chrisash

Using molds for gussets are a great advantage to get sharp 90 deg sewing edges

Brian, you are a crafty old sod, I would never have thought of those support holes for strength

looks good

How about shaping the seat to fit your arse, you could fill a thin plastic bag with medium drying foam, sit on it with it placed on the saddle and get a mould that you could mimic under the leather. Assuming there is such a foam that is soft enough to make a shape yet fast enough drying to not make you sit on it for hours, the mould would only need to be a few mill deep Forget that idea, just get some thick tooling veg tan, soak it and place it over the existing saddle with a plastic over it , then sit on it for 30 min and your weight will mould it

Those scratches are patina and seen as valuable by some

Treating customers as idiots, is a good way to ruin your reputation, and for what

Apart from the Tippmann the others will sew chrome tan clothing leather, but have major problems sewing more than about 1.5mm veg tan. there is a good guide on this forum under the sewing machine heading about what to look out for

Great idea

Round corners work best. You can also achieve a great finish using a food vacuum pump and sealable bag, which makes it easier to work the corners better just before you take the final vacuum out of the bag

Welcome from Norfolk, there are a few suppliers in the north where you can buy leather and tools, www.leprevo.co.uk asre up that way, very poor old fashioned website but good service just give them a call You can find some free ebooks, patterns and designs on a Tandy site https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/. they used to charge for these but as its Tandy's 100 year they have made them all free Tandy supply all leather tools and leather but left the UK about 6 months ago so you need to order from the states, but there is also a sort of agent in the UK https://www.identityleathercraft.com/ who offer a good service along with https://www.artisanleather.co.uk/ Hope this helps, there are quite a few brits on here

Trouble is that shops have huge overheads that need paying for and most governments also make them unpaid tax collectors with loads of paperwork People also abuse the goodwill of the owners where they call on technical information for free and then say thank you and go off and buy the item they want on the internet rather than with the guy who gave free advice I would imagine in the US the increased import tax has hurt sewing machine sales yet the shops still have the same overheads to pay for

One thing you will find useful is that Tandy have opened up their vast library of books and patterns etc in their leathercraft section for free though you do have to sign in go to https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/ especially look in the ebooks section a mind of information

This guy may be able to put you in touch with someone, to me his work looks great

Tandy are a known quality, neither top end or crap, you definitely want to exchange the 2 prong for the 3.5mm version Until you practice and know what you need through experience I would suggest you stay with Tandy as better tools will not make better work, until you have learnt how to use them fully, and can appreciate the difference the more expensive ones make, or if they actually do make a difference. some brands rely on marketing rather than quality to make their name, others have both marketing and quality, some people just like the most expensive tool they can buy and have no idea if its value for money, but it looks pretty

They do seem great prices, but interesting on how you eventually select the supplier. are you going to the factory or a agent/retailer The Australian embassy in China may have some information on what are seen as good machines in their commercial department, maybe worth a email or two Aussie with 12 month guarantee at £3000 I guess would have cost including shipping, inspection etc close to £2000, so a selling price of 3000 is not that bad of a deal as they probably have other overheads as well

100,000 sunflowers were massacred to make this oil, stop this cruelty

Regarding marketing, don't forget that both sex's buy goods and often for the other half, often men seem to aim their marketing to men and ladies to ladies, but presents are often for the opposite sex, so maybe a wallet or mens belt will be brought as a present by the wife/girlfriend; and handbags by the husband So keep options open and wide with marketing/advertising, a sample or leaflet in a ladies hairdressers may bring in a surprising number of orders

Aah A little bit of history, used to smoke a pipe 30 years or more ago, have not seen anyone smoking on for at least 10 years now, miss the smell of the rum shag i used to use, but wife hated it.

For stamping a one ton Arbor is the minimum but you could possible do small stamps at 1/2 ton, but the price difference makes it not worth going for the 1/2 ton in reality

Far better on a web site, but you do have to build in a potentially very large marketing budget to make it work and reach good positions on any search engine. The marketing can be by e-commerce advertising or traditional means.Amazon, Ebay and Etsy etc have spent their millions in doing the advertising for you, unfortunately also directing all your competitors to the same location whilst doing it, so unless you have a niche product it does tend to be a fight for the lowest total price Thinking out of the Box, selling to high value retail shops may give you a constant stream of customers at a lower profit but without paying the high marketing costs is one option, but with all businesses its a balancing act whatever way you go Identifying your market is helps wasting time and money

I think it varies on the product you want to photograph With relatively small items Fred's solution is first class My alternative is based upon your holsters which i think would be better outside with a clear field background or a impact background far away, reasoning is that its designed to be worn and that's how to show it off best. even good close-ups can be done outside with care. the background needs to compliment the main item and put in into context Always use a tripod or other stand for the camera and use depth of field to your advantage You can always use the light box for close ups for in depth detail to assist as required it's not a one option choice

The more you spend on insulation the less your heating bills and the longer the heat will remain in the building, Cold to warm costs a fortune more than warm to hot

Who is using the words Handmade?, I would make a guess its mainly the makers using it for marketing reasons, implying extra care has been applied, which may be the case or may not, with few percentage of customers asking how it is made, obviously some will, but most at a craft fair would assume the stall owner made them, and that's as far as they will enquire. At least that what i would assume in England

Largest movement in prices will be between those in the Euro and those not in it

Hand made food can go through a few processes, products could use cheese brought in same with butter and may also use minced beef in a pie All very confusing Like the idea of "Made by a craftsperson or artisan"