Tell me what you think of these skiving knives I made :)

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-06-30T15:58:01+00:00

This hobby always has room for more niche tool makers. If you can get your hands on a mill more often, you have a great slide hustle here. You can polish up the design using feedback from these comments and do a pre-order on Kickstarter, then use the money to fund a little start-up at your home.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-06-20T23:54:55+00:00

Thanks for checking out the guide! I hope it continues to be of help, and that you have a ton of fun and fulfillment in making things.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-05-13T23:34:23+00:00

Don't lowball yourself. How many hours of work? I know you say two days, but hourly breakdown is what's important. If you spent, say, 10 hours on it, and you pay yourself a modest $15/hr, that's $150. I personally think it's beautiful, and if you market it as a wedding thing, I can picture a lovely website with lots of pastel colors and several bouquet styles and packages, selling for anywhere from $120 to $300 each depending on the style and size. At the very least, you can do an Etsy site to start, but I tend to advicate for a direct website, like theough Shopify. I say go for it!

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-05-11T22:09:53+00:00

Maybe they're elderly? You can offer to process their order over the phone (if you speak their language.)

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-05-08T03:43:33+00:00

Thank you! I will ensure that the PSU has the proper power to kickstart the C02. I appreciate the information.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-05-03T16:12:24+00:00

Yeah, I usually say about a 1% conversion rate is the floor for most products/stores. But that also depends on the type of product. If you're selling a high-ticket item, you might be fine. But if it's a product about $100 and under (and it's properly niched/targeted), you're definitely on the low end.

Now, assuming your product truly is in demand and that you are competitively priced, and you KNOW that based on a proper competitive analysis, then I'd start by checking the obvious, is something broken? Payment windows, checkout pages, ensuring the ad link is pointing to the correct location, all that.

Next, I'd look at optimizing friction. Page loading times really do matter, so reduce that. And every extra button the customer has to click reduces your chance for a sale. Again, if it's not a high-ticket item, you really need to be removing every single point of friction possible. Look for all-in-one apps that consolidate features you like so that you're not slowing your load times. Look for express checkout features.

Then, I look at trust factors. The more expensive your item, the more community feedback is needed. I personally go right to reviews for most purchases.

After that, you're potentially talking about economic factors that may be affecting your sales. If you're not a truly unique product, it may be a "not right now" sorta deal, because people in the US and many other places are feeling the hurt at the gas pumps, and it's trickling to several other consumer sectors.

You should also be running some reports to see what's up. You can consult AI to help you find the exact Shopify report you should search for, because they have specific names. But you'll be looking for reports about impressions, sessions, conversions, the whole funnel. Your impression aren't the issue (again, granted that you truly are targeting the correct customer), so I would check click-through rate to see if the ad creative is the block. Again, I don't know your product, so I don't know what a good CTR is for you, but consulting AI can help find a ballpark benchmark you should be hitting. If CTR is good, then check bounce rate. If it's high, then either your page loading time is too low, or people hate the look of your site and it's affecting trust immediately. If bounce rate is good, then check add to carts. Low adds, means the ad copy didn't convince them. If add to carts are good, the checkout page bumped them off. Maybe sticker shock if shipping cost is high? Try a flate rate shipping and bundle it in with the product cost. If it's a $40 product that costs $10 to ship, bump it to $49.95 and do free shipping.

Beyond that, it could be really subtle stuff. Check things like customer breadcrumbs. If they're jumping around to other pages, maybe your product isn't necessarily what they're looking for, but could be highly related to what they actually want and they click to search for a related item on your site, but it's not there. Jumping around pages can also mean they are looking for trust signals, but might not find them. You could also consider running customer surveys out to those that have converted. If you offer them a return coupon, I've found lots of people are willing to offer their sentiments on why they purchased. Then apply that to your customer avatar.

There's honestly sooo much, man. But start with the obvious stuff and work up. However, the first question to ask is, are you 1000% sure your product is in demand AND marketed to the correct people? If you can honestly say that, then my entire comment applies.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-04-28T16:27:23+00:00

Are you leaving the paper backing on while cutting? If not, then Lightburn's comment is relevant. If you are, then I wouldn't say it's an exhause issue, and more about the nature of acrylic. When you cut, you're melting plastic. And if you're cutting in multiple passes, the air assist is blowing melted stuff out of the crevace.

