chrisash

Received tandy newsletter today, the price in UK for Pro Stitchmaster is £1727.99 plus vat at 20%= £2072 converted to USD = $2193+vat = $2631 Not sure is Tandy sees a great market for it in the UK

I have dyed the leather first and then cut out , thinking that would make allowance for any shrinking so only have to cut once, but must admit i have not noticed much shrinkage if any on the little amount i have done

I thought I have seen somewhere that sailrite offer a very long guarantee, but looking at there site i failed to find mention , so could be wrong, but from others comments thney do seem to offer very good backup , probably helped by a limited number of machines on offer and built in strength for their intended market of yachts traveling around the world and out of service engineers area's

Just received my copy and it looks at first glance very interesting Had a quick look at "Leather Work A Practical Manual For Learners - I. Pitman (1926" shows sample tooling from 1400-1600 using basic tools and floral designs before AS

Have a customer who is looking to convert a pair of thick black tall boots to British dispatch riders boots WW2 Looking for two pieces about 2-3mm and each piece about 45cm x 25cm must have pebble finish to match existing boot Only UK supply please as cost is paramount to customer

Did it have 100 meters of old rope attached to it when you found it, I see its on the beach, that gives a clue

Great post Wiz, something many would never consider

Might be of interest to others https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165-RARE-OLD-LEATHER-MAKING-BOOKS-ON-DVD-LEATHERWORK-GUIDES-MANUALS-CRAFT-TOOLS/163469422618?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3Dcc73b463bace4cb9a53f85f00f3aab97%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D190954332018%26itm%3D163469422618&_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042

Don't you think that's a bit condescending, it sound like you don't rate European leather and suggest Tandy is better

I don't think the steel makeup makes any difference as not a great deal of wear bouncing onto wet leather One of the software packages is "Fusion 360" and another "Tinkercad" both are free to hobby users, a few companies on the forum and ebay etc will make stamps for you, but not a cheap option making steel ones unless you are selling the end product

You can spend about £30-40.00 on ebay and buy a chinese starter set of all the tools you need to get working, they will naturally not be first class tools but they will do the job until you have built up some experience and then understand exactly what tools you would like to buy to replace them with better tools Some you may never use, others you may keep a long time as usable, and just do the job I guess every one starting mechanics, wants to start with Snap-on Tools, but end up buying a selection of cheap tools and then upgrade as required If you watch the nigel armitage youtube video's on tools tests you will be amazed how he often is amazed with the quality of low cost tools when compared with very expensive ones To me you need experience so you can judge whats a good tool and whats just hype or marketing

You can use 3D Printers, Etching methods, CAM machines and laser to make stamps with various costs and life time of the stamp This is one i have just made using 3D Printer using PETG filament

oop's sailrite sod this speelchecker

There is a nice history here about the sewrite Ultrafeed https://www.sailrite.com/ultrafeed-history

Lino makes a nice surface and you can cut out and install a new patch when required, not as flexible as the green self seal boards, but a option

I would suggest starting by hand stitching and learning the basics that way, a lot of good leatherwork is about being accurate in all things to give the fine looking finished item. Hand stitching you understand how the leather moves and the skill of making a straight line of equally placed stitches at the right tension. You don't learn to drive by jumping into a racing car so why do similar in leatherwork After you have learnt the skills of sewing you will also have some idea of what you want to concentrate in making, and the thickness of that choice will determine what sort of sewing machine you need, be it thin or thick leather, flat or cylinder, no machine does all jobs well. I would suggest you join Nigel Armitage series of lessons at £3.00 per month where he explains on video all the skills you need for leatherworking with new video's most months see https://vimeo.com/ondemand/armitageleather/247495554

my experience of foil printing In the early 1970's we spent half a day walking around Harrods in London, and the only thing we came away with which we could afford was a pack of 20 flip top match boxes with our names embossed in gold on the front. Nowadays I don't think we could afford even them

If there was no problem we would not have so many people double or triple posting whilst thinking nothing was happening

I don't know about the USA but in England the shops are closing up left right and center, meaning the revenue to the local council in what we call rates is well down , so strong efforts now to tax the online establishment who have had quite a easy time up to now to pay there fair share, Perceived value as you say can be just great marketing; and not a guarantee of quality, and cheap prices can be high quality if labour and other manufacturing costs are very low

I am now using my 3D Printer to make 2mm thick PLastic templates for all my items, takes about 30-60 min for most sizes, gives a firm and consistent tracing edge, stands up to knocks etx and about 20 min of 3d software to draw, also makes tangents with curves as smooth as possible and as much detail as you require

And you though us a nasty sods for taxing your Tea, how things change in 200 years

That reminds me i must start that after Christmas diet

No doubt that the forum has done a wonderful job over the years it has been running but by present day standards and proven my the multi posts, either the computer used on the server or the speed of the fibre needs seriously updating to a faster service and if both or these are at normal commercial speeds then there must be a problem with the forum software as the speed on uploading is very poor and new posts should take a few milliseconds to upload not 30 plus odd seconds for a simple post Please keep up the good work but maybe time to invest

Like the fine engraving , but the font design style is poor with the link between the r and Y

You dont state where you are living in the world and that may make a difference You can get quite well made far Eastern wallets from £5.00 to £20.00 in England that scoop up the low cost not worried customers and wallets by top end firms at a few £100.00 plus The strange thing about both is that they are all well made by a skilled person, one often by low waged person who just makes on part of the finished product and the other a craftsman who makes the whole item exceedingly well using the worlds best materials and leathers Back to your question, few will pay for a product whilst you learn your trade and skills, but if you keep learning the skills there is no reason why you can't sell after afew months of hard work, but some have the skills to learn very quickly others never get the skills