? Thanks for everyone's help. Mark

Hi Tom Thanks for the suggestion. I did not use the table attachment, I just feed it over the arm, so the belt does bend while I am stitching. Perhaps I should use the table attachment that came with the machine?

I am having some difficulty with the stiching on the back side of the belts I am making. I use two 6/7 oz pieces of veg tan leather on a Cobra 4 machine. The thread is a 207 bonded nylon thread in the needle and bobin. The needle is a 180/24 that came with the machine. The top stiches always look fine but often on the backside of the belt the stiches become iregular looking and after several iregular stiches, they go back to looking normal. I tried making the stitches longer but had no success. I believe it is only cosmetic, but I wold like to improve the look to be more like the front of the belt and stop the irregular pattern. I am very new to using a machine and appreciate any and all suggestions. The attached photo shows shows an area of a recent belt that had the back side stiches start getting irregular. Thanks. Mark

Thanks Wizcrafts, I will look into buying those pressed feet, a lot of my projects seem to have a small sewing flange, they look like just ticket.

Thanks to all. Red Cent- I as wondering about that, but was not sure it would feed a even stitch, that is great news, I will give it a try and see how it goes. Mark

Hello I am very inexperienced with using a sewing machine and have a question that hope someone here can help me with. I am trying to figure out a way to sew the edges of a wet molded leather pouch that has a very short edge next to a raised area, the best example I can think of would be like trying to sew the outer edge of a shoe sole. The edge is so short that the walking foot is not able to touch it when the needle is in the correct position. I realize in the future I can make the edges lager then cut them back after I sew them without any of the issues I have now, but I have several pouches I made when I only hand stitched that I wanted to use the machine on (if possible). So the questions is how do you sew a short edge that is next to a raised surface like a shoe sole? I am using a cobra 4 machine and probably have an attachment for it that would fix the issue for me, I am just too new and inexperienced to figure it out. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. Mark

Try zoronmfg.com. They are in North Carolina . You may also try using the Thomasnet.com website to look up items made by American companies, it is a great website. Mark