WyomingSlick

Yeah, you probably got that idea from the movies or comic books. It seems to be a common theme. The hero takes on a whole bunch of guys in a fight, and beats them all because the others are fortunatly all incompetants. That same person ever mention the other old saying, "Don't bite off more than you can chew !"

I think you are absolutely right. Buying vintage craftools on eBay is much more cost effective then buying the high priced custom tools. There are many types of stamps where there is no appreciable differance between a custom tool and a quality vintage Craftool. I would challenge anyone to tell the differance between the impression of a BK $30 seeder and that of a vintage Craftool one that you can buy on eBay for under 5 bucks. Ditto for cams, checkered backgrounders, bargrounders, and others. And there are relatively few people out there who can appreciate the differance between tooling done by a skilled carver using Craftools versus one equally skilled using King tools. If you are going to do "Sheridan" patterns, you should get some Sheridan type bevelers. They have a steeper angle to them than the normal Craftools, which is desirable in beveling the many close lines in Sheridan work. Craftol did make some steeper angle bevelers in the late 1950's, but they are very rare, and hard to come by, and would usually cost you more than new King bevelers.

I guess you will have to fix it.....and I don't think WD-40, or duct tape, will do the job. I suggest a pencil and some paper. Take the pattern you are using for your belt and use it as a basis for drawing a pattern to fit the wallet complete with space for the initials. You are lucky that it is a Sheridan design because basically, they are easy to do this with. If you are completely lacking in drawing skills....check out Chan Greers books of Sheridan style patterns. You shoud be able to find them online.

I have a better question. Why would you take a job on when you don't have any idea how you are going to do it?

Superb! as aways. Please be careful there in the Ukraine. This world is the richer for having artists like you in it.

Check with some mechanics and/or machinists where you live. They should be able to suggest better options than WD-40 for freeing up your machines parts.

It would be unlawful to make copies of the book since it is copyrighted material. I would suggest that you check on eBay often, or perhaps set up a search with email notification when one is listed. You do understand that the books are collections of Doodle Pages that Stohlman did in the earlier days, dont you? If you are looking for a particular pattern from that book, you might check out the old Doodle Page downloads that TLF offers to see if it is included. If you dont know what the Doodle page number is for a pattern from the book, just describe the pattern and I can let you know which number it is.

Another possibility for the fleece wear is that the saddle was stored on a stand/rack that was made out of rough wood and years of sliding the saddle on, and off the rack, contributed to the fleece wearing away. The saddle racks on my grandads ranch had wool stuffed pads made from feedsacks for this very reason.

According to the Craftool Index Sheet of 1953: #50 - Segma Snap Setter set consisting of base plate and two dies #51 - Birdcage Snap Setter set consisting of base plate and three dies. #52 - Klondyke Eyelet setter (grommets) #53 - Klondyke Eyelet Setter (grommets) #55 - Eyelet Settter #56 - Eyelet Spreader #57 - Baby Dot Settter #58 - Durable Dot Setter #59 - Stylus Your number 58 is a later version where the tool face was formed by a die so as to better split the tube of the post into 6, more or less, equally sized segments as it rolled the edges of the tube over. The earlier tools were just round as they were shaped on a metal lathe and while they worked, were liable to split the tube into differant sized srgments. Also the earlier tools were chrome plated (just like the carving tools), while the later ones were usually just zinc plated.

Your options are almost unlimited. You can do anything from freehand carving to carefully desigigned ornate letters complete with floral or scroll work. Al Stohlman used very ornate letters/monograms on some of his work - see his books/patterns for examples. You will also see that letters and names may be free standing, super-imposed on the carving, and even incorporated into the design. Even the commom alphabet stamps can be dressed up with inlays, distinctive dyeing , and fancy knife work.

Make sure you do some personal measurements and a couple of fittings to make sure the top fits right !

A guide to vintage Craftools - http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=blog&module=display&section=blog&blogid=31&showentry=68 More information on tools on the rest of my blog. As for what the tools are used for, you need to get some leather tooling books. The letter sets are most likely made from zinc plated metal , so the corrosion you are seeing is probably a form of zinc oxide. The wire brush/dremel thing should work to remove the corrosion but know that the zinc plating is damaged somewhat. Shouldn't affect their use though.

First of all - that is awesome ! What did you use for the wood framework? And how heavy is the finished empty suitcase.?

LOL So how many people show up for a meeting for those in denial ??

I don't know where Tandy comes up with that baloney because obviously brass rivets are stronger, and steel rivets would be even stronger. But then of course they are going to be harder to set properly. Then of course steel could rust on you, and will cause a darkening of the leather around the rivet due to the steel reacting with the tanic acids in the leather. Therefore, in my opinion, the brass rivets are best, but of course are harder to set than the copper rivets. You might think about the fact that you see a lot of brass hardware for leather and very little in the way of copper fittings. For those experiancing failure with the speedy rivets - note that you need to use long enough rivets so that the little dimple on the stem is inside the head of the cap because that is where the expansion of the stem occurs when you hammer the two parts together.

