WyomingSlick

Sewing is stitching.......stitching is sewing.....both words mean the same thing. So you have machine sewing/stiching and you have hand sewing/stitching. Machines can not do what is commonly referred to as saddle stiching. At least not at our present level of technology..... Most leather sewing machines perform the lock stitch which is the same basic stitch your mother's sewing machine for cloth makes. It may be produced by hand using a Speedy Sticher, or Awl for All.

LOL As I was saying before the site went screwy and uploadd before I was ready........ Here is another auction I picked up recently, What do you all think about it?

My thanks to those of you who replied, and also to those of you who just looked. When I first saw this auction, I too, nearly passed it over. But, the distinctive yoke on the swivel knife and the number of crowners stopped me. Looking closer at the pictures, I soon had no doubt that the swivel knife was definately a Ray Hackbarth one, complete with the original hollow ground blade which could be seen clealy in the last picture. Then, there was the fact that the seller was in Tucson, AZ which of course is not far from Phoenix, where Ray Hackbarth made tools. From her description, the tools had to predate the Hackbarths made later by Ellis Barnes and Lonnie Height. So it was almost a dead certainty that some of the tools were original Ray Hackbarths. Sometimes it is a tricky business counting tools on ebay auctions because sellers will post numerous pics of the same tool, but I finally decided there were at least eight Hackbarths plus the swivel knife. Of course some of the other tools were Craftools, and the rest were a collection of early unplated tools. That is where the rust came from. I was not too concerned about the rust because of course, the Hackbarths wouldn't rust, and most of the rust was very light rust as evidenced by its yellow color. I only saw a few spots where the rust was reddish which usually indicates deeper oxidation with possible pitting. That is one of the things I have learned over the years.......tools from dry areas like Arizona are usually more rust free than tools from more humid areas like the Gulf states or the Northwest. With all that in mind, I posted my bid, and won the auction. Thank goodness it was plenty high enough. I am not going to specify what I bid , but it was way above the price I won the auction for. If I had known exactly what was in the auction, I would have bid even higher than I did. So the tools came, and I was tickled to find that there were actually eleven original Ray Hackbarths in addition to the swivel knife. All of them were the original "long" Ray Hackbarths that vary in length from 4 3/8" to 4 9/16", and all were stamped with the complete "R. Hackbarth", "Phoenix, Az.", and "Stainless" markings, including the swivel knife. All were early Hackbarths that do not have a tool number as found on his later stamps. Most of the Craftools cleaned up well......only a couple of "junkers" there. In fact there were several very collectible early Craftools that went into my personal collection. The unplated tools also cleaned up even better than I expected and there were several very nice examples of the early toolmakers there. You may notice that in the last picture, some of the stamp shafts to the left look crooked. Well....lol....that is because they are crooked. No big surprise there because more than one of the oldtime tool makers used old bolts and nails/spikes to make tools with. The little plated shader on the far right is an interesting stamp. The knurling and the finish suggest it is a Craftool......however, the super slim fore shaft is reminiscent of the streamlined artisan look seen on many of Ray Hackbarth's stamps. Perhaps it is one of Dick McGahen's early efforts Here is another auction that I picked up recently. What do you think of this one?

I don't know where you got the notion that Al Stohlman was resposnsible for people using stitching groovers. Saddler compasses and racers have been around since way before Al was even born. At one time, much of the world moved, and traveled by horsepower, and harness and saddle making was a very important part of what made the world run. And yes, early on, it was figured out that stitching that was recessed into a groove lasted a lot longer than stitching that lay on the surface. This was especially true on "working" leather items. This would not only include harness and saddlery items but also such things as luggage, traveling salesman cases, work belts, etc. It is just that simple......recessed stitching lasts longer than stitching that isn't ! And what is so wonderful about that ......"beautiful zig-zag appearance" anyway? I notice that often such ziggy zags are produced by people who are using too big of an awl for their thread to start with. I myself stitch so as to put the zigzag on the inside to hide it, while the outsid is set into a groove for longevity and performance. Here is my wallet which has been down a rough road or two ! Even with all the abuse it has suffered, it is still being held together by the stitching even though the leather is completely worn away at the fold. That is what I am talking about !

