UKRay

I wish it did... I saw those Weaver spacers a while back. I will need to strip the machine down to get an exact size on the shaft but it looks to be around 1 1/8" - I am using it to cut a load of 1" straps at present and don't want to mess with the thing until I'm done! LOL I'm sure a local metalwork shop can make me a set but it was worth asking in case someone had some in their toolbox. Thanks for your interest. Ray

A set of 10 spacers will cost around £65.00 + tax new from Merkle so I can't afford the four or five sets that would make the splitter really useful to me. lso Merkle only make in metric sizes these days which means I would need to change all my designs and patterns to suit. Given that the spacers are simply machine turned bits of aluminium they ought to be quite cheap to buy - or even have someone make them (which is my next plan!). Ray

Not much else to say about this machine other than it is my own workshop machine and is regularly oiled and cared for. I have just purchased a brand new machine and need the space. I'm offering it here first, then on eBay with a starting price of £150. This machine is in good working order with no rust or nasties hiding anywhere. I have personally used it regularly. It works. Prospective buyers are welcome to try the machine in my workshop - bring your own leather! Forum members: £150 no offers - buyer to collect from my workshop in Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 1RU. Sold as seen and tested on site. I will not ship this machine. Drop me a PM if you are interested. Ray

I've just finished overhauling my old Merkle strap cutter and could do with knife spacers of different sizes. Has anyone got any? Happy to pay cash plus shipping from anywhere in the world. Drop me a PM to tell me what you have. Cheers, Ray

Tasha, You are in grave danger of sounding nice... do be careful! LOL Ray P.S. Nice job Vikti - I bet her friends are jealous! R.

Bub, I would second the good advice you just got from iwannabeacowboy - especially the bit about looking in the forums for information - and add the following suggestion: Enjoy the feeling of being new to leatherwork for as long as you can - relax in the sure and certain knowledge that the money in your pocket is not committed to hand tools, machinery or large lumps of dead animal. Enjoy not having an overwhelming urge to abandon your family and friends and shut yourself away in a room that smells of chemicals - okay, I know they are nice smelling chemicals... Feel good about being able to buy a round of drinks without being angry with yourself that you just spent enough money to buy four new embossing stamps. In short, you have all this to come - right now your problems are simple and inexpensive to resolve - trust me things can only, and will only, get worse! Ray

Nice job, Roo, a very effective design. It looks like spring is coming to the southern hemisphere... the sunshine has just about dried up round here! Ray

You'd want to be very careful how you sat down with that in your pocket... Ray

...and you chewed my ears off the other week for having too many machines - Doh! LMAO I guess the difference is you know how to use yours, Luke! I have an ultra-heavy duty Highlead GA2688-1 cylinder arm harness machine that I use every day and I've just purchased a new Highlead GC0618-1-SC flatbed machine. I also have no less than 3 x Singer 29k patching machines plus an ancient hand-crank Singer and a neat little Janome that I use for linings and thin stuff. Ray

Nice job, Tom. I wondered about making myself one of those using a tiny compartmented fishing fly box with a leather 'wrapper' but never got around to it. Glad to see you are still moving about. Just keep taking the pills! Cheers, Ray

You never take on anything easy, do you, Paul! LOL Candy Dulfer is one amazing musician... Ray

Great looking bag and really nicely made. What sewing machine did you use? Ray

Hey Barra, Are you sure you really want to go there? I keep dropping in but I'm always on my own. I have never actually found anyone else online! Maybe everyone has a problem? Or maybe it is just me... LOL Ray

Brent, Thanks for the suggestion, but I can't find Minwax anywhere in the UK - does anyone know what the UK brand name might be? iwannabeacowboy, I tried a couple of those exterior finishes and wasn't too impressed. They seemed to take a long time to apply and dry and I need something that is very quick and easy so the job remains cost effective. Ed, I completely agree about the Fiebing's spirit dyes. USMC Black gives very good results. I'll take your advice and try some spray Neat-Lac on the next batch and see what happens. Although I'm keen to try anything that makes a better job, I have to say that Skidmore's Restoration Cream is pretty impressive stuff and will take some beating. It dries hard and just needs a quick polish to bring up a nice finish. I tried it on another woodworking job today (a picture frame) and that looks great too. Ray

My thoughts exactly - but they were both in the same time period so I guess that is understandable!

Paul, that was my experience with Aussie too, it went on okay but didn't seem to seal the colour into the wood - in fact it almost seemed to lift the colour as though it was a solvent. I had to leave it for a while to soak in and then it wasn't too bad. The Skidmore's, however, soaked in quickly and sealed the wood very well. Much the same as it does with leather. All the products I tried worked to a certain extent, but some worked better than others! I'm still experimenting... Ray

Thanks for all your suggestions. My main problem has been sourcing the right product for the job here in the UK... Having tried a number of products over the past couple of days - including all the leather finishes on my shelf - I have had the best results from beeswax based cream finishes. Top products IMHO are carnauba wax which works quite well but is a bit sticky (could be the age of the pot I was using...) and Skidmore's Restoration Cream which is quick and easy to use and seals the barrette sticks up nicely. I ended up with a cloth impregnated with Skidmores Restoration Cream and simply gave each stick a quick wipe over. I then gave each stick a polish with a clean cloth to take away any surplus cream and they looked great. Much better, in fact, than simply stain dipped. Much more 'finished' looking. BTW - I have started using a quick drying spirit based stain - it takes around ten seconds to dry - the fumes are pretty lively, but with all the windows and doors open it clears pretty quickly. I tried some of the spray/stain finish products on sale here in the UK but wasn't too impressed. There is a much bigger range available in the US. I used Skidmore's and was very happy with the finish, but I'm sure almost any cream type beeswax product would work well enough. Ray

