papabear

I posted 2 Stapling tools I recently aquiered on ebay at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...E:IT&ih=016 if anyone is interested in them. Hi to all and have a great day.

Thanks guys, that should help. I don't know if I'll keep them or not. I got what I really wanted out of the group I bought already. They came with 3 other tools in a lot. No staples. I'll think about it, maybe I'll resell them on eBay. Thanks again and Merry Christmas to all!!

By the way I don't sell my leather craft items on eBay or Amazon. Too much like a garage sale. I only do leather craft for my old customers and friends anymore mostly because they won't leave me alone and now I enjoy it again. Now it's when I can as I can and at my prices. When I had to do it for a living most of the fun left. If you can compete with the imports as far as price go for it. It's hard to promote the quality of good leather crafting on the net and get a reasonable price for your work. Craft shows, rodeos, swap meets. bike rallies, fairs, inactments, etc. That's what will get your quality products advertised. Your customers will sell for you. Do the best you can on each project and take pride in your work and demand a reasonable price for it. You will succeed if you have the right attitude. I took my time and made 3 beautiful black lined belt yesterday 1 for a Christmas present with 8 silver conchos on it and 2 for an old customer who has waited about 6 months for me to do them. I charged $30 apiece to my old customer for his. I really enjoyed the day of crafting yesterday!

I've been doing quite a bit of eBay auctions and Amazon fixed price sales lately. I've used PayPal for about 2 years now no problems so far very secure. Be careful about what time of the month eBay takes your fees out and keep up with that. On eBay make sure that you always go to the next higher weight to accomidate the packaging and postage differences, they don't always agree. If in doubt go to USPS.com and use there calculator it's much more accurate. When setting your prices always look at what else is available and see what everyone else is getting. Don't go too low you can always relist it if it doesn't sell and change your terms and pricing to sell it then if it sells eBay will usually give you a refund on some of the listing fees. If your selling on your own site definately use PayPal it's worth the bother they handle almost all the agrivating parts of collecting your money. Amazone seems to be a good place to sell at fixed prices and they set your listings in a store for you. They also offer some other good services, check them out. They don't use PayPal but work directly with your bank accounts and make edeposits and withdrawals and notify you by email.

Tinmann seams to have some nice small clickers. I recommend getting one after you work up a few patterns and start making multiples. A good leather knife is esential. A wooden or aluminum strap cutter works well for belts. A selection of good edgers #2 thru #5 in standard edgers and at least a #3 in french. You might start with one of the hand operated Boss machines for holsters and maybe go electric later. I wish I had started with the Boss instead of my Adler. You will need a good sander to shape the edges after you trim them and small finisher wheel to buff the edges with wax. You will also need a good setter for snaps and rivets. Some aluminum and galvanized thin metal for reinforcements and some tools to cut and shape them. A really good Osborne rotary punch (don't scrimp buy the good one). Get extra tubes for it too. Oh Tinmann will make your clicker dies for you too. You will need a good stitching awl and thread as well. Leather, dye, hardware, finish, etc. If you have any questions post them you'll find lots of experianced holster makers here. Good luck and Merry Christmas. Dave

I recently purchased a small lot of leather tools and I have 2 that I don't recognize. I'm told that they are for saddle repair. I have done quite a bit of saddle repair in the past but have not seen these tools used. I would like to know what they are and what they are used for. I searched the net but didn't have much success. The newer one is made by Standard B. L. Marder in Germany. The older tool is marked Elliot-Heaton-Penn. Corp. Boston, Mass.

I've made holsters for about 25 years and I have always used an Adler harness machine (german made) I got from an auction at Weaver Leather in Ohio. They usually have an open auction once a year in the summer but have some good deals all the time. Some of the stitching on special holsters especially on compitition quick draws where you use spring steal and galvanized steel pieces stitched in can be pretty demanding. Get more machine than you need not less.