Question Regarding Old Craftaid Templates

[Ed in Tx]

I came across a sale that had some old leather craft books, magazines and several older Craftaid templates. Based on the dates of the magazines they are probably from the late 60's or early 70's. There were a couple of books as well, one is Projects & Designs by Al Stohlman and the other was General Leathercraft by Raymond Cherry. My question is, are these older Craftaids of any value at all? There are 10 or 11 for billfolds, a couple for belts and one is upper case alphabet. I haven't used Craftaids from Tandy but I had looked at a couple of new ones and these seem different. The instructions say to case your leather and rub over the template to set the pattern. The plastic is fairly thick but nowhere like an embossing plate. I didn't pay much for the entire lot and figured I might find a couple of patterns of interest. I may sell them if they are of any value and someone wants or needs them. Thanks

[Ferg]

Years ago I used the Craftaids because it saved time. I have a "Bunch" of the old ones, some were used very little. Have no idea what they are worth these days but if they have been used a lot they tended to curl up somewhat.

Definitely need to case the leather before using them. If you try to transfer while the leather is too wet, forget it.

ferg

[Wishful]

I see them on ebay for about 2-$3 each on average

[Ed in Tx]

Ferg,

These don't look like they were used very much, they are flat with no curling. I was surprised at how thick the plastic is, about credit card thickness. The numbers on the belt craftaids are 2681 and 2181. I may actually keep the alphabet set, I might have some use for it down the road. Some of the patterns for the billfolds are pretty strange, they are zodiac characters and pictures.

One thing that is very telling about the entire lot of stuff is just how behind the times Tandy is. There were several magazines that look to be something Tandy must have published in the late 60's early 70's. I was looking through a few and Tandy is still selling the same kits and patterns today. The person that original had the stuff must have made quite a few purses as there was a lot of bag hardware like latches etc. They look like ones Tandy is selling now for the "steampunk" stuff.

[Ferg]

I gripe all the time about purse hardware in particular. An awful lot of the pieces available are almost or are exactly like those we bought 50 years ago.

Magnetic catches are "nifty" but many of them pull out of the leather the receiver is fastened to.

I recently made a new purse for my wife. Used a very nice looking catch that should work well. She fiddles with it all the time to get it latched.

Slots with a leather tongue for closing is often used.

ferg

[Northmount]

Use a spoon to rub over the craftaid. Don't need the trace the lines with a stylus. They work quite well for patterns you like and use multiple times. Bought my first ones in 1961. Sometimes copy elements from them when building a new tooling design (since I'm not a great artist when it comes to drawing).

If you like the patterns, keep them and use them.

Tom