Johanna

Okay, I'll bite. What exactly is a "yak snack"? If they eat rotten kids, I will UPS mine tomorrow, since they don't have school tomorrow because of the wind and snow. And does anyone have any pictures of this class or the projects? Does Kathy's buffalo look like a yak? Johanna

Just curious- how many of you saddle makers keep a log with a description of the saddles you make, where it's going and pictures of how it looked when it left the shop? If someone orders and buys a custom saddle, and it is stolen, would the maker be able to provide evidence of what the customer had? If someone bought a saddle twenty years ago, and called you up and asked for one just like it, do you have a record of what you made? Do you keep pics in the shop to discuss possibilities with your clients? I'm just wondering how record keeping is done in the saddle trade. Johanna

Do not wear your "I'm a naughty yak" t-shirt to class. ~J

If the leather is in pretty good shape, try using Fiebings black Leather Balm w/ Atom wax. Buff to a gloss. Johanna

Yes, and sunlight has a burnishing effect on leather. Where the leather has darkened may not take water or dye the same way the pale places do. At Tandy we cut those hides up and sold them as pieces. Johanna

Someone posted that they prefer a maul to a mallet. I do, too, for setting rivets and punching holes, but I'm told that mauls are not the best choice for carving because of the risk of rep motion injury. I wondered if anyone here has ever experienced any troubles with elbows, wrists or hands from leatherwork? How can these injuries be prevented? Are there things you can do to minimize the discomfort once the damage is done? I shattered my right wrist in January 2004. I slipped on ice, fell on my bottom, and stuck my hand out for balance on the bounce. It took four nails to hold together after the surgery, and months of physical therapy. I have regained about 60% of the function in my hand, but I've lost quite a bit of the strength, and the ability to turn my wrist palm up. The folks who helped me were quite surprised at how strong my right hand used to be, but years of guitar playing and leatherwork (think hand sewing!) will do that. I'm pretty much a lefty now, and I have to make sure I don't overdo with this hand, or it swells and hurts and I can't stand it. The doc has decided that surgery can help, and it looks like after the holidays I'll be under the knife again. (Millimeters count in wrists, he said.) I'm hoping that some of the range of motion can be restored. Anyone have any good advice for me? No, I don't expect to be able to be doing leatherwork again, but I would like to be able to lace a checkbook if I feel like it. I would like to type with all my fingers too, but since I never did before the accident, I doubt I'll start now. Johanna

Hi, Marlon! Thanks for letting us know about the workshop! I added the event to the calendar. (All members can add to the calendar directly, by the way!) Cheers from snow-covered Ohio! Johanna

I'm going to move this to "How do I do that?" because this is so freaking cool. Thank you for sharing Canuck. I love this place! I learn something new here everyday. Your kilts are fabulous, too. Johanna

Whew. The fix passed the Beaverslayer Test. It really worked. (pinching myself) Nah, I am not the best, not even close. The boss fixed it, and casually mentioned "dropping a field and letting it recreate", which is obviously magic. I don't have any other explanation. He fixed it while he was fixing something else, today's completely unrelated server error. He is amazing like that. The Monkey was a huge help today. He helped me say , "Oh, crap!" over and over until we caught the boss man's attention. Fortunately, most of the time we were down I was blissfully unaware of the problem. I was at Wal-Mart wondering why I didn't order everything I wanted for the kids online in July? Anyway, I'm going to consider this thing fixed unless someone complains. (Thank you, boss!) Johanna

It looks really good Freak. I'm glad you redrew the deer, because the first one looked like someone had shot it in the- well, you know. I called Wade in here to have a look, and he liked it too. He might get a chance to try something of his own this weekend, because it looks like we are about to get a pretty bad snow storm tomorrow. Johanna

Let me know if you guys are still having problems with the profiles. I think we got it! Johanna

Try it now, Ken. ~J

Okay, Mike & Ken- try it now. Let me know if it is fixed. My fingers and eyes are crossed, and I'm wearing my tinfoil underthings. Let me know. Johanna

