Shop Talk!

Shop Talk!

May 2013

The Leather Retailers’ and Manufacturers’ Journal

with Boot & Shoe News

Ansür Saddlery Northwest, Pioneers of Treeless Saddles

Douglas To

ols

insidE :  John Gray Saddles  Laugh Lines

D. W. Frommer, Bootmaker Since 1984

www.proleptic.net

 Goods & Services  Boot & Shoe News  Selling Your Business  News, Notes & Queries  Classifieds

$6.50

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Shop Talk! | May 2013

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Shop Talk! | May 2013

The Leather Retailers’ and Manufacturers’ Journal

Table of Contents

Shop Talk!

WITH BOOT & SHOE NEWS

Laugh Lines..........................................................................6 Goods & Services................................................................9 News, Notes & Queries...................................................11 John Gray's Saddles.........................................................23 Ansür Saddlery..................................................................32

Advertising

Boot & Shoe News............................................................40

Deadline for advertising copy is the 5th of the month prior to the month of publication. Invoices are due upon receipt.

SHATA members who display the SHATA logo in their advertisement receive a 5% discount on display ads. 6 or 12-month prepaid advertising contracts receive a 5% discount. Discounts may not be combined (advertisers may receive either a SHATA discount or a prepaid contract discount).

Classifieds............................................................................56

Classified Ads

Douglas Tools: Making It Easier...................................32 How to Price Your Business...........................................34

Cartoon................................................................................60

20 words or less ......................................... $26.50 Additional words (each) ................................ $ .65

Display Ads

Full Page .................................................. $485.00 Half Page .................................................. $271.00 Quarter Page ............................................. $147.00 Eighth Page ................................................ $78.00 (Color and guaranteed placement additional)

Setup Charge Shop Talk! is published monthly (ISSN 15470121) by Proleptic, Inc. Subscription rates are $36 annually, $39 (US) for Canada and Mexico, and $54 (US) for all other countries. Shop Talk! is the official monthly publication of the Saddle, Harness, and Allied Trades Association (SHATA). SHATA members receive a $4 discount on annual subscriptions. For more information on subscriptions, advertising rates, or SHATA membership, contact:

$50 per hour with a $18 minimum. Line art may be inserted at no additional charge. $10 per photo.

Inserts

$399 for one page­— Maximum trim size: 8-1/4” X 10-3/4” $45 each additional page.

Event flyers must be inserted 60 days in advance.

All inserts must be shipped directly to printer.

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at: www.proleptic.net

Shop Talk Leather Magazine

P.O. Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816 Ph (828) 505-8474 Fax (828) 505-8476

Visit us at

www.proleptic.net

Recycling old magazines, catalogs, and newspapers is one of the easiest ways to help the environment. To increase the supply of recoverable wood fiber and to reduce the demand on regional landfills, Shop Talk! urges its readers to support recycling efforts in their communities.

Shop Talk! is printed only with inks made from vegetable oil.

Shop Talk!

published by Proleptic, Inc. P.O. Box 17817 Asheville, NC 28816 email: shoptalk@proleptic.net

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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Shop Talk! | May 2013

proleptic.net

Laugh Lines It Could Happen to You! AT&T announced last week it will lay off up to 8,000 employees. Ever conscious of its image, the company is promoting the layoffs as a new feature called “job forwarding”.

Several years ago

we had an intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, “I’m almost out of typing paper. What do I do?”

“Just use copier machine paper,” the secretary told her. With that the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it in the photocopier, and proceeded to make a number of

El Nino

storms are affecting trade with Asian countries. A freighter bound for Long Beach, CA, with a cargo of yo-yos got caught in a particularly violent storm. It sank 65 times.

The Chico California City Council

enacted a ban on nuclear weapons, setting a $500 fine for anyone detonating one within city limits.

W

hen two service station attendants in Ionia, MI, refused to hand over the cash to an intoxicated robber, the man threatened to call the police.

The attendants still refused so the robber called the police and was arrested.

Recently

“blank” copies.

I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car: “Do you need some help?” I asked.

She replied, “I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can’t get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?”

“Hmmm, I dunno,” I said.

“Do you have an alarm, too?”

“No, just this remote thingy,” she answered, handing it and the car keys to me.

As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I said, “Why don’t you drive over there and check about the batteries. It’s a pretty long walk.”

when I went to McDonald’s I saw on the menu I could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. So I asked for a half dozen nuggets. “We don’t have half dozen nuggets,” said the teenager at the counter. “You don’t?” I replied. “No, we only have six, nine, and twelve,” he answered. “So I can’t order a half dozen nuggets but I can order six?” “That’s right!” the teenager smiled. So I ordered six McNuggets.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

When asked her occupation, a woman charged with a traffic violation said she was a school teacher. The judge rose from the bench and addressed the defendant.

“Madam, I have waited years for a school teacher to appear before my court,” she smiled with delight. “Now sit down at that table and write, ‘I will not drive though a red light’ 500 times!”

Restores Natural Gloss

Whips With Authority!

Wholesale

A

lawyer defending a man accused of burglary tried this creative defense: “My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles.

His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for an offense committed by his limb.”

Well put,” the judge observed.

“So using your logic, I sentence the defendant’s arm to one year’s imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses.”

The defendant smiled. With his lawyer’s assistance he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, and walked out.

Whips of Quality from Texas and the West. From leather, rawhide, and nylon. Bosals, Quirts, Shooflys, Reins, Riatas, Romals, Mecates, Dog Leashes, Mohair, hatbands, novelties and more. Give us a call. You’ll find our prices hard to beat!

PO Box 311448 New Braunfels, TX 78131 Al Ludwig Call: 830-629-0540 Cell: 832-754-6099

www.handplait.com email: ajludwig@handplait.com

Read ONLINE

www.proleptic.net

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Shop Talk! | May 2013

I was checking out

at the local WalMart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one those dividers that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn’t get mixed up.

After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the divider and tried to find a bar code so she could scan it. Not finding anything, she said to me, “Do you know

how much this is?”

I smiled and told her, “I’ve changed my mind.

I don’t think I’ll buy that today.” She said, “OK!” and I paid her for my things and left.

It kind of reminded me of my last time at the Dollar Store when

someone called for a price check on aisle 4.

Police in Radnor, PA, interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message “He’s lying” was placed in the copier and the police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn’t telling the truth.

Believing the “lie detector” was working, the suspect finally confessed!

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proleptic.net

Goods & Services

 Nick-O Sew has got a new shipment of like new Juki LU-1508N machines—very sweet! Uses up to a 207 size thread with 5/8” lift and set-up especially for leather. Head only is $1,200. Complete machine is $1,595 and comes with a table, stand, 110V servo motor, speed reducer, and even a flipup roller edge guide.

Contact: Nick-O Sewing Machine, 7745 Hwy 76 S, Stanton, TN 38069, (800) 526-4256, e-mail: Nick@Nickosew.com, www.Nickosew.com.  An excellent source for needles and awls for the older machines like Landis 1, 3, 16, Champions, and Union Locks is Landis Sales & Service, 115 E County Road 500 N, Arthur, IL 61911, (217) 543-3464. Give Eli a call!  Custom-B-Tack at 13 Davis Rd., Ethridge, TN 38456, makes all sizes of coated webbing harness—from mini to large horse—wholesale.

Write for prices.  There’s a new DVD which teaches you how to make a 17 strand cinch. U-Braid-It founder, Rebecca Morgan-Albertson, demonstrates from start to finish her methods for tying the 17 strand cinch with the diamond pattern.

Chap, Saddle & Tooling Leather!

The best grades from the best tanneries!

Hermann Oak #1, or A & B grades only!

Skirting, Harness, Strap, tooling, etc.

Large clean sides of chap leather!

Same types and colors always in stock!

Work, Rodeo and Show!

Outstanding service!

Real leather sample cards available!

Goliger Leather Company 800 423-2329 Fax 805 650-1742 email: service@goligerleather.com Visit our website: goligerleather.com

Additional bonus projects include the rope halter with fiador knot and noseband variations, the breast collar, and the English girth.

Chapters include: Materials & Tools, The Weaving Frame, Stringing the Buckles, Burying the 8 Ply Ends, Weaving the Half Diamonds, Weaving the Center Diamond, Weaving the Cross Bar, Care & Maintenance, Cross Weaving Using the 8 Ply, and Stringing Two Colors.

The cinch presentation leads directly into bonus

H

ANSEN

WESTERN GEAR

Conchos Saddle Trim Hand Engraved Silver Products “For those who want the very best”

HansenSilver.com

209-847-7390 Marie, Tim & Kelleigh Hansen

800-970-7391 Oakdale, CA 95361

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footage for weaving the English girth and highlights for the single strand breast collar. Also covers how to make a rope halter.

Hard copy materials include: formulae for figuring cordage, illustrated patterns for the diamonds and traditional weaver for the English girth, etc.

Running time is 2 ½ hours. Cost $99.95. Contact: Cybele Geideman at (505) 231-1897, cybele@ ubraidit.com, www.ubraidit.com.  Booth & Co. is now stocking mallets made by Garland Mfg., in both traditional rawhide and ultra high molecular weight plastic heads in a variety of sizes, weights, and shapes—a perfect compliment for use with the tools made by Dixon, another line stocked by Booth.

Contact: P O Box 3232, Peabody, MA 01960, (978) 531-3730, e-mail: kenchapman@boothandco.com.

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proleptic.net

News, Notes & Queries

Hey, Bidder! Hey, Bidder! Hey!!!

There’s a dandy auction taking place at Valley Head Saddlery on May 17 and 18, at Hwy 75, Idler, AL. The auctioneer will be Jim Cox of Moser Leather and Jim may be reached at (513) 889-0500, e-mail: jimnwestern1@aol. com.

Valley Head is NOT going out of business but simply selling off some surplus machinery, saddlery and tack, saddle trees, hand tools, cutting dies, leather, webbing, etc. There is an advertisement for the auction at www.auctionzip.com under ID #8433.

Items include several Union Lockstitchers, clickers, riveters, edgers, skivers, and more.

Terms of sale are cash or check guaranteed with a bank letter of credit, credit card, or preapproved by auction company.

Don’ t miss it! Should be a good sale.

It’s Here!

Any day now you should be getting your very own copy of this year’s buyer’s guide which is now called My Buyer’s Guide! And if that doesn’t make your day then you are a hard man (or woman) to please! We work months and months on the directory, running down advertisers as well as constantly editing and updating the information in it. We want the buyer’s guide to be easy to use and as accurate as possible so you can find the materials and equipment you need fast!

Of course, if there’s information which isn’t 100% or if we’ve failed to list someone that we should, please give us a shout and we’ll correct our records. Contact: My Buyer’s Guide!, P O Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic. net.

We also have the directory online at www. mybuyersguide.net. The web site has recently been completely redesigned and is in the process of being updated with the latest 2013 information. It is completely searchable and our advertisers’ ads are hotlinked back to their own sites for immediate access! Wow— that’s handy! And it doesn’t cost one extra nickel.

