Sharpshooter

You can spend a bunch of money on a dedicated press, OR.... Get an Arbor Press from Harbor Freight, it's cheap. My snap dies came from one of the bigger commercial hardware suppliers with a 3/8" stem on them. Drill a 3/8" hole in the base plate of the press and another in the bottom of the arbor with another perpendicular to it for a set screw. I'm not big on mentioning non advertisers on forums, the guys who pay the freight should be deriving the sales benefit, so if they don't have it, shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell you who to contact. There is a knife supply house that sells the press with the holes added in if you don't feel like messing with it for about $40 more. Perfect for snaps, eyelets and if you're cagey, you can order a maker's stamp "PLATE" epoxy it to a block of wood and install a stem for the press. The impressions are always perfect. You'll find yourself using the arbor press for everything.... and it'll [pay for itself in nothing flat. If you need a pic of mine to help visualize it, shoot me an e-mail.

A more important question is "What do you intend to do with it?" If you plan to go into business, I don't think the Tippmann will be the way to go. To start with, you set the die on your leather and feed them into the opening in the machine; VERY slow. Real Clicker presses have the head getting out of your way so you set the die on the leather and move the head over the top to click. The Tippmann is air operated, actually it's an air spring under the bottom which inflates to press up against the stationary top, you need a compressor with good capacity to keep up with the machine. Clicker presses have a pressure limit, in the case of the Tippmann machines you're looking at 7 or 15 tons. Dies are essentially designed with an eye toward the pressure of the press, a 7 ton press is really a belch in a wind storm meaning you'll be limited to some very small dies. Even the 15 ton unit is marginal compared to commercial machines. The few times I have worked with a Tippmann I noticed how you seem to sit and wait for the pressure to push the die through the leather, for a few seconds. That doesn't sound like much time until you think about clicking 200 pieces, (that's only 50 four piece sheaths), you are waiting for 400 seconds, that's almost 7 minutes of waiting for the press to do it's job. My clicker press is a 40 ton unit, I hit the buttons and the head makes the cut in the blink of an eye. Now lets talk about price.... the 7 ton unit is $1500, the 15 ton $3000. Tippmanns ad lies about not needing electricity unless they plan on you running the machine with a bicycle pump so add in a decent compressor. You can buy a used clicker press on E-Bay for around $2000 add a couple hundred for a phase converter since most of the commercial presses run on three phase power. When I started in the business, I decided to do it right or not at all. A first class stitcher and clicker press were the core elements and doing it right is something I've never regretted.

Got it on the my Landis 3 in 1 The American Skiver is an old timer... The blade isn't as wide and there's nothing at all that looks like a stop. Thanks to your help on the Landis, I think I can SWAG the blade placement to get a baseline. It's completely disassembled and sandblasted, tomorrow a wipedown, blow off and base coat of paint. I'll post pics when it's all done and back in service.

Thanks Bruce... You're referring to actual stops for the front (edge) of the blade? I'll have to look at it in the morning to be sure, but I don't recall seeing anything like what I'm imagining. I believe there are screws on either side of the blade to hold it down and a thumbscrew on the back (opposite end of the edge). I have the machine taken completely apart at the moment, going to sandblast the body for a repaint and clean up the mechanicals. The rollers have some play and slop that needs to be taken care of so the machine can give us another eighty years.

Hey... I have a new blade for my old American Hand Crank Skiver. It works much like the skiver on the Landis 3-1 and 5-1. I'm resigned to the fact that I have a better chance of stuffing snowballs up a wildcat's butt than I do of finding a manual for the machine; but I KNOW someone here knows how it's supposed to be set-up. There is a depth of cut adjustment as well as angle AND the ability of moving the blade closer of further from the rollers. I'm sure I can stumble into the sweet spot, but the correct procedure will make it easier and faster.

Probably a price that you're thinking of would be helpful... Shoot me a number.

Timber scribes share that "7" profile but don't have the U shaped end. Th U shaped cutting edge makes it a "Rase Knife" While the gouge mark can be used to mark logs or most commonly barrels it was most often used to e"Rase" marks so the barrel could be reused. Another very common use for Rase knives was to mark the waterline on wooden boats so it could be easily found when the boat is repainted.

We have to be clicking out pieces or we would be out of business in very short order..... A couple of answers... You have to heat treat steel in order to make it a knife or cutter. Soft steel doesn't have the carbides that are formed by heat threat so you can't get it sharp. Steel Rule Dies are much more precise than clicker dies. That might not be important to you if you aren't doing production work that requires precision. My sheaths have eyelet holes and snaps that have to line up.... fussing with 500 snap locations would kill any profitability of a job. The small Tippman clicker might be fine on thin leathers but 5 ounces on up and it has issues. The bigger Tippman might be better but for the price you can get an electro hydraulic press that will be much easier to work with. I get all of my steel rule dies done by AC Steel Rule, they do a terrific job and always provide great service. I have had them do enough dies for me that they understand leather work.

I don't know if there are any good ones available.... Everything I've read says that even the best ones suck.

