JohnBarton

The purpose of the two extra pieces of leather is to move the zipper corner farther away from a true right angle and give it more room to clear the corner without hanging up. Basically the more you move it inside the corner the easier is turns the corner. Also moving it inside allows the pocket to retain a sharp box look to it. Theoretically you could make some sort of insert to make the corner inside have a real radius to it but I found that the way I show works easily and the zipper never hangs.

I'd like to know how to distinguish two excellent items where one was made in a factory setting and the other was made by a single person? This topic came up recently on the billiards forum with the original poster contending that in his opinion that which is made by one person, using only their hands, is inherently better than something made in a shop which is outfitted like a production environment. I disagree with this statement for the obvious reason that my shop consists of five people besides me who produce goods using the not only our hands but also using whatever tools I can buy or make that makes our life easier from case to case. I have seen production leather goods that were as well built as a thing could possibly be. Strong and stout and not a stitch out of place with no flaws. How can something that one single person builds be any better than that? Perfect is perfect right? On top of that in the cue case factory most of the processes involve hand work. I can certainly understand the idea that many cooks can spoil the broth when it comes to the production of things. All it takes is one worker to get off kilter and that screws up umpteen products. I am just of the impression that if it's done right then it's right whether it's done by one person from start to finish or it's done by ten. Formerly I started a company called Instroke Cue Cases. The first cases were all unique cases done in vinyl and leather. A few years later we changed into a production case company. The cases were made in the Czech Republic by a company with more than 100 years experience in fine leather goods. Our company was based in Germany. Try as I might I could not get people to stop calling the Instroke cases "German Made". They would talk about the quality of the case and praise "German Engineering" and nothing I did could stop it. I used to say it's not "where it's made", but instead "who made it" that is important. I think that is the gist of most people's concept here. A fine leather product is a fine product no matter how many people and machines were involved in the process. There is a company here called SKAP that produces some of the finest leather items I have ever seen. I go to their store often. The designs are almost always top notch and the workmanship is world class. The stuff is also VERY EXPENSIVE with briefcases costing around $400-$800, shoes at $200-$400, little men's purses around $2-300, etc.... I had never heard of SKAP before coming to China. They "say" that it's a French brand but I think that's just a story. One thing is certain, they have put it all together with design and production. You could take their stuff to any arts festival and some of the bags would win awards for sure. As old uncle Morty might have said, "hand made schmand made, vas it a bargain at tvice da price, dan ist gut, don't kvetch about it?" or something like that :-) Maybe we need a new descriptor, how about brain-made?

Well we hope that people can recognize quality. The truth is that as they say "on the internet nobody knows you're a dog". I have had to deal with this for years when all the big importers started knocking off my designs and to add insult to injury they stole my descriptions straight off my website either verbatim or closely enough to have the same "quality" description applied to their inferior knockoffs. The internet age has made it all worse in some regards and better in others. Now at least for all the deceptive marketing lingo that is either falsely used or unintentionally abused there are ways for the little guy to fight back. First you can say all that you want to about what quality means to you and you can define the terms as you wish. This means that whomever reads your dissertation has to at least think about it and goes forth with your view on their mind to weigh against that which other people write about their stuff. Secondly you can show off your points in as many and as detailed of pictures as you so choose to. This one is double edged sword though. Because if you show off your best features or their worst features you also leave the door open for them to copy your format and show off images of their "good" stuff while what they really deliver is junk. I just fight the fight wherever I can whenever I can. If I see an auction or a for sale posting where the description is misleading then I will say something about it. Saying something about the use of "hand made" though is much trickier. When I see it used and it's applied to something that is less than stellar but they want a premium price or they have a cheap thing they are trying to pass off as a good thing I just shrug and move on - in hopes that others can see what I can. I also disagree that using hand made or hand crafted is just a play on words. If the item does fit that description then it should be used to give it more distinction. The problem however is that everyone uses it so it's lost it's luster a little bit. I use the words hand-sewn to describe certain areas of the case that are hand sewn. Normally I wouldn't use it BUT I feel I have to because there are those who make a big deal out of hand sewing on my competitor's cases. So I feel I need to point out that aspect on our cases as well lest ours be taken as inferior because they aren't "hand sewn".

Hand Crafted and Hand Made mean the same thing to me. No power tools.

