chuck123wapati

you mean it costs me 160 bucks just to get a good nights sleep? lol. Lets say 1500 for a machine how many belts to pay it off plus the time sewing. Lets say you charge 20 bucks for your shorter amount of time sewing with a machine, what do you charge for the machine itself, lectricity? His 20 bucks an hour is all profit. Plus in some folks opinion yes it is worth more, the question is can you sell your belts for what you want if so then there is no issue.

very cool effect! I like that .

that's some good steel my friend, I would have done the same.

that and some fresh butter mmmm bet its about gone by now lol.

oh yea that looks great man!! Lets see er done up. wow that was quick lol. that is cool as heck.

great job of it !!! A little info for you, the hidden tang type blades are made for that leather handle the typical /historical way to secure it to the handle is to peen the end of the tang down over your pommel which would have had a slot cut in it. The original US army Kabar is probably the best modern example of that attachment method. However many hidden tang knives are made exactly as you have done it with a threaded pommel. i have seen and made both types.

i had a 68 jeep cj5 but sold it last year, to small for my family and the engine needed rebuilt which was way to expensive for me. I have a 91 Chevy suburban i use now 6" lift 35 "tires 10,000 lb winch on the front and chains for all fours, that baby goes everywhere lol the dents attest to that.

When i open a can o worms I go fishin!!! man i wanna go fishin! but the water is still to hard.

and well worth it!! those look great.

your work always impresses me. I'm sure she will love it.

"The art of making leather cases" volume three by Al Stohlman.

Me too, I love a good discussion anytime, especially with such a diverse bunch of folks. There are no wrong answers to the question really just different ways of looking at things. That's what human interaction is all about, expanding yourself through your experiences with different views.

absolutely!!! or this? neither stamped nor tooled, done by hand pyrography, took the pic, edited it to fit, scanned the transfer, is it better or worth more than a lasered picture, copied off the net and programmed in? is it art? would the lasered one be art even though human hands never touched it?

Does it take more skill to hand sew than machine sew? You learned to do both how was it for you? What if you lace instead of either? All variables in the quandary of pricing. Personally i think the learning curve is similar but hand-sewing is more personal. If your just wanting more money faster then you machine sew. If its an added "artistic" feature of your product or a seam that is actually impossible for a machine to sew then you hand sew right? In the business sense stamps, most any modern tools actually, were invented to make a profit , being able to turn out a product faster than by hand with less training of the employee = you can charge less and make more faster with out paying for a predetermined skill set. Embossing wheels came quickly next after stamps. But then the artistic ability of the product maker was lost somewhat to the stamp maker, totally to the embossing wheel maker. at what point do you differentiate in the cost of the products being sold? Is a hand tooled belt = to a stamped belt= to an embossed belt = to a...…. actually better? They all do one thing hold up your britches. Folks that just want a belt to hold up their britches don't buy from us they shop at Walmart. People buy from us for a different reason and that is what we put into our products that Walmart doesn't or cant. Can i sell my hand tooled belts for what Hand stitched could sell his stamped belt for? NO i cant my work simply is not even in the ball park, I couldn't sell my stamped work for the same either even if I did the exact same design. That's a personal ability and skill set thing that is a different discussion i think about selling stuff.

Darn right and far above my skill level with any technique.

Of course you can you can also do things that carving cant replicate.

that's going to look great man, it an awesome design, which machine did you sew it with i can see some tracking along the edge.

lol i cant wait.

lol Ok then simple test, carve and tool that same design you made with stamps on your cig case and let me know which was easier and which took more of your time and which looked better in the end. your question "Are they artistically equal in skills" ? the answer is no, it takes much more "skill" to learn to carve and tool correctly and artistically than to learn to stamp correctly and artistically.

I agree somewhat however take a stamped belt for example any average person can with very little experience duplicate any design very closely with very little training or skill. Now take a belt hand carved and hand tooled I don't have to tell anyone here how hard that would be to duplicate for the average guy with very little training or skill. That is why stamps were invented they are simply easier. that's why people invent stuff , to make it easier. And that's why i charge more for a tooled belt than a stamped belt.

Pretty easy to tell carve something then stamp something and see which is easier to make look good. Learning to tool a flower compared to grabing a stamp of a flower and whacking it. design concepts are obviously needed for both to look good but they don't compare in ability. I can stamp a design in a few minutes however carving and tooling a design takes more time and skill. Think of it this way Don Gonzales makes a bill fold hand tooled exactly as the one i did, which would be worth more. it takes skill eye hand coordination, experience and about a dozen other thing s to make your tooling look good it is an ART. Stamping is stamping its more of a craft that's why Tandy calls them crafttools lol.

woke up to three more inches today, at least the roads were open lol.

25-30 for a plain one, a lot of folks like plain things. 35 -40 for one like that decorated with stamps only. Very nice looking by the way. 45 or 50 if they want it tooled.

lol you cant judge by our two stores, the roads have been closed for almost three weeks off and on daily due to storms and or high winds. Sometimes we don't have any fresh produce or meat at all. I think we have crackers though. If there are nation wide shortages the truckers passing through stop and grab all they can, its become a real problem here and a second source of income for the truckers.

thanks for doing the work for us finding a supplier, I'll be getting some of those.