WyomingSlick

The value of your copy of Leather Secrets depends on which edition it is. It is worth more if it is one of the early editions from the 50's, rather than the reprint that Tandy put out in the 70's and 80's. As I recall, the reprint sold for around 50 bucks then. You can still find copies for sale on Amazon and eBay. Those asking prices should give you a guideline to your books value. As for the man himself, Baird was one of the first, if not the first, to pull leatherwork out of the saddleshops, and present it to the public as an enjoyable and worthwhile hobby, or past time. There is a longer biography than the short one in Leather Secrets in his book. Trivia Fact - Baird is one of the few people to actually appear on the cover of "The Leather Crafsman" or "The Craftsman" magazine, which he did in 1963.

LOL He, and others just say that because they haven't mastered the tool. No, it isn't as fast as a sewing machine, but it produces the same stitch, and it's a lot easier to carry in a saddle bag on that pack trip than a sewing machine. Plus, it's usually hard to find a currant bush to run a machine ! LOL AND, it's a lot simpler and quicker than fussing with needles, waxing, tapering thread ends, etc. in order to handsew a repair. True, not as strong...but it will do the job.

I am fairy sure that is a guide for one of the multi-use punches made by Bernard or Maun. They were pliar-type punches that had interchangable anvils, and a selection of hole, and lacing punches so the tools could serve several functions.

Very minimum.........$ 750 for everything in the tool rack if you sell as one lot Selling them individually on eBay, you should do quite a bit better, but then you have to spend a bit of time packing and sending them to the individual buyers

For lighting the leathercraft work area I suggest a couple of flourescent lights, one placed to each side so that there are no shadows. Think something like a photographer's studio. You may even want to put up some white posterboards to reflect the light towards your work area if you have dark walls that don't reflect the light well.

No, Actually Craftool started putting "USA" on their stamps around 1967 in response to the introduction of Midas tools which were foreign made. I know this to be a fact since I was in 4-H leathercraft at the time.

LOL I would offer you ten times your money invested, but you would be a damn fool for taking it!

Leather micro mini skirt?

Nicely done! One suggestion - I would round off those square corners because square corners like that tend to look "dog-eared" after some use.

LOL No I really have no interest in making a comparison chart. Most leather toolers select a tool based on what will do the job for them, not by the numbers. Any tool number suggested by a pattern designer is just that; a suggestion - kinda like "painting by numbers". Almost any pattern can be tooled many differant ways. Some of the "Doodle Pages" show excellent examples of this. Usually any beveler suggested may be substituted for by other similar bevelers that will do the job. In some cases, not. For example: Sheridan tools were designed to fit the needs of a style of leather carving that required steeper angled bevelers than regular Craftools in order to tool designs where there are a lot of beveled lines relatively closer together. While a few of the other Sheridan tools are differant from Craftools, most really are not. These other Sheridan were developed to fill a need for better made tools as Craftools slipped in quality, and selection, over the years. The early pre 60's Craftools are usually every bit as well made as the Sheridan King tools, but of course are much harder to find. It's a little known fact, but Craftool did make some bevelers that were steeper angled than their regular line back in the late 1950's. See attachment below. These were only availible to members of a special club however and are very, very rare! If the owner of Craftool had not died soon after these were made, they may have made their way into the regular tool line. LOL - It is just a coincidence that these "Special" tools have a "S" appended to the tool #; it never meant "Sheridan" like one tool seller tried to tell me. I would like to make one suggestion to anyone who does desire to obtain bargrounders for Sheridan work. Try to obtain all that you can afford of a particular size at the same time so the maker can make sure they match as well as possible. The fact is that the machining tools used to make the stamps do wear, and tools from differant batches may not match as well as one might want them to.

I made my index up from Craftool catalog pages from as back as the 1950s. It includes every Craftool regular stamp ever sold to the general public. It does not have the specials that were only offered to the Craftool Club members. If you will compare them, you will see that my index shows many stamps that are not on the conversion chart because there is no current compatabile tool made for some stamps. And yes, I beat them to the punch by at least five years, or more.

Go to my blog and look at the craftool index; http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=blog&module=display&section=blog&blogid=31&showentry=68 The index shows most of the vintage craftools

OOPS Forgot to mention that if you are cutting holes for buckles, you should use oval punches in the approprite sizes for a more professional product . These are usually only availible in the hammer/mallet driven punches. Hate to say it: but avoid the Tandy ones, and try to get Osbourne or some other quality punch. I bought a Tandy one and the cutting edge "curled up" on me.

Sounds new and interesting. Please sign me up.

OK I'm picky! But I would have made cases much like your ignition wrench case for the allen wrenches also. A case where they would be enclosed and more protected from the elements.

The plain simple fact is that the sharper your punch is; the easier it is to punch with. Like any tool you buy - you should not assume it came from the factory as sharp as it could be. It also helps to periodically punch into some beeswax which not only eases the punching, but makes it easier for the plugs left in your punch to come out. In Al Stohlman's book of leather tools, he suggests resting the revolving punch on the work bench, and just pressing down on the top handle so you can apply more downward force.

So, are you happy with the way the antique looks on top of the color dyes. I, myself, would suggest you use resist so that you dont have those dark shadows in your petels.

I reccomend getting the "Lucky 7" book from tandy. The first part of the book has a basic pattern that they show how to do step by step. I would suggest you get several wallet backs with it. After you do the first one, do it again, seeking to improve whereever you went wrong on the first one. You may want someone else to look at it and make suggestions if possible. By the time you do the third one, you should have a pretty good idea of the process. Along the way, it helpful for beginners to have some scrap pieces to try differant techniques on before moving to the work in progress. You also may want to post your work in progress on here: I am sure the members here will give you constructive criticism to help you along.

Why do you want them? Are you a teacher of leathercraft?

Your calling them "crystal blades" piqued my interest. Any chance that they are blue saphire blades? In the very old leather magazines there are advertisements for such blades, and yet I have never seen one for sale on eBay or anywhere else. If yours are such, I would love to see a pic or two??

They stopped making them when they came out with the ceramic blades. They are not terribly rare, but if you have one in fine condition; it is definately worth keeping that way.

OK, I looked it up in the 1964 Tandy catalog. Yours is missing the original handle which looks to be much like the handles on Tandy's regular hand tools. The "Lever Punch" (cat#1759) sold for $12.00. It came with punching needles for making 1/8" and 3/32" lacing holes. Extra needles, as well as an optional diamond saddle stitch needle cost 75 cents.

It's a lever stamp machine that was sold by Tandy for years, some fifty-sixty years ago. There were various punch attachments availible for it. They come up on ebay once in a while.

Hi, Glue a thick piece of styrofoam to the inside of a lid to a small jar or prescription bottle (suggest plastic). Stick your needles in that. That way when you need to select one, you can take the lid off, set it on the table and easily pick the one(s) you want.