Art

Some of the old Landis line finishers can be had for hauling away, and if you are a shoemaker, this is a great deal. These can be about 13 feet long, but if you have the room, they have grinders, cutters, burnishers, heated iron stations, and buffers. That is about everything you need, and the price (if you have to pay) is usually pretty reasonable. An old Sutton 250 or the like will be considerably more expensive ($2500 or MORE) but will have everything you need AND belts. All of these great machines were made for the repair trade, but will do it for a shoemaker just fine. They all have some form of dust collection on-board which is great especially if you have to do artificial materials. IF you do get a real shoe machine, make sure cutters and irons come with it, they're hard to find when you want or need them. For knives and sharpening, the Burr-King, Bader in 2x72, and the old Craftsman 6x48 (there are better ones, but mine is still cranking after 30+ years). The cast iron work rest on the Craftsman broke off after about 20 minutes, but I laid the belt down flat and have used it that way ever since. If you are going to sharpen knives, you may be able to get by with a cheap 1x30, but shaping oak tanned shoe leather needs a pretty robust machine. Art

With this kind of construction, you need to make patterns and on the contour you need. I know it can waste material, and sometimes you see the outer piece in two and stitched. Once you have the pattern pieces, and make sure you have a sewing selvage, put V notches in the selvage (and even on the welt). These notches will give and take a bit and help avoid the wrinkles. If using a cording/welting foot (you should be), make sure to have one with left back cut out feet, inexpensive for most machines from Cutex. These feet allow you to turn the corner when exiting the needle. Art

I got the addr from a prior transaction, money sent, check PayPal. Art

Ok Ray, give me an email addr to Paypal you. Art

Call Gregg at Keystone, they sell the consew and can give you all the info in the different models. Art

Simple, skive it off. Take your leather, the stuff you use and want to skive, and run the machine off. If everything works, $1000 is $1000 so take the Consew. Actually, test either machine with your leather. The Consew is easy to get parts for, so why not? Art

I have found Aberlour A'Bundah or Wild Turkey Rare Breed will make the pain recede, or if necessary, you can get the point that you just don't care. I recommend this treatment AFTER tooling, as production speeds can stretch tremdously. I wouldn't try to run many basket weaves either. Lesser labels of the same brands work acceptably, but don't produce quite the same je ne sais quoi. If there is a chair or work surface to ameliorate this problem, you just have to try different ones 'till you find the magic combination. If I had to tool 8 hours a day, I would come to work loaded, which would practically insure that I wouldn't have to tool 8 hours a day. Art

Scissors can go from simple to complex to just crazy. Simple blades are the typical disposable ones and usually anything under $15. It varies, but we get on average $7 to sharpen the average "dressmakers" shears. Since we "service" technical shears (read that as high dollar beautician/stylist/barber shears/thinners etc), we charge as high as $20 on a 3 to 4 month basis. That 3 or 4 months of cutting is approximately equivalent to a lifetime for household instruments. So how long does a sharpening last. It depends on what you are cutting, and the quality of the manufacture of both the shear AND the material the shear is made of. Some shears are so technical, they vary the angle of the edge from the tip to the throat about 10 or more degrees. But even dressmaker shears can be "technical". Some makers will use a different angle on each of the blades. Some "technical" brands and models will succumb to the yo ho who sets his TAS (Twice as Sharp) to 45 degrees for EVERYTHING. Most shears will cut that way, well maybe not as designed, but they will cut, kinda, maybe. So, firstly, do not use a bench grinder running at 3450 rpm to ruin a good pair of shears. I try never to use any vertical wheel grinder for shears, not even the Tormek, because even with the best sharpening job, they put a hollow grind on the blade. The hollow grind doesn't last as long, but then again if you have a Tormek and the jig, you can always sharpen when needed. Secondly, you need a jig system to do a good job, there just isn't any way way to hold the exact angle necessary without years, maybe decades of experience (I've seen Japanese team members at the factory do it, I drink too much coffee for that routine). On quality shears, the relationship of the ride and the line (or the whole blade if not inside hollow ground) must be established or often re-established. It is not that this area is unimportant on inexpensive shears, its just that nobody seems to care except good sharpeners who are going to charge more than the shears cost to "service" them. Also, you can't service them if you can't take them apart completely and subsequently put them back together again (not a reflection on someone trying to sharpen them, more a denigration of the company that is too cheap to use screws). Of course the final element is testing. First on rabbit fur (no, we're not having poor helpless bunnies skinned just to test scissors and clippers, they are a by-product of the rabbit meat market, that we get from France), next we cut a double of Viva paper towels, in all cases they must cut all the way to the tip cleanly and not grab, especially at the tips. Next comes the Kleenex, then a single ply of kleenex, then we wet a single ply and all of these must pass. Then we try human hair extensions which must cut without pushing. Kind of the final failure point. A TAS or a Tormek will do the job, you just might have to sharpen more. Good steel and good manufacture will go a long way to making a fairly long lasting shear for home use. However, for something a seamstress or seamster or tailor will use every day repeatedly, 6 months to a year is more the norm. For a cutter (I don't know if those folks still use hand shears anymore), I would imagine that 3 to 4 months would be about normal, maybe less. I love those big shears the cutters use, don't see much of them anymore. I spent 10 years sharpening and knifemaking, and just do it now to keep busy (retired). Ask any questions about the business, I like the technical side. Art