When you are cutting a stitching groove in thin leather, it is usually helpful to use a firm straightedge to run the groover along instead of using the edge of the flimsy leather. The straightedge will also hold the leather in place to prevent it from wanting to bunch up in front of the cutter. As far are your chisels go, there are these tools called files that you can use to reshape your chisels to match exactly

I am totally at a loss as to why you would wish to reproduce this typical Mexican commercial speed pattern. As for the shading, it is done by using two tools from the look of it. First, it was shaded using a pretty much convential thumbprint shader (probably homemade), and then a bar stamp (also home-made) was used over that. That is kind of an interesting effect that the tooler produced by deliberately chopping his beveling. I can see where doing that would add a lot to reducing tooling time.

Sewing needles have been around for tens of thousands of years.......Comercially produced steel needles for many centuries and iron, bronze, and copper needles for milennia. And before that they used bone needles and naturally occuring thorns and such from plants. Likewise, many types of thread such as cotton, silk, linen, wool, etc, have been available for thousands of years. And before that, people used sinew and leather strings from animals as well as long fibers from various plants.

Is it a low angle plane or a regular one? Did you change the angle on the blade's cutting edge?

Recently, one of the members here made a comment to the effect that you should not buy tools on eBay. I would surmise from his comment that he did not have a good experiance from doing so. "Caveat Emptor" Latin for "Let the Buyer Beware" is the guiding principle for all eBay buying. It is not so much that sellers are trying to deceive you, but rather that many are ignorant about what they are selling. That is why good pictures are so important! Early in my eBay experiance, more than 10 years ago, I made the mistake of buying a lot of tools based on rather fuzzy pictures. They turned out to be much more oxidized (rusty) than they seemed in the pictures. I learned from that, and have since had many great buys on eBay. I learned to arm myself with knowledge about leather tools and have seldom been disappointed since. Here are pictures from a buy I made recently - these are the actual pictures that the seller posted. The seller was a lady from Tucson, AZ, and the description read as follows: "Lot of 46 Leather tools. "As is" Wooden box not included. I believe they are all from Craft Tool Co. I know they are vintage, because of how old I am, and I'm pretty vintage myself. I used them in the early 70's with my mom to make bracelets and wallets. She might have gotten them in the 60's, but I do not know. As you can see, there is rust, but I'm sure that if you know how to clean them, they would look very pretty again. There are some repeat tools, so look them over. When purchased, I will wrap them in bubble wrap and put them in a small priority mail box. (($5.25)) If purchased on the weekend, then I will mail on Monday as we have limited Postal service here. No returns,so be sure before bidding ! Thank you for your time and for bidding, if you do !! If you have questions, I'll do my best to answer. If you need more pics, please ask. " So here's the situation....less than 10 minutes remaining in the auction......the bid is at $49.00 and so far there are 3 active bidders. So how much should I bid before the auction ends? And why? I would like to hear your thoughts about this, and buying on eBay in general.

Next purse? Birchbark? Seriously, wouldn't that be neat looking?

Probably because they come up for sale on eBay fairly regular and usualy only bring around a $100,00 for a used one. Your brass/gold finish is simply a cheap zinc finish. I had one for a while as it came in a lot I bought. I messed around with it for a while and finally got rid of it for 65 bucks since I already had a good old osborne splitter. Perhaps if you posted some pics of leather you have split with it and show what it can do, you will get some responses

Mostly, the old time hand shears like these are used by people who are fitting sheep for showing (competing) at livestock fairs. Although a few people may use them to shear a small farm flock, most sheep are shorn by electrically powered shears, primarily shaft driven ones. I grew up competing with my sheep in 4-H and FFA fairs, and spent many hours using shears just like these. They are just like leather knives.......the sharper they are.....the easier they are to use. You can adjust the spring action simply by bending the handle, and by using them, you develop your hand strength. While I never built a belt worn sheath since I never had any need to carry a set of sheap shears around, we did build sheaths that did contain the blades because like I said, the blades were scary sharp.

It is better to never find out if good safety habits pay off in the long run.........and much better than finding out how no, or bad safety habits may reward you. A local contractor I know, ran his chain saw into the top of his leather booted foot last month, severing three tendons, and cutting about 1 1/2 chunk out of the bone. And he has a set of leg guards that he wasnt wearing!

