JohnBarton

Incredible. I am speechless.

The way I do it is to start from the edge and work back towards the curve. So when you bend the piece your visible working area for things to be "centered" is the point where the curve ends to the edge. Mark the center of that space and you will find that your decoration achieves the visual center that you want. For example if you want to measure it from the true center and the curve were 1" then lay out the piece and mark .5" from each side then from there to the edge and take the center of that. I just prefer to kind of eye it starting from the edge and measuring back to the curve. Seems to work most of the time :-) Thank you Bob for all of your great tutorials on PSLAC. Well worth the price of admission many many many times over. John

The idea behind this business model is to milk as much money from people as possible due to the fact that in general we are a busier people and less apt to track all the small charges we are hit with all the time. This is the same principle with rebates, and store cash cards, they know that a certain percentage of the population WILL not cash in the value or will forget the small balances and then it becomes free money. I think that if there were a law that allowed a credit card company to charge a merchant DOUBLE when they falsely charge someone then a lot of this nonsense would stop. However here is the kicker, the credit card companies have NO INCENTIVE to stop these abusive practices. This is because they make money ON BOTH ENDS - they make money off of the card holder through the fact that they license the use of the VISA/MASTERCARD logo. The banks that back the credit cards make money on the interest and fees. And then VISA makes money off of the credit card processors who accept your card. Why do you think it is that credit cards are so easy to use? No pin number, most of the time no I.D. needed? Because if they make them harder to use, i.e. merchants have to re-authorize through one-time pin #s, more cumbersome authentications, single-user only, sort of stuff then credit card use will decline by a large margin. There is a new book out called, I think, Nickled and Dimed, which outlines how we are being bled by all the surcharges, hidden fees, opt-out subscriptions, and the like. The Eskimos figured out that they can kill a polar bear by lacing a knife with blood and the bear will lick it until he himself bleeds to death. Corporate America has figured out that they can bleed the American consumer to death in the same way.

WAY COOL!

I can speak from personal experience as a designer who has things made at other places. They don't respect what you expect only what you inspect. In other words as long as I am there and watching and inspecting then my cases are done to my standards and as soon as I leave they start getting worse. The owner of the factory nor the people working the line have any emotional involvement in the product. They have no connection to the ultimate user, they don't have to face that user so why should they care what that user thinks. The reason anything gets worse and not better Ed is purely due to the willful ignorance of consumers willing to gobble up everything and throw it away when it breaks and go buy another one. It used to be that things were made to last and when they finally did break you repaired it. But when consumers demand cheap and disposable then that's what they get. And the factories have figured out plenty of clever ways to cut corners to maximize their profits, the brand houses don't complain as long as it looks good. I can't tell you the number of times I have gone into a factory and seen them doing something and been like "why???" - they either have no clue or they are deliberately doing something stupid to save time or material in order to boost their profit - and they count profit in the pennies. Where we wouldn't care if a product cost a few dollars more to make it well done - they freak out over every .25cts in cost increase. I once saw a report that claimed the disposable society began with the introduction of the TV Dinner. Makes sense to me.