I think part of the problem comes in when people want to use "handmade" to be equal to "well made". There are thousands and thousands of leather (and leather-like) goods made in Mexico, China, and just about all places with lots of tourists and little sense which are all hand-made but not well made. Using your example of the hammer made on a lathe. I agree that the lathe is inert until someone "tells" it what to do. But the grunt work of shaping that hammer is done by a machine which is capable of doing the work faster and more precisely than a man can. How well the operator can use his lathe and the resulting quality is of course all due the person controlling the machine. But it's still a machined part and as such a "machine-made" product. I can't stand it when someone crows about something being "hand-made" and I see tons of flaws in the piece. And then they try to say "well it's hand made there are supposed to be flaws"....... Not to me, not the kinds of flaws which can be prevented by working with care and patience. Not when there are people who do make everything by hand and it's practically flawless. We just had this discussion in the thread about what to do with your "seconds" and someone said something like "it's handmade, there are supposed to be flaws". I respectfully disagree. It might be really really tough to make something entirely by hand without flaws but it's possible and those are the things that SHOULD be priced the highest, valued the most and treasured forever. So let's all agree to drop the marketingspeak aspect of "hand made" where it is presumed to be taken as "well made" and just agree that hand made means "a lot of aching work went into this" and kiss my butt if you don't like it

I see it like this; If the substantial portion of the work is done by hand then it's hand made. If the majority of the work is done by machine or aided by jigs then it's not hand made. We have a laser to cut parts. We have a sewing machine to sew. Once the laser is programmed it will cut the same part the same way forever. Unlike tracing out the pattern and cutting it out by hand. A process may be hand-guided, such as sewing, drilling, sanding, etc.... but unless the only method of changing the properties of the piece is by human power only then it's not "hand-made". We sand a lot of edges using the dremel. If we had to use a file and elbow grease then it would take a lot longer. Using the dremel is still a skill that has to be learned, it's very easy to ruin a part by slipping with the dremel at the wrong time. So there is definitely grey area here. On most of our cases there are parts which are hand sewn BUT maybe we made the holes by using the sewing machine. But basically my thinking is that if the piece is going to carry the general description of "hand made" then it should be made without the assistance of motorized tools. Especially where "hand made" is the largest part of the marketing of the product.

Are you sure that a home machine will sew 8-10oz leather of any tannage? That seems awful thick for a home type sewing machine. I'd say that probably garment leather at 2-3oz at best will be about the limit on a home machine. John

Impressive!!! I will get out the stamps every so often and start playing with different combinations. When I read the title I was thinking of doodling on paper as I often do to work out technical construction problems and designs. I am pleasantly surprised to see that you meant "toodling" instead and worked it all on leather. I am SOOOOO stealing the reptile technique! :-)

Okay so it's time for my monthly moral/ethical problem for the group here to solve for me. Recently I showed you our latest case. Some of you may have noticed that there is a signature on the inside of the lid. This is my signature laser engraved into the case. The tooler, Zhen Hai Lee, signed the case on the bottom but I didn't show you that picture because there is another surprise there that the customer has not seen yet. I signed this case because I designed all the elements and hand-walked everyone through every stage of the construction. As well on this one I did a lot of the physical labor on the construction. My take on this is that when I elect to sign a case it's because it's a special piece that I am really invested into. There is a person on the billiards forum who thinks that I have no right to sign our cases because I don't do all the work all by myself. He even started a poll about it which devolved into a personal insult slugfest. This is the very last thing I wrote on this at the billiard forum: When I sign something then I am saying to my customer that I stand good for what I am giving them. I am saying to them that all that I am is invested in this case and I give it to you with pride in my and my team's accomplishment. This is obviously a sensitive topic. But who better to ask than you all? So fire away and let me know what your thoughts are on this subject.

