Bree

Hey I didn't dump "crap" on him or have a laugh at his expense. I was straight up with him. I showed him exactly why it wasn't genuine leather and then pointed out that he still got a good deal since the sewing of the patches would have cost him what he paid for the jacket, patches, and sewing. We both laughed about it together. As for my "point"... there is no point. I am just relating a story about something that happened during the day and sharing it. I guess you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Unless you have to have fire resistant thread it's going to be tough to justify $63 per 8 oz versus $9 per 8 oz for #69 bonded thread Nomex vs Nylon or Poly. You lose a lot of breaking strength going to Nomex as well... probably about 40%. Quite frankly if fire resistance AND strength are needed, Kevlar is a better choice methinks since it costs about the same as Nomex. OTOH... once again, Kevlar is so strong that it might be TOO strong. My $.02

That really sucks to slap a Made in US label on an import. I am 100% in agreement without on prosecuting them. For whatever it's worth that Made in the US is ours and we should protect our brand!

Ask a main line manufactuer of racing leathers like Vanson what kind of thread they use. You are asking a very specific question with potentially serious consequences if the answer is wrong. Ask someone who assumes the liability for making a mistake every day. Regardless of the thread, I think you want to double or triple stitch as well as glue high stress areas. Note that most racing leathers are loaded with patches. There's a reason for that and it isn't just to advertise. All those patches add a lot of abrasion resistance. You will find poly to be a bit more resistant to abrasion than nylon. Kevlar has good abrasion resistance and I would highly recommend Kevlar cloth as reinforcement. But the thread has very little stretch and is so strong that it might act like a knife and actually cut the garment when heavily stressed. That stretchiness of poly and nylon gives it some shock absorbing capability. Those are some random thoughts. But I would say ask someone who specializes in making these leathers. I don't.

I use a roller guide and other kinds of guides as well. Weaver sells a nice guide plate for their Adler machines. They aren't hard to make. I can stitch without the guide but it is more work for me. Lord knows I have enough work without making more for myself. So I like anything that simplifies my sewing. On my midweight Juki machine I use special topstitching feet with a little spring-loaded "wall" that I run along the edge of whatever I am sewing. It saves a lot of time and helps make sewing irregular items a lot easier. BUT... you still have to concentrate and follow the needle regardless of the guide. I have failed to do that on a bunch of occasions with very very sad and sometimes expensive results.

LOL! I thought of that but it oscillates in both belt sanding and spindle sanding mode and the oscillation can't be switched off.

Yep... Very hard wood and loaded with tannins. As much as 70%+ tannins in the processed extract. So this stuff ought to kick it up a notch and get that leather blacker than black!!! http://www.unitan.net/english/quebracho.html

You got that right! We cut the sleeves after I pulled off the zipper teeth and applied some new stops. The zipper was good quality but that's where it stopped. The "leather" flesh side was fiber... and not even well bonded fiber. The whole thing is junk. I'm keeping it to show people what the difference is between real leather and this crapola. I had a gal who asked me to replace a strap on her new purse. It was crapola plastic & paper too. She got nice new 5 oz. chrome tanned cowhide for her strap and now she loves it. She asked me to make her a purse out of the same leather. I told her she couldn't afford it! LOL! Poor girl has expensive taste without a job to support it!

So this guy comes over today to have his new biker jacket sleeves shortened. He has a patchwork jacket with some pre-sewn patches. He paid like $49 for it. I told him that the patches weren't high quality but the sewing of all the patches would cost as much as the jacket. He smiled and seemed pleased with himself. So I started looking at the jacket to see what would be involved in shortening these sleeves. I'm focused on the 2 zippers that have to be shortened and the gusset for keeping water out. All of a sudden I notice a little like hole in the leather that reminds me of a crater on the moon... with a rim and all. It is very small but I have never seen anything like it on leather before. I look closer and see a place where there is some wear and the leather is frayed and stringy! It isn't leather at all. LOL! It's plastic. The zigzag stitching is almost all fake. There is no thread. I put some masking tape on the bottom of the sleeve to mark the cut line and when I removed it beautifully lifted the paint right off the plastic. I laughed my ass off and told him... well you got what you paid for! Poor guy. Shortening the sleeves is going to cost him as much as the coat!