It is not the making in India, China, Bangladesh, etc... that is the problem - high quality goods can come from anywhere. And honestly if brands didn't move their production to low cost labor lands then those low cost labor hands would just remain dirt poor and fall prey to every backwoods extortionist with enough money to buy a few sewing machines. At least when big brands show up they raise the overall level of production and thereby empower people to gain skills and thus value in the marketplace. The problem is of accountability of the brand owners to make sure that their products are made in a way that is consistent with basic human rights and sustainable existence AND the willingness of law enforcement and the justice system to mete out very severe penalties for brand theft. It's a pretty easy calculation - low cost to produce vs. high retail prices equals plenty of room for unscrupulous competitors. Morals aside why wouldn't you spend your time copying Prada bags instead of dealing drugs or some other illegal activity? If you get caught doing the Prada bags you can always wiggle out if in any number of ways and EVEN IF you are convicted you will get a slap on the wrist and be back in business tomorrow, in fact your brother has already set up another sweatshop around the corner. Worse in my opinon are the customers for these items, and I am not talking about the single consumer, I am talking about the wholesalers who import containers of fakes. In my industry, billiards, my signature design was ripped off blatantly and imported by all the big wholesalers. They enabled it while selling alongside the real brands. I should have sued them but they were my only source of income. So I figure that I have lost around ten million dollars in revenue, at wholesale prices, in the last 15 years due to this thievery. But I am sure it's a lot more due to all the derivatives of my design that have also made their way to the marketplace. So, yeah, the sweatshops make these copies and offer them for sale but look at who is doing the buying. It's your Chamber of Commerce wholesale business right along side the Mafia. A victimless crime, yeah right.

Sweatshops like these are everywhere for sure. In a lot of ways they are far worse than anything you find in China because the Chinese are not alone here, they have family and friends. In New York, Los Angeles, Italy, and wherever else that you find these illegal and semi-legal factories the workers are literally indentured servants. They are coerced with the fear of deportation, threats to family back in China, and so on. The same thing applies to sweatshops staffed with immigrants of all kinds. In China it is illegal to extort people like this and if caught a factory owner can be sentenced to death or prison. Still, humans have shown an infinite capacity to degrade other humans in far sicker ways than any other animals ever could. It's the darkside of intelligence. The root of the problem is the fact that so many of us are defined by the brands we own and so to keep up appearances we buy fakes that we can afford. And it's compounded by the fact that so many brand owners splash their brand on everything so that consumers come to expect it to be on everything. Thus no one really knows what is "fake" and what is "real" anymore when it comes to brands. If I see a pair of Nike shoes on sale at a street vendor's stall then I can probably figure that they are fake. But if I see them on someone's feet I have no idea if they are real or fake and I just say nice shoes dude. So what is the answer? Who knows. Don't buy brands unless you are 100% sure you can believe in them. Unless you are sure that they all are sweatshop-free. But how do you do this? I sure don't know. We Americans imported Chinese sweat labor to build our railroads. We import sweat labor to harvest and process our food. I guess that we can't really fault people for doing whatever they can to survive and try to better their lives even if it's to effectively sell themselves into modern slavery. And what about the slavers, the ones who trick workers into illegally immigrating? The ones who promise the moon? Well, until all the industrialized nations of the world make brand theft a crime that is equal to theft otherwise then it will never stop. Until someone faces prison for making, importing, and selling copies of my goods and theft of my brands it will never stop. So you can rail about it, denounce the players, cry about unfair competition, and be outraged but the fact is sadly that this is really bigger than all of us and goes to the heart of society's collective need to be accepted. Until the majority of people stop buying brands to feel better then the flow of fakes and the sweatshop labor needed to make them won't cease. Sound familiar. Substitute drugs for brands in this conversation and you can see why it's too big to stop. Brand name stuff is legal. :-)

That's a really cute purse :-) I'd hate to be the guy who thinks your lady with her high fashion bag is an easy mark. Seriously, it looks as good as some of the purses I look at that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. I agree that the black zipper doesn't match the color scheme but otherwise it ROCKS!!! Keep the zipper oiled up so it doesn't hang when she needs to get in her bag quickly. (hopefully that's NEVER). Nice job

you can find interesting info on them here: www.jacksandsaps.com

A lot of us are like this - we have been around and we can see the red flags most of the time. But you have to remember that a site like Ebay draws millions of new visitors daily. It draws crowds of buyers like no other site in the world. A lot of these folks aren't internet savvy, they are there to look for a specific item and they gravitate towards the most attractive offer.

Very cool color and nice piece!

I thought I was looking at one of the $1000 designer belts from the fancy gear site Bree posted a while back. I'd be real happy to have anything done just for me that was that nice. Nice work Tom! Real nice.

