Russ

Yellow; That is exactly how I started building saddles.....wanted to buy one, couldn't find what I wanted, thought "I'll just build mine." It's a bit more daunting than you might think, although some folks can build a good one from books, DVDs, and leatherworker.net advice. Only you would know if you can take that route. I would suggest investing in a saddle school. That will give you a great idea as to what it takes, both "how to" build a saddle, and the physical labor involved, and whether you think you are "too old" to go for it....something that again, only you will be able to answer. When I went to my first school, I worked a hard 6 straight days to finish my saddle. Came home with a saddle and a ton of knowledge and experience for just a little bit more than what that saddle would have cost me. It was worth twice, 5 times, 10 times what I paid. When you are done, if nothing else, you can sell the saddle and keep the knowledge. Russ PS: Can't tell you where to move here in the Midwest, but I can say.....stay out of Dayton/Cincinnati! Yuck! PPS: On a serious note, if you want to sell saddles, my limited experience is that folks won't easily pay for a custom made saddle here in the Midwest. You need to be in Cowboy country. Folks here seem to be more interested in a $400 saddle that will last a few years. I've found I can build a saddle here and ship it to my teacher in NM and sell it there a lot easier than if I tried to sell it here. Something to investigate before you find your landing spot.

16 stitches per inch!? Bonkers! I'll bet that looks awesome.

Sweet. Thanks for taking the time to post the pics, Kevin.

The saddle shop I work in has a Weaver display of tack and such products, right next to the shop-made stuff. The percentage is 90% shop-made sales vs. 10% Weaver. I think people go to a saddle shop to buy non-manufactured items. If there isn't a saddle shop around, they'll hit Tractor Supply or wherever. That's what I do...or used to do before I started making my own. I took a tour of Weaver's manufacturing area last time I was there. When I saw a batch of 500 dog collars being made or 2000 lead ropes completed in 10 minutes, or the assembly line of clicker/edge rubbing/staining/edge painting/hole punching for a 50 bridles per minute, I would look at my wife and say "that's why I can't compete with Weaver." But, I was only joking. I CAN'T compete with Weaver, I don't have millions of $ in machinery and 350 people working for me. Yet.

No argument here. I've seen people that have branded themselves....MUCH different than a tatt. OUCH.

I waited until I was 38 to add the earring. Got my first tattoo at 30. Guess I'm behind the age curve thing. Anyway, never regretted the piercing or the tats. My dad came around on the tattoos. But he's not gonna accept the earring, ever.

I'd try here: http://www.campbell-bosworth.com/catalog-test/index.php/cPath/3_191

Eric; Those are very nice. I'm amazed that you get such definition out of 8/9 leather. I've been using7/8 and the results haven't been near as good. I guess I'm not soaking the leather enough. This is the first time I've tried soaking after staining, so I'm probably a bit too cautious with it. Also, I tried "baking" the holster as you show in your video and was very pleased with the results. It seems that makes it stiffer yet. Thanks for posting. Russ

I use an ad blocker too. Not really for this site, but for the others I visit. Just out of curiosity, I turned it off and browsed the forum. The ads consistently cost me less than 3/4 of a second per page load. Total load times about 2.5 seconds. I'm on a relatively slow connection (cellular) and this forum is still extremely fast, compared to others I visit. I have to say, this forum is run better than any of the dozen or so that I visit (and the two that I run, I might add). Kate and the other admins do a great job. Something else kinda funny....I don't mind the ads as long as they are appropriate. I found myself actually looking at them and I clicked on a company that I never heard of before. Now, if ads for something completely non-leather popped up, or pop-ups or flashing ads started, I'd turn the blocker back on. But of course I know that won't happen here. Kudos to all the admins. I have gotten my money's worth out of this site.

Thanks for the info Bob. Do you sell used machines or just new?

Question for Bob, or Kevin King, or anyone else with a Juki 1541; What is the max thickness of leather one could comfortably sew with this model? I would like to get one to learn to sew wallets, wondering if I could also use it to sew lightweight chinks, ala 4/5oz diamond tan leather from Siegel with 4 oz yokes/plaquards for a total of about 8/9oz leather? My main goal is to sew wallets, but of course, using the machine for other uses would help justify the cost! Thanks! Russ

Denise is correct. Some saddle makers drill holes in the tree and run the strings through the holes, under the tree, and back. If it's done this way, and done correctly, the string will be under the sheepskin and very hard to replace. (I've seen some saddle strings replaced where the sheepskin was drilled out and the string was re-strung through the tree and the skin....you could see the strings when you turned the saddle over. NOT a good idea). To properly replace that string, youd have to remove the sheepskin enough to get the string through, and make sure it's flat against the tree. Other saddles have the strings just through the rear jockeys and the seat. These are easy to change. Undo the bleed-knot, which should be easy to do if you study it first (take a digital photo too). Take off the leather rosette. The string will probably be nailed into the tree, through the leather, with a small nail. Pull the nail, and the string should slide out. Put a new string in, slide on the rosette, make the bleed-knot, and you are all set! Do one at a time, so you can compare the knot to the originals. If you get near a Tandy store, you can look in Stohlman's Saddle Making book, volume 2, page 418, for some pictures. That might make it a little more clear. Russ

Don't sell yourself short. Have you thought about going to a "build your own" saddle school? That's what got me started in leatherworking. I wanted a new saddle and decided it would be cool to build my own. Didn't take long to figure out I needed help. Best decision I ever made. Got a great saddle and a great education and a great new hobby/part-time business.

