Bree

This is excellent advice. Kevin is 100% correct when he draws the distinction between the Sole Proprietorship (SP) and the LLC or other forms of incorporation. The SP is easy to administer. It is the simplest and most direct form of operating a business. But all your personal assets are on the line. A judgement against your business is a judgement against you personally. The instant that you start creating a product or performing a service where there is some significant chance of a liability judgement against you, start looking to change the form of your business. LLC (Limited Liability Company) is a great way to go for small businesspeople. It allows you to in effect select your method of taxation and form of organization. In NY you can elect to be treated as an SP, partnership or corporation. It is very flexible. The key benefit is protection of personal assets from liabilities incurred by the business. Each state is different so you need to check your own state. Some states have special taxes or fees which basically charge you for the right to operate without liability. Still that protection is very valuable. Websites are another story. Kevin is also correct in his advice... current, fresh, simple. I'll just add one thing. Avoid allowing a developer to turn your business website into his/her programming art showcase. This is all too common and hard for the business owner to stop in advance since you don't know it's happening until it is complete. After all most of us are experts in leatherworking and not web programming. The way to avoid this problem is to be crystal clear in communicating exactly what you want out of your website. Communicate that this is a business website whose sole function is to achieve your business purposes. Lay out precisely what those purposes are. Make it clear that you don't care about the latest state of the art programming (unless you really do). You want a reliable, stable, and solid site that works for your customers. Let the developer know who your customers are. If they are technologically well-informed and advanced then you can be more advanced. If they are still using IE4 or other old browsers, then your site will have to be quite rudimentary as far as the latest and greatest goes. The key thing is to remember that you are in control. Exercise that control. Know what you want and don't settle for less. Business is business and not an exercise in Photoshop art or demonstrating the latest programming technique.

The Weaver 1300 comes in brass but not nickel. :-(

They aren't really very big or real heavy at all. They fit into a little more than 1 square foot. You probably could hand crank it (or treadle it) but a much better idea is simply bite the bullet and put a motor on it. You certainly could stitch it by hand. A fur sewing machine is not necessary. However once you start trying to sew fur, you will see why one of these things is a godsend. I have several sheepskins upstairs that I was planning to do some stuff with but they are a royal pain in the butt to sew with a regular walking foot machine. I have often thought about getting one. If I ever see a good deal on one, I will.

I use them and I like them. I use Fiebings as well. Weaver's are usually a bit less expensive. The only thing that bugs me is that they won't ship some of the temperature sensitive ones during the winter. So you have to plan your use before winter arrives. It can be a long haul until the thaw.

Here's what will git er done Ed. http ://shop.raphaelsewing.com/index.php?ma...products_id=78 (Watch video of Chinese Bonis clone) http://www.lanafurs.com/news/html/index.ph...ticle&sid=9 http://www.imca.net/english/bonis/index.html (Click on the Bonis Leaflet Front side)

You can always get some unwaxed cord; unroll the quantity that you plan to use; dye it with any of the umteen gazillion colors available; and then wax it yourself... et voila!! You have waxed cord in any color that you want!!

Lenny's BACK! Great job!

Excellent work! I would love to ride over there and check it out in person except that it's 14 degrees here in Buffalo!! Wouldn't want to risk the black ice!

Ed... I saw this and I was going to tell you that you really need some specialized equipment to make these... especially a Bonis fur machine. Well then I watched the video and there was a Chinese Bonis clone... first thing. They also used a post machine which is not frequently seen. I watched the guy at Misty Mountain Sheepskin near Springfield, Missouri making these using only the Bonis machine. It is a real valuable piece of equipment if you plan to work sheepskin. Thanks for those links!

I think Resolene will work fine. I just did one almost exactly like yours and I used Weaver Tuff Kote Clear airbrushed on... 3 layers. Looked beautiful.

Bob... I think you are right. I have one of the original aluminum Tandy swivel knife gauges and I trashed a belt with it. I keep it as a souvenir piece of a motorcycle trip to Arkansas where a leatherworker gave it to me. But I won't use it. It's too chancey at least for someone like me!