Rusty, Do you even READ what I write before you respond? I NEVER said that YOU are hyping your work. NEVER NOT ONCE NEVER. I said I have NO PROBLEM with you or your work. I am not DOGGING YOU OR YOUR WORK. Please try to read what I write and absorb it before responding. I have no intention of fighting with you and the subject was broached HERE in order to get the perspective of others who MAKE THINGS for a living and how they would handle it. If I wanted to fight then I would have named names as you did. John

First, I am asking a group of my peers how they would handle a situation not defending how I did it. I like Suze's approach. Secondly, I never said that Darrin's work is junk, I have only said that it is NOT YET at the standard that Darin's customers have said it is. Yes, perhaps the comment about Zeke and Darin only having working leather in common was harsh but it wasn't really meant to be and an apology is warranted for that. So I formally apologize to "Darin" for that comment. Who is Chaz Dillon in our HYPOTHETICAL story? :-) But yes when new leather worker Chaz comes on and invites comments and I see something I comment on it. I put my work up all the time and get criticized and what I do is use that criticism to get better. If the issue is structural then I find a way to fix it, it the issue is decorative then I find a way to get better there. I believe that I have taken more heat than any newbie ever has not only for what I make, but how I make it, where it's made, and even how much profit they think I make. People take the liberty to tell me what to make, where I am allowed to make it, and how much I am allowed to charge - so yeah it's a grievance when a newbie comes on and people start proclaiming that this person is the next messiah, especially when their work isn't there yet. - Now as Windy said some people CAN DO more in a year than a so-called veteran has done in 50. That is why I just look at the work and not the person. I have not personally seen Darin's work that is true. But I have seen Erik's and hung out with Erik and know his work pretty well. I think that after 18 years of doing this and studying these things I have become somewhat adept at seeing the differences in the work. Now, can I go further and see the differences in stroke and technique caused by inexperience, wrong or inadequate tools, use of certain finish methods and so on? No I can't because, as I have stated many times, I am not a tooler. As for telling someone that an item described as being the best in the world may not live up to that description when put up for resale what is not true or fair about that? If I took a no-name saddle maker's saddle and went and bragged about it and said something like this guy is as good as Chester Hape and Don King when it isn't YET and someone ended up buying that saddle based on that testimonial then tried to resell it to someone who IS familiar with the work of those two then the reseller would get his ass laughed out of town. Don't we laugh at the noobs who come on the pool forums trying to sell us "collectible signed Balabuskas"? Think about it. You know what the person I wrote that to said in reply Rusty? He said that he is only building up the work to "protect his investment" and that I should let the buying public remain ignorant of what truly great leather work is. Shall I also share his PRIVATE communication to me in order to prove that to you? Do you feel the same way? I know that you are a humble guy and don't feel that your work is YET in the same league as some of your famous colleagues. But do you feel that you do Sheridan carving "as good as anyone else in the world"? That is one of the things that has been said about your work from the person who is protecting his investment. As for myself, while I have accepted praise for our decorative work, I point towards the giants in leather decorating to let my customers know what I am aiming at. You know this full well because I have done it many times. I don't let others do my marketing and accept accolades I haven't earned yet. However when someone says something like my cue cases are the best one for the money then I don't disagree with them because I feel that this is correct. That is my stated goal and we have reached at least that. When someone says your case, or so-and-so's is the best for the money and it's not then I don't contradict them unless it's part of a debate I am in and we are doing apples-to-apples comparisions. Otherwise I let it slide because value is also relative. But when someone proclaims that another brand is more protective and that is not a fact and I say something about it. That's how I roll, I accept criticism, defend where I need to and and change where I need to. As for the decoration aspect though I understand that art is subjective by nature. Prior to beginning again in 2007 I didn't spend a lot of time on the decoration of our cases. We had tooled cases in our line that were done by a Czech tooler and later done in house at the factory in Taiwan, the Taiwanese learned through books and tapes I bought from Tandy leather. I couldn't have told you if our tooling was good or bad in comparision to anyone else's whether on cue cases or any other leather goods. Ok well I could tell you if it was bad because even I could see if the impressions weren't straight, or consistent, or the coloring was off, and sometimes all of these things showed up. BUT when I decided to get back into it and I knew that I WANTED to be part of the beauty contest in cue cases I knew that I should start to study and learn and grow as to what really good decorative work is so I could make sure that whatever we were putting on our cases would not only be accepted by the largely ignorant public but would be accepted by discerning collectors and most importantly by leather crafters themselves. And every case we do we try to improve and try new things, try to emulate the best that we see and hopefully someday become one of the best. And I am sure that your goal isn't much different in that you want to be the best you can with what you do. My problem isn't with you or your work. My problem is with people who unfairly hype your work and put it where it doesn't yet belong. What qualifies me to even make such a statement? Nothing really except that I feel you haven't yet reached the level of the top guys in Sheridan carving based on the work I see from those guys and based on what I have so-far seen from you. So that is absolutely just my layman's opinion, just as the opinion of the person "protecting" his investment is that you are already "as good as anyone else in the world." So if he can state his opinion then I should be able to state mine on the same subject. Or do you feel it should be just one-sided? I just go step futher and provide examples of work from those considered the best in the world and let people see what that is. In conclusion Rusty, since you made this open. I have nothing against you. I think your work is great and getting better. The case that Craig showed off is your best piece yet in my opinion. I already told you that I am proud of you for listening to me about paying attention to the protectiveness of your interiors. I have always fought against inaccuracy and hype when it comes to cue cases (the only subject that one-dimensional me really knows anything about) and will continue to do so. Whether is is the guy selling knockoffs claiming that his products are as good as such and such name brand or the person touting the next great case maker by putting him on the highest pedestal you will find me to be the one to give a reality check. Is this selfish? You bet it is, because I also have to protect my investment and the best way I know to do that is to follow the same formula I always have. Educate the customer and allow them then to make their own comparisons and hope that their choice is what I make. Along the way it also promotes better products all the way around which only helps us all. (my altruistic moment of Zen). Sincerely, John Barton - hypothetical cue case maker :-) I agree. I really really really need to work on the "how" to say something. In Germany they say the tone makes the music. Thank you.