So.......is that a genetically modified chicken that they can get an extra drumstick out of ??

It may be the answer for you but I watched the videos on their web site and I wasn't impressed at all. The swivel work looks awkward and rather crude. When he was beveling with the tool, I saw him run out of the carved cut twice which looked pretty lame to me. And I noticed that he didn't seem to good at tapering off his bevels toward the end of lines. So, if a fellow is crippled up and can't use a mallet, maul, or striking stick, I suppose this might work for him, but I don't see it replacing conventional carving without a lot of improvement.

Looks more Tuetonic to me than Celtic. Even with the knotwork In any case, it is an impressive piece of work. LOL It just looks more like something a Brunhilda would be wearing, than a Mairee.

Looks to be good only for stiching flat items which limits its usefulness.

Seems to me like a pretty skimpy description of what you are getting for that much money. He doesn't even say how many pages the book contains, nothing about photos and illustrations, etc.... For 97 bucks you can buy a lot of other manuals that cover the same subjects and more.

Not boring at all, and congratulations. May you both be blessed with the strength of heaven, The light of the sun and the radiance of the moon The splendor of fire, The speed of lightning, The swiftness of wind, The depth of the sea, The stability of earth, And the firmness of rock.

If you don't like the idea of messing with other chemicals, you may have something in your kitchen that works as good as anything I've ever seen. That is Cream of Tartar, the same stuff used in baking. The following is a guide I posted on eBay years ago, and I have cleaned hundreds of tools easily with this method. http://www.ebay.com/gds/Leather-Stamp-Rust-Removal-UPDATED-/10000000002529441/g.html Leather Stamp Rust Removal - UPDATED ! If you have leather stamps to sell that have a bit of rust on them, take a hint from Ron Ross at the International Internet Leathercrafter's Guild. Note - this is generally for chrome-plated tools only! This mixture will corrode steel tools. It may be used on them but try it first with a "junker" first! 1. Disolve a teaspoon or two of cream of tarter in water in an ALUMINUM pan and heat on stove until simmering. Cream of tarter is found in the baking dept at the grocery store. Do not use a steel or iron pan as it will react with this mixture. 2. Remove excessive rust with super-fine steel wool ( 00 or 000 ) if called for. Submerge tools in pan and let them simmer awhile. Stir lightly from time to time and check for progress. You will see the water become cloudy as the rust is removed. 3. Check for progress from time to time and remove tools when satisfied. CAREFUL! Tools will be hot. Wipe residue off with fine steel wool or with Scotch-Brite pad. Rinse tools well in water and dry completely. A hair blower works great for this. 4. If you live in a high moisture area you may want to prevent future rusting. A very light coating of any of the commercial plastic spray coatings will work. I myself use Rain-X which is a micro-crystaline wax that can be found in the auto dept at stores. Just coat and buff; this will leave a fine layer of wax which will retard further rusting.

I don't know if it is possible to get a list of all Craftaids ever made. You could probably get a list together of all the ones ever offered commercially in the catalogs and stores, but Craftaid also made special craftaids that were available only to a club they started in the later 50s, plus they made limited runs of craftaids for magazine and other promotions. If I am remembering right, they also offered at one time to produce Craftaids for original designs also. Seems to me like somebody at the IILG (International Internet Leathercrafter's Guild) also had a fairly good list put together. You might check out their website. I am impressed that you have 140 Craftaids. I know how hard it is to find some of them. It took me a long time to aquire the 20 craftaids to all of the patterns in Al Stohlman's "Top Twenty" book.

The LC&SJ should be helpful to you, but more as an inspiration, than as a teaching tool for a beginner. They are not going to have many articles on very basic stuff that would be "old hat" and boring to the majority of their readers. That being said.....The LC&SJ magazine is a very good magazine, and worth more than it's subscription price. It is a far better magazine than any of it's predecessors ! I know, because like Clay, I have a great many of them in my collection. There are a great many instructional books and manuals out there that cover the basics pretty well. Many of them can be purchased online at Tandy Leather Factory, Amazon, etc. Even some of the rarer books turn up on eBay from time to time, and the more common ones....quite often. Keep an eye out for any of the Doodle Pages that Tandy/Craftool used to give away for free. And now the corporate pigs charge 3 bucks for a simple digital copy ! I have over a hundred doodle pages, and I think there are probably less than a quarter of them that are worth that much.

Just checking......you do know how to skive the end of the lacing to fit in the various needles, dont you? And how to trim the lace overhang in the flat needles prior to use? I have used all three types of needles mentioned above and they all work fine for me.