Every product we make in my shop has MY name on it and I don't feel in any way embarrassed by it. When people compliment the work we do, I put the team in front and tell everyone what a terrific job they do. When things go to hell in a handbasket it's ME that has to deal with it. When business is slow, I'm the one who goes home without a paycheck, the crew get paid. When a run of sheaths is wrong, I decide to not ship it and I eat the loss because it's MY business. I take the risks on a daily basis so your damn right MY name is going on the product. If your carver is worth a damn, he's likely put his mark on the job... The people who do that work for me are told flatly that I expect them to do so. Louis Chevrolet quit building cars a long time ago, around the same time as Henry Ford did. William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson don't build many motorcycles nor does Sōichirō Honda, last time I checked all of them are still dead but there are products sold with their name on them every day. If you like, have the guy from the Billiards Forum come see me personally.... I'm running low on jackass hide.

We do a lot of sewing VERY thick stacks of leather. In my most recent job we're sewing through two layers of 10 ounce, two layers of 6 ounce and a .030 thick piece of vulcanized fiber sheet. I doubt that a bit of rawhide is going to be tougher than the vulcanized fiber sheet. We're sewing this on a Toro 3000 with success. Here's what I've learned on this job... I generally use 346 on top and 277 on the bottom with a #25 Needle. The needle isn't big enough for me to use 346 on top you can actually feel the thread binding in the fiber sheet. I stepped down to 277 top and bottom which is a lot better. I also found problems starting to show up with sticking and such as the needle dulls. Like my good friend Steve told me a long time ago.... the first step in diagnosing a sewing problem is "CHANGE THE NEEDLE!" Needles are relatively cheap and while they're tough as nails (pun intended) they're also very fragile. I've seen bent points that acted just like barbs on a fish hook they go in very easy and snag on the way back out.

Hey... Has anyone here done wet molding on a production scale? I have a job coming up where I need to mold a lot of pieces for a production run... I'm wondering about speed.... Does the leather need to be dry (mostly) before removing it from the mold? How long does it HAVE to be in the mold? I have a pretty good idea HOW to do the molding, I'm just rather concerned with the time invested in each piece. 500 molds doesn't make sense.... 10 or 20 does.

I have used both and really don't see much difference between them. Realize that I buy 20+ sides a month so I go through a lot of leather. Ask for their sample sheet and you'll see what they sell. I don't use the "treated" stuff so I can't comment on it other than to assure you that it is available from them. I believe W&C is a bit easier for smaller accounts to deal with as far as smaller minimum quantity requirements.

That assumes the knife has a guard (protrusion at the front of the handle to stop fingers from going forward on the blade) if so, look again on my site at Construction... it's NOT a tutorial but it shows you all the pieces and how they inter relate... you should be able to figure it out from there.... If not... you know where to ask.

I think I've made a couple of knife sheaths.... well maybe a couple of thousand of 'em. what sort of knife and what sort of sheath. If you want, look at my website to get an idea on the concept.... from there I'll send you in the right direction.

I'm NOT nice about it al all.... Having spent most of a lifetime as an auto mechanic, I've dealt with the finger*#@%! of tools for a long time. The ONLY solution I've ever found is to be very blunt. I make my living with those tools and when someone breaks or loses one of them that translates to food out of my family's mouth. "Please leave my tools alone..." is my first line.... "I asked politely the first time..." is the second. It usually doesn't go far beyond that and never a second time if it does. Too often we get caught in the "The Customer is Always Right." trap, what most people don't know is that the original sign was a bit larger and the more important second part was stolen by some overbearing customer long ago. The Customer Is Always Right; Sometimes he just needs to be right somewhere else. I live by the 90-9 and 1 rule... 90% of the people you will do business with are easy to deal with and completely fair. They are looking for a dollars worth of work for a dollar. 9% of your customers are going to be a bit more difficult. They don't completely trust you and it's probably NOT your fault. They require a bit more attention and care, answers to a few more questions and more time just making sure you are doing it right. They're a bit of a pain but once you win them over by going that extra 9% they are the most loyal customers you ever have. I love the 9%ers because they keep me honest and give me an opportunity to strut my stuff and frankly, I'm a 9%er. That leaves 1%.... ONE out of a Hundred. There is NOTHING you are ever going to do to please them; NOTHING, ZIP NADA. Regardless how hard you try, how much time you spend with them, how many times you bend over backwards, they are going to walk right over you. They're the ones who bring their dog to your farm and tell you it's OK, they're the ones who insist on playing with your tools, they're the ones that finger up everything they can touch. Think about this.... when the Mob Guy in the movies goes into someone's place to strong arm them, what does he do? He fingers up everything, he goes where he wants and does what he wants. WHY does he do that? Because that's a great way of showing how unimportant you are in his eyes. That 1%er is doing the same thing.... his actions are demonstrating disrespect in as clear a manner as possible. The question you need to ask yourself is; "How bad do I need this person's money?" To me, I learned long ago that the time and energy trying to please someone who cannot be pleased is wasted. I would rather spend the time with the other 99% of my clientèle. They deserve it. The hour I spend with a jerk is an hour I can't spend on someone who will appreciate my time and efforts. 1% means ONE out of ONE HUNDRED.... Out of 100 customers, one of them goes elsewhere and if you're the vengeful sort you'll have someone to recommend to him; someone who REALLY deserves his patronage. The twist in the equation is that when that ONE leaves, you will likely GAIN business instead of lose it. While you redo a job because the JERK discovered some flaw that you still can't see, how many other good paying jobs are you not getting to. In the end, the jerk isn't going to pay you the agreed price, you'll have three times the effort and materials invested in a job that you give him for half price just to get rid of him. When he's gone you'll be money ahead. So I'll just be satisfied with pleasing 99% of my customers. That other 1%.... It's mind over matter.... I don't mind because they don't matter. The Customer Is Always Right; Sometimes he just needs to be right somewhere else. Please Leave My Tools Alone is polite and direct. 99% of your customers will respect you and your request and when they do I'll have a few extra minutes to explain and demonstrate the one that most interests them. I might even find a bit of scrap leather to let them try the tool out on. I have that time because I wrote off the 1%ers long ago. Sorry for the long answer, but I think it time to gain a few more converts to the 90-9-1 Club.

