fredk

Its been a while since I done that My usual, sometimes too bluddy often, mistake is to take what I think is a waste off-cut and think 'That piece will do nicely for this, it just needs cutting down to shape' then after its been cut down, its 'Oh Sh*t' as I realise that piece was a cut piece for an on-going stalled project. And invariably it was the last good piece available for the stalled project. No repair. You'll not be happy or content until you remake & replace that slashed panel. And it'll be one of the bestest panels you'll ever do!

If I may, I'll add some more. Not leatherwork but when I had a wooden toy making company. I was once asked about producing a number of wooden toys for a shop that was going to specialise in being sort of 'Victorian'. We, being me and the shop owner, decided on which toys and worked out a per unit price based on dozens being made. As for 'samples' I charged much in excess of the unit price. I had to charge for; design, hand construction of each sample toy, buying in the safety info sheets for dyes and paints, fees for the testing to destruction of the toy for it to pass regulations as well as the cost of materials and a cost for time spent on it all, which included travelling to meetings, to the timber yard etc and fuel costs & parking fees et al. afair this total came to around £35 to £40 per toy against a unit price which varied, wholesale, from £1.50 to £3 As it turned out that shop never materialised but I did not loose any money on it because the 'sample' prices had all been paid. All R&D costs covered. In other words, I'm trying to say; make sure you are not out of pocket on the deal. Even though you'll only use 1/4 of that shoulder, unless you can immediately allocate the other 3/4 to another on-going project the whole price of the 'samples' needs to cover the total cost of that shoulder. Plus costs for any time you need to spend designing the pouch or hangers as well as making them On those wooden toys I had to buy in excess of certain hard-woods for them but that was covered in my charge I've found what Tugadude said to be very true; "The old adage about people not appreciating things that are given free is pretty accurate " You don't need to explain anything to the client about your prices. Just tell them that if they want quality items they'll have to pay R&D for them but after that the unit price will be lower

I'm contrary, due to past experience of getting ripped off. Charge a normal 'whole-sale' price for the samples. ie the price you are going to sell them to the client for. Also make sure your maker's mark is on each item. Even with a written contract of supply and even if you think you can trust that client they may take your items to someone else to copy and get them at a reduced price even with reduced quality. Been there, got the tee shirt etc.

I must be careful. This could easily veer off topic into a rant by me Its not for the festival 'police' - its for the eejits who think our ancestors could not and did not make nice quality items. If you get involved with the SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism ) you'll find they are tended to properly researched things whereas independent groups believe all they see in 'Games of Thrones' or 'Xena: Warrior Princess' That is mostly imagined history, although the Vikings & Normans did have sword scabbards made from unfinished sheepskin with the fleece on the inside, The natural oil lanolin acted as a rust inhibitor That is some of the thoughts of some eejits you may well come across I invested heavily in books written by archaeologists about finds from digs. The books cost £30* and upwards. I got them to research the items and to make modern copies of the real items *I rarely pay more than £5 for a book! There are three kinds of historical' accuracy or perception of the ancient past 1. real, researched 2. imagined 3. based on fantasy medieval such as 'Games of Thrones' which is mainly 2 with a wee bit of 1 thrown in

Your W&D paper is expensive. 8 x 12 inch sheet £0.50 to £0.60 per, or about 70c per another vote for a box cutter knife don't buy card for pattern - scrounge cereal boxes or boxes from shops

aye, but I'd make something like this Even though its a copy of real one, but with different stamping, I was told it was not / could not be real. Medieval people carried knives in scabbards/sheaths made by thonging two rough cut pieces of leather together

I think I'll need to get back to you about that. Its hard to describe in under 1,000,000 words of less than seven syllables. Maybe a drawing, if I could draw

Just another fancy name for that cheap' leather' they use on 'leather' furniture. I know it as PU Leather - PolyUrethane mixed with leather dust and bonded onto a cloth backing. We used to call it 'leather cloth'. Been in use for about 100 years by now

I don't use 'waxed'' leather, I use my version of M&G in place of Resolene as a complete sealer. If it soaks in it'll probably seal

No, cos they think our ancestors didn't know how to make quality leather. My stuff was often dismissed as 'not historically accurate' as it was 'too good' / 'too nice' I got into the habit of keeping some of my reference books with me 1 faire to see not what you are up against, but see what people are wearing and using and see if you make those items - better I hit submit before I'd finished that, it was to be Just before I gave up doing the medieval scene I was trying to make a good version of a chapman's fold up pack. I had a simple one made and it attracted attention just on opening it up!

No, not crazy, But be aware that *every body* at a Ren Faire thinks they can do leather work cheaper and better than you (at least thats my experience) Also, I found all I needed was a small fold up table, a stool and a cloth about 3ft x 3ft. Table for better things, eg my board games, the cloth on the ground for general belts and belt purses & pouches, drawstring bags (which are easy to make and really big sellers) Just before I gave the medieval scene I was trying to make a good version of a

try sealing it with 'Mop & Glo' * floor polish which is very thin acrylic varnish. I use a local version a lot for sealing * this has various names Home made meade

They are called lift-a-dot available here, eg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201585672657

You have my condolences as well friend I can understand your feelings at this time Thank you for feeling you could share this with us strangers on here

This whole thing of manufacturers getting things made cheaper in another country, then trade tariffs imposed et cetera is nothing new. The Romans and Greeks had the same problems over 2000 years ago and it happened right thru the centuries to modern times

Looks most excellent to me

Deviation over Back to the main subject; if you were yo increase the card thickness, say, by gluing on another layer or two you could impress the design deeper

That place does not actually exist anymore. Its what we call a ghost. When it was open, it was only a meeting place with high prices. They did not have either any equipment nor experienced advisors. We have a lot of these types of business who's only aim is to get public money to run empty places

I am NOT getting a dog just so I can buy its food boxes! Its bad enough that I choose cereal for ME by the size of the box! I don't have any of those fancy toys. But I do have lots of very nice and very sharp knives and scalpels and a DTP comp proggy Not available in N.I. afaik. I've asked about and whilst some colleges have equipment its non-accessible to outsiders at all, just to enrolled students on Tech courses and they can only do stuff on their course. Talk about being in the 'dark ages'?!

It looks pretty good and nice.. Wetting the leather at the fold then folding over, tapping down with a mallet then drying out under a weight helps reduce the wrinkles To 'burnish' edges of thin leather I just use some soft beeswax rubbed along the edge with a piece of linen to rub it in

@DJole, very most clever. I never thought of that oh, I use it for patterns too but also for stiffeners in the likes of the bases of dice- trays, (aka valet trays)

Would a simple draw-string bag work? I make them in various sizes and one I currently make for D&D dice sets would carry that amount of shot easily Although the draw-string pouch can be just put in a pocket, with a long loop of thong it can be held onto a belt, and with an even longer length of thong it could be held over the shoulder(s) PS. a friend of mine collects antiquities from archaeologic sites. He once showed me some Roman sling-shot bullets. They were cast lead, long pointed oval shape with 'Tolle Quad' on them - Latin for 'Take That'

But no-one on here is Selling Tandy patterns or passing them off as their own. You are looking at a question raised 15 years ago and basically resolved 11 years ago. It is quite legitimate to compile the Doodle pages on to one CD or DVD and sell that to cover the cost of the disc but with no profit element for the pages and with recognition that the pages are Tandy's

For WHY will Tandy sue? They are the ones offering us the Doodle Pages free for our use