How do I measure for dog collars?
The best way to measure for a dog collar is to measure off your dogs current collar. Measure from the middle of your buckle (where the leather or nylon folds over) to the MOST used hole on the collar. Or with a nylon collar measuring the total length of the current adjusted collar. Or measure the dogs neck itself (I recommend using a flexible sewing/body measuring tape for that).
Take into consideration if your dog is young and growing... is prone to gaining or losing weight sometimes... or gets a heavier or lighter coat as the seasons change.
You can include the dogs breed, age, and/or weight in the measurement notes too.
From the main collar measurement I generally punch a couple holes for lengthening or shortening the collars. If you want more holes punched to either shorten or lengthen it more then normal, please include that request in measurement notes or message me prior to placing the order.
I commonly use inches or half inches when measuring dog collars, but metric measurements are fine to, I use both systems all the time for different things.
Do you do custom work?
I would like to be able to but at the moment I can't really do custom work outside of the custom options I offer for some of my products. I just can't keep the varieties of leather and hardware in stock that I would like to have in order to properly do custom orders.
What is the return policy?
Products worth over $100 are eligible for returns within 30 days. Buyer must pay return shipping. Item must be in same condition as when sent to buyer. MB Leatherworking reserves the right to reduce the refund amount if product has been damaged. Custom made products or products worth under $100 are not eligible for returns, exceptions to this would be at the sole discretion of MB Leatherworking.
How do I care for my leather products?
Different leathers need different kinds of care. For most of the products I sell, I will send care instructions along when I ship them. I like Fiebing's line of leather care products so I generally refer to their products in the care instructions. If your gonna try similar leather products but from a different brand just make sure and test them in a smaller area, preferably on the back side of the item if possible. Keep in mind, a lot of leather oils, pastes, and even soaps darken leather. It's not as noticable with darker leathers but if your trying to maintain a lighter coloured leather you will have to be more careful with what products you use on it.
Why do the prices vary so much on similar items?
A big factor right now that causes me to charge more or less is hardware costs. I have a couple main suppliers where I get my leather and basic hardware at decent prices.
But for more unique decorative hardware or printed leather it can cost quite a bit more. Lots of the more unique hardware comes from the States. But between the shipping, exchange rate and duties/brokerage fees it gets pretty expensive. So if a price seems high on one item versus another, it most likely the hardware that was the big cost. This started as hobby and I'm refining my skills all the time so I am a lot looser with the price for my time than for the hardware right now.
What does heavy, medium, and light duty mean?
Heavy duty means I believe the tack would take a whole lot of force or weight to break any part of it. Like with breastcollars, a heavy duty one could be used for skijoring, roping cattle, etc. Medium duty means it wouldn't take quite as heavy weight or as much force as heavy duty tack, but you could still do a lot of different things with it. Light duty means tack meant for no extra weight or force then what is normal. So like a breastcollar that is fine for simply holding the saddle in place but you would want to avoid pulling anything with it.
I'm trying to match my saddle, bridle, etc leather colour. How can I tell if your product colour is a match?
Another hobby I have is photography and one thing I learned when I started taking photos of my leatherwork was that it is VERY hard to get just one picture that shows what the leather truly looks like. Most leathers will look different in indoor lighting vs outside. So I try to take pictures both inside and outside and/or edit the photo so it shows better the colour that I am seeing in the leather. Sometimes the rest of the picture may look too bright or too dark, but know when I'm taking photos I'm focused just on the leather and trying to accurately show customers what the colours look like. So you can decide from the several photos I provide of a product if it matches what you have.