BlackDragon

This is pretty much what I use. I'm a scuba diver so I have a couple 3lb weights laying around. I put 4 of those litte felt furniture feet on them and they work well.

Great job!

I went to a retail western wear shop yesterday to see what the going price was for leather goods; wallets, purses, belts, etc. For a bifold wallet with some embossed/stamped images they were asking $50. Mind you these wallets weren't all leather. Their pockets had leather when you just look at the surface but once you pulled it opened you could see just a liner. I would say these wallets were no better than the W-mart wallets but they were a name brand. Dont remember the name but my brother in law said it was a rodeo rider (Cody somebody). With all that said I price my plain leather bifolds starting at $60 and my plain roper wallets start at $75. Start adding tooling, exotic skin, etc and you have to decide what your time is worth and what the target customers are willing to pay.

Did you case your leather? If it's to dry you will have to hit pretty hard and if it's to wet it'll be mushy.

When I first looked at it I thought it was nice sleigh bells, then I zoomed in. That is some BEAUTIFUL work!

I'm using chipboard for making hardcover books. What I'm using is about 1.8mm but it comes in various thicknesses and sizes. Its a good stiffness and doesn't lift up as I'm trying to mark the leather. I draw a pattern on a piece of paper then use an Elmers glue stick to attach it to the chipboard.

Just got my Xtreme #20 in the mail and it's some fine enginering. You do great work.

I treated my snake skin wallet with several coats of Resolene diluted with water 50/50 mix. Its been holding up for 2yrs so far.

Thanks everyone Yup I did hammer them down. It's a little difficult to see in the pictures because of the low resolution.

I made a quick minimalist wallet. I used 2oz veg tan, Fiebind's Russet brown, Ritza tiger thread .6mm.

I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

I recently acquired a Manufacturers Supply Co. 10a skiver. The previous owner kept it in great shape and there's little I need to do it besides wiping the dust off. It came with an extra bell knife, grinding wheels, two presser feet and an extra drive belt. I was hoping to find a manual on the machine but so far no luck. Does anyone here have one or one from another manufacturer that is close? I'd also like to get a couple more presser feet but not sure what will fit this machine. I appreciate your feed back

Thanks everyone for your input. After a lot of back and forth and back again the choice really just fell to shipping cost. I found a local dealer, ZackWhite.com, through another thread and called them up. I opted to make the 3hr drive to them so I'll save on freight costs. Instead of $430 shipping I'll be spending about $90 in gas plus some time. Unfortunately once I get there I'll probably wind up spending the money I saved on toys I my find.

Looks great! Can't wait to see the completed piece

Craftool flower stamps available $10 each plus shipping

I have various leaf stamps I just listed here. let me know if you're interested

Craftool leaf stamps available $6 each plus shipping

I made the 7hr drive to pick up the skiver, brass, tools, and some of the vegtan. They had plenty of embossed leather that I didn't take.

I've been reading sales sites, watching videos, and reading the threads here (I really appreciate this forum and the people that have so much insightful knowledge) I'm struggling to decide on a machine. I've narrowed it down to either the Cobra class 4 or the Cowboy cb4500. I decided on the standard package with a roller guide. I'm pretty handy and have supplies to make myself a worktable to fit the cylinder arm. I will be contacting @RockyAussie and @Patrick1 about their accessories. Do these machines run on 220v or 110? I need to run 220v for a skiver I just picked up. Which of the two roller guides would be better the drop down or swing away? I like the idea of the drop down and was curious as to it's sturdiness. Is there any slop to it? The big question is, which of the two machines should I pull the trigger on? If you have a cobra do you wish you bought the cowboy or if you have a cowboy do you wish you bought the cobra. Should I just flip a coin and pick one? I have a feeling this question is like asking which is better Chevy or Ford. I appreciate any information yall can help me with.

Ingenious! Now it needs a autoshut off switch

Wow this is really great work!

This is my current setup for tooling. I used scrap pieces of wood cut to various sizes for each type of tool. This way I grab just the ones I need from my side table and set them on my worktop.

This is what I came up with for my marble. So much better than the foldable TV table I've been using.

I had to run a few errands yesterday so I decided to stop off at a countertop store and try my luck at getting a small piece of marble or granite to tool. I introduced myself to the supervisor and let him know I did leather work and roughly the size of slab I needed. He took me over to his scrap pile and picked a piece bigger than I asked. I asked him how much he wanted for the piece and he said "No charge, in fact you can have the whole pile if you want it." I thanked him profusely and I took the piece to my car. I then went back and grabbed a bigger piece and I'm going to make a table top for the shop. The smaller piece will be put on another desk for cutting or drawing. The small piece is 10"x 22" The big piece is 20"x 25"

I'll second what others have said. You have to first decide what is a defect. What is a defect in one person's eye is just part of the character to another person's eye. The purses I make sell for a high price and the things that the big names say would be a defect my customers love about leather. Do you remember when Microsoft created an AI to detect and ban nude images and the AI kept banning images of sand dunes? Once you can define what a defect is then you can ask others if this would be considered a defect.