The carbon content of tableware is VERY low meaning that it cannot be sharpened to any useful degree nor will it hold an edge. When using a knife, you are really cutting with the carbides contained in the steel, low carbon means very few carbides which means no cutting edge. That's why you need separate knives to cut steak, the flatware cannot get or stay sharp enough to slice cooked meat, how do you figure it'll perform on tanned leather? They certainly look very nice and would be quite photogenic on the bench but as a cutting tool I doubt they would be useful.

Split the leather past where the snap goes, insert the snap and glue the flap back down.

I don't do a lot of hand setting of snaps anymore because of our volume, but back before I got the air operated machine, I was using an arbor press from Harbor Freight that I modified to hold 3/8" diameter stems. I buy my snaps and setting tools from Ohio Travel Bag and never have a problem so long as we use the right buttons and eyelets. The dies are on page 20 of their catalog... numbers T-1401 Button, T-1410 Socket, T-1412 Stud and T-1407 Eyelet

D2 is NOT a good choice for a head knife unless you want to spend a lot of time refining the edge. If you want to discuss this in depth, I'll be happy to debate the metalurgy in depth. The simple reason is that the carbides of D2 are HUGE compared to those of many other steels. Because the carbides are so large, they tend to chip out unless the edge is very highly polished or left in a very thick cross section that wouldn't work well in precisely cutting leather. D2 is hard to sharpen, especially when the RC is brought up as high as most knifemakers bring it. For me, I prefer to spend time in the leather shop working on leather, not sharpening tools. Save the money you're spending on "designer steel" and have the knife made of 1095 like they did in the old days. Before the 1970s just about all knives were made of 1095 or some mills derivation of it. I use a leather knife made by Herter in the 90s, the EIGHTEEN 90s. It's absolutely 1095; .076 thick convexed and a hellacious cutter. The crew calls it the "Devil Knife" as it's bitten everyone in the shop at least once. It's not the steel in this knife that makes it cut so well, it's the geometry of the edge. Maintaining it is dirt simple, a few swipes across the flesh side of whatever leather I'm working on brings the edge alive when it starts to not slice through. A bit of time on a stropping compound loaded hone every week or two and it's good to go. Remember, this is a production shop so we go through a couple of SIDES a day, that's a lot of cutting.

I know where you're coming from.... In a previous life I ran Auto Repair Shops and would watch as Technicians would manage to over fix things into destruction.... I solved part of the problem by making up a bunch of these I would drop them in front of the technician whenever I caught them over-fixing... they got the message You have my permission to take the image, print it out and stick it on your bench.... as soon as you think you're close to finished stick the sign on the project and go for a walk. Works like a charm for me

That is way cool.... Terrific idea

This may get you going in the right direction.. It's not exactly the sheath you need to make but putting the retaining snap on the spine side of the knife attached to the front plate often simplifies sheathing those "strange" blades. Here's another twist on the same concept. The trick is to build a locking block on the backside of the faceplate. When the snap is fastened the knife is locked in place, when it's open the block is out of the way. .jpg

Having sidetracked your thread by being a wiseguy, I guess I'll toss in my two cents worth. From my perspective, a leather gift for a baby is something that REALLY isn't for today but instead for 20 years from today. Very few "baby" gifts last beyond a year or two. With the exception of the favorite stuffed companion and blanket, the rest is just worn out and used up. Now a carved nameplate or wall hanging that's not too "baby" oriented could squeeze into the lifetime gift so long as it has a "cool" factor that will survive the teen years. Finding that just right "thing" is a huge challenge but realize that babies don't have that good a sense of time and if you don't give them a watch for a few years you can get away with a lot of things. maybe wait until the child develops a specific favorite 'thing" and go from there. My son really came to like Mickey Mouse, it became obvious pretty early on so I made him a lot of Mickey stuff that he still cherishes at 17 years old.

I am wayyyyy so bad... My first thought in response to the title of the thread was... "Loosen up the belly button?" Good thing I didn't say it.