First left handed skiver I have seen. Flip the picture maybe? Art

If your going to use power tools, and even some non-power tools, you are going have to get used to being around power cutting equipment, and grinding equipment, and stitching equipment, etc. Fore blade metallurgy, I would go with some bi-metal format. Soft stainless or carbon steel for the body and a hardenable long lasting stainless or high tech steel for the edge. But you can't make the blades too good or you won't sell that many of them. Art

Well, we cheat a little. We've made up several mandrels to hold the blade, quite similar to ones for small buffs. Blade in mandrel, mandrel in lathe (you could use a drill or a drill press) and apply the stones to the spinning blade. Careful, these blades are seldom balanced and if you spin them up too far and too fast, they will come apart. Can you say shrapnel? Again, a sharpie marked edge will indicate when you need to stop. Art

For those of us who have run a couple of miles of leather through one of these things, this is probably already the case, at least on the one presser foot we use all the time; does anyone use the other ones? We had/have (if you can find it you are a better, or more tenacious person than anyone here is) an old Consew that looked like it had a chrome plated foot on the contact side. Judging by the way the bearings and clutch rattled, you could probably go coast to coast with the length of leather it had eaten. Of course, we bought it second hand and replaced only the worn down bell knife. It was quiet enough that it was always left running. It had ball or needle bearings, most of them (even the Chinese ones) do. Art

If it is a Neil Cooper G-1 from the '90s, it is made of goatskin, they pretty much use cow on all the contracts after that. I would call the company and see if they can give you a patch piece that matches your jacket. They still make this Jacket for the fashion industry, cost is about $300. Take the jacket down to safety equipment and see if they will sew it on for you, and your wings while they are at it. A case of beer wouldn't hurt. It is then a regulation repair. Art

Hotter than the hinges on the door to hell here, but finally some rain to cool it off a bit. Isn't it supposed to be winter down your way, it should be raining or snowing. Art

I'll stick with 1" for a clutch motor, and some of my servos are set-up that way too. Never a problem, 1" isn't much given the length of belt. Art

A letter and drawings etcetera, time and date stamped in your lawyers files might be a little better, but if someone applies for a patent for the same thing, the patent will win. There are many stories of he who got to the patent office first, e.g. Elisha Gray vs. Alexander Bell. Art

