Mudruck

Thanks a ton Bruce. Just the input I was looking for from someone who has a lot of knowledge of these old tools. Luckly, the pitting looks to be very shallow. I'm figuring on soaking the blade in Evaporust to remove the rust and then hitting the pitting with evaporust and a stout toothbrush to get to the bottom of the pits.

Found an older Osborne, turn of the century time frame, head knife that needs a little cleaning up. Not really any flaky rust, but a little spotty rust here and there. Mostly it just looks like a thick patina of dark oxidation 'work' on the blade. Typical dark discoloration that you see on older tools. What do you guys recommend to clean it up a bit? Would Evapo-rust harm the old blade or would a quick soak be okay to remove the rusty spots? How about removing the handle to clean the metal under there? Is that something that is okay to do or would it just be taking a chance at dinkin' up something?

I have never had a problem with something that was vinegarooned having an issue with the color fading. Even exposure to the sun hasnt changed the color much, if any, at all. I think it is because it is more of a chamical process then an actual pigment dye.

I would go with vinegaroon. It changes the color of the leather through a chemical reaction and once it has been applied, allowed to react and then neutralized and oiled, I have never had issued with the color rubbing off. Another thing that is nice is that the penetration of th dye into the leather is great because as it soaks in, it dyes the leather inside as well. It may smell pretty git dang bad right out of the gate, but the smell goes away after a day or two. As for a sealant that isnt super shiny, go with the mop n glo. Dilute it down about 50/50 with water and it will give you a nice mellow finish.

Twisted, That is pretty much how I finish my bibs. Res to seal and then a few light coats of neutral shoe polish and give it a good buffing to shine it up, if that is the finish I am looking for. Some styles just seem to look better in the matte finish though. There are also finishes such as the super shine type finishes, but I have found that they don't stay all that shiny for more then a year or so on bibs exposed to the elements. With my bibs, I include instructions for the end user to hit it with the neutral shoe polish once in a while to help keep the shine up and protect it from the elements.

I will try to get some pics of the more interesting ones up in the next couple of days. Some of them are unlike anything I've seen before.

Just wanted to say thanks to Bruce for the tip on evaporust. I got a batch of antique stamps that had a some surface rust on the grip areas due to being used for the last 60+ years. A quick soak and they are all cleaned up and looking dang near new. Pretty amazing stuff and didn't harm the chrome plating on those that had it and cleaned up the straight steel tools without messing with any of the tooling surfaces. One happy lil camper here. Although I did debate leaving them all nasty and cruddy to keep them 'original'.

Came into a lot of mixed stamps. Some pre-letter craftool and a number of unmarked antique stamps. Looking at the old ones, they appear to be older than the craftool. The work taken on them is pretty amazing. A couple of them don't have knurled handles and instead have a gripping surface made by dozens of hand-placed dimples. There are a couple of the stamps I'm not quite sure of, they almost appear to be a punch, but the hole is only about 1/8th" deep with one stamp having a hole about 1/8" in diameter and a smaller stamp with a hole a bit smaller. The maul ends of a number of the stamps show considerable use. Makes one think of the numerous projects that the stamps must have been used on over the years. I cannot wait to continue to use them on more projects in the years to come.

I have a set of the dremel burnishers and one of his mauls. They work ab-so-lutely freakin' great. You will not be sorry. The maul is the best Ive ever used and I'm debating getting a lighter one for light tooling.

I've been using Bearmans burnishers for a number of years now and absolutely LOVE them. I would have to say the maul he made for me is my absolute favorite tool on the desk, followed closely by the burnishers.

By the USPS tracking, mine should be waiting for me in the mailbox when I get home.

Just placed an order for a 9/16ths sized knife, as I like the knife to be a bit larger in the fingers, with the thin 3/8" blade. Can't wait to get it and make some cuts!

Are BK knives adjustable?

I would agree with oltoot. Just like he says and figure that if you get more than a couple uses out of one of the needles, you are doing good.

Looking to pick up a BK swivel knife in the next little bit and wondering about the blades that he offers. Mainly looking at getting a 3/8" size blade in a knife in a 1/2" or 9/16" barrel. How do the thick and thin blades compare in size to the standard hollow ground tandy blades? I mostly do Sheridan and other carving such as letters and things. Not a whole lot of super fine detail work or anything like that at this point. What is your opinion on what blade may be the best for me?

A bible cover I finished this week. Comments welcome.

Just a few things that I have worked on lately. Have had a lot of time off after getting let go, figure it is a good time to put some full-bore time into the business now that I have time.

Latest one heading out the door tomorrow. Just a simple pocket/IWB holster for those popular J-Frames. Had to stitch it in three 'parts'. (across the top of the re-enforcing band, across the bottom of the band and then one continuous stitch down the side that holds the end of the band and then comes out from under it down the rest of the seam.) It was a little more work, but I thought that would look best to get the long seam to close all the way up and not be double stitched at the ends. Went pretty light on the boning and molding, it already has good retention and I wanted the pistol to come free of the holster when you draw it from your pocket. What do ya'll think?

Sylvia, That's a wonderful way to do it! It would kind of be like how having my own business has added to my resume with all of the things that I do for it! I never knew that I was in 'inventory management' or 'marketing and advertising' hehehe. I set him up an area in the 'shop' for him to package things and changed my shipping to three days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He was actually pretty excited to be able to take part in the process and the added bonus to his allowance for packaging properly and on time was just gravy to him.

Great ideas all! Yea, I have been doing the 'just one more' thing for a while now and while I thought that have a backlog was a good thing... (more business donchaknow!) I think I have to get out of the mindset that when I actually have free time, I should be working to finish orders that are waiting. Guess I was looking at it with a train of thought about how if I was the customer I would like my things a week or two faster then I had quoted. Although, if I burned out to the point that no work got done, then it wouldn't be good either. Sylvia, Im taking your advice to heart, from now on, the weekends are mine. As hard as it will be for a bit to stay away from the bench, no leather on the weekends. I think the advice on using, err EMPLOYING, my teen to take on the packaging and shipping is an absolutely killer idea! Ya know Ferg, that reminds me that it is damn near the middle of June and i haven't went on a single hike this year. Gonna change that real quick. My little one would absolutely love that. Heh northmount, how about a full time and a 'partial full time' Thanks again all, really helped me get a perspective on it so it doesn't do more damage to my love of leather!

Heh, yea, been there... doing a quote, taking the job and getting started to find out that you bit off way more then you thought it was going to be. TO me that is just part of the learning process. When I did up my first tank/fender bib set and found out that the tooling the customer wanted was going to take me about twice what I had thought it was going to from the start... ouch! Now I know that I should add in a little extra time and be much more careful about how I quote a job when detailed tooling is involved. Now as for technique... isnt that what the scrap bin is for? Almost every piece of 'scrap' that I have is covered in swivel knife cuts, test stamps and other stuff that I wanted to practice.

LOVE IT! That is going on the next stack of business cards..... Leather Artisan! When I was deciding on a business name, Leatherworks, "316 Custom Leatherworks", fit better for me instead of anything else.

So things have been going pretty well, business picking up and almost staying steady. Woot! With that though, Im starting to feel a little burn-out coming on though. Leatherwork is like my full time other job, after my day job, with the advertising, promoting, website, sales, production and all of the other little things that go along with it. Still love working with leather, but it almost seems overwhelming sometimes. So how do you all avoid the burn out?

That right there is pure gold. Never thought about using the big baby dropper.... Ive been using a little dropper and counting the dammed drops! Thanks again Katsass!!