Spyros

And don't forget the band aids :D

5 stitches per inch is 25mm/5=5mm spacing, they're not very common but I have seen them somewhere. If you don't know how many prongs you need then you probably you need multiple. For heavy leather I'd go for something polished otherwise it might be trouble to pull them out. Wuta leather, Kemovan, Weaver are the usual suspects.

On their website it says the sales dude for france is in switzerland. Probably wholesaler but he should know where the retailers are https://www.riri.com/network/?s_cou=france

Ok I just received it and mate I don't know what to tell you, I actually went back and double checked what I paid. And yep it was USD $5 per punch. First of all for the price I expected hollow steel in the handle and such, but nope, these things are solid everywhere, and heavy. Very good machining, clean welding, rounded edges everywhere, nicely formed cutter. I can't really tell what they used for paint, it's definitely not blackened steel, but it feels really smooth like powdercoating. Maybe it is powdercoating. Even the numbers are actually etched into the steel, not painted on. Obviously the cutters are not sharpened yet but even straight out of the box they have zero problems going through leather. Even the packaging was impeccable. I don't know what to say, I think the guy is under pricing those. If you're a belt maker and want to cut 10oz bridle all day then this is not the tool for you, but for me they're absolutely perfect. For the price I was hoping for something to last me a few months, but these look and feel like they will be around for years. Only reservation is the quality of the steel, it's definitely heat treated for hardness but i want to see how it holds an edge. I won't know that for a while but from what I've seen so far these are good quality tools. Not super heavy duty but a lot more than what you'd expect for $5. In Australia those would be closer to $50. Also got some conchos for shits and giggles, what you see is what you get with those. Total AUD $110 (USD$76) for 7 punches and 4 conchos, including shipping to Australia. That was my only experience with Kemovan, and yeah, very happy so far.

Slightly unrelated, about photography: I'm not regretting the moneymaker strap, it really helped on the few weddings I've done in my life and then I sold it to another tog for nearly as much as I paid. But man, I'm looking now at some "vintage" straps I bought for my rangefinders, and I realise they are basically a $5 piece of chrome tan with a couple of stitches. And I paid like 60 euro +postage and had to wait a month for it to arrive from Europe LOL That rangefinder crowd is truly special... I guess when you're just paid $3k for a lens everything else looks cheap. Its all a question of making something they want. About the stitching, I agree that it matters. Although you can also make it kind of disappear depending on the color and size of the thread. It's the value of burnishing I'm questioning if people are actually paying for it or even noticing. I made a pen case for my wife and I remember when I gave it to her I kept turning it sideways so she can see all the work I did on the edges, and she kept turning it back the right way, because you know, that's what normal humans do LOL Only place I've seen people holding finished wallets and other things sideways to inspect edges is on leathercraft reddit.

Highest rate of return as a small business is one of two things: - Don't make what everybody else makes. Find a sizeable niche, become both the first AND the best at serving it, and charge a lot. Example: the Holdfast "moneymaker" double camera strap, look it up. Excellent business, and yes when I was into photography i did buy his strap. It's simple, expensive, and very well designed. - Make what everybody else makes. But find a way to make it fast and simple and sell the fact that it's made simple as a conscious lifestyle/quality choice. And most importantly: do it without being dishonest. Example: MrLentz. I am a business analyst by trade, I've studied a bit of marketing, and lately I'm also a leather worker. So I wear three hats and I take off all three of them and bow to this guy. He's smart and he makes an honest product that people want. Highest rate of return as a big business is to take your factory and send it to Asia. Can't beat these guys. Highest rate of return as a sole artisan is probably dog collars, belts and key fobs. Just get your clicker press, jigs and templates, never stitch anything (rivets everywhere) and churn out as many as possible in batches. Everybody wants one of the three, it's just a question of availability and price. Golden rule for profits: whatever you're making, keep it as simple as possible. Remember you're not making this for yourself, and you're not making it to impress other leatherworkers. The vast majority of the people receiving a leather item can spend a lifetime using it and never notice the edges were not burnished. Design, look and feel, longevity, practicality is the things they're after. Make an intricate & flawless item for yourself and the people you love, not to sell. That's the bitter truth if you want to maximise your profits.

I placed an order a couple of weeks ago, the post office tells me it should be delivered sometime this week so I'll let you know soon-ish. I bought some conchos and their whole range of half round punching tools because the reviews were good and at $5 each I just couldn't help myself. See how we go.

I think edges is one of those things that only other leather workers notice. I've decided to keep mine somewhat reasonable and focus on the important things, which is pretty much everything else except edges LOL Having said that, the best tutorial I've seen is on edges was by another Swedish member, Danne:

Nah don't worry, message them, just be nice. I mean you're Canadian I don't have to tell you to be nice LOL Shipping was ok for me, they FEDEX'd it and went to Singapore first for a couple of days, then another 3-4 days to Melbourne.

Yeah don't worry they're probably just busy. Shoot them a message, they respond quickly. Let us know what you think when you get it

I ordered and paid on the 5th of June and they shipped and sent me a tracking number on the 22nd.

