steveb leatherworks: the blather

One of the rules of taking care of your tools is to use them correctly. Screwdrivers should’nt be used to pry or be pounded on with hammers (unless they are someone else’s), ratchets are not breaker bars, knife blades are not screwdrivers, etc, etc.

In the leathercraft world we dont use metal hammers very often, and we certainly never, ever use them to pound on a metal tool. If you hit a metal tool with a metal hammer, you will get “mushrooming”…take a look at these old, high quality, super solid hole punches I was given, to see what an abused, mistreated tool looks like. It took me an hour with a grinder to clean up the one punch in these photos. I am not sure when I will do the others…lol.

Buy good tools once, use them correctly, take the time to maintain them…and you will have ’em forever

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkos3fuVodA[/youtube]

A picture tells a story – and this one has a happy ending.

He’s humbled and wiser, but ok.
As you most probably know, tough guys hate it when they get it in the nose.

Lesson learned – watch where you stick it.

owww

Reaching back in the archive here for a little discourse on a special *surprise birthday* wallet with a meaningful, personal piece of art showcased front and center. My customer Brandi was a girlfriend of the gent who had this art as a tattoo. Mind you this was a small tattoo, and a very old tattoo..and it was all she could do to get me a fuzzy picture of it without arousing suspicion. I think the tat was tiny, faded, stretched – but still, it’s his- and because it is, what it is – I couldn’t clean it up – I had to run  with it. Obviously the focus here is the art, with no desert topping, insofar as backgrounding, patterns or extraneous, flourish-y stamping. Clean, clear and simple.

Found a sweet piece of veg tan for the body and pockets, with a red leather lining to give it some contrast. Brandi was cool with the red thread and so – it really has a special, unique look – i mean – who uses red 277 thread on a wallet?  So obviously, I have red thread, just as an FYI to all of you out there that are interested in some *zing*, I have some  bright yellow, red, tan and dark brown colored thread beyond my mainstay, white and back up, black.

So there ya have it, a simple clean Fin- that has a personal connection to its owner. Nice.

Anvils are one of those tools – you don’t know how much you need one, until you’ve got one at your disposal. I punch a lot of slots, tips, holes, etc – and find my anvils essential to a clean, neat and safe punching job. Nothing provides a more stable surface and you want a stable surface when your committed to swinging a lump hammer at sharp tool your other hand is holding. I have a 15lb’er, a 5lb steel block and a little 1/4lb steel pad and they see constant use.  The littlest unit can slip inside a piece (wallet or tool bag) if I need to set a rivet after construction – very handy.  I top off my anvils with dense rubber mats allowing me to save my tools the hardship of a poly cutting block surface… rubber is much kinder to a sharp edge than polyethylene cutting surfaces, a consideration unless you want to spend all of your time dressing edges….Not so much.

As I suffer a terminal case of tool envy and lust , I wish I had the room for a big boy – a “manly man’s anvil”, that would rule, but somehow I make out just fine with these little tough nuts. I’ve already stuffed my shop, the proverbial 5lb bag, with 10lbs of shit as it is.

Some years back i was given a scrap of alligator to play with. I don’t work with hides or skins much, so put it aside, knowing that one day when i had some idle time, I’d get to some experimenting and see what I could do with it. Time passed, and lo and behold, I recently found my gator…forgotten and looking for action.

I needed a new pocketwallet to replace the temporary one i put in my pocket 2 years ago. So i used a piece of mr gator for this new one, got fancy and lined it with a nice piece of firm tempered, carmel glazed, pigskin. Came out pretty good and for me, working with animal skins is a whole new , unexplored world. Gator looks like it will wear like iron and after pricing out a hide,  i see now why accessories made with it cost a helluva lot more. If you are interested in Gator accessories, let me know – I liked working with it and am looking to do more.

**Attention** it has come to my attention that some of the money clip hardware I use in my pocketwallets  have come apart, because well – they are pieces of shit made in China. I know that they are pieces of shit, the problem here is no one makes decent versions of this type of hardware. I know, I’ve looked far and wide. I’d love to have some good ones made in a local fab shop, but the cost would be prohibitive. So in answer to this I am going to do 2 things: 1) try some new, simpler, “no moving parts” spring-y type clips and 2) ask that if you have a problem with yours, you let me know. If it works out that I am happy with this new solution, I will gladly retrofit all the units out there – at no cost**

Yea – we got issues in the retail environment, let me tell you (nothing you don’t already know). These pics were taken in a normally busy mall. This holds true especially on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm… around the Holidays!!

