hidepounder

Sorry equiss, didn't mean to not respond....I missed your post! Yes, the thinner leather bends nicely. I have used heavier leather and gouged it out, but I like this way better. When I do gouge, I use a gouge made by Bob Douglas and then taper the sides of the gouge with French edgers. That works too! Bob

A successful saddlemaker recently told me "it doesn't take much of a salesman to sell a $10 bill for $5!" He said "if you're going to do the work you need to get paid for it". That's pretty hard to argue with! I'm certainly guilty of not being much of a salesman, and I'm probably in good company. Over the years my approach to selling my work has changed a little. Now, I try to sell my ART. I think that is a little different than selling a product. What we do is no different than selling a painting or a sculpture. I think that helps me keep a different perspective. The better the art, the higher the price and that means that name recognition is a pretty big deal when it comes to price! On almost every piece I do I create a worksheet that I work from. I just made it using MS Works or Excell, I don't remember which. It has four basic parts: FIRST is all my contact information, shipping address, telephone numbers, quotes, etc. SECOND is a place where I record everything the customer wants, and any important changes or instructions due to subsequent conversations. THIRD is an area where I record every piece material that goes into the project...and I mean everything, from rivets and chicago screws, leather, glue, dye, etc., etc. When I extend the cost of materials I also account for waste and expendables. FOURTH is a time log. It's the hardest to keep up with, but I record every minute that I'm working on that project. I do not include down time such as drying time, my attitude is that I should be working on other projects during those times. When my project is finished, it is easy to figure out exactly what my costs are and they are usually more than I anticipated. It's pretty tough to come up with a sales price when you don't know what your real costs are! I've found these worksheets to be invaluable for figuring future projects as well! When it comes to a labor rate, I struggle. I think this is where you really have to be honest when comparing yourself with the competition! Are you producing a superior, equal or lesser product? Do you have the name recognition required to command a higher price? My customers come to me because of my reputation...however, I still have to temper my prices, because I'm not as well known as some of my competition. It's a real battle! You have to take a little less sometimes in order for your work to be seen. Building a reputation is everything! However, the more you sell, the more you can demand because of your exposure and reputation. Just don't sell that $10 bill for $5 bucks! Bob

Wow.....I don't know why I'm only just finding this old post now...but I'm impressed. I am very familiar with Jeff Mosby's and Jim Jackson"s work, they are both great artisits....but I've got to say that I am completely humbled by 2-shews work! That is one of the most impressive compositions I've ever seen. I wish we could get a closer look at the tooling, but I can see enough to know that this is an incredible piece! WOW!!!! Work like this really inspires me to improve! Thanks Johanna for posting that and leaving it on long enough for me to eventually find it!!!! Bob

Great job Johhny!!!!!! Bob

Really nice Brent! I, too, like the way you brought the border out from behind the floral corners. It adds a lot depth to the tooling design. Good job! Bob

Great job Steve...I love those skirt rigs! Good using saddle and practical in the roping pen too! Really nice! Bob

That may be true, I have no knowledge about them. My only experience with Billy Cook saddles was from the late sixties.

Reading this thread is interesting to me. In 1968 I had a summer job tooling saddles for Wallace Stevens Saddlery here is Phoenix. Wallace made stout, skirt rigged roping saddles which were very popular at the time and he made Billy Cook saddles as well. Billy Cook would ship six trees and six hides to the shop and Wallace would crank them out using his saddlemakers "in training". About the time those saddles were finished, another order of 6 trees & hides would be delivered. I tooled a lot of them and put the Billy Cook makers stamp on them...however I don't remember exactly what the stamp said...it's been too long. I remember the saddlemakers having races to see who could cover their horn the fastest...they would pre-fab them, soak them, then pull them on and finish stitching them in place.The slowest guy bought the beer on Friday. After seeing how those saddles were constructed, I vowed never to rope in a Billy Cook saddle! We were always being pushed to get them finished so we could get a larger share of the subcontracts. So, in the late sixties, not all Billy Cook saddles were made in his shop or under his supervision. FYI. Bob