RJF Leather

Veg. Leathers for Saddles, Belts, Holsters & Case Goods

• Specializing in premium natural double shoulders • Bends • Sides • Backs • Bellies • Gum Flesh available • Drum dyed leathers, harness, latigo, and english bridle • Each piece is hand selected for your needs • No Minimum Quantities Roger J. Folmar • European double bends 15 Woodsview Dr. u Elmira, NY 14903 for belts and belt lining Ph: 607-742-8969. u Fax: 607-562-5323 Email: FJLEA@aol.com u www.rjfleather.com

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One of the very best things about My Buyer’s Guide! is every year, without fail, it goes to the right audience which is why our advertisers get such a good respond each and every time we send it out. We’ve complied mailing lists over the past 30 years that no else has and can’t be purchased. We literally go to 100’s of shops that can’t be reached any other way, shops which are bona fide potential customers with money to spend and who are looking for some place to spend it.

Why do people advertise in the directory?

Because it works.

Enjoy!

Open House at R J Matthews There’s a one-day open house at R J Matthews Co. this coming June 18 in Massillon, OH. 10 am to 7 pm. There’s a cash and carry discount.

Matthews is a great wholesale source for lots of animal health and related products.

For directions and all the details please call

Casey Holton, R J Matthews Co. sales representative at (800) 578-9234 x 1125 or e-mail: cholton@rjmatthews.com to make your reservations today. RSVP encouraged by Tuesday, June 11, 2013, but not required.

Carriage Makers’ Get-Together Yes, buggy builders get together to swap tall tales just like harness and saddle makers!

No matter who you talk to they’ve all built carriages for either Disney World or AnheuserBusch! Ha! Or both.

This year’s gathering will be on July 19th at Nolt’s Carriage Shop, 750 Mud Level Rd., Shippensburg, PA 17257. Most of these folks upholster their own work which means they run sewing machines and need needles and thread!

Sales & Auctions—Plan Now!!

Hey! If you have an auction or sale coming up and are thinking about running an ad in Shop Talk! then you need to have your ad

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

in the magazine at least 60 days before the event. 60 days. That’s the policy! So get ahead and plan ahead and give us a shout! Thanks!

Contact: Shop Talk!, P O Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@ proleptic.net.

Why Vendors Love the Roundup It’s like what a vendor told me once when I asked him why he came to the Roundup every year. Here’s what he said, “Dan, it’s like starving hogs let loose in the feed room! If it was any better I’d have to beat ‘em with a stick! My heart just couldn’t handle it!” Wow. It’s true—the annual Custom Boot & Saddle Makers’ Roundup has, for the past 25 years, never been about “show & tell” but rather about “show & SELL!” It’s good that the aisles are so wide so people can carry out all the rolls of leather they buy and push out sewing machine after sewing machine. I’ve been suggesting that someone start renting grocery carts but will anyone listen to me???? Make mine motorized!

face, and swapping stories is absolutely the best PR possible. None better.

And that’s why vendors love, love, love the Roundup.

Selling space is limited so if you’re thinking about attending the Roundup as a vendor, then you better get on the horn and call Eddie and Kathy Kimmel at Kimmel Boot, 2080 County Road 304, Comanche, TX 76442, (325) 356-3197, e-mail: kimmels@cctc.net.

See you there!

ANPIC The most important and largest leather, footwear, and accessory show in North America is ANPIC which takes place in Leon, Mexico, a city that boasts 100’s of tanneries and dozens of shoe and boot factories. The show attracts vendors and attendees from around the world. Normally, ANPIC takes place in early November. Dates for the 2013 show have not yet been posted but you may check their web

Of course, while sales during the show are important, for many vendors the real dividends happen afterwards. But while they’re at the show, they’re meeting new customers, getting new leads, and trading industry gossip—all very important things to do! The great thing about being at the show is that you get a chance to shake your tail feathers and let folks know you’re alive and kickin’ and open for business!

Shaking people’s hands, looking them in the

828.665.7060 828.665.7067 fax 1.877.665.7060 order line bucklebarnusa@charter.net www.bucklebarnusa.com

BUCKLE BARN USA 145 Vanderbilt Terrace Asheville, NC 28806

we are one of the largest wholesale buckle distributors

A huge assortment of styles and designs by USA Manufacturers ●

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Licensed Buckles ● Sport Buckles ● Western Buckles ● ● Belt Strips ● Heel Bar & Centerbar Buckles ●

Call today for our catalog

$5 postage refunded with first order

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SHELTON-REYNOLDS, INC. 11516 N Port Washington Rd., Mequon, WI 53092

First Quality & Closeouts

G Nylon Halter, Harness & Collar Webbing G Nylon Sling Web G Urethane & Vinyl Coated Webbing G Seatbelt Webbing Seconds G Derby Rope, Shock Cord G Vinyl Fabrics - Laminates & Coated G Sewing Thread - Nylon & Polyester - all sizes G 100% Acrylic Marine Fabrics G Truck Tie-down Web 1"- 2" - 3" - 4" G Clear Vinyl Tent & Boat Window G Rope - Nylon & Polyester G 1/8" Nylon Parachute Cord for Braiding G Canvas - All Styles & Weights, Natural, Flame Retardant, Water & Mildew Resistant

Call Toll Free ~ Nationwide

1-800-877-7150

site which is www.anpic.com or e-mail: feria@ anpic.com.

While vendors cater primarily to manufacturers of footwear, you will also find booths offering heavier weights of chrome and veg in many styles and finishes as well as a heavy veg leathers including belting, sole leather, and skirting. Always a great show with lots of exotic leathers as well.

Did You Get the Message?

We have a “Message Board” on our web site, www.proleptic.net, on which people can post equipment and materials they want to buy or sell as well as ask questions. And it’s FREE! Give it look!

Our Goof!

Fax (262) 478-9226 SHIPMENT WITHIN 24 HOURS

We identified the above lady incorrectly in our story about North Star Leather which appeared in the March issue—our apologies! That is Ms. Doris Campbell who’s still clicking and turned 90 years old this past February. Our apologies, Doris! However, there is a Doris Johnson (the name we originally published) who also works at North Star but is a mere 75.

If You Snooze, You Lose!

If you been meaning to and putting it off year after year after year and never getting around to having a saddle ready to take to Wichita Falls, TX, for the Saddle Contest that takes place at the Roundup, then you had better give your sorry self a shake and get busy, Lizzie!

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

October is NOT as far away as you might think.

Every year the Roundup hosts a really fine saddle making contest and contestants—men and women, girls and boys—vie for some serious prize money and other goodies.

This year’s Roundup will take place on October 4-5.

For all the details about what you need to do to enter, please contact Jim Taylor at (817) 625-2391, Texas time. Jim is the Shop Manager at Luskey’s/Ryon’s.

I haven’t seen anything by Troy West for a couple years now and I guess I

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scared him off when I let him know that I was thinking about entering one of my own “special creations”. Troy—I’m calling you out!

Either show up with a saddle or put on your spurs and start scratching with the chickens!

Here are the categories and contest rules: Beginners—This is for people’s first saddle which must have been started after last year’s Roundup.

Open Floral—Saddles entered in this category will be full or partial floral or oak leaf tooled.

Geometrics (baskets, running w, waffle, etc.) may be incorporated. Prizes will be awarded for Best Workmanship and Best Tooling.

Open Plain or Geometric—Saddles entered in this category will be full or partial smooth out, rough out, or geometric stamped (basket, running w, waffle, etc.). Saddles with tooled floral, tooled oak or decorative knife cuts must compete in the Open Floral Category.

Prizes will be awarded for Best Workmanship and Best Tooling.

44th Annual Harness Makers Gathering Friday, July 19, 2013

Consignment Auction Thursday July 18, 2013

133 Welding Drive Rebersburg, PA 16872

Phone: (814) 349-4479 Fax: (814) 349-8024 Best time to call is 10:00 to 10:30 AM or 2:00 to 2:30 PM

Harness, Saddlery and Shoe Shop Items welcome.

If you are planning on consigning large amounts of hardware, please contact us first.

Commission:

15% - $1.00 to $999.00 • 10% $1,000.00 + • $100.00 maximum commission per item.

Lodging - Ask for Hilltop Tack Supply rate. (Some B&B’s may not honor our rate)

Comfort Inn (About 12 miles)................................................................................................... (570) 726-4901 Hampton Inn (About 12 miles) ................................................................................................. (570) 726-3939

Local Bed & Breakfasts:

Centre Mills (walking distance) ................................................................................................(814) 349-8000 Schaffer’s Country Cottages (Approx. 6 miles) .......................................................................(814) 349-8316 The Lead Horse (About 10 miles)............................................................................................ (814) 422-8783 Keller House (About 12 miles) ................................................................................................. (814) 364-2225 The Aaronsburg Inn (About 6 miles) ........................................................................................ (814) 349-8626

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Novice—This category was created to encourage less experienced saddle makers to show their work and compete on their own skill level. All saddles are eligible if the saddle maker has five years or less leather working experience, not by the number of saddles you’ve made. This is a true novice class. Prizes will be awarded for Best Novice.

Best of Show—The saddle judged Best of Show may come from any of the above categories.

Girl on Ox I’ve got to ask—is this right? Is this normal? What is this mere slip of a child doing atop a monster cow? Where are the young lady’s parents!!

BONDED NYLON THREAD

1-866-415-8223

www.TECHSEW.com

Custommade Knives & Tools for Leatherworkers

■ New Handles Danny Repair ■◉Sharpen Round Knives ◉ Stitch Groovers Marlin ◉ Custommade Tools Knives ◉ Bench Knives

(254) 842- 5405

◉ Stock Tools ◉ Old Blades Reshaped

1550 County Road 207 ■ Blanket, TX 76432

R u r a l Heritage (April/May issue, p.

66) identifies the cow as Fuzz, a Holstein s t e e r, and its owner as Paula Blough who apparently raised Fuzz from a tadpole.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

Wowser—that is some steer! So I have to ask myself: is this a beginning of a new trend that will sweep the country? Are smart phones “out” and huge cows “in”? Stay tuned!

2013 Evener This year’s “Evener” appears in the April/May issue of Rural Heritage, and it’s described as “Your One-Stop Directory for Draft-Animal Related Businesses”. There are numerous headings under which suppliers’ contact information appears. Headings include “Arts & Photography,” “Auctions,” “Books” as well as “Collars, Hames & Pads,” “Events,” “Harness/ Hardware/Tack,” “Tack,” and quite a few others.

This directory is for the retail pubic and a good source for them to find the sort of equipment and information they need. Very useful. However, I will say that I expected to see a whole lot more listings, for example, under “Collars, Hames & Pads” that are there so someone is missing out on a great opportunity to reach new customers—could that be you?

Get a copy for yourself and see if the “Evener” isn’t something you’d like to be in next year.

Contact: Rural Heritage, 225 K Ave. NW, Ste. F, Cedar Rapids, IA 52405, (319) 362-3027, www.ruralheritage.com.

All Growd Up That’s right, ladies and gents. The Custom Boot & Saddle Makers’ Roundup turns 25 this year! Wow! What an accomplishment and hats off to Eddie and Kathy Kimmel for all the good work they’ve done promoting and hosting the show—thank you!

The 25th Roundup will take place this coming October 4-5, 2013, in Wichita Falls, TX—see you there! Always the best bunch of people, great vendors, and informative (and FREE) seminars! For all the details please call (325) 356-3197, e-mail: kimmels@cctc.net, www. bootandsaddlemakertradeshow.com.

You know, there are a whole lot of reasons why I enjoy attending the Roundup but if I had to

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pick just one it would have to be this: the new ideas I’m exposed to. There have been years where just one comment someone made, perhaps in an off-handed manner, made the whole trip, all the time it took, all the preparation, and the not inconsequential cost worth it. Just one little piece of information. And I would have never come across it in a million years if I hadn’t been at the Roundup.