Unreal, see the tumbleweeds? Ya feelin it?

I sure am.

this is something different...

Now finding a print in a wallet is nothing new – but finding it in leather is.

Most every print you’ll find in other folks leather wallets are fabric, very few if any use leather, because it is: 1) more expensive and, 2) more fussy and delicate to work with. and 3) it is a royal pain in the ass to find, as you really need to get hands-on, to know what your buying.

Find something cool, buy it once and get what you want, ….works for me. If it works for you, drop me a line at:  steveb@steveb.biz

My grandfather Max, had a thing for cars.

Being a traveling vaudevillian entertainer traveling the USA from the mid 1920’s (see the caravan pic with my Mom holding the dog and my grandmother in the back car) through serving in WWII in the USO, he knew that transportation was pretty important to his ability to survive. Having a sense of style was part of the deal when you’re an entertainer in the public eye and traveling from town to town – and so my grandfather favored machines with character. In the early 1960’s well after he had retired from “the act”, he bought a Corvair, infamously featured in Ralph Nader’s book “Unsafe at Any Speed”. That sketchy review didn’t faze Max though, he dug the Corvairs style. Screw Ralph Nader.

Much to his chagrin, my grandmother wound up running the Corvair up on a neighbors front lawn one afternoon when leaving my house, taking down their front porch – all in front of a street full of neighbors on a Spring afternoon, making a mess of the suspension and the neighbors lawn and porch. The car was promptly fixed, porch rebuilt and lawn resodded. Corvair was sold, replaced with a Mercedes – his pride and joy, he loved the shit outta that car and drove it until he had a stroke in 1979…I passed it on to a good friends family and it saw another 8 years of service.

My grandmother never drove again after the Corvair lawnmower/ housewrecker debacle, because as she put it “driving didn’t agree with her”.

This customer had a favorite scrimshaw blade he carried every day. Being a folder type of knife, some sort of pouch style sheath was appropriate. Being a daily carry knife, required I use a strong, tight to the body style – so it wouldn’t get hung up or snag on stuff. I decided to use a strong, solid 8oz veg tan skirting as my top molded material with a 4/6oz back. This is not easy material to wet mold with out leaving all kinds of tool marks due to the impossibility of stretching it around this odd shape.

A good amount of time and patience was required in this instance to form this thick, protective material to this blade – also accommodating the pain-in-the-ass thumb stud-that are more and more frequently found on folders I normally don’t put a flap or snap on sheaths given the choice – i tend to favor a simple wet molded slip fit pouch to allow one-handed, unfettered access, but this customer asked for the “flap style. Hanging upside from monkey-bars and being shaken will not even get one of my pouch sheaths to give up its blade just to make the point, but he wanted what he wanted…no problem!

Getting to make the sheath in two colors was cool, but put the stress on as far as delivering consistency. Believing that the back of the sheath is just about as important as the front, i dressed up the strap that attach the sheath to the belt. Copper burr & stake rivets insures that this sheath will stay put, but if caught and severely pulled, will release – this is the specific reason i tend not to sew these pieces on knife sheaths – you want the sheath to give if it gets caught.

I’ve included pics of two of my standard slip style sheaths for reference.

Good to have a selection of hammers – craftsman lump for punching tips and slots, ancient cobblers for flattening folds or setting stitching, small ball peen from my college jewelry making days for fine tuning copper rivets, traditional rawhide mallet for lighter punching duties, silver workers hammer for fine seam flattening and metal tapping .

I like to hang’em like meat…right from the shelving above my bench. Amazing how many time in a day i pick  up a hammer. Nothing sexy or unusual about hammers- but necessary nonethless. You know never to hit a metal tool (punch, stamp, etc) with a metal hammer right? I will show some examples of what happens when you dont do that some day…and it aint pretty.

Yeah Tday – my favorite holiday of the year. An honest American holiday, with no commercial pretense: family and food – that’s it and in my mind, that’s plenty enough – I just don’t need complications right now- gimme a heapin’ helpin of simplicity willya?  Another year under our expanding waistlines, watching the kids grow is exciting and a bit sad in a joyous way, and of course this is the one time of the year we get to mix-it-up with certain family members we don’t see often. We had a small crowd by my family’s standards – 16 people (i think, might’ve have been more) and three dogs. Lots of kids – which make it a real holiday. One big-ass turkey and a boatload of sides, just made it for the crowd of “inhalers”  – not much in the way of leftovers.