I used to have similar problems until Bob Douglas explained to me how he prepped his knives. I don't know if this will apply to you or not, but removing approximately 3/4" of "shoulder" from the edge made my edge last much longer. It thins the cutting edge increasing the sharpness of the knife. What you are describing sounds to me like your cutting edge is too round. It is important not to mechanically grind the shoulder down as it is very easy to overheat the edge resulting in a loss of temper. Hope this helps! Bob

Troy, I've used the ruby blades years ago until I learned to sharpen my steel blades. I don't think they offer any advantage at all. If you were able to improve them with your GRS sharpener, maybe they'd be okay. In my opinion, they were inferior, right out of the package. Bob

John, This is a battle we have all fought at one time or another. I have stopped trying to justify my prices...if I have to explain the differences, I'm probably going to lose the battle! If the customer can't SEE the difference between my work and the less expensive work, how am I going to convince him? I simply smile and state: "Well, now you know what their product is worth!" Bob

Hi equiss, This particular one is approximately 11" x 14" and 1-1/2" wide (does not include the handles). I recomend going to an office supply store with a tape measure, find some pieces you like, and copy them. There are no rules in making one of these and the sizes are purely arbitrary. When you look and seehow they are constructed , it's easy to determine what you want to do. Hope this helps, Bob

Really nice job Elton! Percentage of filigree background is just right...shows off the hair-on hide, but not too much of it! tooling is great. I Like the border too. Good work! Bob

drof99, I typically use the same margin from my stitch line to the edge of the belt as from the stitch line to the edge of tooling. I think 3/16" is a good distance from the edge for a stitch line. If you want to create a cut border, I recommend using a pair of dividers to make a deep line that you can then cut with your swivel knife. In my opinion, a gauge placed on the swivel knife is difficult to use. I think you are more likely to slip or run off your cut line with the gauge than by cutting freehand or using a staightedge as a guide. Just my opinion, others may disagree... Bob

I've toyed with the idea of purchasing a beader blade from time to time, but I always end up holding off. When I stop and think about it, a beader blade is designed to emulate a hand beader. The curve between the two blades is designed to produce the same rounded effect produced by the hand beader, however, I think hand beaders do a better job because you can actually burnish the bead, with a hand beader. That is difficult to do with a blade. If one is trying simply to cut two parallel lines, it's pretty easy to do by cutting one line, using a pair of dividers to mark the second line and then make the second cut. Good beader blades are expensive....I think I would rather have another size hand beader! Just a rambling thought from a different perspective.... Bob

Marlon...great job on the belt! I love that you lined it and then decorated the inside...gives it a very professional look. I like the "Peter Main" look too. The buckstitching looks great, also, which I never imagined I would say to anyone, as I still have nightmares about buckstitching everything, from the sixties and seventies! LOL Nice job! Bob

This won't be a surprise to those of you who know me....I use Gomph overstitch wheels! Bob Douglas enlightened me about the old Gomph tools a few years ago and I have been replacing all my tools with Gomphs for some time now (and expense). I have accumulated #'s 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12. I use #9 (9spi) for 138 thread, the #10 & 11 for 99 thread and the #11 & 12 for 69 thread. Rickey...a stitching marker has sawtooth shaped point and cannot be used for overstitching, but the overstitchers, which are concave between the points, can be used for marking and overstitching, so I see no advantage in buying the markers. Someone else might know of a good reason though... Bob

Since becoming a full time tooler, I'm not making a living! But considering the state of our economy, I'm not going back to General Contracting or Finish Carpentry!

...and to think of how much money I spent just to make myself suicidal is almost more than I can bare!