This is the actual policy: https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cm...ayments-outside There has to be a default to receive payment and it's time. I say that 99% of honest sellers fit the criteria for NOT having their payments held. For those that are new to Ebay then I guess it sucks to have to wait six months to not have your payments held up but overall it's not a bad thing to have to EARN the right to sell in their marketplace. I haven't checked out Ebay's changes in a long time but they definitely need SOME way to combat the fraud and on the surface this seems like one way to do it.

Awesome as usual - can I steal the pattern and make a cue case out of it :-)

Hi, once again I need your help. I am going to couch this question in the hypothetical realm and just ask you how you would handle it. Hypothetically, someone asks for offers on a leather case and suggestions and offers come pouring in. A person who is not a leather worker and not a seller chimes in to recommend another maker who hasn't made a public offer yet. This person enthusiastically promotes the leather worker's work as being the next closest thing to a famous maker's work who is no longer actively making leather cases. (also this person has probably never actually had hands on experience with either maker's work) The famous maker has been in working leather for nearly 60 years and his stuff is very high end and very detailed and very very well made. The person being promoted has been doing cases for a little while and is coming along well but there really isn't any basis to put the two in the same league yet. This is not a question of someone shilling for the new guy for profit, nor does the enthusiast stand to gain financially from his statements, he just really feels that the work is that good. The new guy also does not feel that he is in the same league (although his cases are good and might well get there). A bystander who is in the business, hypothetically someone like me, who has actually worked with the legendary leather worker sees this comparison and decides to set the record straight about it and disagree that the two people's work is at or near the same level. My question to you is what would you do if you were the person who disagreed? Would you let it slide? Would you try to educate the readers as to the differences? Would you just post up pictures and let the readers make their own comparisons? The follow up question is do you think we all have a responsibility to uphold the heritage of great leather work? When we see misinformation about our craft should we try to correct it? Or is that going to be detrimental and seen only as self-serving and jealous? Hypothetically, I am looking for some validation and cheap therapy here :-)

