maxdaddy

Here's a few of my recent hats that I wear often.... a fedora, a porkpie, and a bowler. (Apologies for appearing in the bowler picture... I don't have a picture of it on a prop. ) The bowler gets the most comments and questions from strangers, by far. I used from patterns from Tony See (DieselpunkRO) as starting points. Even if I'll likely never sell a hat they are a lot of fun to make and wear out.

I'm in Florida and wear my own leather hats all of the time. I've made several styles for myself and enjoy switching up the look. I get comments on them and occasionally the question comes up of "how much I would charge to make one for them?" I never suggest that I make them to sell, but some folks think that I should be happy to make one for them with the same look for about $40. When I explain that there's about 8 hours worth of work that goes into one (depending on the style), plus the cost of the leather I say that if I did sell them I'd probably charge a couple hundred. I've never had anyone respond that they felt that a leather hat was worth that much. Hats are not something that I would be able to make and sell profitably in my area of Central Florida. It seems that most folks are happy to buy something mass-produced.

Wow, that's impressive. Have you had any of your pieces used in other films?

Thanks for sharing that with us. I've never heard of 'greases' being applied to or into leather.

That piece turned out great. He's clearly proud of it and you should be too.

Welcome to the forum as a contributor. It sounds like you've worked through lots of efficiency improvements over the years and hopefully you'll share some of the insights with us. It really is a strange scenario when one person looks at a handmade leather item and thinks "that guy must be getting rich selling those things for $XXX" yet we look at the same piece walking out the door and think "dang, I made way less than minimum wage on that piece".

Nice work. That red border stamp really pops out.

That's a very meaningful gift.

I wish I had known that $15 was a bargain price to pay for a well-designed pattern. Admittedly, initially I did learn a lot by struggling along trying to make hats, bags, and whatnot based on my own designs, but when Tony See (DieselpunkRO) had a 50% off discount a few years ago I bought a few hat patterns. My skills improved a lot once I had good patterns to start with. I also found that it made it easier to come up with my own designs for other custom pieces once I had cut and assembled some well-designed pieces. I've bought many patterns from other designers since then, including from some of the folks who contribute to this forum.

Those are certain to be family treasures. They look great.

Looks great... I always struggle with getting my hat bands to look and fit right.

Wow, that's stunning. A gold-medal project!!

That's a unique wallet. What weight leather did you use? In addition to the engraving do you cut the pieces and the stitching holes with the laser?

That's cool... I'm interested in knowing what you buy and how it works out. I did perform a test with some Envirotex Lite brand epoxy just to see how it worked and it was VERY messy and much more difficult to apply than the beeswax. The company says it is safe for food contact, like a cutting board, but not rated for immersion, like a bowl or cup. So, I just did it to test how I would apply an epoxy to the inside of a mug in the style that I make. Beeswax cools from liquid to solid much faster than the epoxy hardens which means that the epoxy will try to settle to the lowest point for several minutes, and while it's settling it is trying to find stitching holes to seep through. So I had to keep rotating the mug to keep it from collecting at the bottom, all the while it was getting on my hands. Good luck!

Looks good Frodo. I've made well over a hundred mugs that I sealed with beeswax have never had an issue with the wax melting. It is susceptible to cracking if dropped/squeezed/compressed too hard. But under normal usage melting will not be an issue. I've even left mugs outside on my picnic table in the sun for a few days at a time with no harm done. If you use it for cold and room temperature drinks it will be fine. I've always been able to get 10 pound blocks of beeswax from a local keeper so that's what I started with. Unfortunately he passed away last week so I may have to explore other options. I'll probably try some of Townsend's pitch and I can give a full report here if anyone is interested. Shoot me a message if you want me to mail a bit of beeswax to you to do this. Or, better yet, mail it to me and I'll seal it here and send it back. You'll want a double-boiler to be safe and it took me a while to get the technique figured out to apply a nice smooth thick coating.

That's nice.... I remember going to Weeki Wachee as a kid and seeing the mermaids.

I've got a bunch of these as well. The best use that I can come up with would be as 'spots' if that's the right term. They wouldn't exactly be ideal in that role since they would be fastened from near the center instead of at the edges like a true 'spot' would be. BUT, when you have lemons... (you make lemonade). I have decorated a guitar strap with them and that worked fine. I did try assembling some snaps with them, just to see if it would work and it does sorta work, but not great. The prongs are difficult to bend over and the fact that the prongs are long makes them fill up the 'floor' of the socket which prevents the stud piece from mating all the way in.

Honest question here... is that why biker wallets typically have chains and belt loops?

That looks great. Now you'll have to figure out an answer to the question that she's gonna hear the most... "how much would he charge to make one for me?"

Wow, that is a really impressive looking bag. Nice job!

Looks great to me. The only thing missing is a pouch for your lighter.

That jar has remnants of every nail, steel wool, washers, and other flotsam that has ever been put in it going back about five years. Maybe once a year I'll scoop off the solids from the surface but I never empty it out and start from a fresh clean jar. When the liquid gets low I just stir in more vinegar and nails. It has never failed to produce nice deep black results.

Wow, every detail of every piece is top notch! That's really beautiful work.

You could smudge some ash on it perhaps? It would probably look more natural than trying to use a paint. Your final seal coat should hold it in place. It looks like he gouged out a few divots on his. You can probably find a tool in your shop that can help you add some similar looking scars in the leather.

Bob, thanks for sharing your progress with this. All I can say is WOW. I remember watching a show on PBS back in the '80s that showed a 3-second long clip of a car manufacturer prototyping parts using a 'new technique called stereo lithography'. As the finished piece was raised out of the liquid my head nearly exploded with the possibilities. I even recorded the show on VHS when it aired again so I could show it to friends and re-watch that seconds-long clip in amazement. I had no idea that this had been brought to the desktop for under $300! What's the size of that latest stamp? The 4-day project?