See you there.

CSMA Spring Seminar That Colorado Saddle Makers is one going group of craftspeople! Very active organization that is always doing interesting things.

Like their spring seminar this past April 19-21. The theme of the seminar was “After the Saddle: Ways to Keep Cash Flow Going When That Big Saddle Order is Finished”.

Also classes on design, carving, and stamping several different projects.

Buggy Builder’s Bulletin

Bi-monthly trade publication for Carriage & Wagon Makers $25/year in U.S. ~ $30 (US funds only) in Canada

Buggy Builder’s Bulletin 795 Mason St.., Dayton, VA 22821

(540) 879-9260

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Apparently, the book that the CSMA members have been working on is now finished and is entitled, Saddle Makers Tips for the Leatherworker. It’s unclear whether this volume is available to the general public or just Association members.

To find out more about the good things that the CSMA is doing, contact: 17865 64 3/10th Rd., Collbran, CO 81624, (970) 487-3279, www.coloradosaddlemakers.org.

Harness Makers’ Get-Together & Auction This year’s auction will take place on July 18 and the Get-Together on the 19th. The auction is always a full day event because there’s always a lot of stuff to sell and there’s always something for everyone regardless of the sort of leather work you do—shoe repair, saddle making, belt making, and, of course, harness making!

This is the 44th Get-Together and it will be hosted by the fine folks at Hilltop Tack Supply, 133 Welding Dr., Rebersburg, PA 16872, (814) 349-4479. There’s always a impressive group of vendors at the Get-Together, demonstrating an impressive array of wholesale products, equipment, and supplies—everything from horse medications to sewing machines! It’s a great place to meet a whole new type of clientele.

And it was GREAT to see all the tanners and leather suppliers back at the Get-Together last year. They’ve been keeping a low profile for a few years so it’s nice to see them coming back and pressing the flesh—we missed you!

Reflocking and English Saddle Classes To get the details for the next classes, please contact Annette Gavin at 1684 Hendershot Rd., Warfordsburg, PA 17267, (717) 294-6757, www.hastilowusa.com.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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Next Carriage Auction Martin Auctioneers will hold their next big auction this coming October 18-19. For all the details to attend or consign, contact: P O Box 99, New Holland, PA 17557, (717) 354-6671, www.martinauctioneers.com.

Springfield Leather Growing

in Leaps & Bounds We asked Darcie Grisham, one of Springfield’s marketing and media gurus, to send us a few words on her company’s latest expansion which she most certainly did! In fact, Darcie sent us simply a great write-up which we appreciate and our readers should find interesting as well encouraging—Springfield’s success is a bright spot for our whole industry. Thanks, Darcie, and make Kevin share some of his salsa!

Owner Kevin Hopkins is the handsome (and always suave) man second from left.

Here’s what Darcie had to say: Yes, we’re expanding—AGAIN! Business across the board is simply exploding. We’ve grown to over 50 employees [there were 32 in 2011], and while it’s quite hilarious at times to watch people fall over one another, we just need more room to apply Kevin’s business motto which is “FASTER, FASTER!” So—we’re building on to our existing building, and we’ve also purchased the two retail units adjacent to us in our strip center. This will add approximately 6,000 square feet to our existing building.

This space will be used to: increase the size

of our Production Shop, provide additional office space, make room for a new Research and Development Department, increase our Advertising/Marketing/Video Production Department. Our Mail Order Department [apx. 100 orders per day in 2011] has seen such a huge increase that they definitely need more room so this addition will provide more space for them as well.

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With the continual surge in mail orders comes a need for more space in the Shipping Department so we’ll expand that area, too.

It probably goes without saying that we’ll reserve even more room for leather storage!

Yea! And, of course, more room for all the stupid dogs. When it’s all said and done, Springfield Leather Company will be right at 20,000 sq. ft.! Wow—we’ve come a long way from the 2,900 sq. ft. we started out with when Kevin bought it from Tandy!

There’s a lot going on right now, and our new catalog should be going to print very soon.

There are a lot of very exciting things in the works, and it’s an exciting time for all of us here at SLC!

Kevin with Tipper, ‘Parkles, and Patches.

More Kudos for Anne Ross

After we mentioned Anne’s lovely braiding work in the February and March issues, she received the following e-mail from Packer Direct in Australia, a major tanner of kangaroo hides and manufacturer of lace: “After seeing an article on your work in the Shop Talk! magazine our marketing people have promoted your work on our Facebook site and included the link to your website. Hope this is OK with you as we try and do whatever possible to promote interesting, unusual, and outstanding leather craftsmanship. Absolutely amazing work as always!”

Good for you, Anne! Cheers!

Leather Training in the US By popular demand, BLC Leather Technology Centre Ltd., a world leader in leather expertise and materials testing, is presenting a “One Day

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

Understanding Leather” training course in four US locations.

The course provides an insight into where leather comes from, leather production, leather types, how and why we test leather, and an overview of what can go wrong. Attendees will also be helped to understand and identify defects in leather and what may have caused them.

There will be an opportunity to discuss any issues you may have been faced with in your professional role. Hopefully, the course will help buyers to better communicate with their suppliers and customers.

The course looks like it will cost in the neighborhood of $475. It’s schedule to be held in Boston on September 12; Los Angeles on October 24; and Portland, OR, on October 29.

For more details and to register, please visit www.blcleathertech.com or contact tracey@ blcleathertech.com. BLC is based in the UK and may be reached by telephone at +44 (0) 1604 679999.

21

 25th Boot & Saddle Makers’ Roundup in Wichita Falls, TX, October 4-5, 2013. Call (325) 356-3197.

On the Lookout. . .  Ivan Martin in Goshen, IN, at (574) 862-1507, is looking for a hand cranked creaser that does a single crease. Of course, there are beautiful new ones available from both Weaver Leather and Beiler’s Mfg. & Supply.  Bob Tunkun at (720) 438-0300 is looking for rolled rivets of HM rivets, 5/16” head, 9/64” shank, 4/16” long or 6/16” but really wants 4/16” brass plated. They may be called “seamed rivets” and were made in Germany. Please call Bob if you can help and thank you.  Mississippi Bill Fike at (651) 491-2267 is looking for a used embosser with or without rollers. Yikes! Bill—embossers,

Must Attend Events in 2013  The next Weaver Consignment Auction will be held on June 19-20, 2013, in Mt. Hope, OH. (800) WEAVER-1.  The 20th Rocky Mountain Leather Trade Show will be held in Sheridan, WY, on May 17-18, hosted by The Leather Crafters Journal, 222 Blackburn St., Rhinelander, WI 54501, (888) 289-6409, www.leathercraftesjournal.com.

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22 Shop Talk! | May 2013

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new or used, are not cheap. They really hold their value. My best suggestion would be to contact Moser Miller at Miller’s Wholesale Harness, 350 Spruce Pine Rd., Columbia, KY 42728—no phone. Mose sells a very affordable embosser new as well as lots and lots of rollers. Drop him a line!  Wade Hudson is looking for a Landis 3 or 16 and his number is (800) 500-1816.

A good place to start would be with Eli Schlabach at Landis Sales & Service. His number is (217) 543-3464.

Mark Your Calendar!  May 17-18: 20th Rocky Mountain Leather Trade Show, Sheridan, WY. Hosted by The Leather Crafters Journal, 222 Blackburn St., Rhinelander, WI 54501, (888) 289-6409, www.leathercraftersjournal.com.  June 19-20: Weaver Consignment Auction, Mt. Hope, OH. (800) WEAVER-1  July 18-19: 44th annual Harness Makers’ Get-Together. Consignment auction on July 18. Get-Together on 19th. Hosted by Hilltop Tack Supply, 133 Welding Dr., Rebersburg, PA 16872, (814) 349-4479.  October 4-5: 25th Annual Custom Boot & Saddle Makers’ Roundup, Wichita Falls, TX. Contact: Eddie or Kathy Kimmel at Kimmel Boot, 2080 County Road 304, Comanche, TX 76442, (325) 356-3197, e-mail: kimmels@cctc. net, www.bootandsaddlemakertradeshow.com.

Braiding Fine Leather:

Techniques of the Australian Whipmakers

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For beginner/intermediate. Flat and round braiding–4, 6, 8 strand.

7 projects. Clear step-by-step instructions. 148 pp. $19.95 + $2.85 SH

Proleptic, Inc. • PO Box 17817 • Asheville NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 • email: shoptalk@proleptic.net

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May 2013 | Shop Talk!

23

John Gray’s Saddles Allow Customers to Dream

by Jennifer Fulford, West Coast Bureau Chief

A

fter 50 years, a leather craftsman will have seen a few things, met a few people, and learned a few tricks. John Gray of Horsebend, AR, can also tell a few stories about the life he’s led making custom saddles.

On occasion, he’ll get choked up about it.

From Dallas to Michigan to Alabama and Arizona, and a couple of longer stays in Oregon and California, Gray has traversed the United States since the 1960s learning leather working and saddle making. The project that got him started was a leather wallet. He admits when he agreed to make it, he knew nothing about wallets. Today,

he’s earned a reputation as a well-respected therapeutic saddle maker for people with disabilities.

“If somebody can put you in the saddle, we’re capable of keeping you there,” he says by phone from his shop in northern Arkansas where he’s worked since 2004. “Between your therapist and your saddle maker, we’ll get you on the back of a horse.”

At his 3,000 sq.ft. workshop, he builds saddles for many types of riders with special needs.

He has helped people with multiple sclerosis, Downs’ syndrome, paralysis, severe arthritis, and amputations, among many other conditions. Each saddle is a feel good story for Gray because his work allows a child or adult to reclaim a little independence or live a dream.

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One particular veteran got the surprise of his life when Gray built a saddle for a cowboy camp, unbeknownst to the guest. The veteran lost use of his legs in Afghanistan and was visiting the camp in Colorado so his wife could get some R&R. The vet figured he’d spend the vacation watching her ride—until the staff brought out a horse with a special saddle made by Gray.

24 Shop Talk! | May 2013

“They never contacted the soldier. They wheeled him on the platform, and they come leading this horse out,” he says, still touched. “I can’t even hardly talk about it. I got a newspaper picture from the Vail newspaper outfit out there with this guy grinning. I don’t think I could ever have grinned like that if I had lost one or both of my legs any way, accident or combat. You’d a thought he had just won the California lottery.”

And this is just one story. He stockpiles many tales of young and old people, some without legs, who have been paralyzed for years, who have been shot and debilitated, who learn to ride again or for the first time on his saddles.

Gray’s propensity for stories and flare for the dramatic run in his blood. His dad was a cowboy turned preacher turned saddle maker. In fact, while Gray was in the Air Force overseas before college, his dad opened a saddle and tack shop in Michigan. Without telling his son. Gray eventually took the business over from his dad,

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May 2013 | Shop Talk!

got married, had kids, and jumped around the country working at different leather companies learning new skills. He spent time at G.H. Schoellkopf Co. of Dallas, TX, makers of saddles and gun rigs, followed by a stint at N. Porter Saddle and Harness Co. in Phoenix, AZ. His dad’s religiosity rubbed off, and Gray went to a bible college in Oregon while he worked for about ten years in a saddle shop in Heppner, OR. At one point, he was commissioned to make saddles for the Northwest Rodeo Association.

