budd4766

ChuckBurrows: Thanks. I'm having trouble finding books by Waterer...none of the libraries I've checked with can find it. But that's exactly the stuff I'm looking for. KatieG: Yes! Go Scots! I'm a Keith, and darn proud of it.. Like I said, I'm making a kilt belt, sporran and straps, (for myself, but to pass around as well). I'm planning to carve thistles on both and color it "sheridan style"...at least that's the plan. Thought about the sword sheath or a targe, but I'm going to run out of time, so I'm trying to keep it simple.

Thanks James. I'm also a kilt wearer, and I'm a member of both of those forums. I've been searching them for info already...even sent Matt Newsome a PM to see if he has anything I can use. Thought I'd try here as well. I know belts aren't really necessary with a kilt, but they do look cool with one. I was thinking more along the lines of a great kilt...that doesn't fit quite as nicely as our modern kilts...a belt would be handy there. Plus, there's sword sheaths, frogs, and straps that I imagine were mostly made of leather. Need to find out how they tooled their stuff, or if they tooled it at all.

I'm speaking for 30 minutes...I'm thinking early 1700s or before. There wasn't much kilt wearing after 1745 for quite a while. I know Andrew Muirhead in Scotland is one of the oldest tannery's in the world...sent them an email for info if they have it. Just wondering how I can make the stretch from what a Scottish leather worker would do, to what we do today. Things like, I don't know if they tooled their leather, or just painted designs on it....? These are potential customers, so I have to tie the history into what I would do for 'em. I think I can BS my way through 30 minutes or so, but, if there's any info out there, I need to do due diligence to find it.

I've been asked to do a show-n-tell on leather work in Scottish history....because I'm a leather worker, and have Scottish ancestors. I'm going to make a sporran and kilt belt for the "show", but I'm having trouble with the "tell" part. Problem is, I can't find any material to talk about how leather was tooled/used in Scotland, other than the obvious...to hold up yer kilt! When you do a search on line, you'll either get hits from sporran makers, kilts, or William Wallace...but I'm yet to see any info on the history of leather in Scotland. Anybody have any information on this? Or, can you point me towards where I could at least find it myself?

Great looking stuff here. Pricing is always a tricky subject...one I struggle with a lot. I love doing leather work, and it seems wrong to charge a lot for something I had fun making, but if the market will support it, why not? That way, I can afford to have more fun making the next thing.. My dad used to work for this old farmer in MS who told us the story of a fridge he was trying to get rid of. He'd put the fridge out on the curb with a sign saying $50, and it sat there for weeks. Then, one day he changed the sign to $100 and sold it the next day. I had a similar incident with a hot sauce holster I was selling on Etsy. I'd posted it at $45 + shipping...sat there for weeks. Then, I changed it to $65 shipping included, and it sold within a week. Weird...but true. The lesson I'm taking away is, never sell yourself short. As for the stuff you guys have listed here, I'd expect the leash to bring between $50 and $75, and the box to be in the $100 range. Would I pay that for it? Maybe, maybe not. To be honest, I'd probably try to figure out how to make my own and not pay nothing...) (don't look at me like that, everybody who does this stuff does the same thing all the time...nature of the beast kind of thing). But, somebody who doesn't do leather will pay for what they perceive as a quality, hand-made, unique piece of work. So don't feel bad about charging 'em for it..

I'm working on a day planner for a friend who wants a grizzly tooled on the cover. (His nickname is Bear). I've done the search here, and haven't found anything, so I'm wondering if you guys might have a grizzly drawing on-hand, and if I could have a copy of it? I need a decent tooling pattern, (preferably of a grizzly, but I suspect most any "real" looking bear would do), that I can scale down and carve in a 4 1/2" x 7 1/2" area. Currently, I'm working a job where I won't have access to leatherworker.net except on the weekends, I won't be able to view this post during the week, or respond, so I'm putting my email address here for you to send a pattern too. I would really appreciate any help. buddkeith@yahoo.com While I'm on the subject, some of you who make patterns out of photographs, would you be interested in a tutorial of how you do that?

Good lookin' stuff, Luke. Very cool. And it was very cool to meet you in person last weekend at the Memphis Tandy! Keep poundin'! Donnie

Not every state will have leather work as an option. Here in GA, I'm S.O.L....unless I want to learn dance or something.

I've been commissioned to do some edge lacing. I've never done this for cash before, and really have no idea how to price the job. If any body on here does this for profit, I'd appreciate some sort of guideline on what to charge the guy. PM me if you don't want to "expose" what you charge, I'm not going to try and undercut anybody else, I just really need some help here. I've talked to a couple people about this...one said I should charge $65/hr....another said $6 per inch of braid. Does this sound reasonable? I'm thinking it's kinda high...but I don't want to undersell myself (one of my biggest weaknesses).

I've missed getting in on the last couple PIF's you guys had, but please count me in on this one if you get it going. Sounds like a lot of fun!

I do a lot of Native American STYLE stuff myself. Found most of my patterns in books intended to be used for scroll saw work, such as "Fun And Easy Scroll Saw Projects" by Patrick Spielman. They're pretty easy to adapt for use in leather work.

