25b

Sounds like a good opportunity for someone adept at reverse-engineering tools.

Yeah, the tandy stuff is ok for practice or low budget items. For nice belts, straps, cases, things like that, Wickett & Craig or Hermann Oak will probably be your best bet. I just ordered some Sedgwick bridle shoulder from Abbey England. Should be very nice from what I've read about it.

Yeah, I haven't seen anything he was selling that was 24k gold-plated. No need to jerk people around and call them a bunch of names like that. Not very cooperative, wants wire transfers for payment, no thank you. I am glad Art and yourself posted what you did. Sometimes this is the only info us buyers can get on whether to buy from someone like this or not. Personally, I stopped being a potential customer after I saw he would only take a bank wire transfer for payment. Then I saw his prices and shipping cost. Funny he's selling those punches again he'd already had sold before.

My wickett & craig bridle looks like the top one. Very smooth. You could order bridle or harness sides. They seem to have better finished flesh sides, in my experience. I also buy tooling leather from them, but usually have them split it, so it's smooth too. I think cheap, lower quality leather usually has really fuzzy flesh sides like the bottom one in your pic. Tandy tooling leather looks like that. That's why I generally don't buy leather from tandy. For belts, shoulder straps, etc, it works ok if you run it through a splitter. Or you could line it with other leather.

Promises, promises.

Looks like you punch the two holes to install the two halves of a snap...put the buckle on, fold over and snap closed...sew the large part onto the belt...

Ok, that's good...thanks...sometimes things don't come across right over the computer.

No...not be any stretch of the imagination. I've bought hardware from Japan that was decent quality. The best I've seen is from either Japan or England (these days). There are still a handful of US hardware manufacturers also. But I don't think I've ever in my life equated "Hong Kong" with "high quality" anything.

That's great. Anything you'd care to share to help the rest of us? I have seen videos showing people sewing only about 3/16" from the edge when making belts, for instance...I cannot do that without having the same problem you posted this thread about. I'm not sewing 1-2oz belts either...I bought the 3200 to sew belts for CHL, so I don't think the (lack of) thickness is the issue.

I really wasn't trying to be a jerk...but when someone proclaims something like that as truth, I ask to see the source to back it up for the benefit of others that come along later so that they won't learn wrong information. I've been working with fabrics, thread, buckles, etc. since the early 90's, so when I read something like that, I usually notice.

See, I was having a similar problem to this (leather edge being pushed down into the gaping hole) and was basically told that's just how it is, deal with it. Now I see there is another feed plate that I would have to purchase to correct a problem due to the POS feed plate that was supplied with my own 3200??? That makes me a little bit angry.

This morning. Again, if you want to PM me your email address, I will let Francis know you'd like to purchase manuals. He has asked me not to disclose his personal email address though, so I shall not...I will let him know you are interested in his manuals if you want though and I'm sure he will reply to you. I have no affiliation with him other than as a customer.

I think there is a line already...

Yeah, they're not around anymore...or at least they do not sell rawhide anymore.

Having not had my email returned by Bob, I decided to buy one of the volumes from Francis and received it, no problems at all. If you want to PM me your email address, I can ask him to email you. He seems like a nice fellow.

Well, until I see it from an authoritative source, not sure how much faith I'd put into that statement. The "V" is almost universally used when denoting thread sizes, i.e. V92, V69, etc. for many types of thread..bonded nylon, bonded polyester, Tenara, etc. Poly and Tenara are both more UV resistant than Nylon.

I think he wants a direct wire transfer to his bank account. Good luck with that one.

I'm not sure I've ever read that before...do you have a link to where it says that please?

I'm not trying to answer for the others, but the reason I prefer solid brass hardware to plated is because the plating *will* eventually break down and begin to chip, wear off, and look bad. With solid brass, it will patina over time and can also be polished if the owner desires and doesn't like the aged patina look. But that's just my reasons. I'm sure others have their own...in the grand scheme of things, if I'm selling a leather briefcase for $200-$300, I don't think it matters if the lock mechanism costs double what a plated one costs. Again, just my opinion...I am willing to pay for high quality items when they are available. I will very, very rarely substitute a low quality item though. If what I want doesn't exist at all, I'll usually try to figure out a different way to use some other piece of high quality hardware instead.

Ok, thanks to both of you for your comments. I appreciate your help.

Any other places to try? An old thread said Siegel carried cordovan, but they don't.

Sending you a PM on this.

I wouldn't "want" to do that either, but that is the only way you'll get better. If you hold yourself to a high standard, you'll remember to be more careful and avoid errors like this in the future. I don't mean for that to sound unnecessarily harsh, but if there are consequences to errors like this, you tend to get better faster. I do, anyway. Fixed that for you.

Thank you, Ma'am.

I did not send that email, FYI... In any case, Bob, I do hope you're made whole with the leather problems. You didn't state who did this to you, but I would like to know because I don't want to have the same trouble you've had with this order. I generally only buy leather from a couple of (literally two) retailers due to issues like this though. But there's no sense in others having to deal with headaches like this when they can be avoided.