Obviously you haven't been reading closely.....we've lost some posters around here and had some lengthy discussions of "netiquette." Al's response was pretty tame compared to some that's been posted here. While I probably would have tried to be more...circumspect...in my response, I agree with Al's main points. KK is a master, but he is also a businessman. If he wants to be a TEACHER in addition, that's just an extra bonus for the rest of us. Anyone who has a problem with Kevin keeping some hard-found trade secrets to himself, well....I don't know what to say to that except I disagree. If you REALLY want some insight into Kevin's work, you should do what I did....purchase one of his wallets, and take it apart. I bet that wallet had the shortest life-span of any wallet Kevin ever built. I photographed it, poked and prodded it, took it apart, made patterns, notes, drawings And, I might point out that Kevin IS a teacher. If the original poster had taken a few minutes to search, she would have found answers to some of her questions and even a TUTORIAL that was posted by Kevin.

I'd almost buy a machine like that to sew my cantels.....I HATE that part of building a saddle.

I want to post an update (should have about a week ago) on how this went. What happened was I shattered a needle (didn't break it, SHATTERED it) sewing a holster, when I hit a rivet. Bits of the needle jammed up the shuttle and fouled the machine tremendously. I cleaned and reset it best I could, being a very average-to-poor mechanic. Got the ol' Artisan running again and it seemed fine...but of course, it wasn't, the machine is just very forgiving, IMO. Eventually it wouldn't run enough to get my jobs out and I called and spoke with David and Jerry. Both were very patient and helpful, working around MY schedule, and it was clear the machine was out of whack by a lot. They got me up and running enough to get my jobs out. I then had a choice of calling a mechanic or sending it back. Artisan offered to fix the machine (the eccentric was off), re-time it, oil and clean it for no charge. All it cost me was shipping out and back. That was pretty much a no-brainer. I sent it out, they turned it around in one day, and it's back all clean and running fine and with some new parts that I wasn't charged for. This is not an endorsement over any other machine or person, especially the great people on this forum. This is simply to say that my Toro has worked great for 4 years, and when I bonked it up through my own carelessness, Artisan took care of me. First rate machine, and first rate service. Thanks to everyone (Steve, Bob, Art, and others) on the forum for your help and offers of further assistance. Russ

Call Cobra Steve, and call Artisan. Mix, match, compare the two. Both have great first machines, and both will give you great after-sale service, which is probably more important than the machine.

Yes, the path is correct, and I've changed the bobbins. Wondering if the bobbin tension got changed somehow when making up a bobbin.....

Hi all. I'll be calling Artisan tomorrow, but was wondering if anyone could offer some help on a Sunday. I have an Artisan 3000, never had any problems with it. Out of the blue, the thread is clogging when I go in reverse. It seems like it won't make it over the bobbin case. The hook picks it up fine, and to my uneducated eye, it looks like it is all working the same as it does in forward. I've double checked my thread pattern. I took out the bobbin case and cleaned it and checked the spring, and I took the entire shuttle race body out and cleaned it all. I've also oiled everywhere, and adjusted, very minutely, the thread tension. Ideas anyone? Thank you. Russ

No way would I be able to handle that pressure. I'd be so terrified of screwing up the dye work..... Wonderful work Kate. Thanks for the step by step pics and commentary.

Hey! No hijacking the thread topic!!!

"I don't want it made out of leather. Can you make it out of suede?"

If you use rubber cement (NOT contact cement) it peels off pretty easy. Just make sure you don't stretch the leather when you are removing the board...pull on the board, not the leather. Russ

I'm a firefox user and haven't had any problems from day 1. Just out of curiosity, I switched over to IE and, WOW! I see why Johanna has been working around the clock. I've built a few websites and forums, and I can tell you, making them work with all of the browsers can be very, very frustrating. Keep up the great work, J! Personally, I get tired of a website after a while....the colors mostly, but some of the other stuff too....even websites that I build. Sometimes changing the skin helps. In this case, the fresh look of the website is a pleasant diversion for me. And trust me folks, Johanna and her team are correct when they say an upgrade was needed for security and features. If you don't stay one step ahead in this game, one day you wake up and there's no website. Remember the big LW crash? Let's not do go through that again

Wow, three great posts with great advice for a problem that drives me bananas....play-dough, leatherpress machine, and carving. I love this place.