Ian

Hey Dave, long time no chat. Yes, I'm about over it now. Here's another funny part of the story. He really is a good friend, but man, I wonder about the priorities. I spoke to him today - he was is Vegas, getting ready to take a $200 helicopter ride. He's also tattooed from head to toe - work that costs him $100 an hour. Just put 5 grand into his bike, and here I am losing sleep over whether I charged him too much. I am soooo close to giving up this craft, or business in general - I just can't seem to get pricing right. The plumber (also a friend) has no problem asking for $75 an hour when he comes over, neither does the electrician, or the dude who installed the replacement windows, or the mechanic who works on my car. If all of us could get that kind of dough, the truism about starving craftsmen would be obsolete.

So, this guy, says - "can you make me a set of saddlebags exactly like the ones I have now". "Sure thing" Well, the bags he had were the aweful imported bags made of split leather. I know about those bags, because I once bought a bunch to sell at a flea market. They cost $35 wholesale, but were so bad, I couldn't even dump them for $20. Still, I didn't want to tell him that his bags were basically crap, because he's a friend and a nice guy. But, I digress. This guy, I'll call him Ray (because that's his name) insisted that the new bags be identical, except made of good leather. There were all kinds of deficiencies in the design, like the straps being spaced wrong and too long, but I was able to talk him into welted seams and more overlap of the flap, heavier back, etc. Still I wasn't happy with the design at all, but I made them (pic below, along with the old bags after a year). Now Ray, in looking at some pictures of other bags I'd made said "I wish you'd have made them like these". DUDE, THAT"S WHAT I WAS TELLING YOU!! Well, to make the story longer, today we went to a show and were looking at bikes, etc. There's this dude selling some seats. Now, I don't claim to be an expert seat maker, but I do what I can and have seen enough hundreds of seats to know what's good and bad technique. I forgot to mention, I also made Ray's seat last year (pic attached along with the old bags). Well, Ray spots a seat, which to my eye was pretty bad - just roughly cut outlines and painted design, with 'X' style braid. His comment was "check that out, it's much better than mine". Now, like I said my seats can't compare with the professionals I admire, but they aren't as bad as what we were looking at. And to add to that I charge my friends very little for the work I do for them. I was pretty much floored. Anyway, this rant is more to get this off my chest and avoid saying something that will ruin a friendship, but jeeez! Thanks for letting me vent.

I was going to say Weaver too. Not only do they have a better selection than just about anyone, but most of their hardware comes in several finishes - solid brass, chrome brass, stainless or nickle plated steel (which is almost all Tandy sells). If you have a tax number, they are the folks to buy from as far as I'm concerned. For purse and luggage hardware - Ohio Travel Bag.

Wow, breathtaking!

Although this is not strictly a leather topic, I made a tutorial for my customers on how to mold a fiberglass seat pan if they'd like to do their own rather than have me do it. I posted the video on my web site if anyone would like to take a look. Merry Christmas everyone. http://www.blackcanyonleather.net/Videos.html

It's been quite a while since I've been on the forum - it's been one heck of a summer. I closed on my new house (well actually a very old house), so between keeping up with orders and doing all the stuff involved in the VERY long mortgage process, I've been off line for a while. The good news is that I now have a very large garage which I'll be converting to my new shop when it thaws out, and thanks to the government welfare (oops, stimulous) I'll have 8 grand to put into the shop, some machines and restocking leather. Also, got my web site somewhat finished. It's good to be back on LW http://blackcanyonleather.net/

53 in January - or 45 in Match.com years

It is a very easy pattern to make - sorry, I don't give my own patterns out, but I can tell you how to make one. I did a little tutorial on making a bag for a rigid - give me a couple of days, and I'll draw up some diagrams for you on how to make your pattern. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2161&view=&hl=saddlebag&fromsearch=1 This one had a single strap rather than the regular two strap style, but it's the same type of bag.

