hidepounder

I'm with Al.....I use my finger. However what you describe sounds like the swing away adjustable stitching guide that Weaver sells for their 205/370 Adler machines. Bobby

Thanks! I appreciate the link. This is someone I had not seen before. They certainly have a large selection of neat items. Bobby

7/8 oz leather is a pretty good middle of the road weight to use. It is pretty versaltile for a lot of different types of projects. Bobby

Ann....when a resist is applied it is normally applied to the entire piece. In other words, all the carving would be coated with NeatLac. I use a trimmed piece of wool skin and I rub it in well. I will usually apply two light coats. If you are using Neatlac as a means to create highlights then a small brush is the best way I've found. I'm not sure why you would be concerned about keeping the NeatLac out of the cuts. When the antique paste is applied to the leather it should be rubbed thoroughly into all the cracks and crevices of the leather so they becaome dark and stand out. NeaLac in tgeh cuts will not prevent the antique from entering the cuts. Hope thgis helps...... Bobby

The chair on the left is made by John Ivy. He designed the frame on that chair. When he's too busy to build the frames himself, he subs them out to a guy who makes the frame to his specs and I know he considers that information proprietary. I can't speak about the chair in the picture on the right but am interested to know where you ran across it. Bobby

Someonme else will have to answer that question because I don't know the answer......sorry Bobby

Bruce, You certainly met the challenge with all three cans! Very nice! Bobby

The chair on the left was custom made by John Ivy of Ivy Custom Leather near Tulsa. They sell for $600 each. I don't think the chair on the right is one of his. I would be interested in knowing more about the chair on the right. Where it was seen, etc., etc. Do you have a bigger picture? Bobby

Jimbob, When you say you used an antique dye I am confussed. Dyes are different from antiques. Dyes penetrate the leather where antiques do not. TanKote will not act as a resist for antiques....it is actually used to thin paste antiques. NeatLac is still the best resist for applying antiques, in my opinion. I have been told that Bee Natural's RTC finish is a good resist also, but I have never tried it. In my opinion Fiebings paste antique is vastly superior to Tandy's liquid antiques...I won't use anything else. Bobby

Pete, Congratulations on your saddle! To answer your question, it is impractical to case part of a piece of leather...I'm not sure how one would do that. So case the entire fender and then work the fender in stages. I like to do all my cutting first and then I divide the fender in sections that I think I can complete in one sitting. I cover what I am not tooling with plastic wrap and it holds the moisture very well. Depending on the size of the pattern I will generally divide the fender into two to four sections. I have done tooling projects where I have worked on a single piece of leather for two or three days and was able to maintain moisture nicely using plastic wrap. The detrimental effect re-wetting has on the tooling depends largely on the tooling pattern. The finer or more intricate a pattern is, the lighter the leather needs to be. Consequently re-wetting will have a much more detrimental effect on the tooling. When tooling saddles, you are generally working with larger patterns on skirting leather. The heavier leather holds moisture much longer and re-wetting is much less of an issue. I use a sprayer and a sponge depending on the circumstances. Hope this helps.... Bobby

Bruce, Thanks for the great topic! I'm glad you started this because it's something I've been wondering about. I was in a shop a few months ago and watched a saddlemaker reline a pair of skirts with new woolskin using Masters cement. I wondered at the time about how you'd ever get it off again. I wasn't about to ask of course and I think I'll keep this saddlemakers identity to myself, but I have often wondered if that was a bad deal. My personal experience with Barge and Masters is that it doesn't break down, but maybe that's not true. Anyway, I noticed that no one claimed to use a contact cement on re-lines which basically answered my question about the job I watched a couple of months ago. Thoughts? Bobby

Nice job, Billy, they look really nice! Bobby

It takes me two to three days to make a top quality belt

If it were me I would cut my own binding material out of 2/3 oz veg tan leather. I don't believe that the exposed edge on the bag in the picture is finished. If I'm not mistaken it is just appears finished because it was neatly cut and has a finish on it. If that edge is really important to you you can fold your binding material so that the exposed edge on the outside is "turned". I wouldn't attempt to do that on the back because it would be nearly impossible to stitch. Leave the back side of the binding long and then trim it with an edger after you've sewn it on. Hope this helps... Bobby

The 'How To" section of this forum is loaded with tips and tricks that will help you. Here is a link to a thread which discusses how to do edges. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101 Hope this helps..... Bobby

Nice clean job...lokks good!