So during Thanksgiving, we make the concerted effort to put our collective worries away for the day and focus on enjoying each others company and celebrating our family, because in the end – what else do we have that’s really worth a damn? Who else will simply accept us for who we are, non-judgmentally? Who else know us as well? Who is there, and has been there, while we write the stories of our life?

It’s all good.  I dig Thanksgiving.

See you later, I’m gonna go and watch some TV and sit my lardass down.

Just scanned some shots from attending the Toys for Tots Queen NYC run,…back in I believe, 1991 or 1993. I remember this particular ride, whatever year it was..lol.. as being brutally cold..no fairing, no windshield, no full face helmet -and an hour on the slab to get to where i needed to go…ah yes – the good old days. Funny to think i just gave the leather coat i was wearing in these pics to my 16 year old nephew, it doesn’t fit me anymore and still has a bunch of years left in it…cant seem to sell it on ebay to someone who hasnt earned the right to wear it.

My FXR was still pretty stock in these pics, thats how long ago this was. I think i had changed the bars – the stock buckhorns were just too lame – and stopped there, not knowing what i wanted to do with it. Marko had hair…ha, talk about dating the era!

Also importantly featured in these pics is steveN’s metallic blue Superglide – a really traditional Queens NYC styled ride for its year (next to it was freddy’s triumph). He had literally gotten this bike (a pile of junk really) in a few milk crates and created what you see here in a few short months – amazing, and his first build (and bike) to boot – and he painted it!  Steve was a legendary hot rod builder in my ‘hood, but didn’t like being left out when we got on the bikes, so he decided to “make his own”, due in part to the financial demands of having 5 boys and the sole breadwinner. he was a Service Tech at big dealerships. He was a great guy – well loved, a family man and a talented mechanic, and i really do mean talented. He just figured stuff out and made it look good too. He died about 4 years ago, and is missed and talked about whenever we make this ride… as it was an important milestone and maiden voyage of this bike and of his short-lived riding career.

Good memories, good times, good friends, good rides – glad i had my camera.

Big Mark wanted a special Fin. I am not going to argue with anyone whose first name is Big. A little 408 area code action seemed a good theme in his mind, I bundled this idea up with a sweet tribal flame treatment and together we made this a distinctive beauty. Red matte finish upholstery leather used as a lining gave it that special twist and blast of contrasting color. Marine grade stainless chain and clasp brought this wallet to the “oh-so-sweet” finish line. Done deal, Big Mark was a happy camper. I was pretty happy too! Hope he doesn’t move  or the phone company decides to change his area code…oy!

Tommy - our friend.1993

You know how sometimes you see a picture and a flood of memories come back, and things seems as vivid as they were 16 years ago. I’ve been on this tear for a few months now…scanning as many of the images I have in my many, many photo albums as possible. I don’t know exactly what is possessing me to do this, but regardless of the motivating factors, it is a good thing. I have alot of albums, and not every shot is being digitized – I am trying to be discriminate even though storage is cheap.

So in thumbing through each album, i have myself a good chuckle – I’ve been with same posse now for a real long time, so i have a timeline of brown to gray hair, old hardtail choppy bikes-morphed to new lardass baggy bikes, skinny guys to fat guys. And then I have a bunch who haven’t made it to this leg of the race.

This is one of those guys…and this picture so captures Tommy’s spirit – it stops me every time. I used to be in the habit of shooting all of our rides with a point & shoot (film – remember that?) cheapie. This shot was taken on the slab if i recall, on a nice summer day when we were heading up to a lake to go swimming as a group. Tommy had one of the few new bikes and he beat the crap out of that beauty of an FXR, man he spanked it hard every single time he got on it and it never snivelled once. That bike was a champ and took it all, burnouts, hi-speed runs ..in stride.

Tommy was a dangerous (if he didnt know you) tortured soul, was all alone in the world with no family and  our crew as his only friends, fought his demons hard, and had some crazy, unbelievable stories. The phrase for which he will always be remembered was “eye toe huh”…..in English = “I told her”. He had such an amazingly thick Bronx accent, no one could understand him when he first came around..

