Blog

A “BIG” Thank you to my customers

Wow, what a long way we’ve come. I started being serious about this business about 15 years ago and got burnt out quick. At the time I was operating out of my garage and a very small room in my basement. My webpage ranking went from page 9,000 something to page one in 6 months. More orders than I had the equipment to handle. I stopped for a while, moved and now have a full shop to work out of. It’s  a major difference working out of a garage in the winter with a jet heater blasting your ears out to a full sized 20 x 35 foot shop with “real” walls, central heat and air and carpet. Racks for supplies, two workbenches for tools and two tables for...

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Leather hide prices are going up, bummer!

Raw leather hide prices have gone up again gang. Wish it was not true but it is what it is. I will try and hold my prices where I can. For the larger items I will be making a few adjustments to the pricing over the next few weeks (spending more time in the shop and less on the computer). Many people may not realize that leather is no longer a raw material, it’s now a commodity. The differences in Domestic hides (Made in USA) vs. those made overseas (primarily Mexico) can be quite drastic. I may order my other supplies via the internet but I “always” hand select my leather hide by hide. I am very fortunate to have one of the better leather wholesalers...

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New equipment has arrived

If you’ve had the time to read through my website you’ll note that I have done most of my sewing in past with a Tippman Boss Saddle Stitcher (see pic). Been a great machine. Its a bit different though as it lays down a stitch everytime you pull the handle. Takes time to stitch belts, guitar straps and etc. but does not use electricity and is very very accurate. This sucker will also punch through up to 3/4″ of leather or just about any other material (including fingers). After using this daily for 11 years I finally bit the bullet and got hold of a Techsew 2700 light/medium “ELECTRIC” Industrial Sewing Machine. Wow! another learning curve...

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RSS feed now available!

Well, time to jump into the 21st Century I suppose. I’ve spent a lot of time getting this website together (keeping it up is a whole different story). I have added an RSS feed to the site for those of you that would like to keep up with what I’m doing. To be honest, and its all good, my business and exposure has increased dramatically over the past few months. Nothing to win any awards but the words getting out. I will do my best to keep adding tidbits to the blog (leather related as best I can). Time to get better at balancing creating leather stuff with properly communicating about it. Till next time…  DH

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Dragonthorn PCS named as one of the favorite gadgets of 2012!

I was checking my favorite blogs and forums this morning and was very pleasantly surprised when I read the article “The Year in Review – Favorite gadgets of The Gadgeteer team in 2012″. Julie of The-Gadgeteer.com has named the PCS I made for her as one of her 5 favorite gadgets for 2012. The Dragonthorn PCS now joins the ranks with the other 76 favorite gadgets of last year! Wow! Thanks Julie and I wish the very best new year to you and your team!  The favorite gadgets of 2012 from the-gadgeteer.com can be read here, the review of the PCS that I made for Julie is located here and the page on my website for the PCS is here. ...

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First www.The-Gadgeteer.com contest award winner

In early November of this year (2012) my PCS design (Pocket Carry System) was reviewed by Julie Strietelmeier of The-Gadgeteer.com (you can read the review here). After a few days Julie and I got together and decided to run a contest for her readers PCS designs with the winners being awarded a full custom PCS, A lined PCS kit and an unlined PCS kit (contest here). We received quite a few excellent entries and the readers of Julie’s blog voted on and selected three that they thought should win. The contest entries and winners can be viewed on Julie’s website here. I have just finished the 1st place winners PCS and thought you might like to see his original...

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Heres Joe!

Joe is the guy that I made the Smith & Wesson SWHRT7T sheath for. He’s currently stationed in the Middle-East and keeping things running for our troops.  I have to say that I’m even impressed that the knife fit the sheath perfectly (or the other way around). The technique that we use here at Dragonthorn Leatherworks to manufacture leather items without the “actual” item works pretty well. In this case, as I understand, it worked perfectly. According to Joe “Yes, the knife fit well. I feel much more safe with it in the extremely sturdy sheath, as it is so sharp it was dangerous to carry before.” Happy to help Joe. Stay safe man. ...

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Reminiscing over a visit to Larsen’s Pipe Shop in Copenhagen

At one time I was an “over the top” pipe smoker and collector. My collection (still intact) sports a variety of high grade Italians (Castello’s, Ascorti’s, Camenetto’s), many Danish and American free-hands and a wealth of pipe smoking gadgets (knives, tampers, cases, etc.). I hate to admit that I’ve backed off a good bit as it is tough to work on leather with a pipe in your mouth. Anyway, I used to travel internationally quite extensively for a steamship line (cargo, not people) and lived in Europe for three years. I visited Denmark quite often but never really had the time to sight-see until one weekend that I arrived early for a...

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