Hi Ray, You gotta put a picture up. Or many pictures. And a price. Art

The Chinese skivers are not too bad. The German ones are a little better put together, and if I was running one all day every day, it would be German. I have a Chinese top and bottom feed skiver. This machine is really great on veg tan. The bottom feed models are great on chrome tan and soft veg. The bottom feeds have presser feet and three are supplied, and it isn't terribly hard to make special ones. The top and bottom feed models use a roller presser foot and custom ones are rather technical (hence pricey), but with the skiving we do the one provided works great. Son does garment and cosPlay work on it and he has no trouble doing chrome tan. If I were to modify the one I have, I would put a second motor on, or a clutch setup to continuously run the bell knife and intermittently run the feed. The two motor system would allow for variable speed on the feed although, we run the feed full bore all the time. It is necessary to have a sharp and well adjusted blade for optimal operation. It takes a good long time to grind the knife. It can take 5 minutes to sharpen a dull knife; I use the sharpie method, take a good bite with the wheel and just let it run until it stops making any grinding noise, then shut it off and see that all the sharpie mark is gone. Put the sharpie around the whole knife edge and remove all of it. Don't get sloppy and put sharpie in a huge wide strip, just the edge. If your first sharpening doesn't remove all of the sharpie, repeat until it does. After the sharpening, use a hone you can get from Osborne or Wolff Industries, red is fine, white is extra fine. You could sharpen a 1953 Packard bumper with the stick they provide with the machine. All you want to do to the back of the edge is to remove any burr, you are not sharpening anything. If you can't get the hone into the knife or it causes some trepidation, tie the hone to a stick (the hone I referenced is 4 inches long). The hones are inexpensive, around $6 or so. Lastly, move the bell knife in so the edge is right next to the feed wheel. The front portion of the feed wheel will be under the edge of the bell knife, but not touching. Adjust the feed wheel until it skives the way you want. I think there is a setup video by Campbell-Randall or Shoe School on youtube. After it skives the way you want, leave it alone, or make minute adjustments as required. Art

Gregg is correct about the belt situation. About an inch of deflection with a moderate push sets things up just right. Now with today's servo motors, a 1/2 inch is ok too. In the days of the clutch motor (probably still that way in factories) you would back off the brake and set the belt loose. A lot of folks used the balance wheel and their hand as a kind of brake so they liked the belt tension sometimes a little looser than nominal. You're not going to hurt much setting the machine up a little loose, but setting tight enough to load the bearings other than the bare minimum is not going to be great. After a while working with machines, they have a particular sound when the belts are too tight. Art

When I spray, I go 50/50 or more (more DEA). You can build up a weak dye by spraying again, you can't undo heavy dye concentrations very well. For stuff that gets heavily used, I use drum dyed and specify struck thru (which are 10 sides minimum). Spray dyed or airbrushed are not durable and scratch off easily. For DIY durable dyeing, go with dip, you can use weak solutions and leave it in longer to get it struck through. You can also do it as many times as needed to get the color you want. Art

Not always a years wait. Go to a show that Bob is attending or go to one of his classes, or if you know what you want, just phone him. At a show like Rocky Mountain Leather Trade Show in Sheridan Wyoming, IFoLG in Columbus Ohio 2016, Southwest Leather show in Prescott Arizona in 2017, The Boot and Saddlemakers Roundup in Wichita Falls Texas, The TCAA or The CSMA shows maybe, Again Maybe the Pendleton Leather Show. Bob makes other venues too, check with him. Bob usually has common product at the shows for sale, and any class he teaches he will have tools for sale necessary for the class. Bob is dynamite good people, and a better friend you couldn't want. Art

A 1000/6000 King water stone should do the trick, get it on Amazon. Art

It will come with time. Leatherworker.net helps a lot in the knowledge arena. Another test is to cut a strip and put a match to it. Veg tan doesn't burn all that well and will go out when the match is removed. Chrome tanned will smolder and ember burn a lot after the match is removed, After the fire, if you rub the burned end of the veg tan on a white piece of paper (copier scrap works fine) it will trace black, whereas chrome tan will trace a greenish color. Most of us can tell by feel what it is, and on some things, most of us can be fooled. Art

Take something along to sew it off. If it won't do the work, then you don't need it. If it won't even sew, you really don't need it. Art

The 51W51 was a fabric machine used for sewing in sleeves. The 51W53 was used for shoe leather. I don't think the W51 will do what you want, and the odds of finding a roller foot for it are slim to none. You can close shoes with a regular drop feed, but then again, those folks of old knew how to sew. If you can get the 51 for $100 or so, jump on it, if it doesn't work you can always hold something down with it. The 830 that Ron sells looks a lot like the Pfaff 491 which is really what you want. But if the price is very very right, get the 51W51 and don't worry about the foot. Art