Johanna

Real latigo can be "tooled", but it's not ideal for accepting impressions. "Latigo" means drum dyed and stuffed with oils and wax. If you put a bit of water on the leather, does it bead up or does it soak in? Latigo is water resistant (which makes it a good choice for dog collars and cue cases) and vegetable tanned leather (what you use to carve or stamp) is absorbent. HTH Johanna

Sorry, Pounder, I had your user name mixed up in my head with someone else. ~J

We used to do the fairs and craft shows, not to make money, but to get our business cards out there. (Pre-internet days) People were attracted to the leather smells, sounds, and they would watch Jon and John work, which opened the door for conversations and exchanging cards. Sometimes they would call us later, or their friends would call, "Hey, can I speak to that "Leather Guy"? It can't hurt to set up in public, but a website is going to get more attention. Let them watch you work, Chris, they will be fascinated. You never know who you might meet! ~J

Please remember that just because someone is from an Asian country does not make them any less respectable than anyone else, unless, like anyone else, they prove themselves to be frauds or fakes. We've had a few from North America and one I remember from Europe, so let's not stereotype anyone, please. Most of our Asian members, like anywhere else, are good honest people. As far as I can tell, Maltese Leather is not even a member here at LW. Johanna

Hey, we missed you! What have you been up to lately? Glad you're back! ~J

That's why we created the Leatherworker Directory. It's free to anyone with a legit business for a basic listing. Why reinvent the wheel? ~J

Thanks, Sam, I saw the same post and was amazed to see Doodle Pages for sale as downloadable pdfs. Tandy Leather Factory has put together a nice leathercraft library here, and you can pay to join and view videos. Johanna

Motorcycle made of leather

Kayak45- whoa- misunderstanding here! LW is family friendly, so the adult part of the site is hidden from anyone who is not logged in and requested to have access to it, including Google. No kid will stumble on to the adult section by accident. I have to manually add the members that want that area available to them. You don't have to ask in public, just PM (private message) me if you want in. Some people want to be included in those kinds of conversations and leather items, and some people don't. The whole point is to make sure that anyone the NSFW area is only visible to members who want it to be. Johanna

I think I'm caught up again. If I accidentally missed you, holler! Johanna

There's some irony here- she likes the look of leather, but wants fake...I just bought a cheap purse, and the tag says it's made of polyurethane. I've worked with leather for 20 years, and it looks and feels like soft sheepskin leather. It doesn't smell llke it, and I doubt it will wear well, but no one but an "expert" could tell it's not made of leather. Harley clothes made out of similar materials might be a good choice for her, but if she wants tooled leather, she needs to consider wood or plastic alternatives. I doubt it matters to her, but you can tell her that leather is a byproduct of the meat industry, and no cows are slaughtered for their skins. If we didn't make leather, it would go in a landfill. I would also be happy to share some road rash pics I have where the leather protected the rider and the skin damage was far less than it could have been. I can also show her what it looks like to burn your leg on a tailpipe and what skin looks like after meeting the road wearing shorts. I collected a lot of these pics when I had the shop. (I have a really gross one of a guy wearing flip flops who lost most of his foot too) When the rain feels like needles on your skin, leather is a nice buffer. Johanna

I fixed it. You can change your country in your profile (click on your name, top right corner, and a drop down menu should appear). Some of our earlier members were changed to Afghanistan (because it's the first in alphabetical order on the list) and some new members forget to change their country (drop down menu during registration) so they get defaulted to Afghanistan. I fix them when I see them, but I'm sure I miss a few. ~J

Welcome! Are you an Eagles fan or a Steelers fan? Johanna

Please tell Waterhouse how much you appreciate their sponsorship of LW. We couldn't do this without the help of our advertisers. Thanks! Johanna

I will check into it. I know they are hosting next year's IFoLG show, so I suppose we ought to clear up any confusion. ~J

You can get a custom steel stamp in just about any size from http://steelstampsinc.com Just be aware that the bigger the stamp, the harder it is to get a good impression with just a mallet. Some people put a plate in between the stamp and the mallet to distribute the force evenly, but if you plan to do a lot of this, consider a press. HTH Johanna

I sent both of you a link, and someone replied that they wanted it sent instead, but there was no address in the email. Then my main computer exploded. Please send me another email if you haven't heard back. admin@leatherworker.net, and the please give me an address if you want me to mail the disk. Johanna