BIGGUNDOCTOR

Agreed, make them adjustable.

How much weight are we talking about?

Thanks. I have no use for them , so I was going to post them up locally, but I was not sure what to call them.

A broaching arbor press has a taller opening in order to put the broaches in.

How are these used? I have one with three on it,

For rusted items electrolysis is an excellent way to go if done correctly. Anodes and cathodes have to be positioned properly, along with a good power supply. For a penetrating fluid if you cannot get Kroil, a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone works excellent. Given some time Kroil will creep into gaps as small as one millionth of an inch.

Divine Bovine! I just looked up my last visit and it was March 24, 2016, how time flies. a LOT has happened over the last 6 years, and much of it was not good, which explains my current state of mind. It has been a long time since I have done any of my creative interests, and I need to shed this funk that I am in. One huge change though is since my last visit I was laid off from my tool maker position during a financial crunch at the shop I was working in, worked at a bakery for three years before landing the most excellent job I have had working for someone else. I am now working for TH Foods as a night shift maintenance mechanic. We make the Blue Diamond snack crackers, as well as some Kroger and Mondoleze (KRAFT) crackers as well. Our house brand is Crunchmaster. We go through around 70,000# of rice a day at our plant. We have three locations in ILL that do the other products. Good benefits, and fantastic pay, yet I still yearn to start another business of some sort. Hopefully seeing all of your beautiful pieces will help get me off my ass and back creating, which hopefully will help to get my head straight. Now I need to start checking out some of what I missed.

Sorry for the delay in responding, had some technical issues logging on. Tempering can be done in a toaster oven, and makes it easy to hit the proper temp. A file is close to W-1 tool steel - info provided by Nicholson's material guy who has 47 years with them. Heat treating covers austenizing (hardening) , tempering (drawing back), and annealing (softening). Heating past critical temp then quenching will fully harden. Depending on the steel alloy quenching is done with one of the following; air,water,oil. heating to a set temp after hardening will temper it. Tempering helps to reduce brittleness, internal stresses, and creates desired attributes. 1095 steel can go from brittle hard to being a spring with proper tempering. Annealing requires the steel to be heated to a critical temp then cooled verrrrrry slowly, or in the case of some steels at a very controlled rate in a furnace. For leather stamps I wouldn't even bother heat treating since even in a soft state they will be harder than wet leather. Plastic , and even wood has been used for some stamps.

Check with IMA -International Military Antiques. The sell military surplus items, and also sell reproductions. They offer a lot of German items, and the Germans used that pebble grain leather on damned near everything. Black is WWII, brown was WWI.

It also helps if you post your location since someone who is interested may be just down the road.

An friend just made a stitching horse. Turned out pretty nice. It will depend on what items you will be stitching up IE; large, thick, long, small,round,thin, how often, etc.... There is no one perfect answer. For wallets, and purses you will probably have longer runs, so I would probably go with something that is the most comfortable for you to use. Do you have the room for a stand alone stitching horse?

I like the use of color.

I wonder if citric acid would work, that is also used for passivating stainless..

Divide and conquer! Right down the middle.....

This applies to anything. I have seen guys dump way more into restoring a car than it was worth, but to them it was a worthwhile project. It may be just to see if you can do something,an experiment, or you need something to whittle away the time on. There is no one answer to this query. Each person will have their own reasons to do something like this. Even for me, I have saved/rebuilt/made items that others wouldn't. For some it was just a case of not wanting to see it go to a landfill, others it was a let's see if I can do this project. I see a lot of old dried out saddles that I would consider decorations at best, and others that are so dried out, and warped that they are not even attractive as decorations. If it was just a run of the mill saddle I would probably look at it from a pure cost benefit analysis. Can you get one in better shape for less than the repairs? How much time vs. a little more in cost? Just because the price is right it doesn't make it a good project to sink time,or money into.