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The wire one looks like an old fashioned paper bills spike for a desk. The last one looks better. I prefer a large area on the end of the arm for my hats to hang on. You used to get special hat hanging hooks which had a big ball on the end A table tennis ball with a slot cut in it slipped over that arm would do the job. The t-t ball could be spray painted before fitting. It helps stop a crease or dinge forming in the hat material Old style hat hook;

To me, absolutely NO. They are not custom made but production line made. Custom made is to your requirements. Whether it is customizing a car, motorcycle, EDC bag or boots, the item is made and/or altered to the customer's requirements Obviously these boots do fit that description. I'd send them back and get a full refund for both the cost and sending them back and threaten legal action forthwith

Something I find I have always to remind people; what the seller is asking for is different to what they get. How many items has this dealer sold at their prices? And as we have discovered, feedback left is no true indicator I have a friend who uses ebay to price the model kits he wants to sell. Its usually ' someone is selling this one for £70 so I'll price mine at £65.' BUT if you go on ebay, on a list on the left you can find things that have sold, sales completed. In that model kit scenario when we looked, the average price for his kit which had sold was under £20

I have an idea , its not always good for me to have ideas, it hurts my brain. This is sort-of adapted from two of my past businesses; a photographic studio* and a vintage vehicle restoration company** Get a few knives off the chap, and make two or three sheaths, just plain or with stamping. Just basic. Use a stop-watch to time your actual working time; don't count dye or glue drying time. See how those go. Work out a fair price for yourself. Then tell the chap how much the sheaths are costing him. Allow him to take them home and consider them and the price. Give him 2 (no less) to 4 weeks (about maximum) to either return the sheaths or pay for them. I'll bet you a jammie donut that on the 4 weeks he'll pay up. Then tell him you'll make three or four sheaths per month, or whatever you're comfortable with, and he can pay for those as you go on. Make sure he gives you a deposit which covers at least the material, then if he pulls out of the deal you are only out time * in my photo studio business I did family and children portraits. I used to get sales of large expensive framed photos by getting one done first. A gilt framed 20 x 16 looked big in the studio. The person, usually one of the parents, would refuse to buy it. I 'loaned' it to them for 4 weeks or so. I told them I'd get it back off them after that for use in my window or reception room display. 99% of times they ended up buying the photo. They had hung it somewhere prominent, had got used to it and when they took it down to return to me they noticed the big empty space on the wall. I would reduce the price by 10% for them as it had been hanging, it was 'used'. The 10% reduction was already factored into the main price but no one can refuse a bargain. Chink-chink, money in the coffers. Plus; other family members who had visited and saw the 20 x 16 often ordered framed 10 x 8s. Chink-chink, more money in the coffers So if you let the chap have some nicely done sheaths he'll get used to having them and will be reluctant to give them back. Even if he does, you've had practice and can use them as examples of work done In a side business which I ran was to re-build vintage cars and small vans. This started out with me hiring in a couple of men to rebuild and maintain my own collection of cars and vans. Soon other vehicle owners were coming to me to do their car or van. With these rebuilds we are looking at, minimum of £3000 to over £100, 000. Very few people were, or can fork out even £3000 for work on their classic car, so I had a simple contract. Basically you pay us what you can afford when you can and we will do work to that value. Most vehicle owners paid us about £200 a month and they got £200 worth of time & parts on their vehicle. This method was painless to the vehicle owner, kept my cash flow, er. . . flowing and gave my men a variety of different vehicles to work on. On average, not including my own, they had 6 different vehicles to work on. So, by offering this chap say 4 sheaths a month, that's one a week, not too hard to do. Your work will improve on each one. The chap will have paid a deposit, say $50, your price is $35 per (is that about right people?) at the end of 4 weeks or 1 month he owes you $90. He can 'buy' the next 4 when he can afford to, same thing, deposit and final payment when done. No big contract betwixt youse, just an understanding

Thats a cute idea for Pinocchio's nose or, Clint Eastwood's 'man with no name' character's ceegarrs

Because the sheeple have been softened & brainwashed into being obedient slaves. As long as they get their cappuccino in Starbucks every lunch time they don't care that they don't have the rights and freedoms the likes of you enjoy. Only a few brave people try to rebel but they are arrested and sent to prison for trying. Ever heard of George Orwell, a writer? In 1948 he wrote a book called '1984'. He predicted what the UK is now like. Including 'thought police'. Just last weekend a man was arrested for wearing a Tee with 97 and the words 'not enough' on it. The police decided this was offensive. They put their own interpretation on what it means. The man has said nothing. yup Remember, I'm half US & half British. I still use a US passport. I see it from both sides. The US part of me wants to rebel, get up and shout at people to stop being sheeple. . . .but, I'm a coward Protect your rights & freedoms ! Don't let them be slowly and secretly eroded away btw; a bit of my family history; my paternal grandfather was one of the thousands* of ex-WW1 soldiers who marched on Washington Caitol in the early 1920s when they tried to stop the WW1 Vets pensions and invalidly payments. They had to march on Washington twice as far as I remember and they took over that big park, the one with the big fish-pond in it, near Abe's Memorial, and camped there. Gramps said the Gov sent the police and Guard out to get rid of the Vets, but most joined the protesting Vets as they were mostly Vets themselves! And Gramps marched on Washington a few other times and to Illinois Gov in protest about the liquor prohibition * one of thousands but thousands of rivets holds a ship together (an old saying, sometimes rivets or nails)

so am I. But there is a cheat for us; Tandy 3D stamps. Just stamp something like a deer's head, or a leaping fish on the sheath. Makes us look good eg. Tandy 3D Deer stamp https://www.tandyleather.world/collections/tools/products/whitetail-deer-craftool-3-d-stamp Tandy 3D leaping fish stamp https://www.tandyleather.world/collections/tools/products/trout-craftool-3-d-stamp Lots of different stamps, cheap as chips, easy to use, makes us look like artists I used various ones on these pen cases

Trim the artwork and sew it onto a new cover in applique fashion

Nice, good idea. No one here uses the US style lunch box. They should. Do you work in a place where others bring their lunch in traditional styled lunch boxes? You may get interest and an order or two when they see your fancy one PS. You need to work on your stitching line. We can discuss that after class tomorrow

Ach, durn it, I was gontae patent my method !

An extreme method, an old one used for stretching shoes/boots. Get a piece of wood, solid or ply, cut and shape to match the tablet exactly. Then cut in half. Soak the leather. Insert both pieces of wood, hammer them down into the case. Keep the case from drying out. Get a piece of thin steel bar. Hammer that down into the slot where the two wood pieces come together. The thickness of the steel bar needs to be the same as that lost by the saw cut plus about 1/2 or 1mm. All this should force the leather inside the case to compress and the case to stretch a bit

Suggestion; two thin layers of leather, 2oz to 3oz, or maybe 4oz, about 1.5mm max, sandwiched in between put a piece of compressed cardboard, like the cardboard on the 'do not fold' board backed envelopes. Make the cardboard about 1/2 inch on each side smaller than the leather. Glue the leather to the board and to each other. Make sure that 1/2 inch border all round is really well and truly stuck together. Then sew around the perimeter. Add metal corners to the outside corners. Punch holes through the cover pieces, add the Chicago Screws Sewn and metal corners like on this book cover;

That may be more like the strap I had. afair I had to pull the end of the strap down a wee bit to get it off. But like, its over 40 years since I used one

That deserves I like it, I must try to remember it