2 years ago, Gustav and I started a small company called Hest & Hus ApS.
Our primary plan was to buy and renovate a small house that is to be rented out. We are nearing the completion of the renovation, and it has been a thorough round with new electric wiring, new plumbing, insulation, new floors, new kitchen etc.
But in addition to the house renovation, I have been able to actually make money in my workshop!
The biggest customer group we have is horse people, and since a lot of the stuff associated with horses is quite expensive, it is worth to repair.
In the shop I have 2 leather sewing machines. A Singer patcher and a Singer class 7 (saddlemakers sewing machine). The patcher is used for repairing stable rugs (horse blankets), and other small articles such as girths etc. Once in a while something will be made out of such heavy fabric or heavy leather that I use the Singer class 7 for the repair job.
Repairing things appeals a lot to me, and there is a need for people who can do repairs on horse rugs at a reasonable price and within a reasonable time. It isn't the most exciting thing to do, but it is honest work and it generates a pretty steady income.
Once in a while I also get some jobs repairing saddles. It is mostly the girth straps that need to be replaced, and that on the other hand is a task that I find really interesting and challenging. It is almost completely handwork to do these repairs. On the odd occasion, I can use the class 7 to stitch something at the bottom of a saddle flap, but mostly hand sewing is needed.
We make something called "event inventory" (directly translated from the Danish stævneinventar). It is stuff that you can bring with you to a horse event and use it for holding your equipment like saddles, saddle blankets, headstalls and halters etc.
We also make these things for tack rooms, where the customers decide on the size they want. Those things are all made out of pine that is stained and varnished. The saddle blanket holders and the headstall holders are made with leather straps that are used to fix the items to the front of a horses box in an event stable.
" It is almost completely handwork to do these repairs."
ReplyDeleteSixty years ago, my nice leather schoolbag needed some restitching.
Unfortunately the guy my mother contracted used a stitching machine; wich meant new holes in the leather. Very bad idea as then it was as strong as toilet paper. Then it was unrepairable.
I made another repair (on another place) myself by hand, using the existing holes.
Hi Sylvain,
DeleteMost of the time I try to reuse the old stitching holes for that exact reason, and quite often it is possible to do so.
When I have to stitch on a new saddle girth strop, they are stitched to a woven piece of fabric, kind of like a seatbelt. So in those cases I make new holes in the new leather strap, and then just press the needle through the fabric. The needle has a blunt tip, so it doesn't cut any of the fibres in the fabric and weaken them. Another reason to do it by hand is that you can't access that spot under the saddle flap with a sewing machine :-)
Brgds Jonas
All kinds of interesting things have been going on with your family! Congratulations to both of you on the business, your products look great. Gustav must be very busy, especially when you're at sea.
ReplyDeleteAn online translator says that Hest & Hus ApS would be Horse & House Ltd. in English, is that about right?
BTW, comments haven't been working for about 24 hours: "error publishing the comment"
Hi Jeff
DeleteThanks for the nice comment.
Weird that the comments haven't been working, I guess it must be a Google thing, since I haven't altered any settings or anything. But glad that they work again.
Horse House Ltd is exactly right :-) The idea behind the name is that first you need a horse, next you need a house, and we can cater for both (Gustav being a trained carpenter now).
Also 95% of our business is related to people having horses.
A side benefit of the name is that it is easy to remember, features alliteration making it sound distinct (and again makes it easy to remember), plus the logo is easily understandable (that we do something with/for horses).
Considering our very small size, I am always amazed at the fact that whenever we need to stock up on e.g. prime pine boards at the lumber yards, most of the staff knows the name of our company. Once in a while they make fun of it and called it "House & Garden", but at least it means that they know us. :-)
Gustav is indeed busy, but the company is not a full time job for him at the moment, so we try to not take in very large jobs. We want to complete the renovation of the house that we want to rent out first.
Brgds Jonas