Here's a story that happened this Saturday. One with a very happy ending though. I was out raking leaves, when a car stopped at the curb and the lady says "are you the guy that does leatherwork". Turns out, her dad was the supervisor for the leather department at Smith and Wesson for many years, but now has a bunch of leather tools for sale (when S&W closed their leather dept, he got the stuff). So, of course I headed straight over there. Well, his cellar is jam packed with stuff - tables full of tools, thread, cases of snaps, etc, etc, etc. He also had a home business making awnings, so there was all that stuff too. The old dude was obviously kind of senile, and the first thing he says to me is (handing me a holster) "you can't do this!" Actually, though a pretty nice holster, it was manufactured - die cut, with a simple floral tooling which was not the best anyway. I said "I could make that". OMG, fire works "No you can't" and then a steady stream of put down comments, but I wisely held my tounge as I rumaged through the treasure - all the while getting blasted by the codger. It became obvious that the old guy was very familiar with the manufacture of what S&W made, but for 30+ years had supervised other folks stitching together die cut pieces and that was the extent of his knowledge. But, he wasn't about to have some whipper-snapper dismiss his experience. Anyway, to make a long story short, when I ran home to get cash, I brought back some of my showcase stuff to show him. The tone changed, and he became very helpfull and pleasant. The off shoot was that I went away with several single tube punches, some strap end punches, a couple of round knives, 2 dividers, a whole bundle of very nice basketweave stamps and camoflage tools and bevelers (made by Craftool, but a lot nicer than the ones I have), 5 edgers, 4 sides of leather - for $165.00. All the tools are in near perfect condition. I'll be going back next weekend to get a bunch more stuff. He has some nice mauls and I'll be stocking up on 'Lift the Dot' snaps (he has thousands of them) plus eyelets thread and other goodies. Who knows what olther stuff is buried down there? So, the moral of the story is - boy am I ever glad I was patient with that ole' know-it-all.

Thanks everyone Ray, I used my Consew 206RB Jordan, I'm not ready to go into the handbag business yet - I like my regular customers too much to take the plunge into trying to make Divas happy. Max, it will have some adjustment - the 1 1/2 inch billets have the adjustment, and taper down to an inch strap. I'm going to run it over to a friends house today - his wife has a bunch of those stupidly expensive bags, so I'll have something to compare with. Actually, I wish I'd done that first before the trial and error.

My sister came up from N. Carolina for a visit. I was showing her some of my stuff. She said "Oooh can you make me a handbag?" Without thinking I said "of course". Then I had to figure out how. After playing with cardboard for a few hours, this is what I came up with. I started at 9 this morning, and it's 9.30pm now, and just got done. I still need to make a strap - just got to figure out how long to make it. I'm quite happy with the result, even though it's more of a construction exersize than leatherwork.

I did a seat that had a carved and airbrushed leperchaun on it. I finished the seat last year - saw the bike a couple of weeks ago, and the green is not just faded, it's completely gone. The whole leperchaun is just natural leather color now. I meant to take a picture of it to ask the same question. Also Fiebings.

In the days when I had a regular business number in the phone book, it was constant and relentless. My workshop area and retail area were seperate, so every call required me to drop what I was doing and go around to the store. Sure as sheets it was always when I had started stitching or glueing. Drove me up the freaking wall - that and walk-in salespeople.

I don't get high end customers very often, but I'm wondering what it runs per foot, and what quanitity you need to purchse (surely not a full side)

For my money, I'd choose the San Diego area. The Hollywood area is cool and funky (and expensive) , but beyond that it's solid traffic 24/7. I stayed at Universal City and drove out to Anneheim 2 days in a row. OMG I have never seen so many cars in my life - 10 lanes, bumper to bumper for as far as the eye can see. Interesting though, the motorcyclists split lanes, so while you're sitting there, the bikes roar between the lanes, inches from the cars on either side - gave me cold chills, and I guess there are LOTS of crashes. When I was in San Diego, I explored the outlying areas and found some cool little towns in the valleys - kind of dumpy - just like I like them, but the locals tell me it is over 100 degrees most of the summer, so I ruled out that option as a place to move. But, no, Dave, I wouldn't move to LA, myself. Any place affordable really sucks. Long beach is expensive too, but it might be possible to find an affordable pocket that isn't over-run with gangs. If I were you, I'd find an out of the way town to live and travel to were you're looking to sell. With the average price of a house on the coast at 400,000, you'd have to sell a lot of belts and stuff.

Bob, the one I'm looking at is the power edge slicker with a sanding drum on one spindle and a slicker on the other Then, I found this too http://www.amazon.com/Jet-577110-JSB-10L-1...r/dp/B00062NEXW but I see it's 1700rpm

Thanks Dave - yes, that's kind of pricey for me, but I checked out your website, and your work is awesome. Thanks for taking the time to reply Thanks Jordan, I'll start my search at Harbor Freight

I've been toying with the idea of a benchtop sander/buffer, like the one Weaver sells (spindles coming out horizontal). Rather than fork out the bucks, I was wondering if a similar small sander is used in woodworking, or other industries, if so, what is the correct name for such a tool, so I can search for it. Also, has anyone converted a small grinding wheel for that purpose, and if so, what would be needed to convert it to a sander? Info would be much appreciated.

