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bruce johnson

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About bruce johnson

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    Saddlery & Tack Moderator
  • Birthday 06/15/1960

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    http://www.brucejohnsonleather.com
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    Male
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    Oakdale, CA
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    leather tools and history

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  • Leatherwork Specialty
    Leather Tools
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    everything
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    Ive been here from about day one

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  1. But then again with hand edgers, you need to buy different sizes for different thickness too. Some people can slight rotate the cutters on the EZ edger to not catch the full blade. It sort of works but not ideal or as consistent as the sized edgers
  2. It comes in two edge and Four edge versions. For the two edge you flip the strap over and pull through again. Four edge is a single pass
  3. All good experience. I have sold several used ones through here. One that stands out was an Amish maker who looked at one I had in Sheridan. He was “thinking about it”. He came back about 2 minutes later and said his wife told him he must buy it. She was the rein and strap edger of the shop.
  4. Divelbiss. They made leather tools in the expansion of leather crafting as a hobby alongside Craftool and a few other hobby craft tool makers - I’m thinking the 1960s
  5. I get them once in a while. Nothing special and on a par with the decent crafters grade swivel knives from the 60s. A step above the cheap bottom end craftool knives. A bit of a collectible for the people who collect swivel knives.
  6. Daniel, one observation here. Do you think it has been rehandled? That purple hue to the finish looks like the handle is more recent and not the original rosewood handles. Any thoughts? Nice clean knife overall.
  7. My experience only - I buy a lot of tools and sometimes one person hobbyist to smaller shops. My basic rule (broken occasionally) is that I don't buy anything with a motor. It makes life simpler - shipping costs from a seller to me to a buyer just makes it harder to pencil out on heavy bulky machines and good chance for damage if not professionally broken down and shipped. I usually tell sellers that there is a local market for heavy sewing machines they may not even know about and passing the word around usually gets them sold. Leather groups, supply stores, someone in the leather community, etc. One of the last shops I bought, the machines sold for local pickup before UPS could get me the tools.
  8. Yes it is. Stirrup plates shorten up the radius on the cylinder arm to make these squarish corners much easier to sew into and over. I did probably a hundred briefcases and a few hundred shaving kits with the stirrup foot.
  9. Here it is, Sits on a workbench in the tool shop. Weaver used to sell this for around $400 with the plates ready to go. The original hydraulic jack was replaced with a 12 ton air/hydraulic jack before I got it. Works well. The bed is 9x15.
  10. The cutting board isn't the limiting factor, the head size and leverage advantage is. Weaver makes an 8 ton manual clicker press. The head size is 12x15. 8 tons sounds like a lot - for big dies it isn't really. Good solid units. I have the 4 ton version and it is good for the rating, but you aren't going to do anything with a lot of edge length - coasters, cookie cutter size figures, spur strap dies is about it. I had an 8 ton last year dropped off overnight for another guy to pickup here. I played a little and it was OK too. If you step over to a converted shop press, you can go up to 20 tons and make the head and bed what ever size you want. You just need to make sure the steel plates are strong enough. If you go that way then a air over hydraulic jack makes life pretty simple. Even with the 4 ton Weaver in my wife's shop, if she has many pieces she hops on out to my tool shop and uses the benchtop shop press conversion Weaver used to sell. Its got the air/hydraulic jack and easier for her.
  11. I can see having two similar machines set up to do different things in your business, I heard how busy you guys are! Here is my take. I just bought my nephew a Cobra 4 and picked it up at the Prescott leather show. It comes with a flat bed table attachment, flat throat plate, holster plate, and stirrup plate - a few different presser feet, and a drop down edge guide. Probably was an option for a wax pot but I didn't get one for his. (I never used one on my Ferdco unless I was sewing doubled latigo reins wide open speed). When I got my Ferdco Art Van Hecke told me on the predecessor of this forum to get every available attachment I could when I bought it. The package price will beat buying the attachments later ala carte. Smart advice but then again I was making a lot of different things. I have used every foot and plate and more they added later. Looks like the Cowboy you have is set up with a wax pot and standard throatplate/presser foot. If you are just doing holsters and no plans for anything else you could duplicate what you've got without a "package". Both places have a reputation for service. Cobra is closer to you so shipping cost might be a factor.
  12. It is called a shell stamp. I’m not sure what Barry calls that pattern but I’ve seen it called loop shell, arched shell, and arc shell. Are you coming to the leather show in May?
  13. The concept is not exactly new but this tooling is. It looks like it is a handy size. Several years ago there was an oscillating handpiece sold with a rotary shaft tool. I can't remember the name but had one. Later JJ Maxwell sold one similar. They worked off the oscillating action and at least the one I had came with a chuck big enough most regular stamps could fit with no modification. Some people use the GraverMax for silver engraving and modified tools to fit that handpiece. Barry King offered to turn down the shanks of his stamps to fit in that handpiece and may still do that on request. I am not going to throw out the baby with bathwater on any of these. Several years ago I had dislocated my thumb (done it a few times) and was facing a bunch of orders with hard deadlines. Swivel knives and a lot of stamping hits were a problem. I borrowed a swivel tip cutter and gripped it with a fist to cut lines. I had the oscillating handpiece on the rotary shaft tool and that ran the walking stamps like bevelers and shaders. It saved a lot of hits. There is a definite place for these type tools, I passed mine on to someone with some physical issues to use when I healed. If this had been 19 years ago, Id have ordered this last Thursday.
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