That picture of Jack and the moose is something else, Oldtimer! I really like the look of the Bayerishe gebirg Schweisshund. A 'no messing' sort of a dog. The ridgebacks we see over here are the Rhodesian Ridgebacks bred for lion hunting in Africa, Terrahyd - is this the same breed? Okay,Dustin29, so you chased the coon for a mile and it ran up a tree - now how do you get the coon out of the tree (shoot it?) and what do you do with it then? Ray

That Rust-Oleum stuff is good but I can't get it here in the UK - nice idea though, Terrahyd, thanks. I'll definitely look out for something similar. Meanwhile, any other thoughts? Ray

A week or so ago someone was asking about barrette sticks and it started me thinking about ways to improve the look of my products. Like most folk I take a bit of dowelling, sharpen one end and stain it a darker colour - that is pretty much it. Now the bad news: I just had a play with some finished sticks and found that the dye I use comes off on my hands... not good. I need to find a way to seal the sticks so this doesn't happen again. Anyone got any good ideas on this - remember I'm generally doing these in batches of 100+ at a time so the process needs to be pretty quick. I dip the sticks to colour them - is there a finish that can be applied in the same way? What about a wax finish of some kind? What about leather finishes, anyone tried them on wood? Your contributions gratefully received. Ray edited due to my inability to spell...

Hi Rick, All my marketing is at 'zero cost' with no monthly fees - I definitely don't have any spare money! LOL To set up the signpost sites simply use a free blog site - I like Google's Blogger - check out www.blogger.com It takes an hour or so until you have the measure of Blogger but having got the idea you can make sites really quickly and best of all, they don't cost a penny. All you need is a few good digital pictures of your stuff. Blogger even re-sizes the images perfectly for you. The real advantage is that Google - arguably the most used search engine on the planet - almost certainly looks internally (in other words at its own free 'web real estate' like Blogger, Google Knols, Google Base etc) before it looks externally at 'paid for' web sites like yours and mine. This means that any signpost sites you set up on their free pages are found first and their links add value to your 'paid for' pages whilst simultaneously creating a huge net to catch passers by. I'm far from being a web guru but I can assure you it works for me. And it is free! Ray P.S. The only other thing you have to do to make this work really well is to visit all kinds of forums where your customers may be lurking (you probably go there anyway) and tell them about your 'useful information' pages. Don't push your business at them, people don't like being sold to. Just tell them where to find the useful information... Add the appropriate signpost page URL to your forum signature too...

Some time back I suggested that people might like to try creating 'online signposts' to their websites to round up a few more visitors. I gave as examples, my own signpost sites and I just thought it was time to let you know how things are going. In order to measure success and failure I installed Google Analytics on my e-commerce website: www.barefootleather.co.uk I also installed it on a number of 'signpost' sites including: www.oldleathercare.blogspot.com www.bikeleather.blogspot.com www.1940sleather.blogspot.com These sites are simply information sites that target my chosen customer groups - in other words I write copy that appeals to my chosen customers and publish it on these blog sites - advice, useful information, suggestions etc. They also carry a number of links to my brand new e-commerce page (www.barefootleather.co.uk) so people can buy the goods they have read about. Still with me? Good! - Now all this Google Analytics stuff simply means that I can see how many people are visiting my signpost sites and see how many click on the links to www.barefootleather.co.uk. I can also watch the traffic to www.barefootleather.co.uk and see if visitor numbers increase when I make changes to the other sites. The first thing I found was that numbers didn't increase quickly - it was almost imperceptible at first but after three weeks numbers started to grow steadily. I went from 0 visitors a month to almost 500 in about six weeks. My next step was to look at what I sell most of and create specialist signpost sites for those buyers - here are some examples: www.whippetcollar.blogspot.com www.lurchercollar.blogspot.com www.greyhoundcollar.blogspot.com I'm about to set up a few more signpost sites and expect to see an appropriate increase in traffic as they go live. The big thing for me has been that it is obvious when a signpost site is working because you sell more of that product. This week I have been selling lots of lurcher, whippet and greyhound collars and almost all of those customers have come from the signpost sites. My takings have increased and my profit has improved as I can now order larger quantities of buckles and leather. Hope this is useful to you - It works for me! Ray

Hi John, there are quite a number of Brits on this forum. In the main we're a friendly bunch! Your knives look superb. What wood have you used for the handles? Ray

Tal, if you want to be original you might like to use pretty coloured pencils... I saw some very nice looking Barettes made using these a while back and wondered how they would sell. Otherwise, a trip to your local wood store to buy a length of dowelling and an hour or two with a saw and pencil sharpener will give you plenty to be getting on with. I like to stain mine black or dark brown - just my personal choice but they do seem to sell better somehow. Have fun, Ray

I sell: key fobs (initialled and decorated) wrist bands with names on; made whilst people wait belts bags book marks belt pouches zippo pouches pendants leather laces saddle soap Skidmore's Leather Restoration Cream - a top seller beeswax thread run out of memory... need to re-boot! Ray