Denise

Insurance, at least in Canada, is paid on your end and should be included your quote for shipping. Everything else that I know about is paid on the other end, but the more you can tell your customer about what they should expect that way, the more they appreciate you. You may not know specifics, but you should at least warn them that they are responsible for all customs and taxes their government applies, plus the brokerage fees if you go the route of a courier.

I wonder if there is room for a "semi-custom" category (for any leather work) where the customer can choose, for example, the color from a set number of colors or the carving style from a set list, but they can't make changes other than what you specify in those lists. I believe this is what a lot of people sell as "custom" when I see it really as production with options. True "custom" work to me means the customer gets to choose or modify pretty much anything so long as it doesn't negatively affect the function, which includes safety. Some see the defnition as semantics, others as a crucial distinction. Which way you see it may depend on what category of product you are trying to sell...

Besides the regular (super high) costs of couriers, they also charge a brokerage fee at the other end to the customer for taking things across the border. The Canadian (and I assume US) post offices do not charge this fee, so that is a savings. Customs and taxes apply at the other end and I see it as your customer's responsibility to know about that, though if you ship a lot to one country you may want to have that information on hand to give them. We always fully insure all parcels of value. It isn't that much more from the post office (it is by bus or couriers) and I believe it is less likely to be "lost" if it has that insurance sticker on it. I think they take a bit more care with those.

Here is a tutorial Rob Gerbitz did on the lime method: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3233 Here is how KAW does the hot water method: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=8453 About midway through this topic RCSaddles describes the scraping method: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=4290 Have fun!

There is a whole pile of talent and hard won knowledge accumulated in that picture...

Elton Joorisity and Deuce on here also both make and sell burnishers. Check out their topics to see what they make and their customers responses to them.

skyblast, I applaud your paying for the shuttle once you understood the problem better. There is always a learning curve with anything new in life. When we are in the middle of a problem, things aren't very clear sometimes. I think both you and Tippmans have treated each other very well once the communication and understanding was complete. Here's to a long term working relationship!

Skyblast, Sounds to me like a business man giving excellent service to a disgruntled (however politely) customer. He is pointing out the industry standard and what he had promised, and then said that he would go over and above that. The e-mail sounded good to me. Go for the embosser!

Something else I don't have to worry about now! Thanks to you both.

Recently files with this name have been showing up in my files in My Pictures. They are usually only a few kb in size. When I click on them, there is no picture, but the Spybot Search and Destroy window comes up and checks them out, then says "nothing found". What are these files and why are they there? Where did they come from? Can I safely delete them or will I mess up all my pictures if I do so? Thanks for your help. (Some days, I think disconnecting from the internet would be a good idea...)

We were in a storm like that about 18? years ago. We lived 10 miles NW of town. We got it. Town got it. 10 miles SE of town got it. It rumbled for at least 2 hours before anything came. The the clouds didn't move - just circled. Pretty scary. It was in September/October as I recall and I don't know how many roofing companies were working overtime for weeks trying to get everything re-roofed before the snow came. Since we didn't own property, the only damage we had was to our truck - replace the roof, replace the hood, replace one side...

How wide are the swells, Pete?

Regarding Aussie tree makers, you may want to give Dennis Lane a call. His website is about his card system but his contact information is there. He is a saddle maker who had been building his own trees and trees for others since the early 90's. He learned from Dale Harwood. If you give Dennis a call, he is the kind of guy who will be more than willing to give you information on building saddles. Just make sure you have a good phone plan and lots of time when you call. Warren Wright is actually from New Zealand, but he builds a good tree too.

There, I changed the title for you Ann. Sorry I can't help answer the rest of your question, but give it a few hours till the Aussies on here wake up again and I bet they will chime in.

Steve, I think you are doing just about everything right. The only thing to make note of is where your cursor is when you click the Add button. Wherever that blinking line is sitting is where your picture will appear. If you can't see your cursor, click on the message where you want your picture to show up and that is where it will go. Here is a topic with the whole thing explained, but I think you pretty much have it down already. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15122

Justin, Thanks for the nice plug for our trees. Sorry I have taken so long to get back to you. I've been in the shop getting things going on those two orders you gave us... Actually, Rod has worked through the orders pretty well this winter so we aren't too far behind at the moment. You'll be getting a phone call shortly.

Knife Knut, Just add the rest in another post or contact one of us to get it put in here. Thanks for putting the work into compiling all this information and making it available. I am sure it will help others.

What I do is type longer posts in Word or notepad and get them all right and then cut and paste into the forum. Once you hit the post button is when the timer starts, I think. If you really need editing past the cut off you can contact Johanna.