Karl & Rickey, I apologise...I just can't remember what Ellis's tools cost. I want to say that the combo was less than Bob's by a considerable amount, but Ellis may have given me a deal...he had just made them and was trying to get them out there. His tools have increased in price considerably in the last couple of years. Karl, if you look at the Beard sample you will see where I have overlaps...I usually correct these with Ellis's second tool. I left them there so that you could see the difficulty in running these tools. The same problem isn't so noticable with Ellis's tool because you automatically cover it up with the second tool. Another hint when using these tools...stretch is a major factor here. You can be really dilligent in keeping things straight, but the stretch in the leather will force you off pattern. At a minimum, tape the back side of the leather with packing tape, and be sure to tape twice, one 90 degrees to the other. I glue everything to a piece of 1/4" acrylic with rubber cement instead of taping. I think it works the best and I'm not concerned about the rubber residue on the back because I line everything! Rickey, You can see what the Hackbarth tool looks like by itself...I stamped it just left of the pattern. If you're thinking of using it by itself, it's not very good looking! Studio-N' I agree with Art...contact Bob, I'm sure he'll make it right! Bob

I use 10" EZ Lap diamond stones. It's 800 grit screen on one side and 1200 grit screen on the other. I like them because they are mounted on ceramic and cut really fast. One or two passes are all it takes with the 1200. It would be very easy to waste a lot of blade with the diamond stones. I need to find a 2000 & 3000 grit stone for better polishing. When I finish honing I buff carefully with three different rouges to create a mirror finish. That being said, I like what Bree said she is doing, in the other thread, and am going to pursue that method also. I think it might be easier and the super fine papers are less expensive. Bob

Karl, Sorry it took me a while to get back to you...I thought it would be easier to show you the two tools than to try to explain the difference. The Tri-Weave on the left is from Ellis Barnes at Hackbarth and involves two tools. The one on the right is Bob Beards. I have even provided a view of the common errors created when using both of them (and not on purpose either!). Neither of these samples are good examples of how the tri-weave should look, but you can see the difference between the makers. After doing this, I'm no longer sure which one I like better. Ellis's are more forgiving in my opinion. Just a side note...Ellis's tool blanks are about 3/4" shorter than Beards and are knuckle busters for me! Last year at Wickenburg, Lonnie (works for Ellis) showed me some longer blanks they had made, but I don't know if they are using them. If you contact him, it wouldn't hurt to ask. Hope this helps. Bob

I guess I'm lucky...the last gallon of barge I bought a month ago is working just fine. I use it to glue all my projects together before I sew. Masters is great! Maybe a little stronger than Barge...I'll be switching to that after this gallon of Barge is gone. The only thing I can think of Scott is that maybe you are using the new Barge and I don't know anything about it. Several perople have mentioned Duall 88...where is that available? I don't know anything about it either.

Scissormedic, When I'm using a 1/4" angled blade I hold my knife almost straight up and down. I angle it away from me (toward the tip) in tight turns and angle it toward me (away from the tip) on long straight cuts. When using a flat blade, the knife will always be angled away or toward the cutting tip. The problem that I have is holding my the knife verticle in a curve....I have a tendancy to want to lean to the side which produces an undercut. It's a very bad habit I developed somewhere along the way. After reading this thread it seems to me that you don't really have a blade problem. I think you are probably correct that your steeper ceramic blade is easier to run than your steel blade and you are just not accustomed to the feel of the steel. For what ever it's worth, I believe it is good to learn to use a knife with a large flat blade. I think it forces one to learn to manipulate their knife. Something along the lines of learning to drive a standard transmission before an automatic. The other thing that thing you mentioned was depth of cut. It is not necessary to cut really deep. Your pattern dictates the depth of cut as you are trying to create an illusion of depth which is another subject in itself. The more refined the pattern, the shallower the cuts will be. Hope this helps, Bob

I tried Resolene a couple of times and had a similar experience. Using a wet piece of woolskin made a big difference in getting a clean application for me, however, I like the finish Neat-Lac gives me better and went back to it. Bob