chrisash

When you pull the bottom thread out of the bobbin, how much tension is there on the thread, when you pull out a foot of thread from the bobbin and then use it to lift the bobbin off a table, it should stay in the same place, and if you give a little shake bore thread should come out, you adjust the bobbin tension with the small screw in the hook It sounds like you have far to much tension on the bobbin The tension on the bobbin only needs very small movements of the tension screw at a time maybe a 10 degrees at a time

What happened to the samsonite one you brought to take apart for the pattern, that was your original goal, you even had a sell price of $71 The pattern from Corterleather is $5, for unlimited use https://corterleather.com/collections/patterns/products/pattern-travel-wallet

I am also looking for someone who has a leather items that sells 20 plus units per month, I just want you to make the units for me, market them alongside your own and please give me the profit when they are sold In doing this you will greatly increase my living standard as i am a pensioner and dont have the skills to do it all myself, although, i could ask Sergey to make me a logo on the cheap or free for you to stamp them with for me It will also free up my time to play tiddly winks all day and not bother with that damn leatherwork that takes ages to make and equipment to buy and mantain, basically a win win situation all round, don't you agree All offers to ripofallyou can.co.uk

@Halitech How is it going now two months down the line?

Is this not all a bit ambitious, as it sound from your posts, you have either no or limited experience of leather work, yet already have a selling price and no knowledge of leathers The sample wallet, is a rolled edge version, which will take quite a while to learn on how to skive the edges for the rolled edges You have not mentioned if you have a industrial sewing machine, but all the sewing on this wallet is by using one with a very experienced user There are plenty of samples of simple minimal wallets with hand stitching which unless you are already experienced, I would suggest may be a better way to start, if you are experienced then please forgive my impertinence Goat leather may be better for wallets rather than sheep as I am informed does not stretch as much in use as sheep, especially for area's like wallet pockets

A Alternative is to buy a cheap far eastern set of tools from which you can make most things whilst you learn the skills, then add to it with better tools when you understand the shortcomming of the low cost ones, you can spend a lot buying say a french style pricking iron and break the prong the first time you use it , whilst the low cost one in the kit is slightly different but far stronger, both give really good results With this kit below the only extra thing would be a good diamond awl to add to it A shoulder of veg tan leather would give you loads of practice or on ebay you can buy scraps of veg tan to practice on at very low cost see https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/61PC-Leather-Craft-Punch-Hand-Tools-Stitching-Carving-Working-Sewing-Thread/303095932416?hash=item4691ece600:g:EbAAAOSwPBJdY3bD Good luck and Holland i understand has plenty of leather suppliers just like the UK, and there is a Tandy shop in Spain which will deliver in the EU look up tandyleather.eu

Agreed the problem with limited budgets, the large companies supply all the display racks and promotion items to get a great display where as the small guys are just not in that league The selection of shop types also helps, in the UK we have a lot of mens country wear for shall we say the better off, Outdoor activities and also tack shops, both of which leather products can fit into nicely

@robs456 shops have limited space to display their items, and have to select items that are proven to fit their market. they are constantly invited to try new items and therefore have to be very selective One thing you could try that may break down the door is to offer sale or return on a small selection of items for say a limited 3 month trial, you supply the goods and they only pay when the item is sold, at the end of the period the unsold goods are returned to you in new condition, Basically changing to a no risk for them to try the new items The skills in selling to another business are vastly different from say selling to a private customer , some of these "Closing a sale" skills are available to learn in some business books, unfortunately the market is also filled with the crap "make a million bucks this year" type of book to confuse the issue Good luck

Have a look at the sailrite web site it has lots of video's to assist you setting up and making items https://www.sailrite.com/How-To-Projects-Guides/Projects-and-Tips/Learning-to-Sew

I had a sheepskin slip with the wool on the inside and never had any problem, i dont think anyone will ever put a wet gun away, but sure you will find someone with opposite views

Wow, your design skills are fantastic as well as your leather skills , those items are a great showcase of your skills

Doc , he did state it was the outside not the inside layer, but your method sounds very reasonable

Put it another way You do the job and get your labour rate He gets a repaired belt and tells his friends you do repair work, They look at the repair and think its not very good so downgrade what they think of your quality and don't buy from you and tell their friends the same (nobody ever mentions you did it as a favor knowing it would not be perfect), Or they dig into their pile of rubbish in the garage and dig out a load of old tack for you to repair You end up not working on things that make a nice profit that you enjoy and don't charge the full amount as it seems to much for repair work

But what about those large lumps and armoured parts on the tail

Just tell the truth, it will never look very nice and for the labour costs he could have 90% of a new belt made of better leather, some things are just not economical to do

How much of a croc skin is used for leather work and what happens to the rest?

If you google russian birch you find Russian Birch plywood is uniquely manufactured with multiple ply's of Birch veneer, used uniformly, throughout the panel. Each layer of birch veneer is peeled at 1.3mm or 1.5mm thickness giving the panel a multi-ply edge that is both aesthetically attractive and offers unmatched strength and stability. So I would expect there are tons of bark cleared off the trees before use and therefore available for mass production I also believe its the most populated tree in Russia

I would suggest 7 or 8 spi is a nice size about 3,38 to 3.85mm seems to fit most things The grove was a traditional method still used by some, but most now have a flush stitch on top and if you cast the stitches they show a nice offset stitch You can get much thinner thread like 0.6 and 0.8mm, you could experiment with say 0.6 with the 3,38mm and 0.8 with the 3,85mm, there is no rule its all whatever you feel looks nice

On the sound issue, you can buy industrial sound deadening vibration absorbing mats that you can place the machine on that may absorb some of the noise attenuation

Marketing and finding customers is generally very hard for small outfits, the competition on either your own website or etsy is huge and local area's mostly have limited potential customers With selected niche products done on a production basis, there is the opportunity to market and sell direct to shops and any other outlet, where they do the selling to customers for you, helping to increase your brand and sell in quantities Obviously not for those happy to remain a small outfit, but production can be done on small limited items using local shops etc

Much of the data that is free is very dated and probably few if any pay for most of it, the few good items i would guess are still of little value to Tandy, but the marketing value of the free goods is priceless, they have immediately gone from the high price company, to a friendly giant, People who never use Tandy anymore, might just might be tempted to check them out once in a while Anyway that's my take on it

Tandy has some free e-books at present the 3 x Al Stohlman "leather cases vol 1-3" may be of assistance to you

Out of interest did you scarf the joint or just edge to edge, I imagine scarfing would give more strength, but hey if it works

In England Butchers block is made up of the ends of the wood rather than the length, so a block would be made up of say 2"x2" ends glued together on all sides so the end grain is the work surface to make a large surface Same basic language but different meaning I guess

That is quite a thickness on a backpack or bag, do you skive the area you want to join together, this could make a more manageable thickness