I have so much to say about this subject but no energy to say it. I have produced leather cue cases in Germany, Turkey, Taiwan and China for nearly 20 years. In that time I have seen just about every kind of trick employed to disguise the fact that goods are made of vinyl and not leather while being advertised as leather. In some cases the importers don't even know because the manufacturer sells it to them as leather. I have seen manufacturers make samples out of real leather and deliver vinyl. One of my customers on the wholesale side was buying my real leather production cases and importing copies of my designs as well. Aside from the design theft the main problem was that the importer and subsequently their dealers were advertising their cases as "leather" for half the price of mine. I got fed up with it and told the importer that I would burn one of his cases at my booth to prove to the public that they were vinyl if they didn't stop falsely advertising them as leather. So come trade show time they show up at my booth with the manufacturer in two and present me with a sample and ask me if it's ok if they advertise this one as leather. Now let's completely disregard the utter rudeness of bringing a copy of my case to my booth to ask my permission to sell it. I looked at the case and determined as best I could without tearing it apart that it was leather and said sure go ahead. Then I asked the importer point blank if he was paying the same price for this case as the fake-leather ones - no answer but the expression said it all. It's brutal. Especially if you are the one who invented a design and everyone starts knocking you off. What is that quote about there being nothing in the world that someone can't make cheaper and worse and the people who only buy on price being this man's lawful prey......?

The soul comes from what you create with the tool. Whether it's a swivel knife or a laser engraver both are completely inert until a human makes them do something. Last year two men I admire a lot were inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. On a whim I had the idea to laser their bios on a cue for each of them. Now I hadn't used the laser for more than a year and I had never done anything like this on a cue where there would be a paragraph and a portrait running the length of the cue. But what I did have were the templates on the computer that I had painstakingly worked out a few years ago to be able to engrave around the circumference on a tapered cone. It took me weeks to get this done where I could literally plop what ever I wanted into my template and laser it in the right spot. (if only it were that easy) Anyway, so I first had to grab the bio and reformat it to fit the space, redo the portrait so it was properly setup and so on....you know how it goes. And so in the middle of the night before the ceremony, I started this project and finished it four hours later. Without all the experience I gained a few years ago and the making of the digital templates I would have had no chance to use this tool to create this gift. The next night I was privileged to be allowed to present these two legends with the cues and the look on their faces was completely priceless. The laser didn't make those items, I did with all my heart. Did you ever laser baloney? We did when we got ours. Nasty metallic taste but really funny! :-)

Zhen Hai did all of the tooling and painting. Originally we had planned to use only spirit dyes but we went with acrylics because we need another 10 years to absorb Peter Main's lessons on coloring with spirit dyes :-) and we also felt we could make the details on the orchids stand out more with the ability to contrast that we get from using acrylic paint. The flower in the center of the lid is a lotus and is very special to my customer. This one was taken from a tattoo that he has on his neck. We were able to reproduce it fairly accurately and he was well pleased with it. He has sent me a long letter explaining the meaning to him and it makes me feel really good that we were able to capture the feelings he has about this in the case.

You are welcome. I will tell them what you all have said, I might even make a poster and put everyone's encouraging comments on it and have them translated. I want to tell you all another story that is dear to me. Since I started this workshop three of my employees and the pattern maker in the bag factory I consult for have taken up leather working. All of them make small leather goods and sell them on the Chinese version of Ebay and Taobao to supplement their incomes. I have banned the word "might" in my shop. The Chinese are quite fond of refusing to do things because they fear what "might" happen. In my shop I have told them that they should always follow their ideas and try it - build a sample, work it out, revise and then they can see if their idea works or not. I firmly believe that it's because I promote this attitude of being creative and innovative that has inspired the fledgling leather workers to start making things on their own. I am so proud of my people and how they have grown to be able to build to my standards. Now if I can just master the many things to learn here and convey it to them......who knows what we will be able to do?

Thank you and it's my pleasure to share these with you. The tooling on the inside of the rim was inspired by Peter Main's belts where he tools the inside of the belt.

Let's just say that you are getting in the right neighborhood for what I would charge if we did another one at this level.

From left to right: Miss Chen, John Barton, Miss Zhang, Long Wei, Zhen Hail Lee (tooler), Yue Wei. Miss Chen does hand stitching and construction prep work. John Barton does nothing :-), Miss Zhang does machine stitching and hand stitching and construction work, Long Wei does construction and stamping, Zhen Hai does design and tooling, Yue Wei cuts parts, stamps, and engraves using the laser.