Post some pictures of them with their impressions and I will identify them for you. It would be helpful if you can do the pics with a penny for size comparson. Also a side profile of the tool head and the shaft are helpful in determining the time period in which they were made.

Say Bill, How about a little experimenting to see if it will remove dye mistakes from leather? Now, that would really be something useful !

If the lace breaks inside of a screw in type needle and there is not enough left to allow you to get it out.......heat the end of the needle so as to "cook" the leather left inside and then you can use a needle and some tapping....... to break up the dust/ash left and get it out

If they have a prefix letter before the number, they were definately made after Tandy moved from LA to Ft. Worth. The only exceptions to this are the "Indian tools" which had a " S- " before the numbers: 1 - 15 Unplated? Keep in mind that every Craftool was unplated initially, after machining and grinding is done, the lettering stamped in, and before it goes to the plating tanks. Perhaps you've heard the song Johnny Cash did called "One Piece at a Time" where he sings of working in an automobile factory and stealing all the parts to build his own car at home. I would suspect such things went on at the Craftool factory in Texas also. Do the tools feel "hot" to you? LOL As to the contention that Craftools were not plated during the Korean War due to chromium being a restricted "war material"......yes, I heard that originally from Ron Ross, and passed it on as fact......but I am not so sure about that anymore. If that were the case, I think I would have encountered quite a few, out of the many thousands of Craftools I have seen, by now. Ouside of a complete set of the "Indian" stamps in their original tool case, which is not plated, I can count on my fingers, the number of unplated Craftools I have come across. Perhaps that is because it was just as easy to steal a plated Craftool in the early years....... as an unplated one. They wouldn't have been believers in that BS about plating dulling the tool impression that too many ignorant folks subscribe to nowdays. I do have some very early Craftools, probably dating to the late 40's that would seem to be more of a chromium-nickel plating as they have that yellowish tinge common to old nickel plated stuff. As you can see in the pictures, I show three old veiners......all of them very early ones with the coarse knurling and no number The two outside ones are what I believe to be nickel plated only as shown by their yellowish color. These may posssibly be Craftools that were plated in a multi-step process where a flash straight chromium bath would have been the last step resulting in the common chrome look normal to Craftools. Only these two didn't make it into the finishing bath and so they show the usualy hidden underlying chromium-nickel coat only. The second pic shows the yellowish tinge better,

1 Go to your profile page 2 Click on box at upper right that says "EDIT MY PROFILE" 3 On the left side see Profile Settings. Click on manage attachments. 4 Your gallery pics should be listed there under the topic of your user name 5 Select pics using the little boxes and hit delete button at bottom right to send them to oblivion

No, it is not a bad idea. There is no need to get it that hot. Yes, galvanized metal will give off fumes if you get it hot enough to weld or braze it. That is a temperature over 750 degrees Farenheit. But just as you can solder it at a temperature of about half of that, you can also heat conduit to a range lower than the 750 degrees which will make it easier to form and shape. I have done it plenty of times to swage or bell the end of a piece of conduit with no problem.

Bob, Just use a piece of metal bar stock that is the width that you want your punch slot to be.....and use it to shape the punch on. You only need to use it when you are getting close to the final oblong shape. If you have a stout metal vise and a torch, it is even easier than hammering.....to use them. A few further suggestions: 1 The slugs need to be cleared from the tube afer every few holes, or at least poked on one end so they go into the round tube and do not jam up the tool. 2. It is difficult to find conduit, that, when reformed to an oblong shape, will produce the exact length of slot you want, so it is advisable to make several in each width size that are just U-shaped...then you can punch 3/4, or so, of the slot.....turn your punch around......lay it in the lines already cut, and finish the slot to length. 3. You need to have a cap/plug to fit the other end of the punch to protect your mallet, maul, or whatever kind of rock you use.

Now that is what I like to see ! ...... a craftsman who is using scrap leather to get his techniques down right....... before he actually uses them on a project. Time after time we see it is obvious that the maker (newbie) just "winged it" and had little or no experiance using a tool before they put it to their project. And it definately shows !

You just keep moving the bar higher and higher Very impressive !! ! !

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LEGO blocks work well also