Bree

So maybe you want to remove this thread and the link to classicbells.com since that site appears to be going against her wishes. They aren't making money from it but they do have a compilation.

Sounds like agreat deal! If I didn't just buy a big Artisan, I would buy it from you!!!

Zero recommendations??? Shoot, I am going to end up doing what I planned to do and have nobody to blame but myself if I mess up the guy's expensive case!!

I am a member of the Ivan Fan Club. He rocks! Of course I never listen exactly to anything anyone says but that is just my 60's rebellious nature!

We have another winner!

A local musician called me and posed a problem. He has a saxophone case made by a pretty famous leathercrafter/artist named Glenn Cronkhite. The case is pretty expensive. It is Chocolate Brown in color. Well it seems that he somehow got some acetone on the case and of course it did some damage to the color and texture of the leather. My first thought was to send him back to Glenn. The maker knows what he used and how he finished the case. He is the person best able to repair problems. Of course I wasn't sure that even Glenn could rescue this case as the damage was going to be very tough to bring back to original condition. I suggested that if Glenn could not fix the problem that the final resort was to redye the case black or dark brown. In effect... nuke the case color. I also told him that he could black only 1/2 of the case leaving a black/brown two-tone if he wished. Glenn likes to make two-tone cases so this would not be all that different from others in the line. Well Glenn pretty much told him what I told him about the case and helped him with the texture but the color was not acceptable to to the musician. So he wants it redyed. I tried hard to steer this thing back to Glenn but it looks like I am going to be stuck fixing the case for the guy. So I am wondering what you guys and gals might suggest for a high end musical instrument case made of quality leather with a color flaw? My thought was to mask off the metal and interior components and deglaze any top coat. Then take an alcohol based black dye and carefully sponge on 2 layers of new dye to get a smooth even coverage followed by some Tan Kote or similar and some nice hand rubbed buffing. I can't spend a ton of time on this job. It is not going to bring in any substantial $$$ but I would like to see his nice case be nice again. Any other ideas or suggestions?? Do you think I am on the right track? Wrong track?

Sew good things. Doesn't matter if it is Artisan or Ludwig. I have an Artisan and they are great people. But there are other good brands. What counts is what you make with the machine.

OK Here are some PIX of the burnisher and some other tools mounted on exactly the same size base but down in storage. For clamps I am just using fast woodworking clamps. The size of your base will be determined by the surface you clamp to. My surface plate is 18 x 24" and I don't need the full 18" as it is too big for my storage area. Remember to use some Forstner bits and drill out part of the bottom so your bolts are flush or less with the bottom. As for the burnishing... I think you can make just about anything work as long as you control the pressure. The burnisher is still moving very fast at 1725 rpm. Too much pressure and you can overheat it. I liked the water because it is hard to overheat it as the water cools it. You can give it more pressure and get that nice very slick surface that stays slick when you bend the leather. My $.02 based on VERY little experience so far with the tool. I think you should experiment. The worst you can do is trash the burnisher. Then you just order another!

Nah! No worries!! When I have something to share, you guys will get it pronto!! I simply haven't had very much time to do anything but study to meet the new responsibilities of my IBM job. I bought a little extra time before getting 86'ed over there so I am trying to keep that cash flow coming in to finance more leather working equipment!!

I got my new motor and burnisher from Ivan. I mounted the motor to an MDF base. I am now mounting all my portable bench tools for leather to MDF bases 24"x 12" which fit my granite surface plate . The plate has a lip so I can clamp the MDF bases to the granite and have a very solid vibration-free base. My 96" workbench serves as the outfeed table for the leather I am working. The motor is a GE running at 1725 rpm. I think it is a great deal for that motor. I have to add an on-off switch inline but that isn't hard or expensive to do. The burnisher works great so far. I took a small section of belt to test it out. The burnisher performed very well. I used the wax as instructed and it gave me a nice dark burnish. I broke the rules and used a little water on a small section and I really liked that burnish... not as dark but very smooth and shiney. Don't tell Ivan!! I want to do a full size double layer belt with the wax as soon as I get some time. When I do, I will see if I can snap some PIX. I may be able to do that next weekend. I am swamped with work from my IBM job and it's paying me a lot of money so you have to make hay while the sun is shining!!

LOL! I used to grab hold of the flywheel and muscle the machine to do what I wanted it to do. Of course if I got heavy footed there was no way that I could hold back that clutch motor!! So it is a balancing act. You can loosen the tension on the belt just a smidge to make it easier to slip the belt which allows you more control but less power.

Looks great! Dump the clutch motor and get a servo motor. Artisan has several models that will serve you well at a good price. Unless you are doing high speed production sewing that clutch motor will only be a hinderance. Getting stitch by stitch speed control with the servo will pay big dividends. I promise you that!! My Juki 1541S is the same class machine as your Pfaff. Adding the servo motor was the best thing that I ever did.