Later, he made a living as a teacher in a private Christian school in California, but he never gave up on saddle making. In Livermore, CA, special needs sales started to pick up and he began marketing. He’s continued to get calls and orders ever since. His therapeutic saddles have traveled to as many locales as he has, probably more. He’s had orders from all corners of the United States and Australia and probably a few other places he’s forgotten.

Following the dots on his 76-year life can get pretty hairy.

He spends about fifty hours making a therapeutic saddle. He needs to know three things before he’ll start one: 1) the type of disability the rider has; 2) the size of the rider (height, weight, dimensions of chest, seat, etc.); and 3) the kind of horse

25

that will be saddled. He’s even built one meant for a mule.

Because of fear of liability, he says, “I know people who won’t come within a mile of doing this. If you sue me, you won’t get much. Insurance is expensive.”

Also, a handicapped rider can’t go all out on a horse, he says. Riding at full gallop is not recommended. It’s difficult because of the seatback, which can bump on a fast ride. Liken it to a speeding roller coaster. Therapeutic saddles need a seatback, which he modifies from wheelchair parts. The seatback can be removed, but the hardware that attaches the back to the saddle is fixed. Each seat bottom is filled with medical gel. His trees are custom ordered and American made.

His leather comes from Wickett & Craig.

He charges about $2,600 for a basic therapeutic saddle for a child, more for an adult. Sometimes the prices can edge past $4,000, depending on the saddle requirements.

He also makes regular saddles, too, although he keeps no stock except for an occasional resale.

He works with two others, an apprentice, Nancy Seeger and a son, Sean Syce. Gray’s wife, Fran, takes care of the financials.

“I tell her what we want to do, and she comes up with the money,” he says.

Recently, he calculated he was a year behind

26 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Artistic Leather

of the Arts and Crafts Era

schedule, and his files for orders are higher than three and half feet.

e Includes 540 color

photos of leather objects made from 1900-1929 e Historical information on individual artists and manufacturers

To reach John Gray, contact him at Gray’s Custom Saddlery, 403 Church St., Horsebend, AR, 72512; (870) 670-4800 or (870) 291-0449. Check the website for Gray’s Custom Saddlery and Western store, www.grayscustomsaddlery.com or email him at john7gray@centurytel.net.

272 pp. Hardback. $69 plus $4.20 S&H in US

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proleptic.net

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

27

Ansür Saddlery Northwest Pioneers of Treeless Saddles Began with a Lot of Horse Sense

S

ometimes it takes a brilliant horse to kickstart an innovation in riding.

Such was the case with a big Morgan named Mountain View Bronze, or “Bronze,” as his human partner, Carole Weidner of Washougal, WA, liked to call him.

“At the time, she was training at fourth level dressage,” said her husband, Don Weidner.

“She had been competing for several years but did not score well enough to compete above level three. She worked very hard at it.”

by Lynn Ascrizzi But to compete in the next dressage event in Seattle, she needed a show-legal saddle. She contacted a Western saddlemaker in the area, Bill Huston of Baker City, OR, and convinced him to work with her to develop a soft, Englishstyle saddle. The process was totally trial-by-error.

Piece by piece, layers of leather and traumaabsorption materials were placed on the horse’s back. If he balked, they tried another piece.

Finally, Bronze decided he had the saddle he'd been asking for all along.

Around 1995, Bronze began to resist advanced training. He’d brace, switch his tail and lay his ears back. His personality change was most peculiar because, before that, he had shown the intense focus and work ethic of “a champion with a beautiful mind,” as Carole Gina In the shop. put it. In fact, the handsome Morgan had just finished a banner show season.

Extensive tests showed that the horse was in excellent health. “Carole finally concluded that something in the structure of the saddle was impeding his ability to perform above level three,” Don said. “She tried out seventeen different custom-fit treed saddles, but they’d simply relocate the bruising on the horse’s back.”

Then, on a hunch, she tried riding her horse with only a bareback pad. Bronze literally danced. And he made all the correct dressage movements, including some she didn’t even know he understood.

And the innovative saddle design worked.

After competing against Dutch Warmbloods and other pricey mounts, Bronze came back from the weekend contest with ribbons flying—“three blues and two reds,” Don said.

“Nobody could believe it was the same horse. In fact, Carole was even challenged that she had drugged her horse,” he added. Bronze, however, had no problem passing the drug test.

Within days, Carole started to get phone calls from her previously patronizing competitors.

“They all said two things: ‘Where did you get that saddle?’ And, ‘I want one’,” Don said.

Within a week, he and Carole jumped into the pioneer treeless saddle making enterprise known today as Ansür Saddlery Northwest, LLC. The company officially began in 1998.

28 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Ansür, putting an umlaut over the u,” Don said.

“We had no idea what we were getting into,” Don said. “Carole was the conceiver, inventor and producer. I like to call it our ‘mom-and-pop business,’” he said of the large, 12,000-squarefoot saddlery based in Camas, WA, only a 10-minute drive from their home. “We semiseriously refer to Bronze to as vice-president of research and development,” he added.

The company name emerged early on when a rider “test-drove” their saddle prototype. “After riding only a few paces, she exclaimed, ‘I think you’ve got the answer!’ We Europeanized it to

In 2005, at age 22, Bronze passed on to greener pastures. By then, the company the horse had inspired was hitting full stride. To get there, however, took intense research, steep development dollars and a heap of work. In fact, Carole and Don, married thirty two years and in their 70s, still put in a 60 to 70-hour work week, they said.

“Carole works at nights, with customers, answering their questions, undoing the myth that the treed saddle is the only way a saddle can be,” Don said. Carole added, “We have too many customers not to keep going.”

Today, the saddlery is busier than ever. “We ship daily. We’ve got many thousands of these saddles, all over the map, in places like Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and Switzerland. The business increases about 10 percent per year,” she said.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

During the company’s start-up years, treeless saddles were scarcely known in the riding world. “We were an anomaly,” Don said. Today, many more companies are manufacturing treeless designs. “There is growing competition. It’s not yet affecting our business,” he said.

Surprisingly, sales stayed buoyant after the economy sunk into recession. “I was constantly on the alert for a drop in sales. But strong sales continued until November 2011, when there was a steep drop-off. That’s when we had to lay off several staff members. We’re already calling them back,” he said.

“We’re picking up again, dramatically,” Carole added. “We had five saddle makers. Now we have 20,” she said.

29

injury, we will individually sculpt and shape the seat of that rider’s saddle to accommodate their issues.

The results show that this contouring works,” Don said.

Margie in workshop sculpting.

Riding treeless takes an adjustment, mainly for the rider, Carole noted. “If you put a flexible saddle on an animal, he’ll move differently. He’ll raise his top line (bascule). He’ll lower his head, lick his lips, swing naturally through the back and lengthen his stride.

That’s going to feel differently with the rider. Some riders are surprised by the change,” she said.

This point was underscored in a March 2012 article published in Virginia Horse Journal, titled, “The Great Working closely with indiSaddle Debate,” written by vidual customer needs is a Lauren R. Giannini. The hallmark of their business. author, who has ridden Don Weidner “Doing custom orders— hundreds of treeless hand-crafting saddles for individuals—that’s what saddles, shared positive rider testimonials about we do,” Carole said.

Ansür. She also noted that the company offers “one of the most thoughtfully evolved saddles” “When we are informed of a rider’s anatomy and “takes ‘treeless’ to a whole new level … If issues, such as prominent seat bones or a tailbone

30 Shop Talk! | May 2013

there is a drawback,” she continued, it’s that the saddle “will reveal deficiencies in a rider’s seat and balance. Obviously, the key is whether the person is willing to ride better.”

Riders new to their treeless saddles may have to slow down for a while, Carole said. “It takes about four or five rides to get used to it. With the Ansür, horse and rider are one.”

But to her, the term “treeless” means different things to different people.

“There is no legal definition for treeless saddles.

My definition is a rigidfree saddle with a supportive structure. No one produces the saddle we produce today. We have an inner, heavily patented, FlexCore foundation.

Above and beneath that core are our trauma absorption layers, so that the back of the horse and the back of the rider are protected from impact. It (saddle) is fully flexible in all directions,” she said.

and our knowledge. Our earlier saddles tended to overly compress; the internal systems were not developed then. The synthetics were not yet developed,” Carole said.

said.

“We did not have customer or performance problems with the early saddles,” Don noted. But personally responding to customer feedback is crucial, they

“We’re into this business from the order, to the shipment, to the customer’s reaction upon receiving the product. It’s just Carole and me. Our customers are 98.5 percent female. The dressage and performance-riding world are predominantly made up of women. We found that women expect high quality. People who ride performance and competition horses are very vocal.

We never wonder how we’re doing,” he said.

Their saddles are fully encased in premium English bridle leather. “We’re very fussy about our leather, Joe tooling a basketweave because these saddles are Their FlexCore design, flexing all the time,” Carole which uses a process called injection molding, said.

“The thread, the stitch length—the whole emerged in 2007, while they were creating their piece—we can use nothing less than the best. gulletted saddle model. “An advantage of having The entire product, from A to Z, is American a gullet, is that it’s more stable on the back of made.” Some of their leather sources are Weaver the horse. It was a 350-percent upgrade to Leather of Mount Hope, Ohio, Wickett & Craig of internal technology, based on customer feedback

“In terms of looks, usability and durability, the standards for making our saddle is the same as a treed saddle. All our saddles are individually handcrafted, made from the hides on up,” says Carole Weidner.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

25th Annual

Custom Boot Saddle Makers

Roundup

• • •

Trade Show: Carole Weidner

America of Curwensville, PA and Oregon Leather Co. of Eugene and Portland, OR. Stirrup hangers are specifically engineered, made to withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure. “In terms of looks, usability and durability, the standards for making our saddle is the same as a treed saddle. All our saddles are individually handcrafted, made from the hides on up,” she said.

Altogether, Ansür offers eight models, ranging from English, to Western, to endurance and jumping styles. Saddles start at $3,000. “We’re a big-ticket item,” Don said.

Through 2005, their flagship model was the Classic, an English saddle, still ordered by some trainers and riders who desire full contact. Designed like a leather saddle pad, it has no gullet, no panel and no tree. Gradually, that model later shifted to a gulletted model called the Carleton. Their most popular English saddle today is the Excel.

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“For the past five or six years, we’ve transferred the English saddle technology to the Western model,” she said of Westernaire and Enduro, a Western endurance saddle. “I still have a few models I’d like to come out with.”

For more information: contact Ansür Saddlery, P.O. Box 170, Washougal, WA, 98671; also, 119 NE Weir St., Camas, WA, 98607; (800) 987-1545 or (360) 835-1695. Email info@Ansürsaddle.com.

Also see: www.ansursaddle.com

Next Issue: More Treeless Saddles

www.bootandsaddlemakertradeshow.com

31

32 Shop Talk! | May 2013

proleptic.net

Douglas Tools: Making It Easier

by Nick Pernokas, Southwest Media Coordinator

L

ike most saddle makers, I like tools. I'm not really a collector though. Usually before I part with my money, I ask elf if I need it, will it make my job easier, and can I make money with it? One man in Sheridan, WY, has answered that question positively for me quite a few times. His name is Bob Douglas, and, if you ever go to any of the larger leather shows like Wichita Falls, you've probably seen his booth with the huge collection of refurbished tools in it. Many are originally purchased from people who show up at the leather shows to sell or trade them.

