JohnBarton

I am great example of that. Most of my decisions are impulsive and not planned. I have sat down for a total of two hours in the last 18 years to write a business plan and my eyes glaze over. Even now I sit down with the calendar to try and plan orders for the next three months and I can't focus on it. I do agree that a lack of planning and foresight makes it much harder to run a business as it seems as if everything is a crisis. But it's tough to be head cook, dishwasher, janitor, accountant, and marketing vice president all at the same time. I have often wished for a service that provided small business essentials - something like a backoffice for small businesses that handles accounting, billing, marketing (i.e. help with ad creation and placement), and business planning. All small businesses have the same needs in these areas and it's often not enough to hire people for these tasks and just too much for the prinicipals of the business. So if there were (and there probably are already) some companies that could handle this for a nominal fee then it would free up the prinicipals to do more of whatever their business is, at least that's my theory.

I think that this would be a great idea but instead of people submitting work you just post and hopefully Johanna and some really knowledgeable folks will select the pieces based on their own criteria. In my old newsgroup we had one poster who would post "the best of RSB (rec.sport.billiards)" each month and the selections were made by him and a few other unidentified posters. It was nothing official but we all felt a little pride when something we wrote made it to the "best of" list in a month.

Thank you everyone. Some of you have read my bio on here and some haven't. I just want to let everyone know that I don't do the tooling. In my shop I have Zhen Hai Lee doing the tooling, who is one of China's best and getting better daily. However he didn't do this tooling, it was done by a company called Red Sheep that is putting out some amazing stuff of their own. I gave them the design I wanted and we worked together for a few weeks to get it right and they did the tooling on the cut leather that we sent to them. I am the designer and everything that comes out of our shop pretty much starts in my head. The finished cases are a collaboration of everyone's ideas and work though. We have some really over the top stuff coming out in the next month. Two cases that are continuations of previous themes with some technical innovations built in that will be cool. After 18 years making cue cases I am finally in the position I wanted to be in which is to be the creative head of a shop with almost no technical limitations. At the beginning I did make the cases all by myself, sewing and all. But I quickly realized that this wasn't where my talent lay and that I could do more if I hired people who were good at the technical aspects and I did the design. I have so so so much admiration for those of you who do every aspect on your work. As I said, in the beginning I did all the work as well and nothing beats the joy and pride when you hand your work to the receipient and they are over the moon happy and you did everything on it. I won't have that feeling again for a long time unless I "get in the grease" so to speak and make cases by myself again. For me though the feeling of getting out what's in my head through directing our team is nearly as satsifying. So thank you all for the wonderful compliments. I think you on behalf of my staff who all work very hard to meet mine and your standards and who take great pride in the cases we are putting out. A quick story to illustrate this: The other day my wife's mother was on the bus with the purse I showed you here. She works with us and designed that purse. She was complimented on it several times and asked where to get it and with pride she answered that it's a one of kind and can't be bought anywhere. (and she didn't offer to make them one either - we need to work on the customer acquistion part of the business). So again thank you for the compliments and also thank you all for sharing your knowledge.

That's beautiful. I have not been a real big fan of the teardrop shape for cases but you pull it off perfectly. I know the cap was more of a pain but it does complete the case so much better imo. I especially like the way the interior tubing looks. It seems to be padded and cushy which appeals to my sense of protectiveness. You know I am stickler for cues not rattling. You knife sheath makers will appreciate this, cues can cost upwards of six figures with an awful lot of them being in the four figure range. Do it's really important - to me at least - to make sure that they fit snugly in the case. Very nice job on the interior Rusty and you know I don't say that lightly. Well, if you get a website or let me know your contact info I will add you to my list of recommended case makers on my website. I know that this is part time stuff for you but I'd sure like it if more people were aware of your work. John

:-) You'd have to know Doug. He is the king of wordplay. Smorgass Bored has been his screen name as long as I have know him. I should repost the story behind Tampa Tubby Bob - I am sure you all would get a chuckle and appreciate Smorg's humor.

You're welcome. We are contacting him now. I ship to the USA several times a week. I also accept PayPal so it may be possible to have him just deal with us and my assistant Henry can come on this board and translate your questions. It's my experience that the Chinese have to have long conversations to accomplish anything :-) Sometimes I will say "Hello, Mr. Chen how are you and your family?" and my assistant and Mr. Chen will then have a 30 minute conversation talking about his family, the state of the world and whatnot, and at the end Henry will says to me, "Very well thank you" in reply :-) Anyway, we will get it cleared up and get you all some prices and options. John

Y'all know we spend too much time on these forums, and sometimes we go insane with the things we post. Well, Doug and I go back quite a ways to when RSB rec.sport.billiard, a usenet group (now that's showing some age in internet terms) was fun more than a decade ago. We have both gone a little crazy now and then and been basketcases ourselves.

Thank you Johanna - this forum captivates me and brings me a lot of joy to see the wonderful things that people come up with. I am grateful to have a place where I can get information to improve our work and our business and where I can share the things that I know to help others. Thanks for building and maintaining that place.

