sight hound collars (martingale-style)

[Michael Sheldon]

Hi, I'm Mike.

A few years ago, I ran a part-time business making collars for sight hounds (greyhounds, borzoi, etc) along with some miscellaneous greyhound-themed items. I did this for a couple years, then things got crazy for me, so I stopped doing paying work.

But, I missed it, and the extra income never hurts, so I'm re-opening my shop in the next couple of weeks.

And yeah, sight hound collars (martingale-style) are different from regular dog collars. Sight hounds have thick necks, and narrow heads, regular collars can slide right off. Martingales have a small control (choke) loop to tighten it down behind the skull if they try to pull out. They also are often made wider, to distribute the force if the dog lunges forward.

[abn]

Beautiful work there, Mike. I really like the way you put those together. Welcome to the forums!

Regards, -Alex

[TimberWolf]

I like 'em !! Nice work!

[Michael Sheldon]

Thanks.

My early work was definitely not as "polished". It took about a year to develop into what is in those pics. I've still got some of those early collars. They were plenty functional, and they looked OK, but side by side with my later work, the difference is significant.

The first collar I make will be for one of my own hounds. Poor guy, I made a really fancy one for him, with carved and painted oak leaves just before we went to a show. A lady there wanted one like it, and didn't want to wait for me to custom make one for her. And the collar happened to be the right size for her hound. So we literally sold it right off Fox's neck, and he's had a plain collar ever since.

This was the one:

[Micah]

Nice looking works! I particularly like how you used a greyhound in the Celtic knotwork, creative and very original!

[freak]

WOW .. I mean WOW !! It clearly shows your skill and that you know what you're doing.

Welcome and don't eat the plain dougnuts. It's a good chance that someone around here: i want name names ( cough-ClayB-cough), licked the frosting off.

If you have more pics please show them off. The 3 you posted so far and extremely clean and nice. I just love that lastone. What type of dye did you use and how did you apply it ?

[Michael Sheldon]

If you have more pics please show them off. The 3 you posted so far and extremely clean and nice. I just love that lastone. What type of dye did you use and how did you apply it ?

Thanks. I'll post more pics as I can. I'm working on getting my website back up and operational.

That last collar was dyed with a standard tan antiquing solution, then painted with acrylics, and sealed with neat-laq.

[The Major]

Very impressive work. welcome to the board. Good to have you.

[Michael Sheldon]

Very impressive work. welcome to the board. Good to have you.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

It's interesting restarting the shop. I have not done any paying work for over two years, and very little other work. Now that I've decided to re-open I find myself in the strange position of trying NOT to jump in and start working right away. There were many things I had wanted to do to make my shop more efficient (storage bins, shelves, etc) and right now its the best time to do it, since I have no pending orders or other deadlines to meet yet. I know that once I start actually turning out work, that I won't have the time or the inclination to make the shop improvements.

So far I've installed new light fixtures, several new shelves, put up more pegboard, and I have a new base for my cutting table designed and ready to build. Once *that's* done, then I might actually start cutting leather.