Bob does more than renovate antique tools, though. On my bench I have some nice stainless steel templates for tipping and punching stirrup leathers that I got from him. They're sure nicer than the leather and rivet ones I made thirty years ago. I also picked up an edger for using on the curves of my fenders and some extra heavy awl blades for sewing riggings. The reason that Bob knows what saddle makers need is that in addition to a lifetime of cowboying, he has built saddles, and has been a friend and neighbor to some of the most inno-

Door Knob Bouncer

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vative saddle makers in the country (see Shop Talk!, February 2006).

These days, Bob and Lee Douglas's daughter and son-in-law, Vandy and Luke Harris, handle the sales of Bob's tools through Sheridan Leather Outfitters. In fact, Sheridan Leather's new web site features all of Bob's tools with detailed descriptions and advice. It also has an up-to-date list of the refurbished tools that are available. Bob is still designing though, and Lee hints that a couple of new tools are still on the drawing board.

Bob recently returned from the Wickenburg Show and reports that the economy seems to be getting better, and that it was a good show. For those of you that didn't get to visit with him there, I hope you get to in the future. Bob knows tools, but he also knows the men who designed them and all the history that goes along with that.

When you talk to Bob, you can't help but come away with a few gems of knowledge to make your job easier.

To find out more about Douglas Tools, call Sheridan Leather Outfitters at 888-803-3030 or go to www.sheridanleather.com .

The "Colt"

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

33

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34 Shop Talk! | May 2013

proleptic.net

Life After Leather

Considerations for Selling Your Leather-Related Business

by Virginia Perry Daffron, Staff Writer

Business owners in the leather industry often can't imagine any other career or way of life.

Perhaps you were born into the leather business, learned a leather-related craft from a young age or have spent many years gathering specialized knowledge of materials and customers. Perhaps you want to run your business for as long as you possibly can or perhaps pass it on to a new generation of owners in your family. Perhaps you are so busy from day to day that you find it difficult to plan for the future ownership of your business. That’s true of so many small shop owners—they’re always busy!

Whatever your stage of business ownership, considering the “saleability” of your company is always a smart business practice. Even if a possible ownership transition is many years in the future, structuring a business that can succeed without you as the owner takes time and careful planning. Some features that make a business attractive to buyers are a large and devoted clientele, a unique product or service model, a good business location, appropriate equipment and inventory, skilled employees, and opportunities for growth.

When's a Good Time to Sell?

Laying the groundwork for a business sale can take a long time, but here are a few signs that you may be ready to accelerate the process:

 Has the fun gone out of the business for you?

After so many years of living your business, you may realize that it's time to do something else. Whether you've reached retirement age or just crave a change, this is a common reason for selling a business.

 Are

you reluctant to invest in or plan for growth? If you feel comfortable with the

shape of your business today, you may not be the right person to take it to the next level.

 Do you feel overwhelmed by the challenges

of changing technology, regulation or globalization? Look two to three years down the road and honestly assess whether you will be up to the task of keeping your business current. It's better to sell before your company falls behind the latest technology and practices.

 Has

your business declined recently? This may not be the best time to sell. Ideally you want your sale to coincide with the peak of

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

your business's profitability. If your business has a strong seasonal aspect, try to sell at the beginning of the busiest part of the year.

î Š What is happening in the marketplace? An eco-

nomic slump can favor some repair businesses, such as shoe or leather repair, as consumers seek to extend the life of items they already own rather than buying new. On the other hand, a company that sells mid-range consumer items might not do so well during lean times.

Who Will I Need On My Team?

Your accountant and business attorney will be key members of your team as you prepare for and progress through a business sale. You may decide to work with a business broker, a specialized agent whose services include facilitating pre-sale due diligence, advising on valuation, marketing the business to prospective buyers, acting as an intermediary during negotiations, and coordinating the business closing. Business valuation consultants might also be called upon to help establish the selling price for a business. Depending on the side of your business, a broker may or may not be appropriate for you. For many small businesses using a broker isn’t a realistic option.

Remember, a buyer will undoubtedly put together a good team to scrutinize your business; you want to be sure you have a sharp set of advisers on your side, too.

What Is My Business Worth?

Many of the leather industry's small, artisan businesses are true labors of love. Their owners have invested many years of their lives in learning their crafts and building their businesses. The owners are, in effect, the business. Objectively setting a price for these businesses is challenging, but sellers must recognize that a business is worth what the market will pay for it. Setting a price that cannot be justified by the new owner's projected income often results in a failure to sell the business.

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36 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Most small businesses are valued based on a multiple of a figure termed the Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE), an adjusted measure of business profit and loss that summarizes the income stream a new owner can reasonably expect to gain from the business. Once the SDE has been calculated, a business valuation consultant or business broker can draw upon data for similar businesses to suggest an appropriate multiple. [Editor’s Note: More simply put, this figure is determined by what the company pays the owner in terms of wages and benefits such as insurance, etc. For example, if you cost the company $65,000 a year in wages, benefits, and other expenses,

some CPA’s would multiple that figure by two ($130,000) and make that your selling price.]

Buyers and their financing partners are understandably concerned with assessing the amount and reliability of the income the business will produce. If the income does not provide the buyer with a reasonable return on his or her investment while covering debt payments, the price is likely too high.

Some of the many factors influencing the price a business can command include:

 Financing terms: the lower the down payment

and the more manageable the financing terms, the larger the potential pool of buyers will be for a business. Businesses are more likely to sell, and more likely to sell close to the asking price when sellers offer some type of payment plan.

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documentation: purchasers will expect to see financial records for at least the past three years. The more organized and clear your company's financial records, the more comfortable prospective buyers will feel about moving forward with an offer for your business. Keep good records!

 Skilled staff: well-trained employees following documented policies and procedures will allow a new owner to make a smooth transition to running your business.

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Efficient business operations: a buyer will value your company's inventory and equipment only insofar as these support the expected income stream of the business. Excessive or inappropriate inventory or assets that do not directly produce reliable income will be severely discounted. If it’s not useable or making money then it really isn’t worth anything

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

 Current accounts: receivables unpaid past 90 days will be viewed by a buyer as unlikely to be paid after the transaction's close.

 Expertise required to run the business: if highly

specialized skills are necessary to operate your business, the pool of potential buyers will be smaller than if only general business and management skills are required. It may take longer to find a buyer with the necessary qualifications. Have you thought about grooming an employee to take over once you decide to sell or retire?

 Diversified customer base: a business which is

dependent on a handful of large accounts will be seen as more vulnerable to client turnover than one which has a greater number of smaller accounts. Ideally, no single customer should make up more than five to ten percent of your sales volume.

 Unique products or services: perhaps you are

the only retailer to offer a specific line or product to your customer base. Assuming that this exclusive relationship can be continued after the sale, your unique offering can add significant value for your purchaser. Or maybe you are the only shop capable of performing certain kinds of repairs in your area. The unique nature of your service can increase the value of your business.

 Willingness to train the new owners or consult:

if you are willing to commit to a period of training or consulting, it might reduce the risk to the buyer and increase the value of your company.

How Do I Connect with Prospective Buyers?

Give plenty of thought to the type of person who might want to buy your business, so you can target your marketing to websites and publications they are most likely to search. Trade publications (such as, oh, ShopTalk!) can be a great venue for advertising a specialized business through a blind ad. Several websites list businesses for sale, including BizBuySell.com and BizQuest.com. Even local sites, such as Craigslist, can be a great way

37

to connect with folks in your area.

Potential buyers will be presented with two types of marketing materials. The first is a “blind profile,” a one page document that gives a general overview of the business without divulging its name or exact location. The second, which is provided only to qualified buyers who have signed a confidentiality agreement, is a comprehensive prospectus that covers the company

Leather Facts: How to

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38 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Proleptic Library Series

|Featuring books by Pete Gorrell

history, the reason for selling, business strengths, business challenges, business opportunities, the proposed sale structure, financial information, and the asking price and proposed terms.

What Happens Once I Receive An Offer?

If you haven't already, make sure your prospective buyer is actually able to purchase your business before investing more time and effort in the negotiating process. You will want to know the buyer's complete name and contact information, previous employment and business ownership experience, educational background and professional skills or training, funds available to invest and the source of those funds, minimum monthly income requirement, expected time frame for completing the transaction and the reason for his or her interest in your business.

Floral Pattern Drawing for the Artistically Impaired A systematic approach to developing patterns for western floral carving. How to: layout your design, draw flowers and leaves, develop your own floral patterns, numerous design ideas and more. Plus: 8 pages of flowers and leaves to be used.

Pete Gorrell - Academy of Western Artists Saddle Maker of the Year 2000 & Al Stohlman Award Recipient 2007.

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The Basics of Saddle Fit A Guide to Understanding the Relationship Between the Saddle Tree and the Horse’s Back. For Saddle Makers and Anyone Who Rides • Very Practical Book •

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A letter of intent or summary of the general terms of the offer can serve to outline the basics of the proposed deal, allowing both parties to move forward in the process. As in any transaction, sellers can accept, reject or counter an offer. Once the seller has accepted an offer (secured by a deposit

Dictionary of Leatherworking Tools, c. 1700-1950 and the Tools of the Allied Trades by R. A. Salaman: paperback, 350+ pp. Useful information for harness and saddlemakers, shoe and boot makers, hat and glove makers, book binders and more.

The most complete leather-working tool reference available. $37.50 + $3.85

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May 2013 | Shop Talk!

from the buyer), the due diligence process can begin. During this phase of the sale, the buyer will be provided with complete financial and other information about the business and the seller will receive details and documentation about the buyer's intended means of financing the purchase. If both the seller and the buyer are satisfied, the legal team and the business broker (if applicable) will prepare the necessary paperwork and schedule the closing.

Be sure to ask your accountant and your lawyer to help you carefully consider the tax consequences of any deal. If it’s income then there will be taxes to be paid which means the amount of money that you actually walk away with may be less than what you originally anticipated.

Selling a business might be one of the hardest things you will do in your career. The process can be lengthy and emotionally draining. But if you persevere, the rewards can be wonderful: free time or the opportunity to start a new venture.

Quite a payback for all your hard work!

Basic Financial Documentation for Offering a Business For Sale  Last three years’ profit-and-loss statements  Last three years’ balance sheets  Year-to-date profit-and-loss (P&L) statement  Current balance sheet  Last three years’ full tax returns  List of furniture, fixtures and equipment  List of inventories  Commercial property appraisal or lease agreement

Making Harness: A Step-by-Step Guide Sizes for:

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By Alain Eon Alain is one of the foremost restorers of collectible saddles in world. He shares all his secrets about how to restore worn out and "dead" leather in his new 64 page book. His methods are practical and easy to understand.. $45.00 + $3.25 SH Order your Copy Today: Proleptic Inc.,

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39

40 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Got the Message?

Got machines to sell? Maybe looking for something to buy?

Then why not use our “Message Board”? It’s on our web site, www.proleptic.net, and it’s FREE! Give it a look!

It’s Here!

Any day now you should be getting your own copy of the 2013 My Buyer’s Guide!

It’s a treasure trove of information that will help you

proleptic.net

Boot & Shoe News

find whatever you need for your business— supplies, finished products, equipment, findings. You name it, it’s there! It’s also online and completely searchable.

Very easy to use—www.mybuyersguide.net.

Enjoy!

Can You Help?

