Mulesaw

@chuck123wapati Thanks a lot Chuck, I have to ask my son really serious if he would prefer me to make him another set with dark brown yokes and no tooling at all. In that case Laura can get those :-)

@PastorBob Thanks a lot. I think the most difficult thing was to not get the weave to "wander off" , but I could feel that at the end of the second yoke, it was all more natural compared to the start. @doubleh Thanks a lot. I have never used chaps for riding my motorcycle. I normally use bibbed leather overalls, they seem to fit better with the semi crouched riding style on my 1973 Moto Guzzi V7 Sport.

Great looking job!

Looks great. I almost expected to see scrolls of ancient sorcery formulas inside! For sure no one will be in doubt who that binder belongs to.

Since making the set of purple chaps, I have been interested in making another set. Gustav participated in a large jumping competition around Christmas time, and it was uncomfortable cold, so I suggested to him that I made hi a set of chaps. He accepted but he wanted them dark brown so they would match the tack for the horse, white stitches, and there was to be absolutely no bling or fringes etc. whatsoever. He would be using them while riding and also while he is teaching riding to others. I purchased some oiled leather that I figured would look and work fine as riding chaps. Last year I bought the Tandy chaps pattern pack, and I started measuring on him to get a good fit. I made the yokes out of some veg tan that I had, and despite the no bling restraints, I decided that a discreet basket weave didn't fall into that category. It was my first real attempt of making a basket weave, and I think it came out OK. The sewing was done on my old patcher, and I had put some heat shrink tube on the feet to avoid them marring the surface. There was still sufficiently grip in that they could transport the material. Laura generously posed as a model for the photos since they were to become a Christmas present for Gustav, so he couldn't see them as soon as they were completed, that's why they are a bit too long and also a bit wide around the waist. He liked them and has used them when it has been really cold, but he commented that he thought the basket weave was well into the bling category!!! I think that he'll get used to the basket weave and I'll just have to continue my quest for finding someone who want me to make a set of batwings with fringes and all :-)

Beautiful work. I especially like the elegance of the wavy tapered sides. That just looks spot on! I know that a regular taper could have done the job but this is just perfect.

Thanks Wiz, That makes a lot of sense, I'll have to see if something is missing from my machine then, because I have to do just that manually pulling to remove my work as opposed on my newer K29 long arm (can't remember the exact model number in my head). I always thought that it was an upgrade on the newer machines. Learned something new again :-) Brgds Jonas

@Constabulary I think the top tension unit is the one sitting on the side of the head? I know that my machine at home has the possibility to put the tension discs there (I don't know what the advantage is by doing it though). But I could be wrong. brgds Jonas

Looking really good!

Really fine article. But darn that is early to get up! Good idea about contacting the local newspaper. I might borrow that idea. @TomE sorry for the late reply, but I have been busy at home as usual, and have just returned onboard. I can indeed relate to the idea of doing leatherwork onboard a ship :-)

I have one just like it except yours look nicer. I would buy it without hesitation! I have made a couple of chaps on mine, and repaired numerous riding boots (changing the zippers in them). For sewing leather where you don't want to leave a mark from the gripping teeth of the presser foot, I tried to mount a bit of heat shrink tube on each of the toes of the presser foot. That worked really well. Go for it!

Dang that sounds like something that would get my blood pressure up as well. How much I'd like to do a charge back, I think that letting @Dwight help would be a better solution. Maybe Chelsea is just too proud or ignorant to accept that she has made a fault, and if Dwight's friend can help, well then hopefully it'll be sorted out. Good luck and please keep us updated on the progress

I use a thin V belt om my patcher. It works fine for me.

The best comment of the day! I laughed so much that the first engineer called and asked the happened.

Looking good, I like the idea of using 3 rivets at the base of the cross. To me it looks like the stones on the ground. A very nice touch.

Looking really good! I have only repaired one piece from a stallion halter that had a raised leather strap, and it wasn't until I was done that it dawned on me that it had been easier to make the cover a bit oversize and then trimmed it later on. And it is a darn nice looking sewing machine too.

It looks like you are on the right track again. I sincerely hope that no more stones and boulders will bother you Brgds and have a nice weekend Jonas

It looks like you are well on your way to healing. I also know I am not supposed to laugh when someone are ill, but I have to admit that your picture made me laugh out loud! That was exactly the idea of a pain killer I had envisioned.