AZ, I do it a tad differently than some of the other guys. After puching the holes for the bolts, I glue it to the underside of the pan,so rivets aren't needed - once it's laced or stiched on, it won't go anywhere. Here are a couple of pictures of undersides the way I do them

As I found, you can't lace belts with it, simply because it requires a heck of a tight lacing to keep it flat, but it is used on saddles, where the leather is thick enough to pull it through the slots. I imagine that even then, it would be very difficult to use. Actually, I'm not even crazy about the way it looks, because it has a dull finish rather than the chrome-like look I had pictured before I saw it up close. The sterling silver wire would be a much better choice, though it runs $7.69 a foot, and I haven't yet had an order for a belt of that value. Here's a link to various silver wire products http://www.metalliferous.com/pdf/silver/SS...ezel%20Wire.pdf

Weaver has it, but a word of caution, I bought a roll to do exactly what you are, and it was too stiff and hard to work with for a belt. I think sterling bezel wire would be a better option or silver leather. Though, if you're set on the stainless, I can send you some (no charge, of course) if you know the exact length you'll be needing, but I couldn't get this stuff to work for a belt.

Thanks for the nice words folks. I forgot to mention, it's not bronze as it appears to be, but Sculpey Clay painted with spray paint and antiqued with acrylic paint.

A while back I had this crazy idea I wanted to be a horse sculptor, so I did a figure of an Andalusian stallion and a couple of others. A friend, who is an artist himself, suggested I enter it in a guild show. I wasn't too optomistic since there were 3 professional sculptors showing too, but, low and behold, I got best of show for my first effort. Here's a picture (still haven't made my light box, so the quality is poor) and another of a Morgan circus horse, I'd like to cast in resin for a pair of bookends. I've since lost interest in sculture, but I have something cool for my bookshelf anyway

Personally, I'm sick to death of the liberal vs. conservative crap. We are expected to choose one side or the other with nothing in between. Both sides will bend over backwards to excuse their own behaviour while pointing fingers at the same behaviour from the other side. If anyone thinks that the conservative movement is the movement of the rich, how do they explain the FACT that the wealthiest states (in terms of per-capita income) are liberal - California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York. And how surprising that these are the states on the verge of bancruptcy brought about by their policies. And, strangely have the highest tax rates in the nation. Whereas Texas, without a state income tax created more jobs in the past 5 years than all other states combined - and not through socialist stimulous packages. Just as Cheney was crucified for his association with Haliburton (never mind that Clinton gave contacts to Haliburton for all of his own conflicts), Obama's election was bought by General Electric, whose mouth piece NBC ripped the flesh from Obama's opponents - and, oh, what a surprize that the CEO of GE is on the team of economic advisors now, and, the new lighbulbs we will be mandated to use will be made by....well, GE, as well as the components of the windmills that will soon cover our landscapes. Does anyone with any intellegence see that the parties are bought? Personally, I don't care who the h--- marries who, and certainly have no control over how many kids of flushed down the drain so their mothers can continue their behaviour. But, I DO care that our country is being turned into a dependant bunch of losers, so their votes can be bought. The idiots (of both parties) have be legislating and regulating and piling on taxes and fees for as long as there has been a country. The kids of today have half of the freedom we had at their age and I shudder to think what restrictions their children will live under. All the while, the dummies think they are gaining in freedom because it is easier to smoke some weed. For all their hopes and dreams of legal drugs (which, by the way, I'm one person who believes that I have the right to ingest anything I choose [although I don't even drink]), I laugh to think that the brainwashed masses cheering their pied piper will be paying 75% of their incomes in taxes within 15 years. So...I'd rather waste my vote and vote Libertarian than join the puppet brigade and vote for the sanctioned parties. At least that way, I can keep the dream alive that one day we'll have the freedom our forefathers came here for. And, for anyone who thinks the flag fyling from my porch is a shallow display of meaningless patriotism, well what I have to say to you will probably get me kicked of the board for good.

Jordan, I hate to break it to you but the citizenship exam was ridiculously easy. When I first applied, I was given a reading list of books deaing with history, government and geography. I studied like a maniac for weeks until I could answer every one of the hundreds of sample questions perfectly. When the time came to take the test, I remember the first question was 'what are the colors of the flag?', and how many 'original states were there?' On the last question, I made the mistake of saying "there were 13 original colonies". The examiner said "of course you'd say colonies since you're British" (but he gave me the point anyway) LOL