We are looking for mechanics and shops that work on shoe equipment as well as people who sell parts and supplies. Can you help? People are having a tough time finding someone

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May 2013 | Shop Talk!

to work on their equipment, and we are looking for places to send them. Any suggestions?

Please contact: Shop Talk!, P O Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net. We need to hear from you!

On the Lookout. . .

Leonard Roman at 2108 Mesa Way, Santa Rosa, CA 95407-6746, is looking for a manual for a Geneva Lockstitch—can you help?

An Auction You’ll Love!

You will! It’s going to take place this coming July 18 at Hilltop Tack Supply, 133 Welding Dr., Rebersburg, PA 16872, (814) 349-4479—something for everyone no matter what sort of leather work you do. Sewing machines, supplies, hand tools, miscellaneous findings, hardware, and lots of leather. Consignments welcomed!

41

Pedorthic Footcare Association ◘ PFA’s 54th Annual Symposium and Exhibition will take place this coming Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2013, at the John B. Hynes Memorial Convention Center and the Sheraton Boston Hotel. For all the details call (703) 610-9035 or look online at www.pedorthics.org.

42 Shop Talk! | May 2013

◘ PFA has an online newsletter, “PFA Online.”

Find out more at www.pedorthics.org. SSIA 2013

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SSIA 2013 The next SSIA convention will be held July 27-28, 2013, at the Doubletree by Hilton, San Diego Mission Valley in San Diego, CA—plan now to attend! Lots of free seminars that’s you enjoy. Always a great trade show with lots of new products to discover.

ANPIC The largest leather, accessory, and footwear trade show in North America will be held this coming November in Leon, Mexico. You need lasts? They have lasts! It’s always a great education. You can find the exact dates for the next ANPIC show at www.anpic.com, e-mail: feria@anpic.com.

Boot Makers, Get Busy!

Don’t put it off any longer! It’s time that you get busy and start making the fanciest dancing boots ever was so they’ll be ready in time to take them down to the Roundup this coming October 4-5! That’s the Custom Boot & Saddle Makers’ Roundup that takes place

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

every year in Wichita Falls, TX. There’s always a Boot Contest every year which attracts the very best boot makers in the country as well as a lot of fresh talent—like you!

43

ter quality. To eliminate any conflict of interest, no judge will have a boot or a student whose boot is entered in the contest.

The man running the show this year is Mike Vaughn who may be reached at (940) 8726935 or (940) 867-2173, e-mail: mvaughnboots@aol.com.

 Buckles will be awarded to the winner of each category (minimum of 3 entries required for award to be presented). Plaques will be awarded for 2nd place in Top Stitching, Working Cowboy, Dress, and Artistry only.

Here are the basic boot rules:

 An “Exhibition Only” table will be available

 Boots must be checked in at the table no later than 1 PM Friday to be entered.  Each contestant is limited to one entry per category.  Boots cannot have been previously entered in any boot competition.  All boots will be entered as a pair, not a single boot.  All categories will be judged anonymously by boot makers who have been in the business for years and whose work is considered mas-

44 Shop Talk! | May 2013

for boots and boot maker products to be displayed.

to be worn with a suit or slacks. May include initials, brand, collar, and/or tooling only.

Journeyman: 15 or less pairs of boots made.

Basic boot with top stitching only. No tooling, inlays, collars, brands, etc. Journeymen should concentrate on the basics of building a good boot. Note: if you enter the contest as a Journeyman, you can only enter this category.

Artistry: Anything goes in this category—any leather, any design, any design details, etc. Let your imagination go!

Top Stitching: Boot top will have stitching only—minimum 3 rows of stitching. No inlays, collars, brands, etc.

Working Cowboy: Noticeable sturdy construction built with tough type skins like (but not limited to) water buffalo, bull hide, pigskin, elephant, shark, hippo, and horse. May include initials, brand and/or a collar only.

Collars can have cutouts or inlays. No more than three colors of leather on top, including the top leather.

Dress: Think of simple elegance, something

Masters: Anyone who has won each class (excluding Journeyman) will only be allowed to enter the Masters category. The guidelines for the Masters will change from year to year, allowing judges to compare boots with the same genre, comparing quality and workmanship.

You may enter any of the above categories (other than Journeyman) that you have not previously won. Once you have won a category, you will no longer be allowed to enter that category.

The Professional’s Choice award will be chosen from the above categories.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

A Bespoke Bootmaker, By Gosh The Trade and Philosophy of D.W. Frommer II

by Jennifer Fulford, West Coast Bureau Chief

L

eave it to a writer to characterize a boot maker. If D.W. Frommer II might suggest a footnote at the end of his forty-plus years of making boots, it would come from Oscar Wilde: “Everything popular is wrong.”

Frommer specializes in footwear that takes time. None of his completed pairs, whether original footwear or Western boots, contains a nail.

Heaven forbid plastic or paper. His shoes are “bespoke,” created specifically for one person and adhering to age old traditions of fine shoemaking standards.

“Everything I know about shoemaking leads me to believe that traditional materials and traditional techniques result in a superior product,” he says.

His fascination with the traditional ways of building shoes goes back

45

46 Shop Talk! | May 2013

many, many years. When he started in shoes after serving in Vietnam, shoemakers had few options to learn the skills to make pairs from scratch. Outside of a few rare texts on the subject, a person learning the trade had to end up in the right shop to learn the best techniques.

He believes those techniques have withstood the test of time, but finding the craftspeople who know them and use them is harder and harder. So he advocates for tradition and he

doesn’t apologize about his traditionalism. He’s quite outspoken about shortcuts—how factory processes and ready-to-wear (RTW) lines have failed.

“It can be argued, with some justification,” he writes, “that every manufacturer of RTW footwear in the world has made the decision to make money rather than shoes. The shoes are just a convenient vehicle to carry the company to profit levels that will satisfy management and investors. Every RTW manufacturer, regardless of brand name/cachet or an admirable and storied history of the firm, regularly makes decisions which compromise the integrity and the quality from one generation of product to the next.”

As the previous passage indicates, Frommer is a writer as well. He has used his skills with words to promote the best shoemaking techniques that he has been able to unearth, use, and study. In that way, he’s also an academic.

He likes history. He likes recreating it with his techniques. Among his most coveted posses-

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May 2013 | Shop Talk!

sions are finely crafted antique shoes and a small library of books on the subject of shoe making that date back to the turn of the 20th century.

It’s anybody’s guess how much they are worth—volumes such as “The Principles of Cordwainers College in London” by F.Y. Golding and “Boot and Shoe Design and Manufacturing” by Edward J.C. Swaysland. He considers these and a few others the bibles of fine shoe building which he carries on.

Frommer, who comes from German lineage, found himself on the path less traveled due to a few turns in the road. He can spend an hour or two recounting the steps he took and people he met on the journey to bespoke footwear. After Vietnam, he hitchhiked across the country about four times, landed in Colorado making leather goods, returned home to Minnesota where he married, and finally went “back-to-the-farm” in western Oregon. He and his wife, Randee, lived less mainstream but stayed on the grid. They gardened, raised pigs, goats, and chicken, and he found work in a shoe repair shop.

“It can be argued, with some justification,” he writes, “that every manufacturer of RTW footwear in the world has made the decision to make money rather than shoes.

Again, he writes: “At one point, the choices become as stark as whether to use a quality leather insole or leatherboard (a product not unlike particle board); whether to inseam by hand or to employ a Goodyear inseaming machine; whether to use pegs or nails or thread or glue. And every choice to reduce the cost of production…to maximize profit…either by utilizing cheaper materials or by replacing skilled workers with dumb machines is justification for yet another expediency.”

That’s where he met his first real teacher, a saddle maker, Frank Finch of Albany, OR. In his 70s by then, Finch was a character, an old rodeo cowboy, a rancher’s son, and a big man.

“If you can see the John Wayne look, that walk, that’s the way Frank walked,” Frommer said,

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Shop Talk! • P.O. Box 17817 • Asheville, NC 28816

Phone (828) 505-8474 • Fax (828) 505-8476 • Email: shoptalk@proleptic.net • www.proleptic.net

48 Shop Talk! | May 2013

who perpetuates his own mystique with a full white mustache and suspenders. He apprenticed on weekends in Finch’s saddlery for about two years and learned a few tricks. Finch gave him a pair of old boots from Hyer Boot Co. in Olathe, KS, that inspired Frommer. Before long, Frommer found another teacher, Mike Ives in Billings, MT, who specialized in boots.

After several weeks apprenticing, things started to fall into place and he opened his own shop in Brownsville, OR. He carved some of his first lasts by hand; now he gets them exclusively from Jones & Vining.

He struck gold at his first shop when a local newspaper reporter wrote a story about him.

Within a few weeks, he had a backlog of new boot orders. “Within six to eight months, I was backlogged two years.”

The onslaught of work challenged his newly developing skills as a boot maker. “I took on a lot of stuff that I just didn’t know how to do,” he remembers. “Drove my wife crazy, because I’d buy leather, make a pair of boots, it didn’t work out, I’d throw them away. That continued a lot, a lot, a lot of years.”

As he got better, he realized his knowledge of boot making might help others. Plus, he had already written several articles about it for other

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

publications. So in 1988, he self-published a book on the subject, then another and another. (See listing below) He reproduces his three books, typically selling one a month, and pairs them with a DVD or patterns. He thinks of the books as tutorials. The book and video set is $1,400. Despite his expertise, he says he’s still learning the craft.

49

well put the other leg in and pull the sod on over it because you’re done.”

He has become renowned for making a traditional Western boot called the Full Wellington, a two-piece construction in which the seam of the boot runs down the sides. “I’m really famous for this because there are very few people in the country that do this anymore.” The history of the boot goes back to the time of Napoleon.

“There are times when I still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing.

I mean honestly,” Frommer says. “If you stop learning, you might as

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“Fundamentally, the cowboy boots comes from the boot that Arthur Wellesley, who was the Duke of Wellington, made popular in the wake of his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.”

His sentiments about traditional boot making solidified with his discovery of a small guild of tradespeople trying to keep the old traditions alive. Frommer met and befriended Al Saguto, the founder of the Honourable Cordwainers’ Company (HCC), a non-profit organization based in Williamsburg, VA, that promotes the study, practice, interpretation, and preservation of historical shoemaking and allied trades. Frommer had found his people. He took on roles as the group’s webmaster, treasurer, and the administrator of its online discussion forum, the Crispin Colloquy, which is open to non-members.

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According to the HCC, cordwainer is a term derived from the French word for shoe maker but with origins in Cordoba, Spain. Notably, cordwainers distinguish themselves from cobblers. The HCC declares that cordwainers only work with new materials, whereas cobblers specialize in repairing and rebuidling old shoes. More historical trivia is posted on the HCC website which Frommer built and oversees. HCC maintains an association with The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers in England which has evolved into a group similar to Rotary, Frommer says, unfortunately losing its historical connection.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

51

To reach D.W. Frommer II, contact him at

Frommer Boots, 827 NW Birch Ave., Redmond, OR, 97756. Call (541) 923-3808 or email frommer@bootmaker.com. His website is www.bootmaker.com, where there are links to his shoes, his school, and the Honourable Cordwainers’ Company and Crispin Colloquy.

Lasting Quality and Style Matte Finishes Many Colors

Frommer, 67, is still writing about his trade and making boots but a little less frequently. He went into semi-retirement recently, cutting down his hours in the shop, a dedicated two-story, 800-sq. ft workplace that abuts an alley behind his home in Redmond, OR. The walls are covered with posters from shows he’s participated in as an educator or vendor. The property is paid for, so he’s less inclined to work long hours on boots (which can run about $5,000/pair) and more likely to go fly fishing on the nearby Deschutes River, famous for its steelhead trout.