Ouch... I hope that you will soon get better. My best advice (not a medic) would be to find a comfortable chair in front of the fireplace with a good book and a couple of painkillers. But I don't know the first thing about kidneystones, so I have no idea if it would ease the pain or not. My thoughts are with you

Thanks Chuck, It is really appreciated I am so lucky to have my son involved in this as a partner, because he is the one who knows how to sell stuff. And together we make a pretty good team. Plus we make sure to have a good time along the way doing it which is really important I think. One of the ideas of the company is that it would be a great way to ease his way into it. He takes care of the accounting and that sort of stuff, and I provide some muscle (and a little experience). We haven't got any debt to a bank, but our company has borrowed some money from me. And it is written in the document that the money should be paid back whenever it was convenient for the company. That means that he (and I ) doesn't have to stress to meet any goals each month to satisfy a bank. And given that he is still an apprentice and goes to technical college half his time that is really good. The long term goal is to specialize in harness rooms / saddle rooms in large stables and horse trucks. We have bought a house too that we are renovating, and that will be rented out. I don't think that I'll quit sailing, but I hope and think that he can make a living from the company when he is done with his formal training as a carpenter. And at that time he will already be accustomed to tax reporting, accounting making quotations etc. And I am happy if I can still participate by repairing horse related stuff :-) Technically I could also work full time for the company, but I think we need to get it a bit more off the ground before starting that. But we are on the right track. Brgds Jonas

Really impressive! and thanks for providing the IMGUR link, I think I see a boot project somewhere in my future. :-)

@TomE Thanks for the video, I sadly can't see it out here since the net connection is so slow, but I'll have a look at it when I get home. I repaired a nice lead rope for someone, the rope was a braided thick soft rope, and the snap was attached by means of a piece of leather that was folded and then sewn onto the braided line. The other end had a leather ending as well, not a rounded cap, but also just a folded piece of leather that was sewn pretty close to it. It looked nice, though the stitching wasn't that great (I guess that's why I had to repair it)

I just tried to google a bit, and this page came up: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2011-title19-vol1/pdf/CFR-2011-title19-vol1-sec12-60.pdf On that paper it is specified in section § 12.61 that "(a) Fur-seal or sea-otter skins taken by Indians, Aleuts, or other aborigines under the authority of section 3 of the act, fur-seal skins taken under the authority of the Canadian Government, and fur-seal skins taken on the Pribilof Islands and other specified areas under the authority of section 4 of the act shall be admitted to entry if officially marked and certified as having been lawfully taken and if accompanied by a declaration of the shipper identifying the skins by marks and numbers as those covered by the official certificate." So I would guess that it also applies to seal pelts from Greenland Inuit. But I think the safest bet would be to contact the US customs, it can't hurt to ask them. There is a similar problem in antiques. You can't import an old piano to the US unless you have proof that the ivory on the keys were taken lawfully. And that information doesn't exist on older pianos since it wasn't unlawful at that time to hunt elephants. There is a well known restorer named Patrick Edwards who has a series of very interesting articles on that subject on his blog a couple of years back (not leatherwork related otherwise,).

@TomE Thanks for the kind words :-) And thanks for the suggestions for future products. I really like the idea of a show name plate, I have never thought about that until now, but it is always the same piece of paper that is taped to the front of the box door. and it really doesn't do much good for the overall look. I would have to learn how to make a rope halter, but I guess that should just require a good source of instruction and some practice. Lead ropes is also a good idea that everyone needs. I would love to make stuff like side reins and surcingles, but I am afraid that I will have a hard time getting in on the market with them. I know that I can make them as good or better than some of the fancier brands, but they have a powerful PR machine and many riders love using a recognizable brand. We hope that we will be such a brand someday, but I think it will take some time to get there. (But that doesn't matter as long as the journey is a blast) I think that hay nets are too cheap for repairing, at least if you need to pay someone to do it. It is the same problem with paddock halters. These can often be bought as a package deal at at sale with 5 halters for 15 $. I can't event get the hardware and nylon strap for 5 halters for that price. We actually operate with different hourly rates depending on the work we do. Horse blanket repair is just DKK 200 per hour (roughly 28$) but for saddle repair jobs and leather repair jobs we charge dkk 350 per hour (roughly 49 $) It may seem like a high price, but it is dirt cheap in Denmark. I think an unskilled labourer is paid something like 25$ per hour, so if you need a carpenter you usually pay at least 70 $per hour. My thought is that if we charged a higher price for the blanket repair, it would often be cheaper for people to buy new blankets, and I like the idea of repairing stuff instead of throwing it out, so it still generates an income to our company, and it is a great way to get in touch with more horse people. On an average I'd say that a horse blanket takes about an hour to repair, there is usually a bit of hardware that goes into it as well, and then there is the Danish VAT that amounts to 25%, so it quickly adds up for the customer.

@BlackDragon Here are some pictures of the products we have made so far. The leather grease comes in 3 colours: neutral, black and brown. The wooden hooks on the head stall holders are mitered in the corner and reinforced with a spline (those re the darker vertical lines) I haven't got any close up pictures of the shabrack holders, but they are also stained pine with two coats of marine varnish on them, You can see the ends in the first picture, where it holds 3 shabracks.