We use a belt sander with a nice powerful motor. It works but it's loud and very time consuming and the results ae uneven. I would be very happy to hear that the planer solution works. I have one case model where it is CRITICAL that the leather match the edges of the endcaps perfectly flush. I can't sand the endcaps to match the leather or it damages the edges of the leather as well as makes the endcap edges uneven. The only solution is to skive or sand or somehow make the last inch of the leather taper to be perfectly flush. But how to do this in a controlled manner is driving me crazy.

Once the fonts are unzipped you can also just drag them to the Fonts folder in the Control Panel. I keep a control panel icon on my quick task bar and for fonts I open it and open the fonts folder. Then I just drag the font file from wherever it is to that folder and it is installed. Saves a lot of clicking. This works for me on XP.

What Jack and I use are specially made extruded tubes in an oval shape. They are then lined with a fabric liner that is sewn into compartments. An alternative - and the way we still offer to customers who wish it is to use plumbing and electrical tubes to form the interior. You simply make liners that are sewn on one side and fold them over the ends. Use something soft but durable so that the liners won't wear out and they won't harm the cue. The plumbing tubes should be about 1.25" in inside diameter and the electrical tubes should be .75". You can test this by taking a cue to the hardware store. Tape the tubes together in such a way that they can't move. Using tubes you can make virtually any shape you want - I prefer to make shapes which allow the tubes to nestle together naturally but sometimes the customer wants something else so you have to make spacers to get the shape. Spacers can be cut bits of scrap leather, foam, parts of tubes, whatever works to get a nice sturdy interior unit. Try to make it so that ends and the center are the same overall diameter. The way I do this is to cut sections of my tube liners and put them on the outside of the tube so that the tubes are connected at the same distance at four points - top, bottom, and at the quarters. Then it's just a matter of figuring out the right size to cut your parts. You don't want to be too tight as it will be hard to get the tubes in. You also don't want to be too loose as that has danger of the interior coming out. I prefer it to be snug and unmoving. I also have a pet peeve which I have built my reputation on of wanting the cues to fit snugly, almost a press or form fit. Most cue case makers don't do this and most customers don't care. Whether your guild member goes this way or not is up to them. It's much easier to not build to to this standard as the cases will be able to fit a much larger range of cues and there is never any danger of a cue getting stuck in the case. I just happen to not want my cues to rattle inside the case. You can see some examples of the interior from a top view by going here: http://www.jbcases.com/ordering.html I am sure that Jack or Rusty or Marcel, cue case makers on this forum, as well as myself will be happy to talk with your guild member and advise him on the interior. The last alternative is to buy the premade extruded tube interiors from someone like me or Jack's supplier. I haven't sold any yet but I am preparing to send some to a few cue case makers who have asked me if we can sell them. I don't even have a price in mind but if your guild member contacts me then I am sure we can work something out.

At these prices you simply ask the customer what they prefer and don't sweat the hour. Nice work, I have been a long time fan. I need to get better and charge more. :-) I'd just offer both styles. Maybe a slightly different price but honestly, I personally don't put a price on every option when it gets to the high end of my price range. I probably should as sometimes I spend way too much time on an aspect of a case that I am working out. However the balance is when people order the bread and butter stuff that we can do in our sleep now. From looks, I like both. I tend to like the one without the retainers a little more just because I prefer things a little sleeker and don't like a bunch of buckles and belts. But having said that I'd happily and proudly use either bag and I am sure that the one on teh left would get more oohs and ahhhs type comments.

Rene Berends' works is awesome and yours is too as it shows that you have picked up on what he teaches. I have seen one of his boxes with a leather hinge on it and it took me several days to create one of my own. I am still stuck on just how to do the pin on it - well maybe not as it so happens I have just had a thought as to how to do it. But once done these will make lovely and durable hinges for my cue cases. Very very nice briefcase - schlicht und sicher.

Hi, We use magnets in our case pockets once in a while and people do put their cell phones in the pockets with magnetic closures. After reading this thread I became alwamred and I did a quick Google search and couldn't find anyone who had a problem with them. Not to say that they "can't" damage an electronic item but my take on this is if they are separated from the items by several layers of leather then it's likely to be no problem. Additionally you could also put a thin layer of brass or some other material that blocks the magnetic force. (if that would work, I am not sure) Here is a picture of how we used some fairly powerful magnets for a flap closure. I don't know if they are rare-earth magnets but they are the kind that will snap and pinch your finger if you aren't careful. In this case the magnets were sewn in between layers and the leather was arranged to fit like a puzzle piece. In any event I'd be interested to read the accounts of the situations where a case manufacturer's magnetic clasps damaged someone's phone or other electronic item because I also am very enamored of using magnets in various ways for closures and the like. Here is a thing we did where I put a sort of semi-hidden compartment in a customer's case lid

Update: I had a customer choose a font that is listed as "shareware/demo" and in the terms the author asks to be contacted if you want to use the font for "commercial projects". (I think he means print/graphic design type projects) This is Joe's website www.joebob.nl I asked Joe what he thought of using fonts for leather projects and he didn't reply to that but he did give me permission to use his for mine and asked only that I send him a picture of the finished item. This guy's fonts ROCK - I highly suggest that you check them out and he has many completely FREE ones.