There has to be some irony here, because me and many other Americans would gladly skip a trip to North Dakota in favor of a German or European tour. I mean, if North Dakota and lots of other places were so great they'd be more crowded, right? People who live on the east coast of the US think of 'out west" as a giant black hole from Illinios to California. We know there are buffalo on Ted Turner's land, The Grand Canyon is in Arizona, and Las Vegas is in Nevada. Past that, not much is known. Having been out west myself, I cannot imagine loading up the family in a wagon and fighting Indians and bad guys to follow the sunset on an endless hostile plain. I am in awe of the hardy can-do American spirits that did. But I still wanna go back to Europe to explore! Johanna

Wow. It's a very small world. My mother's family is all in New Bremen, so is my husband's, and he has 25 years at Crown. (sorry Russ!) Johanna

The flesh side is the inside of the skin, and the grain side is the outside, where the hair would have been. No such thing as stupid questions. Johanna

Of course we will post it- thanks for the generous offer to share. Johanna Schroer PO Box 103 New Knoxville, OH 45871 Johanna

We never did much better than break even at craft type shows, even with a full table of already made lower priced items. However, when Jon would pick up his mallet and start tapping, people would stop to watch and talk, and would often take a card. Often times these cards were used to call us weeks, months, years later. So, yeah, I suppose the shows were worth it. It did get us out of the shop and talking to people. Bonnie- I know what you are saying about people not wanting to pay for the better quality leatherwork from a real leatherworker. Those are also exactly the kind of customers we WANT to shop at WalMart. We need customers who can recognize and appreciate the difference, and aren't hesitant to compensate us for our time and trouble. I quit doing zippers because of the situation you described. If it took me an hour to hunt a replacement zipper, tear out the old one and sew the new one in, $25 was more than fair (because the zipper does cost a few dollars, too!) and the people didn't want to pay that much. Oh well. They can learn to sew zippers themselves. I just started shaking my head, "No." and repeating, "I'm sorry, we don't work on clothing." until they took the hint or starting flashing fifty dollar bills as incentive. (It happened twice!) Now, who needs a website to market their leatherwork? I can help with that. Johanna

Kodiak- I'm not very optimistic that you're going to successfully dye a piece of latigo. Because of the oils and waxes, it's going to be hard to get any dye to penetrate the fibers and not rub off later. If you decide to experiment, use scraps of your hide for testing before you commit the whole hide. Let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out. If you do get the hide to take the dye well, we are all going to be begging for the secret! You could try to find a powder blue project or maybe sell the hide here on the Marketplace forum if your scraps don't turn out as desired. Johanna

There is indeed a Santa Claus, because I heard from Billy & Mary yesterday. They are spending the holiday with his daughter and her family in London, and send their best wishes. Those of you that have asked me about downloading Billy's video "The Technique" that describes image transfer and embossing- I asked! If he says "Yes" I can have it ready an hour later. If anyone wants to send Bill & Mary a message, send me a PM or post here. He will be delighted that so many are thinking of him fondly. Johanna

I'm not sure the leather that the sandal in the picture has is tanned to absorb water and take impressions. I don't think that you can burn or carve chrome tanned leather, but someone is sure to correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, glad to have you here on the board. Make yourself at home, and the coffee is always fresh. Johanna

The Buckeye Leathercrafters have a website coming soon. Pitt Pounders (my home guild) welcomes members even if they can't attend meetings. Once upon a time, there was a great concentration of leather folks in Mass. when the shoe industry thrived near Lowell. Bermans has been sold now, and I don't know what all is left in New England. But Churchill Barton is in Maine, still. There have to be others. Johanna

I'm not done with this project, but you can see a beautiful selection of David's work here. The pics will change every 6-10 seconds, or you can click any thumbnail on the left to go straight to the picture. Johanna

Here it is Johanna