What Can I Do With 200 1.5" Leather Circles.

[billymac814]

I spent my Saturday doing a small production of cases to hold a welding lens for a manufacturing business. The case is a very simple design of the customers, they provided a cad drawing, I had a die made and finished them up yesterday. The bye product of this is 200 1.5" English Bridle leather circles. I'm trying to figure out a way to use them for something. I thought about using them as tags for some of my items, I could stamp them with my makers mark and punch a hole in them or even have a new stamp made with more of my info on it, similar to a wooden nickel.

I could also stamp a letter in them and sell them for a buck or two as small key chains, it might take a while to sell but I'd get 200 bucks back over time.

I figured I'd throw it out there see if there's anything else cool that could be done with them. I hate to just throw them away for some reason.

[humperdingle]

Checkers pieces?

[mikesmith648]

leather conchos?

[EquusCustomLeathers]

I do a lot of horse tack, so I see these as owner id tags for rider's belongings. People at boarding barns use this kind of thing all the time.

[Cyberthrasher]

I like the makers mark idea. It's a nice looking tag. Heck, punch a hole in it with a key ring and people can actually use it once they pull it off their holster.

[Glendon]

The tag / key fob idea is proboblly the easiest solution. Though you might also be able to punch two holes in them, thread them onto some thin lace, and selll them as bracelets and necklaces.

Perhaps thread four of them together flat as coasters?

Expanding on the makers mark idea, maybe epoxy a pin on the back and offer them as pins for jackets / hats / bags, along with the key fobs.

[humperdingle]

Stitch 'em all together for an interesting take on chainmail... Or GaGa's latest fashion

[billymac814]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I do like the keychain idea that could be reused by customers. I have enough I may try out a few of the suggestions here.

[shtoink]

One side is black already, so paint the other side white and do up some sets of Othello: Leather Edition. You could make up a board for each set and then sell them.

[billymac814]

An othello board is a cool idea. I remember playing that on Atari. I'm probably going to stick with the simpler items due to time restraints. My son makes keychain a and bracelets and sells them in my shop so I may have him make a few with alphabet stamps. I modified an arbor press to take the stamps so he can do it without any help. He normally sells the key fobs for about 5 bucks but I think for most guys they are too big so maybe these little ones will be better for certain people. He could also stamp other things on them too, I have the Masonic symbol that fits perfect and other stamps that would fit.

Any of those ideas are better than throwing it away.

[Cyberthrasher]

Any of those ideas are better than throwing it away.

That's the key

Even if they're given out as promotion, at least they're getting used.

[billymac814]

Exactly. I think some will end up as promotional items depending on if I can get a stamp made cheap enough. The stamp I use for most of my items just says "McCabe" and I don't think a lot of people would use a keychain that just says my name.

I only throw away the smallest of scraps. I use what i can and the rest I put in a bin and sell them for 10.00/lb. A lot of people buy them up for small projects and who knows what else for.

[Jax]

11/2" is ideal for the centres on grackle nosebands http://www.bluepony.co.uk/images/English-Leather-Grackle-Noseband-1445.JPG

[billymac814]

I had this stamp made up, I considered getting one that was more circular to fit the circle but I don't like circle stamps really so I wanted to be able to use it on other things too. I ordered this from the guy on this forum that was doing the Made in the USA stamps (I forget his username). I was very pleased with the quick service, I spoke with him this afternoon about it and he sent me this picture a few hours later and said its in the mail. . I've ordered about 5 or 6 from Brenda at lasergiftcreations and I've always been happy with hers as well but I figured I'd give this guy a try too. My only regret is that I should have ordered it before doing this project as it would have been a better stamp for those cases than the "McCabe" stamp.

[Cyberthrasher]

Man, I really need to get me one of those. But, I don't have a press or anywhere to put one, so I'd be limited on being able to fit my product in the bench vise. Either way, I really need something more descriptive then what I'm doing now.

The level of detail he gets in that is awesome.

[billymac814]

I do use an arbor press to stamp mine on when I can but with my holsters a press won't work so what I use is a pair of vise grips. I ground the teeth off of it and cemented a piece of leather on one side. This of course only works on the edge but you can use those other visegrips that have a bigger throat and get 5-6" or even more with the larger ones inside of something. You could even epoxy the stamp right on the one side depending on how big the stamp is. My larger stamp takes two squeezes, on on each end and since I use different stamps and different methods to stamp it I wouldn't want mine epoxied on but it could work. You could also do the mallet type but I don't really care for them, I have two that I never use, the one is rather large and I find it difficult to get a good clean strike consistently.

I also had the whole second amendment put on a stamp, that one definitely requires a press.

These flat press versions are cheaper than the mallet type too.

[EmbossingDieCompany]

Glad you like it Billy!!!

[billymac814]

Glad you like it Billy!!!

I do, the picture looks great. I'm sure ill be back for more.

What do you guys think would be better for the keychain, a split ring(normal key ring) or that ball chain stuff. The ball chain stuff is probably cheaper and would be easier to attach to my items. I think a key ring would be more likely to get used though, I just think with just a hole punched in it it won't lay in the same position as the keys unless I put a smaller metal loop in there first which I don't want to get that involved with this.

[Cyberthrasher]

When I originally suggested it, I thought of that exact same question, which is why I said key-ring (not that you'd know that )

the ball chain just says "this is a tag with a fancy metal clip", where the key ring with some other method of attachment says "this is a keyring - use it as such". Now, you could put a little piece of that chain in there and then put the keyring on that to get things facing the right direction. Just a thought.

Edited February 5, 2013 by Cyberthrasher

[spooky]

Make a set of runes? http://www.runesdivination.com/

Add a very fine chain and make wine/port labels???

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

_{I would pass on key rings, I have tons already that are not being used. Sell, or use them for stacked knife/maul handles.}

[shtoink]

_{Sell, or use them for stacked knife/maul handles.}

^This!

Key chains are pretty common place and unless you have some really cool ones, they will possibly just get passe over. You might have to include them as free gifts with purchase to get rid of all 200 of them. I still think the Othello: Leather Edition or even Checker: Leather Edition would be awesome. Yeah... Yeah.. I know what opinions are like.

With the checkers, you could use a border stamp and matting stamp to give it a pattern similar to the plastic ones.

[groovytech]

Stamp 'Tuit' on 'em, sell or give away as 'round tuits' . everyone needs to get 'around to it'..........

[bluesman1951]

Pictures say more than a whole bunch of words . This looks like a good opertunity for bag decorations . Hope this lights the imagination spark . Bill

[billymac814]

Bill,

Those buttons are really nice looking.

As far as the keychains go I don't plan to sell them, I'm gonna stamp them and send them along with orders. Free stuff sells well around here. Ill probably have my son do a few with other random stamps and he can sell them, he makes the larger key fobs and some bracelets now and sells them on the counter. Some people buy them just because they are cheap and a kid made them. He could sell these even cheaper and I still think the smaller ones would attract more people, I'd never use the larger key fobs but is use one this small.

The game boards are a good idea but I don't have time for projects that I want to do so I don't see myself dedicating the kind of time for that. I don't mind stamping my logo on something and finishing the edge quick and attatching a ring but that's about as far as I'm going to go and that'll probably only be for the occasional customer.

I got enough ill probably be using them for all kinds of stuff. I nailed one to the leg of my stool to level it up the other day. No more rocking stool.

I did think of using them as attached washer handles but I wasn't sure if the English bridle would work as well for that.