ryan

I am selling my Singer 111w151. It is in working condition and I just recently had the feed dogs replaced. It is a flatbed machine with a clearance of 5/16" under the foot. I have used it for chaps, wallets, belts etc. It will be sold as is and includes table, stand, clutch motor and thread stand. I am asking $175 or best offer. It is located in northern MN (56633). I will have pictures in a couple days. Selling due to space limitations. Ryan

My deptartment started an Honor Guard and I am thinking about making the Sam Browne Belts but need to find Clarino. I found two suppliers in an old Big Book and I am currently waiting to hear back from them. I also sent an e-mail to the company that I believe produces it (Kuraray) but would presume I would need to buy it in very large quantities. Anyone out there have any other suppliers I could try? Thanks in advance Ryan

Thought I would share an idea I came up with recently for my drawdown stand. I patterned my drawdown stand after Al Stolhman's in Vol one of the Encyclopedia of Saddlemaking, however, I never got around to making the ratchet piece to hold the drawdown bar down. I have been getting by with several pieces of scrap wood in various lengths to hold it in place. I have even used a bottle jack a time or two. I was out fixing fence the other day and while using my fence stretcher it hit me; why not use the ratchet part of an old stretcher? Finding an old one was easy and if you get one; you can cut it in two as you won't need all of it. Then you'll have another piece to make a stirrup leather stretcher! The only problem I ran into was there isn't quite enough "shoulder" on the cutouts to adequately hold the metal lip on the drawdown bar, however, it can easily be overcome by slipping a door shim on the other side of the drawdown bar. Or you can make the cutouts a little deeper with a dremel. Hope this helps someone out. I'll post some pics of it and include one of the "old george" my brother in law made me - he's pretty handy! Ryan

Barra, That is a really good idea. I have been looking for an old barber chair but that stand you found is even better. Where did you find that one? Ryan Nevermind, I found one! I looked for two hours last night at used barber / style chairs on craigslist and then at hydraulic chair pumps etc. This is exactly what I had pictured in my mind for less money. Best of all, there's a Northern Tool store within 3 hours of my house! I was thinking about putting a Stohlman style stand on top of it. The stand will be modified using Troy West's suggestions in a previous post. http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200308305_200308305 I was thinking about welding rings to the bottom supports for attaching my drawdown strap and using the hydraulic action for the down pressure. Just don't know if it will keep that pressure over night as sometimes those bottle jacks tend leak pressure. What do you think? Ryan

I just got home from an open house for an upcoming auction sale. I went there to look at a square baler and stumbled upon some old leather sewing / stitching machines. The list is as follows: American Straight Needle in pretty good shape - needs new belts 2 Singer 29-4's on original treadle stands - one is pretty tight - the other isn't in as good of condition but still works Singer 7-33 in pretty good shape, needs to be cleaned and desperately needs oil. No stand (it was fun looking at it - I have never seen one) Landis crank splitter. Blade looks pretty bad and needs to be cleaned up but still appears to be serviceable. Wish I would have looked closer for a model number but after searching on-line, I believe it's a 30. It didn't look like a six" blade I thought it looked more like 5" but could be mistaken. I also found a lot of old leather tools but nothing of any real value except a couple spoke shaves etc. I am not super interested in any of it but would hate to see any of it go to waste as they all seemed to still have some life. I am, however, interested in the crank splitter and the good patcher. What would a person want to keep their top dollar at on these machines? If they go really cheap, I might buy all of them and try to find good homes for them!! Thanks Ryan

I just received my new stamps from Brenda at Laser Gift Creations and I am extremely pleased!! She was great to work with and I will definitely be doing business with her in the future!

Randy, Thanks for sharing; I might have to give this design a try. I have one of my partners trying out a design I came up with for his Bersa that is fairly similar but I like your method a little better. Do you find it gets a little bulky over your duty boots or not so much? A lot of us are going to wearing our back ups on our vests but doesn't work for all models. Have you or anyone else you know tried your design with a Glock 27? Ryan

There's a family up here that's always in trouble with the law and their last name is Boreman. One of them actually named their son Justin Other Boreman. I always chuckle everytime I hear it. Ryan

I want to make a fancy stitch set of bucking rolls but was curious as to how everyone does them. I have a Singer 111w but I doubt that machine will excel at this type of stitching. I have considered a rollerfoot machine or possibly a 29k? Any comments? Ryan

Which brand neatsfoot oil do you use? I have had best luck with neatsfoot compound but want to start using 100% again if I could find one with better results. Also, when you do your floral carving, what is your process for finishing to give it that rich brown color. I am a really big fan of oil, neat lac, antique, then tan kote. I too don't want to put any neatlac on a saddle so do you forgo the resist all together or do you use another type of resist? Ryan

Jordan, If you're looking at something similar to weaver's press, then look at www.northerntool.com. I got mine for under $100 and it is bigger than weaver's. They have serveral models / sizes and I have recently started using mine for clicking out spur straps and bridles. It works great!! Hope this helps Ryan

That's great! I just recently received my Walsall catalog but must have missed them. Hopefully they plan on making a 3" soon. Ryan