Really nice Elton, as usual! Question...when doing filligree patterns like this, do you glue with Barge or something similar to help perevent the tooled veg tan from separating from the background leather? Bobby

Nice job Bonnie!

I sew my buckles on and would rivet if I wasn't sewing. I would not use chicago screws in this application. IMHO they are too light and not strong enough for tugs. ESPECIALLY for the center tug! Typically buckles are not changed out on tugs and unless someone specifically requested them I would not use them. Just my opinion, Bobby

My wife's the reiner and cowhorser in the family, Rookie, I only rope, but I have certainly watched thousands of runs....they take sooooo long, LOL! Hope the announcing gigs works out! Bobby

I absolutely agree...in that scenario it is defintely appropriate to charge for your time to draw the tooling pattern! In general charging for drawing time is always difficult for me to figure. I am not very good at sitting down and cranking out a new pattern. It is something I struggle with and spend a LOT of time on. I have been known to spend a couple of days trying to work out a pattern for a rope bag or daily planner. I think I take considerably longer than most artists because drawing does not come easily for me. So when I'm charging my customer for a pattern I always ask myself how much time would a professional take to draw this pattern and that is what I'll base my time on. I feel that if my customer is paying for a professionally made product, I need to charge like a professional. To me that means I should charge appropriately for both my strengths and weaknesses. If the competition at my level is, in general, charging for 4 hours of design time, how can I justify the 16 hours it actually took me? (assuming we are comparing apples to apples) As time goes on I get faster, both with my drawing and with my tooling and that helps increase the hourly rate. Conversely if I am able to accomplish some task better than my competiton does, than I get to reap the benefits! So that is one way I look at pricing and there are probably a lot of folks who will strongly disagree with me, LOL! Hope this helps... Bobby

Mike, I completely understand and share your frustration but don't throw in the towel. Based on what you've told us I think you are trying to compete in the wrong market. Custom work isn't supposed to compete with mass production retail and those buyers either can't afford custom work or can't tell the difference and don't care. I think I hear that you are very concerned about quality. I like that and have always believed that there was a market for the high end products. I think that if high end leather work is what you want to produce, you simply need to get your wares in front of the folks who can afford them. Of course that's the real trick and it takes someone far more successful than myself to explain how to do that. I'll be anxiously waiting for that post as I'd like to learn myself! Bobby

Good job Tim, looks very nice! Bobby

Rookie, I agree with you....this is the best work yet! Congrats on a good job! Bobby

Without seeing one of those belts, it's hard to answer your question. 40 hours is LOT of time on a belt. It's certainly not impossible....I have a pattern with dime size flowers that takes me a very long time to tool and if I have to dye the background and add a laced edge it will easily exceed $1500 (without silver). But that is a pretty extreme example. If you are spending 40 hours on a belt, it better be a pretty intricate pattern. My belts start at $400 (without silver) and go up from there....most selling in the $600 range. I would hazard that a lot of toolers would consider my patterns are pretty slow/difficult to tool. I don't charge for drawing a pattern. It's my pattern and if it is any good I will be using it again. Heaven help me if the customer who paid for the pattern ever meets the second customer I tooled that pattern for and they begin discussing what they paid! It really isn't fair. The other thing that I personally think is really important, is to recognize what skill level you are at and charge accordingly. Also, I personally try to determine how much time it SHOULD take to tool a pattern after I've done it a few times and charge accordingly. I do not charge what it costs me the first time....I don't feel that it is honorable to charge the customer for my learning experience. In my mind, you offer a belt (with a tooled pattern) for a certain price and the customers agrees to pay you. It is assumed that you already have a selection of patterns for the customer to choose from. Others may not agree with this, but that is my approach. It is certainly imperative to know what your market will bear. If you are competeing with the swap meet vendors like Billy mentioned, you probably aren't going to sell many belts that take 40 hours to make. As a matter of fact, a belt that trully takes 40 hours to make is in the Peter Main category and should be of that quality so that should give you some means to evaluate yourself. We all suffer from crafters underselling their products but it is just a fact of life. They make it difficult for a legitamate maker to get paid. However, if you charge what you feel is appropriate for your product and your customers are paying you, then you are probably where you need to be from a price standpoint. Just some random thoughts..... Bobby