The Materials we use
We start with the most durable of all flexible materials known to man -- leather. The soft supple leather we use is a top-grain, garment cowhide with a natural finish. We use top grain for its strength and durability and a garment weight, as it is the perfect compromise between durability and weight. We use a natural finish because it can be washed and cared for, lasts longer and is environmentally friendly. The look and feel of our leather is different than most as it has no stiff lacquer or plastic finish on it. Our leather has a little oil in it that keeps it supple and resists dirt and rain. These oils dissipate over time but can be replenished occasionally (with our Swadeshi Bag Dressing) to condition it and/or to make it more water repellent.

Hard leather
The straps that we use on our Tote, Duffle and Back Packs are made of fine, vegetable-tanned, harness leather. Carefully hand dressed, this leather is best left undyed. It begins to darken as soon as it is used however, and the contrast mellows quickly as the straps develop their beautiful rich tone.

Fittings
We use only solid brass fittings which will never rust but develop a beautiful patina with use. Our beautiful buttons are either handmade one-of-a-kind deer antler or our custom minted, solid metal buttons.

Choice of buttons
Remember, our larger bags all come with your choice of buttons. We offer either a beautiful handmade deer antler button, or a very smart and more conservative, custom minted, solid metal button. You can choose either dark or natural antler buttons or brass or copper metal buttons. Or, should you prefer, leave the choice up to us. Silver buttons are available for an extra consideration.

Deluxe pocket set
Many of our bags have a similar set of front pockets,. The set includes a large pocket with a gusset (a side piece that gives it depth), a full front pocket on that and a buttoned down flap over both.

Decorate it
By all means, please personalize your bag. Our bags come plain with no frills or embellishments but we love to see the wonderful bag jewelry that many patrons have found to personalize and decorate their bags. Try anything from a small silver pin to a fancy broach or hair piece. Or, try some beads on the ends of the lace and secure them with a simple overhand knot. Send us some pictures if you really like it.

Customizing
We do not do custom designing. However, we will customize some of our bags. We offer three methods where our customers can get exactly the right bag. with the right pockets and accessories. We can:

alter some dimensions on most of our bags;

make one of our bags in any size -- and we offer many options.

We charge a 5 or 10% premium for some customizing, 5% for others, and some have no additional charge.

Alterations -- We will, when we can, make small alterations to our own designs to fit your specific needs. For instance, we can make most bags a little taller or shorter or we can put wider gussets in some bags or we can add or take away pockets or flaps. Wider gussets can be the easiest way to increase the volume of a pocket or bag. A 5 to 10% premium is charged, depending on complexity.

One bag, any size -- Many of our musician friends use our bags and sometimes request special sizes to fit their instruments (from spoons and flutes to bagpipes and drums). To accommodate these special requests we have developed the following program:

We will make a Round Bottom Bag, specifically to your dimensions, and outfit it with options of your choice. Here are the directions:

1. We need two dimensions only -- diameter and height. They can be almost anything. Cows the limit.

2. We can put several different types of shoulder straps on it. Choose either Tote, Town, Duffle or Day Pack straps.

3. We can also put pockets on your bag. Choose from the pocket on a Tote basic, or a Tote deluxe; or the wrap around pockets that are on our Round Bottom Bag. Those we can do straight or at a diagonal with as many divisions as you like. (Diagonal pockets can accommodate flutes or tools of different lengths for instance.)

4. We can also put flaps on the bag. We can even put two very wide but very short round bottom bags, top-to-top with a zipper for a drum bag.

Options

Two-tones
We do most of our bags in solid colors but for an additional 5%, we will make your bag in the two colors of your choice, usually a main color and a trim color.

Shoulder pads
We make our straps wide enough to be quite comfortable; however, if you carry extra heavy items or want extra comfort, try one of our matching wide shoulder pads on your strap. They come with sheepskin. (can be ordered without) and in three sizes 1", 1 1/4" and 1 1/2". For the Duffle, Sling, Note, Traveler, Brief Bags and the small and medium Flight Bags.

Straps
We will lengthen or shorten any strap for no extra charge. Some straps are interchangeable and some of our professional bags can be ordered with either a shoulder strap or grip straps or both.

Key Ring or D Ring
We can sew either a solid brass key ring or "D" ring into any seam of any bag, inside or out.

Extra large
We can make any of our bags an extra size bigger. Please call or write if you need farther help, have questions or need an estimates. We charge on-par with a similar sized bag plus the 10% premium. Please call for prices.

Our Label
When you receive your bag look for the leather label sewn in each bag. In our larger bags, we have a space to write your name and a number if you wish. Labels also have our mailing address on it in case you ever need a stitch redone, a hole patched, a new lace or another bag. Of course, when one of your friends or co-workers asks about your wonderful bag, you always have our address to give them.

Our Bag Dressing
We make our own mix of oils for our bags, no silicone and no petroleum products, just pure mink, lanolin and Neat's-foot oil. We include a jar with every large bag and sell it too.

Gift Certificates
We also have a tasteful leather gift certificate that we can mail with our catalogue to anyone you wish. Available for any amount, starting at $20.

Seconds
Sometimes small blemishes or mistakes in construction occur or we have some faded, exchanged or used bags on hand which we sell for 10 to 50% less. If you are interested in one of these seconds, please let us know.

Our guarantee
We offer a ten year unconditional guarantee and a lifetime service warranty on every bag we make. We promise to keep your bag in complete repair, free of charge, for as long as the leather lasts; and we guarantee the leather will last a minimum of ten years of hard, every day use with little or no care. So if anything ever goes wrong with your bag, even after twenty years of use, send us the bag, we will recondition and ship it right back to you for only the shipping charges. Even if it is the victim of some accident or abuse -- please let us repair it. We can send a modest bill if you like.

We can offer a guarantee like this because of the quality of the materials we use, because of the care we give our work and because we have designed and constructed each bag to last many times its guaranteed life. This kind of service policy also helps us improve our techniques and designs.

There are only a few things that we can not cover in our guarantee --

Don't put your bag near any heat.

Don't spray or put anything on your bag other than our bag dressing.

Don't lose it.