wolvenstien

Nice..... very nice.

Beeze, the 75 dollar order is a thing of the past.... Call them up, and ask to set up an account.... tell them you need an account number and what not so you can log into the site to place an order.... They will give you the customer ID and password, and you go to the site, and place the order from the catalog.... Or you can call back and place the order over the phone.... it is a $30 minimum per order..... I just went through this last week or so.... I tried to place an order online but it didnt go through so i called and got a guy who said to do it again... I did it again, and then called the following morning to see if it went through and got the lady who processess the orders, she told me that the online orders come through to her once every 24 hours, and she processes them at that time... I asked her to hold or delete the order if it was a double, and she said she would, and she would call at the time of processing to get my CC number to pay for the order so it could be shipped the next day. She called me and said they had two duplicate orders, that she deleted one, and was processing the other and needed my CC info to process it... It was very painless, and they?she worked with me and made the process very smooth... I got my shipment in GA from them in Ohio in three days UPS ground.... think shipping was like 6 dollars for just under a pound... Also used to be you had to pay for a catalog.... I called them and told them that I was not in the habbit of paying to do business with companies especially since I was a one man company not even doing enough to get by.... they sent me the catalof for free... and said that they were doing away with the catalog fee too....

electrathon Do like I do.... and most everyone else who uses the forum, up top there is the "View New Posts". ,hit it when you want to view the posts.... as for making a new post... pick what you feel is the best catagory, and post it.... most everyone uses the view new posts up top so we will see your post..... might not make a comment on it.... but we will see it. Be well Mike

Welcome Home!

Thats a home made embossing machine.... Here is the Tandy machine: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/product...?number=3800-00 here are the belt assessories: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/product...?number=3800-01 and here is the Name Blank Adapter: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/product...?number=3880-00 What I suggest is that you take the Die you already have back to whomever you had make it to start with, and have them use it to make a die for the tapered ends of the belts for you. This way, it is done to match exactly the die you will be using for the body of the belt, and it will look good. I am assuming that since you need three different patterns, you already have a die made for each of these patterns and just need end embossers made to match? Or are you wanting to have new dies made for these patterns? How much did the jewlers machine and conversion cost compaired to the tandy one listed above? and how much you paying for the dies? I think tandy sells their dies for around 50 or so.... Thanks.... and hope this helps.... Mike

Tool on.

lol.... too funny!

Linda, Thank you. it is nice to hear from the area being talked about.... gives a better perspective.

Damn.... Al was one hell of an artist.... seeing his work in books does not give it justice.... seeing that piece this guy is hawking is true art..... he made the scene come alive.... Now this guys says he is the son of a friend of Als and is selling his dads stuff.... he has a few unique items..... I like the way that Midas swivel knife looks....

Send all the cool folks to reno and Las Vagas for vacation.... leave all the idiots there and just bomb the state.... let it fall off into the ocean.... and we'd all be better off.... I got some potential ocean view property in Nevada for sale....

Welcome home.

the beige and purple in the second pic look darker than the first pic, and the red in the second look a bit lighter than the first pic....

Very nice Clay.

thank you. the white and browns are cova color, and the green and yellow are tandy pro dyes....

Springfield springfield! Welcome to the forum!

Greg, Tex, those are good points.... me being here int eh south east.... it is very humid... even more so than when I lived in Ohio.... or atleast it seems like it... Anyway... here are a few pix of a piece I just finished... The piece of leather is 10x11 inch, 8/9oz with branding marks on it as you can see. I totally imersed it in water then let it sit out for about 26-27 hours... and put my pattern on it, then waited a little longer before I carved and tooled it.... it is a nice piece that was not mushy when i was working with it.... and I was very satisfied with the finished product.... Before Casing: Ready to have the pattern added to it: Here is the Carving before adding dye and color: And here she is finished:

JohnD.... best depth stop I have found is electrical tape... put enough on the bit and it stopps you from going too deep, plus since it is tape, it isnt going to mark or mar your work... Beeza, Great walkthrough. Thanks bro.