No granite will ever come near those babies LOL Only soft things. I just finished making a case for them, pig skin lined with pig skin

Ok new candidate for favourite tool just arrived Just a quick test, two pieces of 1.5mm veg tan glued together Yup, we're gonna get along juuuuuust fine The diamond chisels I was using before have this pointy edge that makes it very easy to place them exactly where you want on your leather, the KS blades have a flat edge instead which makes it a bit more challenging to stay on your line, as you can see in the second photo. But that's pretty much the only disadvantage I found, everything else about them is just about perfect.

I know, sorry, it's only because I havent found a use for it in leather working it really for a couple of steps before leather working, like killing crocodiles LOL

You look like you know what you're doing and that's a very nice shop, something very authentic about it I'm not sure I can see myself using that giant clam for leatherworking (I need to try I guess), but I'd definitely hang it on my wall right next to my Fijian rib opener (and use either of them as a weapon if needs be )

I think plug cutters are for a different job, basically cutting small dowels. They do have conical bottoms but there is no cutter down there, if you push your dowel against that bottom all you will do is burnish it. The idea of sandpaper glued in the bottom of a hole sounds like it will work, question is what happens when the sandpaper is spent? Are you sure you don't have access to a small trim router? All you have to do is clamp it upside down somewhere, but you'll need to buy a basic roundover bit, maybe $30 from bunnies.

Did you try sticking one end in your drill and sand the other end on the belt sander? It will go much faster. The proper (and fast) way of doing it is on a router table with a round over bit and a featherboard to hold the dowel down, you just approach one end of the dowel to the bit and spin it a little. If you have access to that sort of thing, or even just a router, you can make a jig and churn them out in minutes. I know you're probably looking for like a drill bit or something, I don't think I've ever seen one like that...

Τhanks. I found this illustration, is pretty much all I need. So this is made basically with furniture grade materials and finishing and looks ridiculously over engineered for what it's meant to do, which is to firmly but gently hold two pieces of leather together. Which is awesome. It's the sort of thing if you found it forgotten in the attic from your great grandpa's days you'd restore and put it to good use for another lifetime (or three). My problem is, just from looking at the illustrations, it doesn't look very comfortable to me? I know after an hour I'd wish the position of the hands was a little lower, or I could change position and use it standing up for a while. And I don't think I'd want to squeeze it with my knees for too long, because it seems that mechanically that's the only thing that keeps it closed? Unless there's something I'm not understanding about the mechanism (talking about the middle one here, I already know I don't like screw knobs for this job, so the other two are out for me). I don't know, it's the kind of thing you have to try to see what works and why it's designed like that. I'm sure there's a reason, people have been using and fine tuning these things for centuries.

Man, I really need to make a proper stitching horse. I made a couple of "ponies" for myself while I was still researching leatherworking and waiting for my first tools to arrive, without actually having stitched anything in my life. So I went ahead and made a couple of tabletop versions because that's what I could see everywhere on Etsy etc so I thought ok that's what what everybody uses. Didn't even know stitching horses exist. But those little things that clamp on the edge of table are only really good for wallets IMO. They're just too high when I sit and too low when I stand, the actual clamp is small and I don't like the screw knob, it's unnecessarily slow, I should have made a quick release. So now I'm looking at stitching horses and trying to imagine some sort of a design that will work for me. I don't want to create another furniture though, my house is full. Any ideas are welcome

Whatever it is, wait until some talented dude with a forge in ukraine makes it for half the cost

Ahhh gotcha. Yes curves are challenging. I bought a range of half circle punches and I try to use those whenever I can, but if I cant I use this and an exacto. Works for me I might add a steel french curve ruler at some point for those odd shapes.

Yeah I heard that too and it got me a little worried to be honest because i really dont want to add one of those. Not so much because of the cost but because I know very well from years of woodworking what a pain in the butt it is to sharpen a round blade. I'm talking really sharpen it, not just strop it a little bit when it's already sharp. I permanently have a long queue of things waiting to be sharpened and it would really take a lot to persuade me to add round knife in there. Thankfully I now have some experience with the projects I'll be doing which is just your typical bags/wallets/pouches etc, and so far I haven't really found anything i will not happily cut with disposable blades. Give me a Rotary/Utility/Exacto trio of knives and I'm good. Actually I'm not sure what the half moon knife was designed for, surely there must be something it's indispensable for, maybe it's for the things I don't do like shoes and saddles? Or maybe it's simply because back then they didn't have rotary cutters and disposable blades, who knows. By the way I really like traditional tools and i want to do adopt as many as I can, if only just to do my part in keeping the craft and the tools alive, and also because they look really cool But giant round edges that need sharpening? nah that's where I draw the line LOL

Shoes... probably requires leatherworker level 9 I'm more like a 3

^^^ this is a machinist square, I have 2-3 of them for woodworking but I couldn't use them on leather because they won't lay flat. I ended up getting a simple steel square from the hardware store, put some anti-slip tape on the back instead of cork, works great. My favourite tool by far is an OLFA 60mm rotary cutter, I don't know for some reason it really suits my hand and gives me confidence I can cut anything with it. I even use it for curves although I know I shouldn't. I have some KS blades arriving any day now, I'm hoping they will become my new favourite. Well they better anyway considering how much they cost.

It does look suitable for drawstring pouches and purses. Maybe a tool/pencil roll as well. Thx all