Anne... You have an opportunity for a job upgrade! No matter what interview you go on... make sure to add... "I am a very creative, talented person." Then show a couple of pieces of your work. The rest will happen naturally. Someone with your gifts can't remain idle for long as long as others know that you exist. So be self promoting.

I hope I didn't create a lot of grief with this link. I have followed Verlane's leather tidbits for a long time. I didn't know her but I always felt that she loved sharing her knowledge with fellow leather workers. So as soon as I saw this collection, I said... Wow! The forum people, especially the new folks, can really get some benefit from this stuff. So I cross posted the link. I never occured to me that Verlane would have any objection to people viewing the materials that she created for the community to view. And I still don;t think that she would. But I didn't think about the fact that she is gone and some people may now consider these things as valuable assets belonging to her heirs rather than shared wisdom belonging to the community of leatherworkers in general. Sorry about that.

Yepper!! That one caught my eye too. I have lost plenty of $$$ doing free or underpriced work for people who really couldn't care less if I lose on the deal. I have become a much tougher nut to crack in my old age. Nevertheless, I can still be cracked and I know it. So anything that helps keep me focused on the right path relative to pricing and business is very very good. There is a nice article in the new Leathercrafter's magazine about cash flow and accounting statements. Very good stuff.

I like those vambraces with the white thread against black leather! The natural leather cutout looks real nice in contrast. It is simple which I like a lot. I may make myself a set similar to that!!

Bree's basic principle #3 of successful small business... Never ever allow the customer to have BOTH the goods and the money.

I haven't even had a chance to read them all. I have been very busy in training trying to keep my high paying IT job for a little while longer to finance my much lower paying but more fun job of making leather stuff!! I first encountered her wisdom on Seigel's of California website some time ago. I like her a lot and it is a shame that she passed last year. I look forward to studying all of these tutorials myself! VRocks!

I didn't see a thread with a complete set of Verlane's tutorials. I found a little website that had a bunch of them buried deep in the site. So I thought I might share it with those who are interested. She was quite wonderful for sharing her many techniques. http://classicbells.com/verlane.html Update by Mod 07/02/2015 http://www.classicbells.com/info/Verlane.html

I deleted the previous content because I misread your question. You could use saddle shearling but I don't think that it will it won't have the color that you want.

Smart move! The Web has advanced quite a bit since the early days of simple HTML code. Nowadays, a well designed and functional website for a business is beyond the technical skill of most ordinary and even extraordinary people. Nevertheless, so many people still insist on the "DIY" website and most are terrible. What these folks "save" on programming fees, they lose in business that never materializes for a variety of reasons almost all of which are related to the initial bad choice of programmer. It is much better to let someone who knows what they are doing help create your site. You do what you excel at and let them do what they excel at. It pays big dividends in the long run. To paraphrase Warsteiner's claim about beer... Business opportunity is too short to be wasted on cheap websites. PS... shameless message provided by an IBM Webmaster/Web Developer.

Be careful about putting anything in there that can gum up the needle bar. If you freeze the needle bar in its cylinder, the machine is dead. I have one where that happened. The needle bar is totally seized in the cylinder. I don't know how it got that way but it wasn't rust as there is no evidence of rust anywhere on that component. I bought it for the stand so it made no difference to me that the machine head was non-functional. I just broke it down and stored the parts in case one of my other 29's needs a part. Also be careful about putting anything in the cup that can stain or discolor your leather.

Here are the slide dimensions: .45ACP Service bottom slide width: 1.087" top of slide width: 0.948" .40S&W Service bottom slide width: 1.085" top of slide width: 0.944" 9mm Service bottom slide width: 1.051" top of slide width: 0.914" For a leather holster the 45 and 40 are practically identical. The 9mm is fractionally smaller. The Compact model is simply chopped on the grip... same grip as the Service but truncated. There are very slight differences in the ejector port position which should have no effect on a leather holster. Front and rear sight channels are the same for all. My XD-45 and the XD-40 blue gun are identical in the position of the trigger guard which is a critical component for a holster. I used calipers to test that distance both at the front and back of the trigger guard from top of slide to bottom of the trigger guard. The distance from the top of slide to the bottom of the barrel is also identical measured by caliper. I think you can buy the XD-40 blue gun and make leather holsters that will fit just about all the regular XD models. The biggest difference is between the XD-45 and the XD-9 and that difference is less than a millimeter. So if that .8 or .9 millmeter at the extreme is a deal killer then you have to buy more Blue Guns. For my sensibilities, the XD-40 Blue is fine. My $.02.

Seems like most people get help right here!! LOL!!

I have an XD-45 Compact and the differences between it and the 40 are insignificant... same thing goes for the 9mm. The barrel length won't matter for most holster styles unless he is going to completely cover the barrel. Then you have to have the right length blue gun. You are right about the XD-M That is basically a new model with different dimensions.