What regis says is as close to what you would need to do.... main store page would be a display of all the artists, with a discription of each ones specialty. you click on the aritst and are taken to a page that is set up like all the others but features only that one artists work, and the shopping cart would be set up specifically for that artist.... customer places an order for artist xyz and through the shopping cart system the artist is notified that they have money waiting in thier paypal account or other, and the customers info and the item ordered and special instructions via email. Thing is thought, each artist would have to have completely different stuff than everyone else... or the artist listed at the top is going to unfairly get more orders than the artist listed at the bottom, and everyone would have to charge the same thing.... or the artist charging less for the item is going to get more sales..... Then you have quality.... you know xyz makes googoo much better than I make it.... but if it is put on there that xyz makes googoo better then that will take sales from me to.... not just for the googoo... but other things as well... and it just isnt nice to have a group of people together and lable them as who is better at this and that.... Just the devils advocate here....

right.... Reminds me when I was a contractor for the cable industry.... I had to have my own insurance incase I killed a customers equipment, the cable companys equipment, if I drilled through the house, fell through a ceiling, or whatever... also I had to have insutance on my truck and tools incase of accedent and theft and all that.... I went to an agent... he told me what I needed and I got it all through him at the lowest rates I could going through an agent.... most everything was a rider to the liability policy... it was not a part or all inclusive in the policy, it had to be added for a fee.... but I got the coverage I needed and it worked... though he told me that if I ever made a claim they would pay but then drop me.....

the store in chattanooga runs out of things, but normally has everything in stock.... it is a warehouse....

The thing with leather is that you immerse it until it stops bubbling like I do, and pull it out, or leave it in all nite it is going to absorbe the same amount of water... it cant absorbe more than it can.... so it wont be more soggy or mushy than it would be with just holding it under for several minutes until it stops bubbling... kind of like a sponge... And yes, the quality of leather and thickness would have to do with casing methods too.... When I wrote this I did not take into account the differances in leather.... When working with older harder thick scrap that is hard to cut.... it is getting immersed... no question about it. But when working on fresh thiner leather like the piece of 3/4oz that I worked on tonight I will use the sponge.... wet it thichly, and flip it over and wet it thickly on the rough side.... let it go for 30-60 minutes and then ready to work on.... lately I have been working with nothing but 8/9 and 9/10 ounce and even though it is newer and very easy to cut, I immerse it and work with it the next day... I am working a piece tomorrow that I took pix of tonight before casing it..... the piece is 11 by 10 and has alot of branding on it.... I will take a few pix once I am done and it is dry and ready to be dyed and finished then again after finishing.... see what you think about the tooling depth and all from start to finish.... And Major, you are absolutely correct! thats why I love this place!

Sorry, I did not mean to steal this thread or divert it from its original path... Here is a new thread to talk about casing.... http://www.leatherworker.net/forum/index.p...wtopic=1357&hl=

I didnt mean to steal the thread TRM started about organizing tools and turn it into a casing discussion. I started by damping my leather with wet sponge, but I found that I was not getting an even penetration by doing it. So after discussing with some people about this issue, it was suggested to me to immerse the leather to get an even penetration of water through out the leather.... Yes, I have to prep the leather about 8-12 hours before I intend to do the work to it, depending on the thickness and size of the leather, but I have found that once I allow it to dry back to almost dry, but still moise enough to where I can feel the moisture in my cheek when I feel it, I get great depth, and my carving stays where it is. If I try to tool before it is dryed to the right point, it will expand after tooling and the carving will be messed up.... but once I got the hang of getting it at the right point, I have not had any problems, and I dont have to re wet the leather while working with it as long as I am done with it in 4-5 hours.... if I have to leave it for a period of time, I will cover it with my plastic cutting board. This helps give it longevity so I can come back later and continue to tool it without it getting too dry.

What cjb suggests is exactly what I did when i got into leatherwork. I bought the Tandy Ultimate set that comes with a mess load of stamping tools. I got a 4x6 block of wood and tried to pattern the holes I drilled into it after the tool block tandy sells in the catalog. I wrapped it with a pig skin split. I then used the catalog to catagorize the tools by type and put them in the holder. Works great... On a side note.... were you kidding about having to rewet the leather after finding the tool? If you were not kidding there is a problem there in and of itself... I am guessing it is not taking a few hours to find the tool and that your house or where ever you are tooling is not overly hot and dry..... You should wet the leather by imersing it and allowing all air bubbles to stop raising from it then lat it dry out back to the original color but when you touch it to your CLEAN cheek you can feel the moisture. Then it is ready to be tooled and shouls hold the moisture for several hours given that it is not in a very dry hot place. Personally I have recently done several 3x3 inch 5-6oz leather pieces that I had to leave in the middle of tooling and 4 hours later when I got back to them they were still moist enough to get good carving in them. Mike

Welcome. Have you found a particular market? I have found myself with people asking for custom slave type collars... but they havent asked for much else...