Frommer is also the force behind the D.W. Frommer II School of Western Bootmaking. The weekend after he gave this interview, a new student was due at the workshop door. Several weeks, many stories, and a pair of boots later, the student will embark on a path that Frommer knows well.

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The best pricing information available for the leatherworker. It answers all the questions you ever had about your business. This is the real thing and will help any craftsman to be a better businessperson. $39.95 + S&H

Proleptic Inc. • PO Box 17817 • Asheville, NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 • Email: shoptalk@proleptic.net www.proleptic.net

52 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Frommer’s Books & Video Western Bootmaking: An American Tradition.

This book is a complete tutorial on creating classic Western cowboy boots. It is aimed at the serious student who desires to produce professionally finished and technically superior footwear by hand. The book presumes no previous knowledge.

Included are a full set of patterns, a resource list, a machine and tool inventory, a measurement chart (comparing last to foot), and several pages of lithographed hand tools from the heyday of hand work.

Available in hard copy or on CD.

Western Packers: An American Hybrid This is a complete tutorial on the production of the Western Packer—a lace-up cowboy boot. It teaches how to produce professionally finished and technically superior footwear by hand and presumes no previous knowledge. Included is a resource list, a machine and tool inventory, a measurement chart (comparing last to foot), and several pages of lithographed hand tools from the heyday of handwork.

Available in hard copy or on CD.

Bootmaker's Choice: Making the Full Wellington This 400-page book contains nearly 300 illustrations, photos, and lithographs. It may be the only book that deals exclusively with making this style of boot. It is a full tutorial, grounded in the theories and understandings that have informed the previous books. It is aimed at the intermediate to advance maker. It is available on CD, in pdf format, only.

Western Bootmaking: An American Tradition— The Video This is a 27-hour video tutorial (14 two-hour discs on DVD) on the making of the classic Western cowboy boot. The video closely follows the text of the author's book, Western Bootmaking: An American Tradition, although each subject, from fitting the foot to inseaming, is covered in greater detail than is possible in a text only format.

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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Springs for Krebs Skiver

Large Spring $38 + SH • Small Spring $19.50 + SH Rollers Now Available Tempered • Very Limited Supply Proleptic, Inc. • PO Box 17817 • Asheville NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 • email: shoptalk@proleptic.net

Pro-Thermal Tools

For Synthetic Webbing

80 Watt Handle $34.50

Cut & Seal 13/4” Round Strap Ending Tool $38.50

21/4” Straight Strap Ending Tool $29

#4 with 1” Shank

Hole Burners $17.35 each Large 1/4”

13/16” x 7/32” Slotting Tip $31

Medium 7/32” Small 3/16”

Contact: Proleptic, Inc., P.O. Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 • Fax: (828) 505-8476 Email: shoptalk@proleptic.net • www.proleptic.net

54 Shop Talk! | May 2013

proleptic.net

Classifieds Classified ad rates are $26.50 for the first 20 words and $.65 cents for each additional word. Words (or groups of letters) fewer than three characters are not counted when calculating the cost of the ad.

Street addresses are counted as one word. City, state, country, and zip or postal code are combined and counted as one word. Enclose payment when submitting ads. Ads received without payment will be held until payment is made. Ads must be received no later than the fifth of the month prior to the month you wish the ad to run (e.g. ads for the February issue must be in our office by January 5).

Typed or neatly printed ads are preferred. We are not responsible for mistakes due to handwriting.

Faxed ads must be typed and are accepted with MasterCard, VISA or Discover only.

Wanted Your Ad Here! Classified ads in Shop Talk! really work! Give us a call at (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net or write: P O Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816.

Wanted: New subscribers from Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. Now is the time to renew! Give us a call at (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net.

Wanted: WE BUY HAND TOOLS. ANY AMOUNT. ANY CONDITION. Contact: Shop Talk!, P O Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net.

Wanted: Bench equipment. Any condition. Skivers, splitters, spotters, etc. Also parts and pieces—bolts,

Cut Once, Cut Clean •Limited edition prototype from Weaver Leather •Solid Cast, Made in the U.S.A. •1” English Strap Punch $ •Large Striking Area plus $2.50 SH •Helpful Color Rings •True Collector’s Piece

42.00

Before

After

By Alain Eon Alain is one of the foremost restorers of collectible saddles in world. He shares all his secrets about how to restore worn out and "dead" leather in his new 64 page book. His methods are practical and easy to understand.. $45.00 + $3.25 SH Order your Copy Today: Proleptic Inc.,

PO Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816 Phone 828-505-8474 Email: shoptalk@proleptic.net • www.proleptic.net

Available only from

Proleptic, Inc.

P.O. Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816 ph: (828) 505-8474 • fax: (828) 505-8476

www.proleptic.net

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

55

frames, springs, blades. We pay shipping. Contact Shop Talk!, P.O. Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net.

For Sale Equipment for Sale: Reconditioned and in good working order. Several Landis stitchers #3 and #16; Champion Narrow Throat; Landis 3-in-1 and 5-in-1; #14 Landis lap skiver; Sutton SS-1 buffer; 8” splitter—hand crank or power like new. New Landis, Fenda, and USM splitter blades. Your source for Landis and Union Lock needles. Contact: Landis Sales & Service, 115 E. County Road 500 N, Arthur, IL 61911, (217) 543-3464.

Notice: Will make belts for your store. Wholesale only. For prices call (717) 656-9838.

For Sale: Union Lockstitch (serial #6083), reconditioned 2012 with new table. Also, Adler 104, needs minor repairs. $1,750 for both. No delivery. You pick up. Creekbend Leatherworks, Central Texas. Joe Mingus (713) 824-1775.

All the Pretty Saddles

by Nick Pernokas

Beiler’s Mfg. & Supply Manufacturing address 290 S. Groffdale Rd. Leola, PA 17540 (717) 656-2179

Paperback, 68 pp.

Handy reference tool for buyers of new and used saddles written by a professional saddle maker. Now you know what to look for!

Lots of sound advice.

Price $18 + SH

Main Office & Warehouse 3025 Irishtown Rd. Ronks, PA 17540 (717) 768-0174

Manufacturers of Leather, Nylon or Biothane Products like Halters, Harnesses or other Equine or Pet Related items. Distributors of Harness & Saddlery Hardware. Leather, Leather Oils, Biothane & Nylon Webbing plus other Equine Products.

Call us for any custom made Harness or Saddlery Hardware item you may need.

P.O. Box 17817 Asheville, NC 04917 P 828.505.8474 | F 828.505.8476 | www.proleptic.net shoptalk@proleptic.net

56 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Show harness cruppers for sale. Black and tan.

In all sizes. $10.25 ea. 6 or more $10 ea. Contact: Harness by Smucker, 2134 Windsor Rd., Narvon, PA 17555, (717) 445-4441.

Chicago Screw Tool: Install and remove Chicago screws quickly and easily in the shop or on the trail. $16.95 + $4 SH. Call for wholesale pricing.

Contact: JP’s Bridle & Equine Tack Tool, 26266 E. County Road 700 N., Easton, IL 62633, (309) 5627266, e-mail: jp-equinetacktool@casscomm.com, www.jptacktool.com.

For all your leather needs. Call Moser Leather (800) 874-1167 or (513) 889-0500. You can visit our website at www.moserleatherco.com. (R&B) For Sale: The Pro-Concho Turner: The only one in the U.S. Makes removal of decorative conchos a snap! Used with electric drill. Take the fuss and bother out of a difficult job with the Pro-Concho Turner! Saves time, makes money! Rubber gripper protects the concho and makes removal or installation easy. Only $29.00 plus $3.95 S&H, 6-inch steel shank, and rubber gripper. Ready to use! Contact: Proleptic, Inc., P.O. Box 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net.

For Sale: One of the largest and most complete saddle manufacturing businesses west of the Mississippi. Will sell for inventory. Phone Ben at (360) 708-4201 or write: 3106 Cedardale Rd., Mt. Vernon, WA 98274 For Sale: “Making Harness: A Step-by-Step Guide”, $58 plus $5.50 S&H. Specs and instructions on how to make and repair six styles of harness from pony to draft, driving, team wagon and mule. Contact: Proleptic, Inc., P.O. 17817, Asheville, NC 28816, (828) 505-8474, e-mail: shoptalk@proleptic.net.

For Sale: Consumers expect more for their dollar.

Give them more with Wickett & Craig leathers. Value, quality and durability. Made in the USA. Contact: 1-800-TANNERY—your leather hotline. (03/10) For Sale: Pricing Guide: “How to Establish Prices for the Saddle Maker and Leather Worker.” Only $39.95 plus $4.50 S&H. Contact: (828) 505-8474. (12/12) For Sale: New and used Adler, Brother, Consew, Juki, Pfaff, Singer machines for sewing bio-plastic, canvas, leather and nylon. Available in single or double needles, standard, long arm, flatbed, postbed, cylinder arm. Contact: Bob Kovar, Toledo Industrial Sewing Machine, 3631 Marine Rd., Toledo, OH 43609, (866) 362-7397 or (419) 380-8540. (11/10) For Sale: Tools for the Professional—Ol’ Smoothie swivel knives, blades, stamping tools, and more.

Contact: Chuck Smith Tools, Smith & Co., P O Box 2647, Valley Center, CA 92082. (760) 749-5755. Fax (760) 749-5355. E-mail: olsmoothie@sbcglobal.net.

(R&B) Opportunity for a New Adventure in Nova Scotia, Canada? We have a highly successful leather manufacture/retail business with 25 years experience for sale. We are located on the Cabot Trail, www. cabottrail.travel, in an area of established artisans.

Present owner plus experienced staff of 5 make contemporary leather products and museum reproductions. Includes equipment, furniture, web site, inventory of leather and finished goods. Turnkey operation. 2,342 sq. ft. may be leased from owner or the business can be relocated. Owner is retiring.

Contact: bradschnurr@eastlink.ca.

Books by Pete Gorrell. (719) 695-4443, hpgorrell@gmail.com. “Floral Pattern Drawing for the Artistically Impaired” $18.95. “The Basics of Saddle Fit” $21.95. “The Business of Saddle Making” $12.50. Shipping by USPS rates. Also available from from Proleptic, Inc. at (828) 505-8474, shoptalk@

The American Donkey & Mule Society Established 1967—Serving Longears and their owners for over 40 years.

World’s Largest Single Source of Information and Services for all sizes of Donkeys, Mules & Zebra Hybrids.

Home of the BRAYER magazine, The Original All-Breed Longear Publication 112 pages bi-Monthly. $23 US, $30 Canada, $35 overseas Ck, MO, Paypal, MC/Visa ADMS, PO Box 1210, Lewisville TX 75067 (972) 219-0781 Email lovelongears@hotmail.com ** www.lovelongears.com

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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58 Shop Talk! | May 2013

proleptic.net; Leather Wranglers at (505) 269-8563, leatherwranglers.com; Sheridan Leather Outfitters at (888) 803-3030. (R&B) www.theleatherguy.org for all your leather, tool, and supply needs. Friendly, helpful staff at (507) 932-3795. (R&B) Randall/Campbell Sewing Machine for $2,100.

