chuck123wapati

no big deal unless your at 6900 ft like me lol. 11.3 here approx.

its mineral oil I don't do anything with it. But I don't stand over it huffing it either lol. My machine is out in the garage so well ventilated and about 6 foot of tubing away from my work.

Grass fires started by downed electric lines. Grass burns fast and hot in 60 mph winds. its not so strange if you knew about the grassland prairie, snow falls but melts off or blows away almost as soon as it lands, its just a dry place that can burn any time of the year. Last year a small town in our county was evac. for the same reason. They got the fire out at the towns edge luckily.

veg tan and brain tan for two. chrome tan (chemical) invented about 1850. chaps were invented early in the 19th century in Mexico further evolved in Texas starting about 1830s or 40s from what i have read.

14.7 at sea level

looks kinda warm there! -4 f here this morning Happy New Year friend!

I think you would need a vacuum pump. Its not the same as a vacuum for cleaning i have this one it works well. https://www.harborfreight.com/25-cfm-vacuum-pump-61245.html

that is purdy!!

very cool an added knife sheath would rock!!!

mark your punch on each end with a center line also.

definitely not out of mine I thank you for the pictures/ idea and link. While i was at i made one of those funky round dot ones too lol. I'll refine them a bit and give em a good polish.

That is a nice background indeed but holy cow you paid 35 bucks for something you easily could make with a file on a stainless bolt head?

yum, yum and nice work there!!!

True story a bit off topic or maybe not. There is a guy in town that sells Conoco gas, his family owns the distributorship and he is the MOST unethical man on earth (IMO), he literally sets the prices for the whole town and they are high. My wife worked for him a long while back in one of two station he owns right next door to one another. The first station is a certified Conoco station the second is a c store mom and pop looking thing. He sets the price for gas at the c store a few pennies less than he does at his Conoco station and his biggest thrill is when folks drive into the Conoco check the price on the pump then drive next door to fill up at the cheaper place. Same gas !!!! from the same person. but he gets the business and beats his competition because they make a quick decision based on two choices, both are his but they don't know that and don't go down the street any farther to find better prices.

now your talking those are "wunnerful, wunnerful, wunnerful" as Lawrence Welk used to say.

There are some interesting threads here on the forum about the difference of handcrafted or hand made lol. Worth looking at them if you have the time. Personally ( my opinion only) a clicker press and sewing machine make it handcrafted if you want something hand made that is a bit different. Spyros is right. The short story is You can only get what others are willing to pay. the consumer sets the price in reality and they also determine if its hand made or hand crafted before they lay down the bucks.

the leather crafters lament!!!! You cant compete its just that simple. They use machines you dont. You can compete with others who hand sew and you can make a better product but you cant duplicate machine work by hand and come out on top. A little story, the other day i took a couple holsters to a customer, while talking he showed me a pancake holster he had purchased previous to finding me. It was two pieces of 4oz pre dyed chrome tan leather , cut with a clicker press, sewn on a machine in a very basic stitch pattern that was conceived to cover about a hundred different gun shapes, edges unfinished not even beveled. Probably not 30 minutes of work to put it together including a coffee break. Whomever could make a box full of these crappy holsters in the time i make one. Big old stamp right on the front Stamped HANDCRAFTED by! Less than two minutes and the fellow understood the difference in quality plainly. He would have bought from me if he knew i made holsters at the time but I have all his leather work now as well as everyone he tells. And yes i can make more than just holsters for my customers. Quality will sell your work if you want to sell handmade items! but your only going to get people who want handmade quality and most of those folks know what handmade looks like to some degree. His wife went over my stitching like a detective lol. I impressed her on the stitching quality and i impressed him on the speed of the order and quality fit of the holster. If you feel you need to compete then by all means buy the machines and put the quality out there that they are selling. THERE is a learning curve to that also! I will say now there are people who can make clicker cut machine sewn stuff every bit as good or better than most hand makers can. They are truly your competition! I will also say if you cant sew as fast, cut as fast, dye as fast, as other hand makers you cant charge for all that time (other responsibilities and breaks and stuff). In the beginning your going to make substandard wages, reality is sick days don't make you money, vacations don't make you money. You now have only yourself to blame for your success.

that looks good to me !

i never ordered from China on purpose but i have received stuff I've ordered from China if that makes sense. seems most of the crap on ebay is directly shipped now a days usually free shipping and three times as cheap as the same exact product sold from a US address.

Thank you Fred i will print these off as well. Yes I've found a lot of confusing stuff on the net lol. I'm still learning to pronounce it. I appreciate you taking the time!

you get the first game with him right? Do you use the fetlar rules? If so when you take an opponents piece do you move one of the two pieces that surrounded it onto that square ( like chess) or do you just take it off leaving that square empty?

really nice!!!

You gotta love what you build! That is a beautiful set and it shows not only the love of the game, and family but of the work that went into it.! I may have to download the instructions, that game intrigues me.

i've been in the field with tons of leather products, water proofing is a misnomer of sorts. I spend hours water proofing my boots for two weeks of wilderness, hiking , hunting and such, but i also realize i have to maintain that water proofing for it to last and also cant use my boots without taking that protection into consideration. I don't just wade through any water holes i see i walk around them. Any of them will water proof your leather for a while but not for ever. Think about leather boots for a bit. Any of the water proofing s for boots will work on any of your veg tan products just the same as it will on your boots. You do know that if you walk in water all day your boots will be wet completely through. You also know if you step in one little puddle on the way to work your waterproof boots will stay dry. At some point in between the puddle and the lake the proofing will fail right. What ever you apply to your leather will take a certain amount of abuse before it needs re applied. As for veg tan leather it softens naturally as it gets used also and as the liquors used to soften it equalize. If these liquors/fats gets washed out your leather will harden back out then fail you as the fibers will start to fray, the dry cracks in your boots, and separate! Many of the leather conditioners have waxes of various kinds and can be used , remember the oils under the finish are what are keeping your leather soft and supple. I guess if you are thinking you can make a leather collar maintenance free for you customers it aint gonna happen. lol. Offer care and cleaning instructions as well as what you recommend or have used on them. I know alot of folks don't expect to have to maintain their leather but they do have to maintain the finishes that protect the leather.

Almost to nice for a game bag lol those are fantastic. How am i going to fit an Elk into that lil thang?