It's really hard on Ebay if the seller is clever. I had to deal with people selling copies of my product and ripping off my pictures and descriptions to do it. Ebay used to make it difficult to get these auctions taken down and now I guess it's somewhat easier. But the point of it is that these folks don't think in terms of how foolish it is to list something unique they just see the type of auctions which bring in mucho dinero and copy them hoping to get a sucker to send money. And surprisingly enough without diligence on the part of the community it often works. Going after the people perpetrating these atttempted frauds is fruitless because they haven't committed enough of a crime by virtue of the listing to get law enforcement interested and secondly the accounts are very often hidden behind layers of email addresses making it very difficult to identify them. For every advance in technology there is an equal amount of decrease in civility. Ebay is a great worldwide marketplace and a great opportunity for scammers. Hoepfully Ebay is figuring out ways to make it really hard for the scammers now.

This stuff happens with high end cues all the time and the cue collecting community is pretty quick at spotting them now. Several years ago though people were getting scammed right and left. I haven't seen Ebay's paypal policy concerning holding the funds against positive feedback but if that's the case then lvoe it or hate it that sure does seem like it would cut out seller fraud completely. Now how does the honest seller have any protection?

Pretty cool. Is that a Medal of Honor pinned to Judas' chest? Funny.

The way it works in my shop is that we discuss a concept that I want to do and the toolers come back to me with drawings of how they see the concept and then I will either choose the one I like best and let them run with it or I will add in my thoughts as to what I want to see or I will scrap everything and start over if nothing fits my vision. For this case the tooling was done by another shop and they sent me the design files and I approved them and let them run with it. I like working with this company because they are very expressive in their work. When I first contracted them almost two years ago they were turning in creative but very sloppy work. After long discussions they are finally doing work that is acceptable to me on almost all levels. For cases that are tooled in our shop Zhen Hai Lee signs them as he is here with me. For cases that are tooled elsewhere I encourage signatures but if they don't come with one then they don't. Besides our in house staff I have three other shops that I work with to get my tooling done. I can't wait to show you all another case we are doing with some cool filigree done by one of those shops. But that will be a while.

This is the last one for a while because the next ones are just in the design phase. The name Jesse was on my mind because of our new daughter and me being an outlaw in cue cases of sorts (at least it's better for my ego to think of myself this way than just plain obnoxious and stubborn), and the fact that the case reminds me of saddles and holsters all came together to name this one Jesse James. Is it a bit pretentious to name your pieces?

Ok so it's two days later but I am wiped out. At 8:37pm Monday, Xiamen China time my brave brave strong and lovely wife delivered a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Jessie and she is our first child. I can only say that this is the happiest moment of my life and that this precious child is a miracle. I am so humbled by nature right now that it's hard to express it. And the other thing is that I would have cried worse than a baby and demanded drugs for the pain and my wife did it all naturally. Here are a few pictures. The rest are at Jessie's album on JB Cases here - http://www.jbcases.com/gallery/main.php?g2...navId=xa62cd3d2

The orange flames were just drawn lightly and dyed and then covered in resist. Then the white flames were carved and the outlines done in resist - then the black was applied. For the puzzle-piece latch and the bottom we did the same thing on the with the resist on the outline. The one thing that bugs me is that we didn't follow the curve exactly in some of the flame tips when we sewed the overlays on. We use nylon thread and wax it.

What a fantastic piece. Your stuff is amazingly creative and functional.