Well I got 5 pounds of Quebracho Bark powder yesterday along with some chemicals that I ordered from VanDyke. Prompt delivery, well packaged, and it looks like good stuff. I am going to brew up some Quebracho tea and test it out on some leather and some wood over the weekend. I will report results.

I always liked the little diddy that goes like this: When I'm in a sober mood, I worry, work, and think. When I'm in a drunken mood, I gamble, screw, and drink. But when my moods are over and my time has come to pass... I hope they bury me upside down so the world can kiss my ass! That would look nice on my gravestone. :wtf:

You can't go wrong with Juki equipment. My 1541-S is the cat's meow as far as I am concerned. You can beat it up relentlessly and it just keeps on going!

Bob... I have one and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I have a thread somewhere on the system about the one I got. It works great on leather and it works great on wood.

Well now that you made a great wallet for yourself how about making some for all of us??

Do you have two blanks sewn together or are you edging a single blank? What is the total weight/thickness of the belt? I ask because I have considered getting myself one of those if and when I get zapped at IBM and go into full time production. They seem to be great timesavers and promise consistent quality. So I am interested in any problems.

You seem a little hesitant about the Weaver machine. Have you had any problems with it or experienced less than perfect edging with it?

The guy puts together one mean seat!! Glad Johanna showed the goodies underneath. I remember how he had similar cool stuff under his winning seat at IFOLG '08.

I have one with the magnifier lenses. I use it frequently although I don't use the magnifiers as much as I thought I would. I guess I'm not as old as I thought I was!

LOL! I turned a Brazilian Tulipwood pen for a friend from work over the weekend and I was going to make her a suede pouch for the pen. I ended up putting it into a very nice hard maple box which I had bought on sale (took zero time). I'm always looking for ways to integrate woodworking and leathercrafting. I get that bug from IT... INTEGRATION!!

I love Krenov's work. I have hardcover of Krenov's "The Impractical Cabinetmaker". I bought when it came out back in 1979. Darn thing is like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mainenance" to me!

The big advantage of vinegaroon is the fact that it can ebonize throughout the entire product if you can get it in there since it reacts with the tannins as far in as you allow it to soak down to. It is very deep penetrating unlike many paints and stains that only affect the surface. I have a 5 pound kit coming to test the quebracho and see how much it jumps up the blackness. I'll let you know what I find. I also picked up some nice glycerine and some bactericide/fungicide that I will use to make sure no nasties take root in my leather. Very nice little link they provied to that Van Dyke outfit. They have a lot of cool stuff.

What you need is indirect lighting that is soft and natural. Try taking a background paper outside on a partly cloudy day when the sun is in cloud. You will get nice clean light but no specular reflections or washout. Try to meter on something that is about 20% grey and is at exactly the same distance from the lens as the piece being photographed. That should give you a good camera setting. When you meter on black (or white), the camera gets tricked. It is programmed to think that an average scene is about 20% grey. But black is 90-100% grey... so the camera incorrectly calculates the exposure. You have to kind of "help" the camera get it right. A good thing to do is to "bracket" the shot and take PIX that are both over and underexposed relative to the inital setting. Just in case you got it wrong maybe the bracketed shots will get it right.

Josh... The first pix are underexposed. The Spike Knife is overexposed on the blade face. You need to get some proper lighting to take your product PIX. Ask a friend who is a photographer to help you. Get some background paper and use a spot meter to measure the light. These PIX are worth a lot of money so don't skimp on them. Get help. Your work is quite good and marketable but you have to show it in its best light... figuratively and literally. Not tryin to be down on ya but the PIX are critical for Internet marketing.

I'm sure that all the 'Roonies (vinegaroonies) will be checking this out. There is an article in the current issue of Popular Woodworking titled, "Ebonizing Wood". And of course they have discovered vinegaroon. But there was an interesting twist. We sometimes supercharge the tannin content with black tea. They are super charging the tannins with Quebracho bark. This stuff is extremely high in tannins that result in a very deep black. The article gives a lot of really good information. I suggest that the 'Roonies get themselves a copy. They gave a source to get this vinegaroon enhancer pretty inexpensively. I checked it and ordered some. I also found lots of other great stuff at great prices. Here are some links plus a nice tannin info link. http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/ http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/product/1...5/bark-tan-dye3 http://freecourseware.uwc.ac.za/ripmixlear.../tannins.ppt#34 So I thought that I would share this stuff with y'all.

Killer belts and they aren't even started yet. Sheesh!