catskin

Mr. Bearman, You clearly are the one who can make any tool so when are you going to strart making plough gauges? It seems there is only one person in North America who has any and a 1000 who need them.

Is this the leather I keep hearing about coming from India that is tanned in cow urine?

Kinda hard to do if they are WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Bruce. I was thinking that I should do some measureing of clearances to make sure they are even, and the roller centered under the blade.

You are right these splitters don't have a top roller. I am thinking of makeing a roller or springy piece of metal to hold the leather down so it feeds in level and mount it in front of the splitter.

Thanks guys, I think the roller adjustment was the culprit. I didn't have much time but made some adjustment and it helped. I still need to fine tune it. I will bring in my micrometer and check for wear on the roller to. I have a steel lathe so I could make a new one if I had to.

I have what I have been told from pictures is a Osbourne 86 splitter. When I pull the leather through it tends to move from right to left so that if I am splitting a long piece it will run over to the end of the knife before it is all the way through. The wider the piece the faster it goes sideways. What are the possible reasons for this? It also sometimes will cut off the leather for no obvious reason. Most of the work I do is strips cut the length of the hide so there is some variation as you go from hip to rib to shoulder , can this be the cause? Thanks in advance for any help.

Bob Kovar will likely be less than half the price of Leightons even with shipping. If you want to sew saddle bags that will carry something this machine is to small. You will soon find that any more than 3 ply of deer skin will be its limit. I have a 29K51 which looks the same and it only uses 138 or lighter thread which is not strong enough for saddle bags. Anything less then 277 is to light.

Is there any reason a suitable size leather point sewing machine needle fitted to a handle would not work? Or start with one and make it into an awl.

I can't help wondering with all the toolmakers on here why somebody doesn't start making a few? The design is not rocket science it would only need the more basic machineing tools. So how about it folks who's the next plough gauge maker?

I make horse bridles and own a CB 4500,in my opinion 4500 or equivalent is minimum.

To bad you are not closer so you could come see what I have. I have some latigo and some customed tanned leather that is latigo or very near. What color do you need? If you are interested I can measure what I have, it may not be shoulder but likely back . I am southeast of Regina. If you knew somebody in this area maybe we could arrange transport and save posage.

I am putting this here rather then Marketplace since some may not look there very often. I have some stamping tools, I believe they came from tandy a long time ago since they sat on my shelf for about 25 years. In that time they did one belt. I learned stamping is not my niche. They are stamped craft tool USA. So I think they may be some of the better tools tandy sold, since some on here have said the quality has gone down as the years have passed. Here is what I have. V407 P206 V417 A104 B200 S724 C431 And a swivel knife of the same origin, it likely needs touching up but looks not worn to me. I am open to offers, you can PM me if you are interested. Include $10.00 for postage. If it is less I will refund the difference, if it is more I will pay the rest. I would likely prefer to sell as a lot but will consider offers on single ones. ( in which case postage would be negotiable)

As to how many white parade saddles I've seen. LOTS, they are not rare by many means. At least in my limited experiance. (about 60 years ) The one you have looks very good by the way.

I had much the same problem with some $75.00 Tandy thread. Heres what I did, first I sprayed silicone on the spool and let dry, that helped until the part that got silicone was used up, so had to respray. Now the best solution is just run that thread on the bottom, mine never gives trouble on the bottom.

The sarcastic was, Get to town often. I have spent my life working cattle with horses so no I am not in town often. I am not a hoses trader!!! I have only bougt a few in my life maybe 5 I raised and trained many. Clearly your life and mine are and have been very different lets just leave it at that. My comment about the halter should have read that it would in my opinion be better refered to as a ornamental halter as compared to a using one.

I answer your sarcastic question with an honest one of my own. How many horses have you taken from never having been touched by a man and trained them to the point that almost every person that knows how to ride wanted to buy them? And how many days have you spent 14 hours in the saddle? . But then I am talking about WORKING ranch type horses not some walk down a trail for an hour type. As for your rope halter it might be fit for a pet horse that never pulls. But I have seen to many self declared know it alls do very serious harm to a green horse by tying them with these knoted ropes. Now I know why those are called BLOOD knots. You are right on one thing they do cut in deeply in very sensitive areas on the horse and do draw BLOOD.. But I am convinced you have never seen a real bronc halter. So how would you know the difference.

What on earth are rhythm beads? I've worked with horses for near 60 years and never heard of them. I think what you are calling a BRONCO halter is just a light knoted rope halter with some leather hung on the nose band it sure doesn't look like it would stand snubbing a bronco with.

OR, it could possibly be some cheap offshore import tanned with some unknown chemical. Also leather tanned with alum ( aluminum sulphate ) will be blue grey inside and stiff as well as resisting water. If it is alum tanned it will have very little stretrch and will be tough ( meaning will not wear out quickly ) Reading on here a person could easily get the idea that veg and chrome are the only ways leather is tanned , NOT SO there are a lot of different things used in tanning. That is why for example latigo from one tannery may differ from that from another tannery. While one may add some alum to the chrome process another might add some veg tan and both still be considered LATIGO. Leather from some countries is tanned using only URINE.

One option not yet mentioned is a used refurbished machine from one the these dealers. I do believe they all sell GOOD used machines. Maybe no more than a new mahine that is to light.

As for different tools most cutting tools for leather are not suited to Bio. Bio. is mostly cut with heat and also bonded (often refered to as welding ) with heat and special machines. If you were to check out Aaron Martin harness website you would get some idea of the machines used to work with Bio. Bio. can be sewn but in my opinion the stitches do not set well, it is hard and the stitches sit on top rather then pulling down flush with the surface like they do on leather or non coated nylon. I have 3 machines including a Cowboy sew 4500 , they will all sew Bio. but I don't lke the look of the job they do. This why I said you are either working with a plastic or a leather. Clearly Bio has it place it is a strong man made material. I am sure you know that you can not stamp, carve, split, skive or mold Bio. So from my limited experiance with Bio. your sewing machine might be near the only thing that works with both, even so you will likely have to make adjustments when changing from one to the other. These are just MY opinions others may differ.

My point being what works on one may not work on the other. Different tools and machines may be needed. The statement was getting into leather primarily BIOTHANE thus my point they ARE different.

Biothane is NOT leather. It is plastic coated nylon webbing, there is NO similaritys . I tried it and my experiance is hard to sew even on a new machine, the stitches sit on top of the material and will wear off easily. So either you are getting into plastics or leather they are NOT one and the same.

Try this put items in a large bag with some charcoal briquets like you would use to barbique. We had a musky smell in our basement after flooding and putting a open bag ( small bag ) down there in about 2 days NO smell. After all they use activated charcoal to get rid of oders even in drinking water at water treatment plants.

ATTN. Canadians If you haven't found buffing compounds yet check Princess Auto they have several grits listed in the catalog. I haven't been to the city since I found it in the catalog but will be buying some next time I get to Princess Auto.