Do you have to actually SEE the leather to guide it?? LOL! I'm old now Brent. That's a bifocal roller guide for the peeps that can't see anymore! Heck if I did it the old fashioned way I'd probably stitch my finger to the leather!!

Pat... Your dad was an outstanding leather artist! That is a gorgeous saddle. I love it. Do you have any other PIX of his work to share??

No It was not applied to the flesh side. The reason was that I am making double layer belts so the flesh side gets glued. If I was applying it to the flesh side, I would skive the blank to get a nice smooth surface and apply the tape. OR I would size or paste the flesh side so there is a smoother surface for the tape to adhere to. I would not feel real confident if the flesh side were fuzzy but I haven't tried it so I am only offering a speculation.

I airbrushed a full airbrush cup of Super Sheen onto the strap both sides and the edges. Here is the result. Sorry for the yellow tint... bad light. Complete seal with zero run after 3 sprays. I tried to put some water on the edge to make it run... no run... no bleeding of color onto my finger. Test successful.

Art... It took the Dremel grinding stone very well. The metal was very good quality and the casting didn't even get hot as I ground it. I could touch it very shortly after grinding. It's fixed now and I sewed a nice belt with it the same day.

The absence of a mark saying Copyright doesn't mean anything. For works created after 1978 the copyright begins on the date creation is fixed. It requires no registration. If you created it, you own the rights. If you die, here is the law: § 302. Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 19784 (a) In General. — Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death. Unless she transferred her rights to you, the copyrights would be held by her heirs. And if she told you (and you can prove it) that you can share these with anyone else, then you should be good to go as she would granted you that right. Thanks for sharing as was her wish.

Yep those would be good with the leather square in there. The problem is that you can't distribute the pressure uniformly across all of the area that needs to be glued. Woodworkers use cauls to help distribute pressure. But that really won't help in this case. I like contact cement because I don't have to apply pressure across the entire area to be glued at one and the same time. I can run a tamper across it section by section and know that I have a rock solid bond. Anyways that's my $.02. They are nice clamps!!

Deadly!

Ed... I say leave em on and do them like the darker bag withy the taper. Raise the price!!! Life is too short for cheap bags!

Allen... I have it hanging down in the shop and the airbrush is hooked up and ready to go. Once I get outta work, I will blow three coats of sealer on it and see what the heck happens. Results later today. CYA! Gotta get back to my non-leather job!!

I have a block of 100% Carauba wax and it is as hard as a rock. I doubt that it would be useful for treating leather in that pure form. I think it has to be blended with something else at least to allow it to be applied. The only way you will get it onto leather in pure form is to melt it on.

I would contact cement that. Clamps can leave marks. Apply the cement and let it dry. Apply a second thin coat. Let it dry. Assemble carefully (You only get one shot). Take a flatting hammer or tamper and press in all the areas that are glued to make certain they they have a contact bond. Let it cure a little bit and then go ahead and sew it. Good contact cement like Barge will not release so you can be confident that you can get it sewn and have as strong a connection as possible.

FROG Tape is expensive... like about double the cost of Blue tape. I got mine at Amazon.com. My thought was to take the 1" tape and split it putting one half on the top of the blank and one half on the bottom You must be careful to make sure that the outer edge of the tape is aligned to the belt edge. If you split the tape, the inner edges of the split tape don't have the expanding stuff... only the outer edges. So be careful. It is a fairly strong tack tape. Best to remove it fairly soon after applying it. I removed mine easily and it left no residue. But go slow or you might tear it as you remove it. I plan to have only a small area of the FROG Tape in actual contact with the leather. I will fold the inner area back on itself so I can just lift it off. I won't be freestyling the dye like I did on the experiment. All that I need is 1/4 of an inch to catch any mistakes and give me a nice straight line. Edit: Max... I will airbrush some water-based sealer on the test strap and see if there are any issues. A perfectly straight line is much easier to screw up than one that isn't!! Any flaw is immediately evident.

Those belts are beautiful!! But I don't think any of them would fit me! LOL!