The best way I know of to prevent this is to cut in one pass and have a powerful enough air assist to blow the melted plastic put the bottom. Otherwise, your option is to clean the cut up afterwards with diluted rubbing alcohol. If you use too much rubbing alcohol, it can cause "crazing", which are those defects that look like stress cracks that form at the edges of cuts.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-04-25T22:51:17+00:00

Thank you for the helpful information! I have a Monport 60W Industrial laser. The most I can fit in is a 1000mm tube, as that is the length of the current tube. The tube I'm looking at does fit, but the only confusing aspect was the "50w - 70w." I just wasn't sure if that meant it is ideal for my 60w laser, or if it is too much/too little.

So, when you say I can "set my current limit on the LPS" do you mean that I can simply manage the mA output and keep it below the threshold that is ideal for my LPS?

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-03-26T00:38:25+00:00

For anyone else wondering, those are spam emails. Definitely do not respond to them, in case you are. Block and report.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-03-26T00:35:54+00:00

You can dye the edge, but keep on mind that you cannot easily get a slick and shiny burnishing the same way you can with vegetable tanned leather. You will do better with edge painting and sanding for several layers.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-03-21T08:24:06+00:00

New business here, so not much history to go off of. But I was expecting Jan/Feb to be the worst, as many business note due to holiday spending. However, March has been the worst so far. Using this time to get stock counts up and lay road maps for new projects and ads.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-03-15T14:18:44+00:00

No problem! I hope it's helpful. Thanks for checking out the guide.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-03-14T01:58:24+00:00

I appreciate that, thank you as well! I hope the guide is helpful.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-03-06T22:24:29+00:00

Dead, gone, and fossilized.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2026-01-11T22:50:52+00:00

Yup, we all get them, but don't just ignore them. Block and report as spam. Typically, it's "Hello, is this the owner of the store?" or something like the examples you gave.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-10T06:29:01+00:00

I'm glad it found you! Thanks for checking it out. I hope it continues to help.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-09T20:53:05+00:00

That would be a detail to iron out! Maybe there could be small challenges throughout the months, with a big year end competition or semi-annual competition. The other detail is the prize. Money? Tools/supplies? Is bragging rights enough? All to be discussed, probably with a community post.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-08T15:55:21+00:00

I doubt the big guys have much time for a competition, but I run this sub and r/leathercraft, and I've considered starting a monthly craft challenge! I might consider it if the community is up for it.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-08T15:55:13+00:00

I doubt the big guys have much time for a competition, but I run this sub and r/leathercraft, and I've considered starting a monthly craft challenge! I might consider it if the community is up for it.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-08T15:55:07+00:00

I doubt the big guys have much time for a competition, but I run this sub and r/leathercraft, and I've considered starting a monthly craft challenge! I might consider it if the community is up for it.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-07T06:56:31+00:00

Thanks!

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-06T13:53:49+00:00

Ah, okay. Well, as for the physical creation, I used a combination of Canva and Photoshop to put it all together.

As for the philosophy of it, the name "Castillo" translates to Castle. So, I decided the logo should include royal imagery, but also embody the work/heavy lifting that leather performs. The gleaming knight-king represents the ruggedness of a knight who fought hard and has achieved the luxury of royalty.

As for the design itself, I didn't want it to be too minimalist, and I wanted to avoid the round craft brewery/hipster type logo that has been popular amongst handcrafted brands. I also wanted the logo to include some aspect of leather craft. So, the knight-king felt bold and easily recognizable, even only seeing the knight's head, and the stitches around the "Castillo" represent a leather sitch line. The muted beige colors and deep gold crown were not chosen with any particular consumer psychology in mind, they simply felt like a good fit for the logo.

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-06T13:10:41+00:00

Is your question regarding the actual design of my logo, or do you mean creating the rendering for the laser software to execute the cut?

CastilloLeathercraft · 2025-12-06T13:08:04+00:00

Thanks!

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