His demons overtook him and he was found dead, alone and surrounded by people who didnt know or care about him. A fucking waste, stupid and senseless. I liked him, he made me laugh and showed me his soft/vulnerable side on occasion, making this alligator of a man – lovable.

RIP Tommy, your friends remember you *clink*.
Hope things are working out for ya.

No big complicated  deal from a leather-work perspective, pocket wallets are simply handy as hell. Honestly, the utility, simplicity and sheer usability of these little stinkers has me engaged. I have been considering refinements, but after playing with a few designs,i find the original is still the best. Lets you carry your bills, license, a few cards and *bing*, no need to carry a full wallet – unless you want to.

More and more, I leave the house with this in my right front pocket – license, credit card, cash, a few business cards…, forgoing a full Monte, unless i got to carry it.  Easy to customize and available in different weights of leather,  I line them with a variety of leathers to give ’em a real fine finish, no rough edges here. Count me a fan of the steveb Pocket Wallet – everyone i know who carrys one- digs it. This plain one is a particular favorite of mine (and leaving the shop tomorrow). You can see that this is good leather, its great when its that clear to see.

Agree with our Country’s policy’s or not, you have to pay props to, and give thanks for – the folks that serve in the Armed Forces. For me, politics is this big ball of confusing opaque’ness – but I am clear on one thing- the guys & gals who are serving, deserve our thanks and respect. This war is a bit off of the general radar  and it is easy to forget that we got it going on in a place that none of us, in our right minds would want to be.

I really like doing work for folks in the military, it is very satisfying – and guess the feelings are mutual, because the steveb llc. inc. co. multinational corporate offices do an inordinate amount of work for our folks who serve. Hooyah.

So anyway, here is a good customer of mine, come back for seconds, he did! Meet Dr. Evil… and a look at the tan blech-ness that is Iraq. Good to take a look and not forget we got peeps over there, who are eating sand, breathing camel poop dust and not being at home, all comfy in front of the telly for the Holidays. How do these guys keep smiles on their faces?

Thanks to Dr.Evil for supplying the pics and allowing me to share ’em.

Excuse the rather brutal photo editing, but for obvious reasons, its a good thing to do….

Tough as nails finding brass or copper “anything” these days. The colors aren’t in favor by the fashion world which drives alot of the demand for manufacturing and so…if WalM*rt isnt buying it, folks aint making it. Bummer. Makes sourcing stuff like cool chain, clasps, jump rings, snaps, etc – tough. I used to find alot of hardware (and still use alot of it daily) on eBay and sites like that..but no more.

So – I was in NYC hunting and pecking my way through the garment districts “fitting, fixtures, findings and accessories” shops and wholesalers looking for treasure. Thats a trip, let me tell you. Not conventional retail establishments by any stretch, these down & dirty shops are ancient storefronts with a counter, and warehouse racks and piles of stuff in a seemingly confused array. As one learns , this is not true at all, these shops are laid out with a laser like precision. You lookin’ for a pricelist? A catalog? A display of wares they have in stock?  Ha – this is bidness done in the old world style” “watt ya lookin fo? – yeh, we gots one of dem”…it RULES, i love this stuff…the last bit of old NYC.

With that said, with all this laser like precision, my stops and query’s netted me nuttin, until i found myself up in the Diamond district and stopped in at one of the best known jewelry and metalwork suppliers – and found these beauties – and 15ft of 10ga copper wire to make copper jump rings with. Score one for the treasure hunter and for my customers looking for something new.

The copper-plated steel chain is lightweight, with a great color – the brass chain is heavier, with a milled cut in the side of it – adds a little “sumpin sumpin” to the look. I am going to keep looking for solid copper chain, but am not hopeful in the short term. I was thrilled to find this as it is.

We are done with Fall, say hello to Winter.
It’s been flurrying, snow is no longer out of the question.
Normally lush country roads are turning bare.
Time to bury some nuts.

Yep, sharing your views on a persons aesthetic taste is one of those things, kind of like a fart in the communal tub. it is one of those things in life your just better off keeping to yourself. Other qualifiers for the “keep it to yourself” awards, include include comments on: religion, politics and thoughts on the quality and subject matter of the paint jobs and accessorization on the bikes guys you know own. See? See? I am not saying nuttin’

At steveb worldwide global llc inc co. we pride ourselves on unleashing a veritable torrent of innovation on our unsuspecting friends, neighbors and yes – our customers. Here at the training centre (notice the affected  “e”) we like to think of it as cruel and unusual..but really it is neither. It is actually a positive and good thing. We even care about the environment, when (as with any global, leveraged mega enterprise…or Wall Street) it is in alignment with our own self-serving goals.