I went with Vistaprint.com. If you don't want anything too terribly fancy, they have a lot of "stock" cards to choose from and you might get 'em for about $20 for 250...from there, you just customize them anyway you like them. I wanted my own image on my card, and they let me do that. When all was said and done, mine cost about $40 for 250. I just stamped a scrap piece, colored it, and took a close up pic of it to use for a background.

My wife and I made some leather place mats for my mother and father-in-law for Christmas. They seem to think the place mats would sell good in a "high end" furniture place or something. But I have a couple questions...thought I'd ask you guys... 1. What would you use to seal leather place mats with? I'm concerned about water rings from drinks, and cleanability, without affecting the finish. 2. Would the finish need to be "food-grade" for a place mat? Any suggestions on what that finish would be? The mats we made were done with tan gel antique and sealed with neat-lac. (My last can). Here's a couple pics:

My wife and I bought workbenches from Lowe's for our shop. They're pretty handy, but my main complaint is a lack of leg room under the table top. They put 3 drawers under the top, and there's a shelf about six inches off the floor for the bottom. Great for storage, terrible for a long legged guy to try to get close to the work area with. If I had to do over again, I'd go with the Craftsman workbench we originally looked at from Sears. Saved some money going to Lowe's, but I'm not sure we got the best deal. Here's a pic of mine:

Yeah, I know about the copy write stuff, and I'm not intending to sell anything with anybody else's logo. I just had an idea for a present and thought I'd add the logo in there. I wound up scanning a Skiver and getting what I needed. Thanks!

Never mind...got one already.

I'm trying to find a traceable Tandy Leather Factory logo. I'm working on a present for a Tandy store manager. Anybody know where I can find one suitable for enlarging into a pattern? Been to the website, and can't find one I can use...yet. Just wondering if anybody here has one or can point me to one. Thanks.

I just put an old shower curtain on my table.

Cool idea and a great mask. There's nothing quite like the look on the face of the kid in the minivan next to you at a stop light when you pull up alongside with one of those on!!!

In my very limited experience, the guy making all the money is the guy I'm buying my leather stuff from! I would guess just have a good plan, and if possible, have a fall-back plan if things don't take off right away.

Not a stupid question at all. It could be sprayed after it was all assembled, but the end product would be used...meaning flexed all to heck and back by the customer, so I would imagine that would only prolong the inevitable and wind up having to be replaced...(bad customer experience and all that to boot). I think from now on, I'm going to just use super sheen from the bottle, and when I have a fear of messing some color up, I'll just air brush it on. I thought the spray can of sheen would eliminate that step, but, sadly, it ain't workin'. Live and learn.

No oil on the vinegroon. Nothing at all done to it other than water/baking soda right after it came out of the vin. I didn't oil it for the very reason I was planning to seal it with sheen later. The problem is, I thought the aerosol super sheen would be flexible...same as the rub-on super sheen, and, obviously, it's not. I've been told that neat-lac would crack the same way. All I know about the difference 'tween the two is they both smell the same coming out of the can. I have to say, it looked BEAUTIFUL...as long as it stayed flat. I loved the way it looked, and on future projects that won't get much "action", I'd still use it just because it looks so good. Apparently, you just can't bend it.

Ok...got this idea of doing a flame job (like you'd see on a car) on some black leather for a project I'm working on. Cut all the pieces, carved and tooled the flames, vinegrooned it (beautiful black), air brushed the flames red with yellow tips and base, (pretty good for a first time air brushing, I thought), and now I'm ready to seal before laciing it all up. I've had problems before with putting super sheen on...sometimes it'll lift the colors, or smudge them. I know I'm probably more to blame than the sheen, but still, it happens, so I decide I'll try some areosol super sheen. You know, spray it on rather than rub it...good idea, right? Well, while the black leather and flame job looks AWESOME...shiny as glass, I'm real happy with it....unitl I have to bend the leather to put the parts together. All that spray-on sheen cracks into a million spider cracks. My beautiful black leather piece has these little white cracks...all over it...grrrr. No time to redo anything, so I'm hoping when I get it all laced up and I apply another coat of spray, or even some hand-rubbed on sheen it'll blend the cracks in...but I'm not holding my breath. Not sure if you guys have any suggestions for this...I just more wanted to rant about it than anything. But I'll take any and all advice. No pictures yet, but I'll post some soon as I can.

For me, it often winds up differently from what I originally envision as well. Logistics, physics, all sorts of problems arise that I have to navigate around to get the end product. But more often than not, it starts out with a sleepless night, turning an idea over and over in my head trying to figure it out...then the next (drowsy) day at work itchin' to get home and get started on it. I'm a drafter by trade, so I have a "need" to get all the technicalities sorted out before I get started. That often winds up being a pattern laid out on an old manila folder and cut out for a dry fit first, then adjustments before I start on the leather. I have to have an idea in my head of color, tooling, braiding, conchos...whatever I'm going to do in the end before I start. I hate surprises, though they do often pop up. With a good plan, I can sort of minimize those. Sometimes things work out and I get what I lay awake thinking up in the beginning, but sometimes it just works out differently. Best thing is start with a "vision" and be flexible along the journey. It works out pretty well most times.

Very, very nice. I too would like to know how to do this. I have a bone-handled rapier that could use a new sheath/baldric. the Baldric would be easy, but I'm not so sure about the sheath. Great work, though, thanks for sharing.