Questions About Cutting Dies

[billybopp]

T-bones on the grill?? I'll be right over!

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Billybopp you're welcome to come. They're big thick juicy ones to boot!

[JLSleather]

JLS you took one sentence out of my whole post and made it sound like my whole post was about that. It wasn't. . . that was more of an exception to my theory on dies, which I felt was kind of opposite of what you wrote. Maybe I didn't read your post carefully enough, as I'm grilling T-bones as I type. It comes down to what any given individual is making. I build harness and saddles. If you want to cut wear leathers by hand, be my guest. Not one customer I've had in 23 years would pay a dime extra for hand cut wear leathers and to be honest I doubt even you could cut 16 of them to look perfectly symmetrical. Doing this leatherwork for a living comes down to this: whoever can make the best product for the money gets the customer. Dies speed up production, therefore I can get more done in a day and move on to the next project and make more money which means I can eat steak instead of peanut butter. If cutting multiples of the same thing by hand works for you, more power to you. It sure doesn't work for me.

BS - Don't think I'm gonna argue this one, since I'm agreeing with you (again). If I had cause to cut 16 of something that need to match, and next month cut 16 more, etc. I'd likely order the die. And I don't make "rosettes" ... the person looking for me to cut ONE of those out is waitin' for a REALLY cold day

I like steak, but even more I like doing what I want, when I want to. Just yesterday I had a guy get a bit "uppity" about the scheduling on his carved belt, so I cut it in half and gave him the pieces. Who knows, might work for two carved dog collars? I don't have time for people who get the idea i work for them.

Great info. The lip is that little bit of leather when you cut past the edge that pulls a little instead of cutting. It only happens with chrome tan leathers or soft temper vegtan.

Oh, I thought that was a 'nub'

You answered your own question, really. Firm leather will eliminate most of that, and a SHARP blade takes care of the rest. I used to sharpen stuff (including dies), but time-wise I find it expedient to pitch a blade, pop in a new one, and go.

As far as the initial thing goes about dies, I've designed a good few in my day. You may have seen some of the results of my younger days work if you have appliances that say "Electrolux", or farm equipment that says "Sudenga", or ever seen the handicapped vehicles made by Ranger (the electric ones).

Edited August 19, 2014 by JLSleather

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

JLS I didn't mean to start an argument, I guess I just mis-interpreted your post. I don't know if you're doing leather for a living or if you've another source of regular income, which I don't have. So in reality, yes I work for me, but I really work for whoever brings me work. If I handed my customer the two halves of his project because I didn't like his attitude, I might have to start eating peanut butter instead of steak. Bad press gets around much faster than good press, and I stand up for myself, but sometimes I gotta kiss a little ass. Cutting a guy's belt in half doesn't fall in that category. But you do what you want in your shop, I do what I want, (or have to in order to make a living) in mine.

Sooo. . . ya'll have a good evening, I think I've enjoyed as much of this post as I can handle in one night.

Edited August 19, 2014 by Big Sioux Saddlery

[barehandcustoms]

Good information so far and thanks to everyone for your replies.

I was going to use Weaver or Texas Dies because of a referral from someone who literally has a wall full of dies made by both companies. Sorry you had a bad experience with Texas Custom Dies. I was probably dreaming when I thought I could get by without buying the clicker press. It looks like every template will be around 1sq foot in size.

I have noticed my hands getting very sore in the mornings after long nights in the shop. I think most of that comes from the cutting process since that seems to be when I feel them cramping up. Luckily I am a network administrator and they get to rest for most of the day other than pounding on a keyboard. I'm only 28 but it seems my hands are getting stiffer on me already.

[Sylvia]

Whats your technique? For larger things like bags I want to cut them by hand but I'm having difficulty with curved corners and with the corners creating a lip because it sticks to the knife.

I found this set of templates for wood workers, inside and outside corners in different radius'

http://www.rockler.com/quick-corners-set

[DavidL]

Il keep that in mind thanks.