Cal-Carved Stamping Tools

[WyomingSlick]

I would be very interested in any old catalogs, brochres, etc, concerning Cal-Carved leather stamping tools. The were based in the LA area of California and are believed to predate Craftool by a few years. I would need high resolutions scans of the catalog pages and their date of publication if known.

I am trying to work out the history of stamp makers around LA in the forties and early fifties, so if any of you have any information on other stamp makers other than Craftool and RBS, I would love to see that as well. Thanks

[5shot]

A bit off topic, but can you tell me if all RBS Tools are Vintage or if there was a modern manufacturer for them too? I acquired a bunch of RBS tools from a friend (they were his grandfather's). All were well taken care of, and appear to be almost new. Some of the tools are definitely not as high of quality as the others (the detail on the tool face is less than perfect), but that could just be a few bad examples of what came out of the shop.

Thanks.

[WyomingSlick]

A bit off topic, but can you tell me if all RBS Tools are Vintage or if there was a modern manufacturer for them too? I acquired a bunch of RBS tools from a friend (they were his grandfather's). All were well taken care of, and appear to be almost new. Some of the tools are definitely not as high of quality as the others (the detail on the tool face is less than perfect), but that could just be a few bad examples of what came out of the shop.

Thanks.

Naw, they are worthless!

How much will you take for them? LOL!

Seriously, you have got yourself some goodies as far as collectors are concerned. And you really are not off topic as RBS was basically the successor to Cal-Carved. RBS was a partnership between Louis Roth ( inventor of Craftaids and other leather tools), Ellis Barnes a toolmaker who made stamps for Cal-Carved before the company folded, and Al Stohlman ( of course this was prior to his affiliation with Craftool). RBS stamps were only made for a short period of time from the mid 1950s untill the very early 60s when Louis Roth and Al Stohlman became much more tied to Craftool. Apparently, the left over RBS tools were then put in with the Craftool inventory as Ron Ross, president of IILG, relates that when he was a Tandy store manager in the early sixties; sometimes there would be RBS stamps mixed in with the shipments of new Craftools to the store.

As you have noticed in your collection, there will be some variation in stamp quality; more than you will see in Craftools of the same era.

While Ellis Barnes is regarded as one of the finest makers of leather stamping tools, I believe that there was someone else besides him also making the RBS stamps, perhaps an apprentice of his. I hope to have a post in my blog here on leatherworker.net soon that covers the early days of stamp making around LA as soon as I can hopefully find some more information - why I started this thread.

Hopefully, you can help. Do you know, or can you find out, where the original owner of the RBS stamps acquired the tools?

Some of my RBS stamps

[5shot]

Unfortunately, he has passed away, and all my friend knew about them was where to find the box in the garage. I am actually using the tools, so I will make sure they go to a good home when I pass on!

Edited September 12, 2011 by 5shot

[WyomingSlick]

Unfortunately, he has passed away, and all my friend knew about them was where to find the box in the garage. I am actually using the tools, so I will make sure they go to a good home when I pass on!

You might consider selling them as they can bring some good prices on eBay such as this auction which ended today:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130572507496?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649&autorefresh=true

where an RBS 363 (dot flare) brought $37.89.

Pic of tool

That kind of money will buy a fella some very nice Barry King or Robert Beard tools. Just a consideration to think about.

[5shot]

True - I would have to be certain to get enough out of them to step up though. I will have to make a list of what I have an see how much $$$ there is in them.

[WyomingSlick]

Unfortunately, he has passed away, and all my friend knew about them was where to find the box in the garage. I am actually using the tools, so I will make sure they go to a good home when I pass on!

Perhaps you could ask your friend if he knows where his grandfather lived in the period of the mid fifities to early sixties.

[5shot]

I will. I would guess it was in NE Washington, as that is where I met him, and his mom lived in the Spokane area.

[davidna]

No hijacking intended but I just had a strange coincidence happen here.

I was cleaning out my garage this weekend and I came across a box of stuff that I bought at a yardsale quite some time ago. In this box was a notebook with the name Louis Roth on the cover and some other names mentioned in the notebook. I did a quick search for the names and this is the thread that came up. Here are a couple of pics of the notebook.

I only kept the box of stuff because it looked like it might be some history for someone.

[WyomingSlick]

It would seem you have acquired a very interesting piece of Craftool history as Lou Roth was an inventive man who developed many leather tooling aids for Craftool. The most notable idea of his was of course Craftaids. Judging from your third picture; it looks like he was also the inventor of the "Select-A-Stroke Mallet" which didn't last long in the marketplace even though it was not a bad idea' - just not a great one. I would guess that most carvers would rather have a selection of mallets rather than fiddle around changing the weights on one.

Here is the SELECT-A-STROKE MALLET as it appeared in a vintage Tandy catalog from the late sixties. It seems to have been dropped from the catalogs by the early seventies.

There may be curators of leather museums out there, as well as private collectors, who would be interested in purchasing the notebook - something to think about!!!

Edited September 14, 2011 by WyomingSlick

[davidna]

It would seem you have acquired a very interesting piece of Craftool history as Lou Roth was an inventive man who developed many leather tooling aids for Craftool. The most notable idea of his was of course Craftaids. Judging from your third picture; it looks like he was also the inventor of the "Select-A-Stroke Mallet" which didn't last long in the marketplace even though it was not a bad idea' - just not a great one. I would guess that most carvers would rather have a selection of mallets rather than fiddle around changing the weights on one.

Here is the SELECT-A-STROKE MALLET as it appeared in a vintage Tandy catalog from the late sixties. It seems to have been dropped from the catalogs by the early seventies.

There may be curators of leather museums out there, as well as private collectors, who would be interested in purchasing the notebook - something to think about!!!

Thanks for the advice. I'm a goldsmith so I don't really know the leather world at all. I did a quick search for "leather Museums" and found myself some pretty "interesting" stuff out there. I guess ebay is going to be the answer to finding a home for this box of stuff. Thanks again and my apologies for the hijack here.

[Mjolnir131]

It would seem you have acquired a very interesting piece of Craftool history as Lou Roth was an inventive man who developed many leather tooling aids for Craftool. The most notable idea of his was of course Craftaids. Judging from your third picture; it looks like he was also the inventor of the "Select-A-Stroke Mallet" which didn't last long in the marketplace even though it was not a bad idea' - just not a great one. I would guess that most carvers would rather have a selection of mallets rather than fiddle around changing the weights on one.

Here is the SELECT-A-STROKE MALLET as it appeared in a vintage Tandy catalog from the late sixties. It seems to have been dropped from the catalogs by the early seventies.

There may be curators of leather museums out there, as well as private collectors, who would be interested in purchasing the notebook - something to think about!!!

Does this mean i should not be using mine to do actual stamping with? I really like this little mallet.

[WyomingSlick]

Does this mean i should not be using mine to do actual stamping with? I really like this little mallet.

No, of course not. If you like using the mallet, then you should use it. But if sometime you run across one that is like new, in the original box, then you should "collect it".