9 hours ago, My Finishing Touch said:

I did come across belltype and they gave me a quote for the equipment but after repeated emails they won't quote me on the dies.  The equipment was about $3k but it's the dies that scare me.  I've found another site that makes leather nametags and according to their website they have a gazillion possible designs that can go on leather nametags.  I was wagging $75 per die and if this other company really had as many possibilities as they seem to indicate they'd have close to $10k in dies.  I was hoping there would be some way to etch the design in the leather with a laser and then spray the etched area remove a masking tap and achieve the same effect but I haven't had time to test this idea yet.

Thanks,

Dave

Yep.  You need to use laser foil.

 

11 hours ago, ThreeHoler said:

We had some way to make student leather name tags at CBM when I was a stud there 15+ years ago. I recall we made our own black leather name tags for our flight suits.

Those used a foil with a press type device. I just know that most of them looked like a 5 year old made them.

Those used a foil with a press type device. I just know that most of them looked like a 5 year old made them.

So equal to Mardon quality?

6 hours ago, ThreeHoler said:

 

So equal to Mardon quality?

 

You give Mardon too much credit.

15 hours ago, Right Seat Driver said:

You give Mardon too much credit.

Mardon makes quality patches (or made). But it also depended on the squadron and how much they wanted to pay. All of my Mardon Fairchild patches would wrinkle after less than a year of flying and look like shit because they weren’t leather backed. When I taught at Altus all of their patches are were Mardon and leather backed and were great.

Ramaworld patches looks like someone went to the old patch shop at Manas to have them made.

Edited January 6, 20187 yr by Azimuth

On 1/6/2018 at 9:11 AM, Azimuth said:

Mardon makes quality patches (or made). But it also depended on the squadron and how much they wanted to pay. All of my Mardon Fairchild patches would wrinkle after less than a year of flying and look like shit because they weren’t leather backed. When I taught at Altus all of their patches are were Mardon and leather backed and were great.

Ramaworld patches looks like someone went to the old patch shop at Manas to have them made.

I'd say Mardon pre-2011 made quality patches. I've had both leather backed and non-leather backed patches since then that were not quality products. My current leather backed nametag's edge threading started to unravel after the first few months of wearing them.

If the thread is getting fuzy, since it's a polyester thread you can take a lighter and get it close to the fuzz and it will shrink back.  A lighter  will help clean up a a fuzzy nametag.  For those looking for leather nametags I don't make them but I see that Wings & Things and Thomas Tags both make leather nametags.  Sorry about having to send you elsewhere for the leather nametags but I'm happy to help you with your regular nametag needs.  Working on some for Vance and AFSOC today.

Thanks,

Dave

I ordered a new leather name tag for my jacket from Wings and Things a few weeks ago. Quality is great and the turn around was under a week. 

On 1/3/2018 at 8:06 PM, My Finishing Touch said:

Well above Mardon standards. You can either order from our website www.myfinishingtouch.com or email us the particulars myfinishingtouchonline@gmail.com

Thanks,

Dave

Received my patches from Dave.  Great customer service, great quality, fast shipping and good price.  I’ll recommend his product to others and will order from him again.

I received my luggage tags from Dave at My Finishing Touch and they look great. He digitized the aircraft logo for no extra cost, and the tags are great quality and I think they will last a long time.

On 1/20/2018 at 10:20 PM, Right Seat Driver said:

I'd say Mardon pre-2011 made quality patches. I've had both leather backed and non-leather backed patches since then that were not quality products. My current leather backed nametag's edge threading started to unravel after the first few months of wearing them.

Same.  Ordered two new ones, and both started unraveling with hardly any wear and within a month or two of having them. 

Anyone know a better place to get visor covers made other than Snacko Stuff? Their customer service is terrible and they take 6-9 weeks to get anything shipped. Oh and when you get your visor covers, they won't fit your visor and will look like shit. Heads up. I'm almost positive they're a monopoly so they DGAF about how their products turn out lately.

Dave - any chance you'll get into the visor cover making business? I'm sure other snackos would be more than happy to buy visor covers from someone other than Felicia over at Snacko Stuff.

Slightly off topic but in the morale category.  Anyone have a good beer/coffee mug company?  The old company we were using was taking ~6-12 months.

I had looked into making visor covers but from the pictures I saw I'd probably need to charge $30 for the embroidery on the visor covers let alone the cost of making the visor covers.  I don't see how they can charge $30 for a visor cover and make a profit. 

For the mugs have you tried your base Arts and Crafts shop?

Dave

Anyone know a better place to get visor covers made other than Snacko Stuff? Their customer service is terrible and they take 6-9 weeks to get anything shipped. Oh and when you get your visor covers, they won't fit your visor and will look like shit. Heads up. I'm almost positive they're a monopoly so they DGAF about how their products turn out lately.
Dave - any chance you'll get into the visor cover making business? I'm sure other snackos would be more than happy to buy visor covers from someone other than Felicia over at Snacko Stuff.

Find someone in Korea to do a mass order at the patchy shop if you can and send it your way. Good product, cheap price.

On 1/25/2018 at 2:32 PM, YoungnDumb said:

Slightly off topic but in the morale category.  Anyone have a good beer/coffee mug company?  The old company we were using was taking ~6-12 months.

Mugs definitely fit into the morale category. We use A&J Mugs www.ajmugs.com, relatively cheap setup and quick turnaround. Also, more raving reviews for Dave....we ordered some nametags and got them within a week. Solid product and great dude to work with. Thanks Dave!

Edited February 8, 20187 yr by PushItUp

I think everyone is still trying to figure out who the "go-to" A-2 leather name tag company is. We just ordered a name tag from Reaper Patches but it looks cheap, made of rubber,  and the lettering/wings look terrible compared to what we used to get from Mardon. Does anyone have any pictures of leather name tags from say, Rama World, Nametags4u, etc? In my opinion, I havent seen one that comes close to what Mardon used to make. Much appreciated!

*On the top, is the new name tag from Reaper Patches and the bottom is the old Mardon one.

Ask Mach 1 patches, run by a fighter dude.

Rama's look like Reaper's. 

I went on Mach 1s website but the site is under construction for now. Is it a lot to ask for someone to make genuine and quality leather name tags? I could be uninformed about how much work it actually takes to make them, but pictures would help if anyone is satisfied with a post-Mardon nametag. 

Quite honestly, these companies’ products all suck (leather A-2 and the fabric/embroidered) compared to the product Mardon used to make...

I think the entire flying community is waiting for someone to rise up and make their product known. They'll have the market cornered in no time.

I'll admit I have yet to figure out how to make leather nametags but I've been the Dunkin Doughnuts guy just making nametags that I've had no time to learn the leather nametag process.  I can't even find the same leather they use on the nametags -- I've looked.  Cloth nametags I've got down and I think mine are much better than Mardon's nametags.  I'd like to bring leather nametags into my business and they're on my radar... anybody know a good source for the leather?  

Dave Davies

I don't know where Pops Leather sources their leather (based in Turkey) but I've been pretty impressed with all of their products over the years. Their jackets are hands-down the best I've seen. I wonder if anyone has been able to reach out to the former Mardon people to find out about that and other info from their heyday.

Mardon vanished into the ether...I was willing to pay a good deal for their Friday logos but by the time I heard there was a problem they were gone and emails and phone messages weren't returned. I was trying to find out when the IRS auction was going to take  place to buy their computers but the auction came and went before I could track it down.  So now I need to redigitize everybody's logo when they make their way to me.  Painful

Dave Davies