billybopp

Neither of those is really suitable for leather. Both are meant for fabrics. You want to use needles specifically for leather - of which there are a few types. LR comes to mind offhand. This may be helpful. - Bill Schmetz leather-needles.pdf Groz Beckert needle_points_leather.pdf

The cost of leather has been going up dramatically for several years. That started long before the pandemic, unfortunately. Shipping cost has also slowly been creeping up for some time as well after having stayed fairly steady for a long time. Shipping service has also gotten really bad. Granted, I do get the majority of things that are shipped to me, but far too many take forever to arrive - if at all. The US Postal Service has always been fairly bad here, but UPS/FedEx has become as bad if not worse.

... The movie is currently available on Netflix, as well. - Bill

W&C will get your their leathers unfinished on the back, or you can request pasted so that it is smooth. They will also split to whatever thickness you like, which usually leaves a fairly smooth finish, but pasted is smoother. - Bill

Back in the day, until about 30 years ago, McDonalds used to use beef tallow for a portion of their fryer oil for french fries. They tasted wonderful! I use about 20% tallow in my fryer at home for just that reason. - Bill

Sounds good to me! I've never been able to do much with string instruments myself. My left hand simply refuses to move the right way to play them, and now with arthritis I wouldn't even try. I do pretty fair on 88 strings, and wind instruments, tho! Enjoy making music when you can, even if it only pleases you! - Bill

Cattle makes hides. DUH. Although occasionally another imposter animal will make 'em too. Just sayin' - Bill

I really love this. Friends who are gamers just announced their engagement. I may have to make something like thise for them as a wedding gift! - Bill

One of the channels that I watch for enjoyment on YouTube is "Acorn to Arabella". This fella decided to build his own wooden yacht mostly from timber found on his grandfather's property. It's coming along nicely and starting to look like a boat! Yesterday, he released a video about the sails that are being made for it. While they aren't sewing leather, I thought our sewing machine aficionados might find the way they do this interesting! The sewing machines and operators are in a pit in the floor so that they have tons of open floor space to support the sails as they are sewing! Enjoy! - Bill

Same for me. How thick, and what type of leather, and for that matter small and curvy cut versus long and straight. It's not a one-size-fits-all for me! - Bill

Wow. I'm kinda jealous! That's an awesome bunch of tools. - Bill

White dye exists .. or used to. It sucks. Not worth the money nor the effort. - Bill

Who can ever forget "Rich Corinthian Leather" ...

Very nice! - Bill

I'd suggest offering different shipping options at the customer's choice. Where I live, USPS all too often loses things. When they don't loose them, the simply leave them on my front steps on a fairly busy street, with no knock and no notification. Things get stolen that way. UPS and FedEx tend to do a far better job of actually knocking at the door and sending a notification as the package is delivered if nobody can answer the knock right away. Your customers know who does a good job at deliveries and who does not, let them choose. It should also help you to avoid having to replace things that go missing before they are received, saving you over-all. When shipping liquids, put them in a zip-lock bag or something to avoid them messing up everything else in the box if it the bottle should get broken in transit. You may have to replace that item, but won't have to replace everything else when that happens. And... Agree what all I've seen above as well! - Bill

I have Seiwa, have yet to try Kyoshin. They arrive sharp enough to be usable, but barely. A little touch-up and polishing will do them a world of good. - Bill

It sucks. If you want white leather, it's better to buy it, or acrylic paint it. - Bill

Ahhh. For a headset you can get a foam pop filter which should help. If the headset will allow it, you can try moving the mic a little farther from your mouth. I wear a headset every day for work, and folks told me that sound was much improved after adding a foam filter. I had a problem with finding one that would fit exactly right but found one on Amazon that was close enough, but it needs a small rubber band to keep it from slipping off. - Bill

Over all pretty darn good. I would suggest a pop filter/windscreen of some sort for your microphone, though. They aren't expensive at all, and can help audio quality. Lighting is fairly good, as is the content. If you want to do the time-lapse thing, put a clock in the background so that folks know how much time is really spent. Since you're trying to let customers know what goes into your product - 30 seconds could give the impression of something taking just a few minutes when in reality it takes half an hour or more. A nice big clock could help to correct that perception. - Bill

Sounds like it! Lets hope certain other tools don't go the other way. If a dentist came at me with a round knife I'm not sure if I'd run, or pass out before I could run! - Bill

If you want to go inexpensive at first to see if it's something you're interested in, poke around on eBay. I've bought five or six swivels for $15 or so. Nothing fancy, but good enough to experiment and learn with! If you like it, get something better later. You'll also start to have an idea about what you look for in a swivel! - Bill

Sorry to hear @Stewart. Losing someone is never easy. My thoughts are with you. - Bill

How tacky! Sorry. I couldn't resist. Good thinking!! - Bill

I believe that is a Dixon edger. They have a longer shank than most others. - Bill

One of the nice parts of using a computer for your letter template is that you can usually have a huge choice of fonts and they can be easily resized to exactly the size needed. Microsoft word, for example has dozens of different fonts to choose from and you can add others. Choose one, type what you want, and it's all there spaced out for you. Just resize it to suit what you intend to do and print it. If you tape your paper printout to a thin sheet of plastic you can easily trace onto the cased leather without the paper stretching and disintegrating as you trace. I was lucky to find a plastic template that was just about the font and size that I wanted for guitar straps and a few other things, but there is a limited selection available. - Bill