LOL - I am also NEW to the baby thing - we are due in four weeks. Your comment reminds me of the time I made a doggie carrier for a famous pool player. I had never made on before and didn't have a dog to measure and this was all pre-internet ca. 1993 :-) Long story short I made what could be considered a portable palace for the dog as it was about four times too big. The pool player and his wife used it as a travel bag for a while but it was way to big for the dog. I will probably end up making a baby holder/sling (don't know the official term) so I can carry the baby hands-free.

Pretty Cool - I want one!!!!! You people never cease to AMAZE me!!!

Chas is THE MAN. I had another path I could take in life then it would have been to apprentice under Chas Clements. We did some work together once upon a time and everything he tooled for our cases sold in less than one hour of putting it up for sale with no haggling. He has stamps that go back a hundred years, custom punches from half a century ago, and the knowledge and artistry to use them in just the right way. He pretty much just does jacks and saps these days due to an injury on his hand. I am so glad that you were able to get help from him!!!

Most of the fonts are free for personal use. The customer is using them personally to decorate their case. I am just the tool the customer is using. Commercial use would be using the fonts in a "typesetting" environment such as brochures, books, banners, websites and the like. Or if I took the fonts which are labeled "free for private use" and used them to make cases for sale without any customer in mind then I would consider that to be "publishing" using the fonts in a commercial setting and off limits. As long as the customer however chooses the font and it's listed as free for private use then I think it's alright. To me it's not any different than if a customer sent me a Harley Davidson patch and asked me to inlay it in their custom case. I realize that this is a grey area but the legal questions aside I think that this has the most to do with intent. My intent for example is not to commercially use all the fonts in the world but instead to allow the customers a path to choose that which they would like to see on their case. The sale of the product does not depend on the font chosen, i.e. if one is not available then the customer chooses another and the deal continues. This is quite different than if a customer comes to me and says that they want to have an exact replica of a Harley Davidson case where the deal depends on my legal right to reproduce the Harley logo in order to close the deal. In that situation I would technically be selling a "Harley Davidson" product as there would be no sale without it. If the customer however provides the logo then I operate under the assumption that they have legally purchased it (ex. Harley patch) and are free to have it attached to anything they want. For fonts that are not listed as "free for private use" I have in the past purchased commerical fonts and either charged the customer for it - about $20ish - or not if I thought it was something I would use often. Or I ask them to find a similar free alternative if they aren't dead set on one particular type. Most aren't. So, that's how I view it.

This is one of the worst experiences a craftsman can have happen to them and I believe it's happened to most of us. I had several cue cases for years that had customer's names embroidered on them where I didn't take a deposit and they never picked up the cases. I kept them around to remind me.Now I don't take deposits on items that I know I can move as soon as I let people know I have one for sale. Luckily I have a bit of a waiting list of clients who want to be informed whenever I happen to have an extra cue case for sale.Anything personalized or special-made though requires a full, non-refundable payment in advance. If a customer is not happy with the work I will do it again and again until I get it right but they don't get any money back once I start working on their special thing.I learned long ago that those who won't pay in advance are not serious about acquiring the piece. Serious buyers want to pay you extra so you'll start right now.So that's how I handle it. Hope that this helps you.One thing that can soften the blow for what the customer did you to is to think of the amount you lost as marketing money. I just look at it as an investment and the jerk of a customer as a charity case because he obviously needs the money more than me if he is willing to pretty much steal my time. I know that feeling. :-)What I do is just put my price on it and resolve to be happy with it. The best thing in the world is when they feel like the piece is worth more than what they were quoted.That just equals repeat business and referrals.

Here is something that I offer to my customers that has started saving me A LOT of time. I used to spend a lot of time playing with fonts to find "the one" that looks right. Of course there are a few favorites. Well, I got tired of sending font suggestions to customers and the back and forth that goes along with it. Sooooooo, I got on google and discovered www.dafont.com where most of the fonts are free and the customer can type in their text and see it displayed in all the fonts they have. Plus it's good for me since I can go there and find stuff I need - like recently a customer said he wanted "the Brooklyn Dodger font" ????? And that is? So I found on DaFont that was very similar - customized it a little and problem solved. Since doing this my design time on names is drastically cut down, the lettering is exactly what the customer wants and the pieces are that much more unique since I am not playing favorites with a few fonts I really like. So I hope this helps some of you out. www.dafont.com This is how I present it to the customer - How To Order a J.Flowers Case Still a work in progress.

Just thought I'd show off something else we did besides pool cue cases. Took the Sheridan pattern from one of Ron Ross' books and applied it in a different way.

Great Work as always Rusty! Now put it on AZ!

I will have my wife contact them in Chinese and report back to you all how to get these tools. We can broker them as I am in China.

I was thinking it was going to be a case for a traveling stamping master. A music man of lederkraft, the Johnny Appleseed of dreams on skin. I saw you traveling the world and leaving a wake of starry eyed new leather workers taking up the craft. :-) Really REALLY nice work.