Singer 7-33 for $1,600. These machines are heavy duty and in good working order. Call for more details: (423) 737-1858.

Pro 2000 with Efka servo motor and speed control. Six extra presser feet. $3,750. Osborne #86 hand splitter. VGC. $495. Contact: Chuck Hooks at tackmantoo@gmail.com or (425) 743-6387.

Thread for Sale: A&E bonded poly thread. Best thread for heavy duty sewing machines. American made since 1893. Leghorn and chocolate. Sizes 346 and 277. White in all sizes. Contact: bob@bitterrootsaddleco.com or (406) 961-3978 or info@ sheridanleather.com or (307) 674-6679.

Retiring Sale: Landis 16, Chandler 305-64 com-

plete with stand and motor, Singer 16-41 and Sutton Landis SL71. $1,000+ in leather, $1,000+ in hardware, webbing, elastic, etc. Fifty lbs. blanket patch material, full size anvil, hand tools, dyes, oils, etc. Machines stitch great. Must take all. Cash & Carry. Best offer over $5,000. Call (301) 724-0441.

Wholesale source for competitively priced nylon and poly webbing. Nylon bonded thread and leather or synthetic manufactured products. Serving the equine, pet, dress, and related industries. Custom contract production runs welcome. Call for details and pricing. (260) 593-0044. Contact: Mud Creek Leather, 9415 W 300 S, Topeka, IN 46571.

Shoe & Boot For Sale: Besser Lockstitch McKay. Like new. Used only two months. Heavy duty lockstitcher with bobbin. $8,500. Contact: Melanie Machine Co., Los Angeles, CA, (323) 586-2090 Business for Sale: Bay City, MI, still needs a shoe repairman. Business for sale. 46 days til retirement.

(989) 892-4280. Cell (989) 327-9165.

Serving Professional Leather Workers & Manufacturers Since 1984 • Shoe & Boot Repair • Saddle Makers • Harness Makers • Holster Makers • Custom Leather Goods

• Auctions • Wholesale Sources • Classifieds • Industry News • Monthly Specials

PO Box 17817 • Asheville, NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 • Fax (828) 505-8476

www.proleptic.net • shoptalk@proleptic.net (Not available to current or former subscribers.)

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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 Precision Built • Kevlar® tough 

Your tree anY WaY You Want 3 - 4 Weeks

This is a guesstimate. Delivery times can vary.

• Kevlar® trees have a limited, conditional LIFETIME warranty • Precision cut parts on CNC machines for reliable consistency • One tree or 20, we’ll work with you to create the tree you need

rush tree DeliverY Program 7-12 Days - $75

DE MA hE T in

US

Your tree any way you want! Add $75 to your order. We'll complete your tree in 12 days* from the time we take your order.

A

* Add $75 for each tree you need rushed. There is no guarantee of delivery with this service.

If we don't get 'er done when we say, we won't charge you the $75.

in-stocK tree Program

Choose from set sizes and designs.

Guaranteed to ship within 3 days or it ships for FREE Fed Ex Ground in the Continental U.S.

For more information or a FREE catalog, call 877-916-TREE or visit www.PrecisionSaddleTree.com

211 E. Hickey St. P.O. Box 232 Yoakum, Texas 77995

60 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Books

Leather Projects You Can Do: Volumes I- VIII Volume I

• Installing Strings on a Western Saddle • Replacing the Wool on a Western Saddle, Part One & Part Two • Replacing Western Stirrup Leathers, Part One & Part Two • More Tips & Tricks for Replacing Western Stirrup Leathers

$21.50 + SH Volume II

• More Western Saddle Repairs • Making an Old Fashioned Western Bridle • Making Tapaderos: Different Styles & Sizes • More Tapaderos • Repairing a Western Saddle Horn

$22.50 + SH Volume III

• Making a Carpenter’s Apron, Part One & Part Two • Making a Farrier’s Apron • Making a Custom Tool Pouch • Making a Walkie Talkie Case

$19.50 + SH

Volume V

• How to Make Rounds • Making a Rounded Throat Latch • Making a Mule Riding Bridle • Making a “Brollar” • Making a Team Breast Collar • Fast Facts

$22.00 + SH Volume VI

• Collars, Couplers & Leashes, Part One & Part Two • Installing Spikes & Spots • Making Dog Harness • Making Dog Tracking Harness • Making a Dog Muzzle

$19.50 + SH Volume VII

• Making a Leather Log Box • Making Leather Pockets for Billiard Table • Repairing a Leather Gun Case: New Straps & Handle • Replacing Trunk Handles • Rerigging a McClellan Saddle

$19.50 + SH Volume IV

• Making a Pistol Holder • Making a Western Gun Belt • Making Shell Loops • Making a Detachable Shell Carrier • Making an Adjustable Rifle Sling with Shell Pouch

$17.00 + SH

Volume VIII

• Making a Possible Bag for Black Powder Shooting • Restringing Bells • Making Leather Suspenders • Making Cow & Horse Hobbles • Making a Knife Sheath • Making a Double Bit Axe Sheath • Making a Single Bit Axe Sheath

$22.00 + SH Manuals PLUS ·· Service Instruction Manuals · Parts Lists

Visit www.Proleptic.net for the list of manuals & prices or give us a call and we can mail you the information.

PROLEPTIC INC | P.O. Box 17817 Asheville, NC 28816 | P 828.505.8474 | F 828.505.8476 | www.proleptic.net | shoptalk@proleptic.net

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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For Sale: Champion 66 McKay stitcher, $1,500.

Sole Press (pneumatic 2-station), $600. AutoSoler, $450. Champion 55 stitcher, $1,800. Landis shoe finisher Model 301-3R, $2,100. Fortuna 12” band splitter, $1,800. Seiko/Brother Model LSWN 8 BL-R, walking foot, $1,750, Singer 111, $650. Call (209) 966-5568.

For Sale: Landis K Model 12 Sole Stitcher. All decals and paint in original condition. Has nice stitch.

Electric motor and controls included. Needles and awls and other small parts and accessories included. $2,500 or would trade on a Pro 2000 series harness stitcher in like condition. Brand/make not important. Contact: Roman at T.L. Harness Shop, 45165 County Road 77, Bertha, MN 56437.

Shoe repair business for sale. Bay City, MI, needs a shoe repairman. 25 years in same location.

The only shoe repair business in 40 to 50 mile radius. Fully equipped. Contact: Ramiro Facundo (989) 892-4280 or (989) 327-9165.

The “Word of the Day” is apposite .

3” de x

high

” wi

11.5

7.5”

wide

x 3.7

5” hi

gh

Standard Bumper Stickers are $4.00 + $1 SH. Boot Maker Sticker is $3.50 + $1 SH. To Order Contact: Proleptic, Inc. · P.O. Box 17817 · Asheville, NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 · Fax: (828) 505-8476 shoptalk@proleptic.net www.Proleptic.net

62 Shop Talk! | May 2013

Saddle, Harness & Allied Trades

association

Be a part of the solution!

Just Ask!

◗ ◗ ◗ ◗

Prototypes Custom Work & Repair Short Runs Special Projects For a full list of SHATA members available for contract work, contact:

Saddle, Harness & Allied Trades Association

PO Box 17817 Asheville NC 28816 ph 828-505-8474 email: shoptalk@proleptic.net www.mybuyersguide.net

ADVERTISERS INDEX American Leather Direct......................................8 Artisan Sewing..................................... back cover Beiler’s Mfg. & Supply.......................................55 BioThane Coated Webbing.................................5 Bogle Greenwell Machinery Corp......................46 Bowden Saddle Tree.........................................48 Brayer................................................................56 Brodhead Collar Shop.......................................42 Buckeye Engraving............................................46 Buckle Barn USA...............................................13 Buena Vista Blankets........................................50 Buggy Builder’s Bulletin.....................................17 Campbell-Randall..............................................28 Charles Hardtke.................................................18 Chuck Smith Tools.............................................29 Chupp Blacksmith Shop....................................14 Coblentz Collar..................................................12 Coblentz Supply................................................20 Danny Marlin Knives..........................................16 E. C. Leather.....................................................42 Fairview Country Sales......................................52 Fine Tool Journal...............................................16 Foam-Tex...........................................................41 Gfeller Casemakers, Inc....................................55 Goliger Leather Co., Inc......................................9 Hadlock & Fox Mfg. Co......................................53 Hand Plait Leather...............................................7 Hansen Western Gear.........................................9 Hastilow.............................................................12 Hermann Oak Leather.......................................10 Hide House, The................................................22 Hillside Harness Hardware, Ltd........... back cover Hilltop Tack........................................................15 International Sheepskin.....................................24 J. M. Saddler.....................................................45 Kalico Products....................................................7 Keystone Leather..............................................55 Kimmel Boot......................................................31 Landis Sales and Service..................................17 Leather Crafters & Saddlers..............................13 Leather Machine Co., Inc., The.........................63 Lewis Sales Co..................................................46 Maine Thread....................................................20 Maverick Leather...............................................33 Mid-River Sales.................................................21 Miller's Wholesale Harness...............................24

Milton Sokol.......................................................43 Mud Creek.........................................................16 Mules and More, Inc..........................................46 N & A Harness Shop..........................................23 Nick-O Sew........................................................26 Ohio Plastics......................................................51 Ohio Travel Bag.................................................41 Perfectex Plus LLC............................................53 Precision Saddle Tree.......................................59 Proleptic .... 22, 26, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 47, 51, ..................................................52, 54, 55, 58, 60 RJF Leather.......................................................11 Raphael Sewing Machine/TechSew............16, 49 Ron's Tools........................................................55 Rural Heritage...................................................49 Sew What!?.......................................................21 Shelton-Reynolds, Inc.......................................14 Shetler’s Collar Shop.........................................43 ShoTan..............................................................52 Small Farmer’s Journal.....................................53 Smoke & Fire Co...............................................56 Springfield Leather............................................44 Steel Stamps.....................................................24 Sugar Valley Collar Shop...................................50 Sun Bias, Inc.....................................................49 Sweat Pad Shop..........................................21, 51 TechSew/Raphael Sewing Macine..............16, 49 Tejas Industries..................................................22 Texas Custom Dies............................................19 Thoroughbred Leather.........................................2 TIMCO...............................................................33 Toledo Sewing.....................................................3 Troyer's Harness Shop......................................41 Wayne Jueschke...............................................12 Western Mule....................................................50 Wickett & Craig..................................................57 Yoder’s Pad Shop..............................................41

May 2013 | Shop Talk!

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Shop Talk! with Boot & Shoe News P.O. Box 17817 Asheville, NC 28816 (828) 505-8474 • FAX (828) 505-8476 www.proleptic.net

May 2013

12 Monthly Issues $36 Canada & Mexico $39US Other Countries $54US SHATA Members deduct $4

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

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WAHL CLIPPER SPECIALS

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$114.95 $ 99.50 $ 43.50 $ 59.50

SPECIALS END JUNE 30, 2013 Fortex & Fortiflex Products NEW S Stabilized Rice Bran in 50lb bags ITEM Helps animals gain weight & improves coat

850 Liverpool Bit available in 6˝ Stainless Steel Loose Ring Pony Bits: twisted wire & snaffle available in stainless steel sizes 3½˝, 4˝, 4¼˝, 4 ½˝

We manufacure fine harness & show harness hardware.

We have purchased all of Troy Brass’s patterns.

Request your free catalog today.

4205 Township Road 629 • Millersburg, OH 44654