Great post; glad to hear other people pick music to suit what their working on. I've been doing a lot of horse tack lately and have been listening to Dave Stamey(thanks Bruce!), Ian Tyson and Chris Ledoux. My wife hates it which makes it all the more enjoyable J/K. I listen to everything though. I like Drowning Pool, Pantera, Godsmack, AC/DC, Metallica, and the like when I'm at work though. If I get burnt out on Country I listen to a lot of Nickelback, Saliva, and modern type rock. Ryan

You might try contacting Hobby Horse and inquiring if the elastic material they use is available commercially or if they have a private supplier. Let me know if you find it as I have been looking for it too!! Ryan

30" of snow this past weekend and another 8" on the way tonight. Yes, I know it's April. Ryan

Thanks Custer, I will call and order a side today. I might even take advantage of their free strap cutting! Ryan

I looked at Panhandle Leather's website but according to them they only ship in the south central part of the country. I guess at those prices, I would gladly pay extra for shipping. Let me know if you contact them and find out if they'll ship up your way. I assume PNW is the Pacific Northwest so I figure we are about the same distance from Panhandle +/-. P.S. - I agree with the quality issue going down. Recently purchased their HO Bridle Leather and wasn't all that great. All their stuff is TR though. Ryan

Those look great!! If you plan on making any more, I would check out this company http://www.suitability.com/ It has a chap pattern pack that we bought a while back that helped out a lot. It has two styles, western show and english/schooling chaps. The later being very similar to motorcycle chaps. I have used the patterns several times and altered them to my tastes. The best thing is they come with instructions and a handy guide for measuring someone. I would advise to not follow sizes to the letter as they seem to run a little snug in the thigh. They come on standard pattern paper and have had good luck transfering them to tag board by running a stylus over them and going back over the tag board with a pencil. A little extra work but you'll have the pattern all ready to go next time. Hope this helps Ryan

I agree with Mr Brenners book, "How to establish prices for the leatherworker." The information is up to date and very informative. Brace yourself though, you might find that you've been charging half of what your stuff is worth (like me). If you are doing this for a living the book is very helpful, however, for the part timer I think it's more difficult to apply IMO. I know what you mean by not wanting to scare people off! I am quite certain if I followed Mr. Brenners advice to the letter, I wouldn't get a lot of these jobs. I am quite certain location plays a part in what you can sell things for but I could be wrong. The best advice I can give is don't give exact quotes if you haven't made that particular item before (I can't tell you how many times I have burned myself that way). And try to steer clear of doing work for friends and family; at least don't expect to make money if you do. Once a person has a good idea how much time you have into the items you sell the most, then using Brenners advice is smooth sailing. But you will always have those strange requests that will leave you wondering how much to charge. Ryan

Bob, Thanks for posting those pics. I've often times wondered if anybody did it that way. I now feel kind of foolish for buying the stirrup plate for my adler 205. I haven't covered any stirrups with it yet but your system makes more sense. I guess I still can use my stirrup plate for holsters!! Ryan

Thats too bad about MS, but good to know. I have been waiting for a response from them for several weeks now and haven't heard anything back. Apparently, if you're a leatherworker, you get wholesale prices but I do agree that their stuff is pretty flimsy. I just checked out the websites mentioned on a previous thread regarding silver buckles and such. Pollard was one and I don't recall the other but maybe PM J Wright on this forum as he was a link on each site. Obviously their stuff is going to be more expensive than MS but way better quality. And best of all; judging by their sites, they have not sacrificed quality for quantity. Ryan

Everytime I see advertisements for harness leather split reins they talk about them being hand rubbed with waxes and oils. Assuming one is using Herman Oak Harness which is obviously hot stuffed, what kind of treatment do you folks use on the reins (if any). I have used Montana Pitch Blend in the past, which smells really good by the way , but just curious what everyone else uses for a finishing touch. While I have your attention, where's a good place to buy Old Word Harness from Herman Oak other than direct as I only need two sides. I don't want TR grade either. Thanks Ryan

Steve, Great minds think alike; I have been searching the internet looking for gear bags trying to get ideas for some and yours are exactly what I had in mind. I was going to make them out of extra heavy canvas but I really like the looks of those apron split ones. Thanks for posting! Ryan

I too tend to believe there isn't much better than the Wickett and Craig. I really like the way it stamps and oils. I am, however, very happy to hear Bruce likes Siegels Skirting Leather. They were running a deal on it that was too good to pass up so I bought a couple for a saddle to build my wife. I told them I wanted to build a rough out and asked for one left and one rt. All came very fast and the leather is really nice. I like the buffed flesh too. Another nice thing about Siegels is you get free shipping over $75 which can really make the difference in price over brand X. I do see some lighter weight stuff in their adds but make sure you're getting their good stuff, like the Oak Tanned. I have got some pretty nasty stuff at times but I was getting their bottom shelf stuff; my fault... Ryan

I too agree with most of the above posts. The posting of the video was mostly to be humorous. I will say that I did not realize that Fobus Holsters were not Kydex. I will be more than happy to accept Boomstickholsters statement about Kydex being a superior material vs what Fobus uses. Obviously, the video was intended to show how that particular product could fail and says nothing for the proper gun control methods we all exercise. However, I continue to see people (cops and otherwise) openly carry with these types of setups and it makes me nervous. That being said, I use open top holsters on occasion, however, I carry them concealed. I have been seeing a lot of these new holsters with the snaps on the belt loops so that the holster can be placed on the belt without having to thread it on. I for one believe that these products are sacrificing safety for convenience. JMO Ryan