bruce johnson

Less is more and reapply as needed. Think of leather like that dry stiff kitchen sponge. Like a sponge, there are little gaps between the fibers. A dry sponge is stiff. Add a little moisture and it absorbs - some swelling of fibers and some remaining in those gaps. The sponge is now soft and flexible. This is the place with oiling leather to usually stop. Yes you can add more and it will take it - just like the sponge. And just like the sponge - add too much and it drips back out. The sponge actually loses a little "body" and gets floppy - just like over-oiled leather. Oil is not a waterproofer. If you are worried about weather effects then you need something else. One brand is SnowSeal. My granddad and uncle fought over grandma's goose grease, Mink Oil paste, there's a bunch.

Going off my experience. I couldn't tell you who made trees for them - several commercial tree companies in business at the time. That rope roll and steel laced EVERYTHING was popular in the late 70s. Laced cantles only were popular for a long time. Tooling patterns on TexTans were always pretty simple and easy for a carving crew and I suspect some were press plate designs - not much of a way to date by that tooling for me. I bought a show saddle a little higher up the food chain in 1976 for $1280 and as I recall the better TexTan/Herefords were about $300-$400 less. In 1981 I bought one new and one lightly used Billy Cooks together for $2000.

Overall, looks really good. If you want fine tuning suggestions, read on. I'm not sure what is going on with your sewing but the back side wanders but the front side looks good. Round needle? Maybe shorten up that stitch length some too. My preference for "fine work" like yours is a little shorter stitch length. Finally, the thing pounded into me by one of my resellers early on - the oversew to lock stitches. You want to put it in the least conspicuous place. Never on the front and your eyes are also drawn to the top and side of the back. Bottom of the back is the best place to "hide it". With tooled work you see the overall pattern of the tooling and borders first. With plain leather like this, the first thing eyes are drawn to is the stitching and an obvious overlap breaks the "flow". Also, I would lightly round or "chip" the 90 degree corners and ends of your pockets and liners. 90 degree corners will eventually curl or lift.

I'm going to be the odd man out here and say most likely it is not compounded NF oil. The oils most are compounded with will not solidify as easily as what is recognized as pure NF oil today. I can't speak for other countries but here is the thumbnail sketch of NF oil as I understand it in the US. Traditionally yes - the recognized standard pure NF oil was made by boiling leg bones of cattle. During one of the world wars ( I am thinking it was WW2) the military need for neetsfoot oil out stripped the supplies. The military standards were relaxed to allow any animal based oils that fit similar characteristics of NF oil. I don't have exact details but pressed hog lard was one of them and available. Since there were few consumer standards but a military standard, depending on manufacturer other animal oils besides cattle make up some percentage of pure NF oils since then. I would suspect that some name suppliers have a standard and source and some of the lower end suppliers use price-point sources with less standards. I have used several and some did consistently smell different than others, all solidified at some temperature but melted easily with a little heat.

Good job getting it apart. Those lower studs can be tough to get out on a rusted up one. Here's a tip, instead of packing the holes you don't want paint in, get some rubber or silicon corks from the hardware store. Natural corks will wick the paint a bit.

Here are the dimensions of the new CS Osborne #151 bag/slot/oblong punches.

Chrome tan - I wanted something with at least a 5 in the weight like 5/6. My overall favorite was anything with a shrunken grain since that tends to be heavier. Customers with no cost constraints - shrunken grain bison. I can't remember the exact cutting size. I gave all my templates and patterns for purses, bags, home decor, etc. to an up and comer years ago. Tooling leather - something with an 8 - 7/8 or 8/9 weights cut from lower side or mid belly-between the flanks remnants from those weights or split to 8 oz from skirting leftovers. They were 2 inch strips as I recall. Pretty sure I rarely cut many strips from a whole fresh side, just remnants mostly.

No help with the little Consew. I am not usually a Tandy basher but I would seriously like to see anyone at Tandy do even half of what they say that machine can do. The Janome - run away fast. That is a fabric machine. If they tell you it is what you need, that tells me all I need to know about their knowledge of sewing leather and/or business integrity. For what it costs you can buy the heaviest duty leather machine out there. Look up Bob Kovar or Leather Machine Co - people that sell real leather sewing machines. @Wizcrafts to customer service please

I would knock as much rust off as you can with a wheel or brush. Then soak in EvapoRust or Metal Rescue - WD-40 makes a similar product I have not tried. Wire wheel off the residue, use what ever abrasives are indicated to work out deep pitting, oil dip and work the hinges some, oil again until it comes out clear. Might end up OK. Here are a few I have had through here with the cast bells. The #10005 is a Barnsley.

After a rocky start to retirement I finally have most of that past me. I am nearly full time in the leather tool shop now. With that, my goal of being able to open up the leather tool sharpening service has come about. I still have the same 15 year old policy free resharpening for tools purchased from me. If you have other tools were not purchased from me or have not been a previous customer, I can take those tools for resharpening now. I have a new page on my website describing the services and cost estimates, plus a brochure/pricelist for downloading at https://brucejohnsonleather.com/sharpening-services . Thank you! - Bruce

I made a couple hundred probably. Some stock and some custom. My favorites (and most popular) were made from heavy chrome tan and then tooled side panels. The veg tan were harder to clean and tended to roll a bit over time. These chrome tan could roll up in a drawer for storage and lay right out flat. Handy for the folks with living quarter horse trailers. Heavy chrome tan and tooled strips. I treated them with at least three coats of acrylic finish and they wiped off well with minimal staining. I treated vegtan coasters the same.

A bit different but - First tip I EVER learned on the internet was from the old IILG group and Verlane Desgrange. (fun factoid - this group morphed out of the IILG - courtesy of a leather artist from Africa and a pizza baking momma from Ohio @Johanna). Verlane posted about chucking your mini or maxi punches in the drill press and turn it on. I literally read that, walked straight out to the shop and tried it. You want to make punching holes easy and no effort to remove? Even on damp sticky skirting with a big tube punch? This is it. That single tip was worth my annual dues right there. If you have visited the shop, I expect Rundi has demonstrated punching round holes with a drill press and using a rein trimmer to cut pieces. NOTE - As the punch tubes fill up the punchings will will fly out the ejection port in random directions. Eye protection is recommended.

Rodney, I sure don't know of any off the rack patterns for modern riggings. I can only think of three rigging makers now and I don't think there is anybody wants to sell their patterns there either.

Did you buy this from a reseller or direct from the tannery? Is this supposed to be normal vegtan tooling leather - not milled, dyed, jacked, rolled or otherwise treated? Does it look way different in color or feel than the other sides? It just appears a little glossy in the picture. The three evenly spaced vertical crease lines looks like it was almost folded or flattened. How long did you have it before you found this side was subpar? What do you use to measure thickness and where on the side?

That kind of thickness stacked - a plough gauge slight maybe but eat a good breakfast, a draw gauge - better have a grip on the strap and the gauge and a sharp a*s blade. I'm not sure how far you are from any draft or pulling harness makers because I don't think we have any on the forum. I would get with one of those guys and ask how they do it. I'm betting one piece at a time and then stack them though.