Thanks! I lost track of the time. The customer and I exchanged around 50 emails in the preliminary design and then once we had the basic design we spent about two to three weeks researching orchids and went through dozens of them, probably close to a hundred, before settling on the ones we used. I directed that no two orchids should be the same and also that no two flowers in the western floral/Sheridan style be the same. So all the western florals were drawn freehand. The tooling and painting took three or four weeks from start to finish. We also had some complicated construction techniques and custom parts that took us several days to work out how to do. All together I'd say that this case probably represents about for weeks of solid work for Zhen Hai and about two weeks for me and about a week or so of construction time for everyone else. I could not imagine how long it would take if one person had to do everything. Probably the same amount of man-hours but for one person that would probably translate into a couple months at least. Feel free to ask whatever you want to - I will be happy to answer whatever I can.

I profiled the tooler on here a week or so ago. It's Zhen Hai Lee and he is in the picture. The "maker" however is really all of us with me being the primary designer. Zhen Hai comes up with drawings based on my design ideas. When he does the drafts we discuss it and I make suggestions and changes until it comes together as I envision it. I think anything made in a collaborative format would totally rock. Imagine Ed Santoro's briefcase with tooling or overlay/inlay by many folks here. I could see him sending panels in two directions with each person getting a corner - that would be wild to see how each person did their corner and tied it in to the others. Or something like that :-)

I wanted to post the last four pictures. This is my team and everyone worked really hard on this (including me for those who think I don't "do" anything) It took all of us to squeeze the interior into the case because I wrapped the extruded tube in foam rubber to fill out all the spaces so as to protect the leather from bumps.

The case speaks for itself but I want to thank everyone here for all the wonderful, truly wonderful inspiration. There are a lot of things on this case inside and out that come from the great things you all do.

This was done for me many years ago by my friend Chas Clements. The sign symbolizes our friendship and collaboration with Chas in one corner and me in the other. Back then I was known as John Collins, and since then I tool my wife's name (a story for another time). So that is why the initials JC appear in the corner. This is an all original design surrounding the Instroke logo. Instroke was the name of my former cue case company. I will take a better picture of it someday and up date the thread then.

Yeah I think that the black 1x2 is the pool player's equivalent of the woman's little black dress. I love going to poolrooms with that case. I have GTF #1 and it's a black nappa 1x2 - it has been on several trips with me around the world.

I am guessing when you say "hand" embroidered you mean needle, thread and hands. The closest I ever got to that was laying down my designs on leather and using my home sewing machine and the zig-zag function to embroider the designs. I WISH WISH WISH that I had my pix from back then to show off all the different things that I did. One of the best was a family crest design submitted by a customer with six or so colors in it. That one took me about ten hours to do. The hardest to do, plastic metallic thread because it breaks every inch or so. Wanna have fun one day? Try butting two pieces of leather against each other and embroider them together with a 32 inch line and keep the line straight. I once had to do a replica of a cue point which had three veneers on each side of the point. That's six lines - three side by side that all need to be perfectly straight. Those were the days - 18 years ago. :-)

Here you go: http://www.jbcases.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=353

These cases were done by one of the factories that I deal with under my direction and design. They are derivatives of a style made famous in the billiard world by a man named Bob Hemphil who called his cases Fellini Cases. They have spawned several similar brands, including Ann Gore (who worked for Fellini), Centennial, Kelli, It's George, Ron Thomas and Engles cases. I was asked two years ago to see what I could do in this style and this is what we did. www.gtfcases.com I am working on a new way to do the ends today which is why I am showing off the cases. Right now we are the only ones who do this type of work on their cases, meaning gluing the ends up over the form this way. Most of the time these folds are hidden and tucked under such as on furniture upholstery. Other than similar brand cue cases, I have not seen any other small leather goods done this way, have any of you seen similar work? It's a real pain in the butt to get the ends to lay down just right so that it gives and almost seamless appearance. It takes about an one hour per end or longer depending on the leather to finish the ends. The leather is glued to the body and a seam is cut in the back. When done right it looks seamless. Technically the steps to make this case are fairly easy. In truth it is one of the hardest cases we make to get right because the end result has to be sleek and practically flawless. Just thought you all might like to see something a little different in the world of cue case making. We did a pretty nice one with a carved dragon going all the way around it. I can't find the photos right now but as soon as I do I will update this thread with them. Pretty soon we will be doing a lot of this with some neat stamping and carving patterns.