So being the CEO of our global enterprise, it falls to me to lead my staff of faithful workers to business nirvana. It is a tough job, but i have my minions of no-nothings and rump-kissing support staff to help me carry the increasingly heavy mantel of leadership. Don’t laugh – this isnt small stuff ya know….anyway…

The R&D team and i were kicking around some ideas and happened upon this one. The idea driving this unreal innovation in “wallet-ry” is to reduce the wallets carbon foot print, by eliminating the (brass or stainless) traditional “steveb lobster claw clasp”. By eliminating this single piece of metal, it has been quantitatively proven that we’ve saved 10 icebergs and avoided putting 3kilotongrams of carbon in our environment. Cool Stuff, I think you’d agree. I think that they put our carbon in some Mongol pencils, try the #2’s….

So with that little Jeopardy-worthy factoid in the books, the Customer Service and Satisfaction team decided to add this little accessory (at no additional cost mind you – how wack!!)  to every wallet that leaves the Secret Location. Adds more work and effort to the production of these cutting edge products, but innovation is a necessity and you – our valued customers deserve nothing less. Don’t forget about the carbon thing either…we do well by doing good – ya mon.

And hey…hey, before you go-> get yer order in, like NOW – if you expect it by Xmas, that’s all I got to say about that!!

Excuse the slight roughness and lack of snarky finish of this particular piece, it is mine, and it is a prototype (and as such, a bit rough). You guys get the good stuff…..

A week or so ago three of us busted out for a quick ride up to squirrel country and had a chance to view the last of Fall’s optimists in action. Going to get down in the low 30’s tonight and i think these idyllic 2008 moments will be rare from here on out.  In answer, and to “celebrate” this change of  clime, I put the Shiny Penny on the charger.  Bummer.  Need to find a sheet to throw over it (and I know not to take one of the “good” ones out of the closet).  Probably should give it a righteous bath too…This time of year ya never know when your next ride is going to be, so you make the most of every opportunity that presents itself.

Utility..let me ponder Utility – one of the key guiding principles behind the design of my work. Stuff has to work well first and foremost. You wont find leaherwork that is uncomfortable or unusable coming from my shop, no sir, sacrificing style for utility or comfort aint gonna happen. You might need to break a piece in, but I offer for your consideration – that that be considered an investment

My specialty is making utilitarian stuff look cool.

You can go to other guys for the 10lb wallets with 2inches of “exotic” inlay, giant silver skull-i-tacious key chains, and silver cross dingdongs. I tried carrying that crap on my person years ago, and simply don’t find it realistic. The key chains ding your paint and pull the keys out of your ignition, they pull at your belt loop, suck to carry in a back pocket, act like a rasp on your butt-ox and are a little too “show-boaty” for my East Coast sensibilities and graying hair.

This aint LA and I don’t live in Hollywood – I am in and out of subways, buses, cars, trains, on bikes, walking – I am on the go, and need my stuff to be tight to my person, not stoopit flashy or jangly. In my opinion Leatherwork must be durable and reflect that the person who designed the damn piece actually used it, wore it, tried it on and took the time to make the tweaks to make it better.

This iPhone/iPod earbud case came out of the ongoing hassling/wrestling with the damn phones cord. The blue-tooth headsets just don’t work for me nearly as well as these old-school earbuds, so I’d stuff the cord in my pocket and when i needed them, I’d pull out this tangled mess of shite.

A little thinking muscle applied to the challenge resulted in this bit o’ design. Scrap leather, one snap, one copper rivet – not bad, eh?  Carry’s really easy, is easy as pie to load and access the cord. I’d say problem solved for now, although refinements will be in the future..no doubt!

I digress from leather work and motorcycles for a day to pay props to my pal – Paco. More dog that cat as those that have met him will attest, Paco is one of our cats, and he is my buddy.

Mr. Fancy Fur (he is a full blooded Russian Blue it turns out) was found in a dumpster, he’s been with us for a few years and cracks me up with his antics. No matter the mood of the day, Paco is good to go.