simontuntelder

Many of you are so fantastic at restoring your tools. It's incredible. I have some old knives that I'll be working in, once I get the proper equipment for it. But I was wondering if there's any reason for doing it. I mean, can't you put a nice polished edge on your knife without cleaning up and polishing the entire knife? I'm just thinking out loud. I intend to give all of my tools a brush up when I find the time.

I keep hearing about the quality of these American edgers. I guess I'll have to try some of Ron's out, once I have some investing money again.

First of all don't be worried. What you're experiencing is known as bloom. To me it's a sign of quality. It's basically the wax, tallow, grease and fat surfacing. You should be able to brush it off using a horsehair brush or a soft cotton cloth. Some customers will appreciate it, if they know about bloom.

A one stop shop with quality goods would definitely be a good thing. I just don't see why you want to do it through Amazon. Make your own store, meet with the suppliers (I'm sure many of them would be interested in working with you), find the gaps (what's missing on the market and a low-budget version isn't what's needed) and spread the word.

Look on eBay. They come up ever so often and rarely fetch a good price. I found mine on a flea market and I paid $50

Nice work, Walter. I know nothing about it, so I can't critique it, but you're obviously very talented. So have any of you bought some nice tools or machinery? :-)

To me the best book is definitely Valerie Michael's book on leatherworking. I wish it was the first book that I read about working with leather - and not one of the last I've read. It's just so good - and cheap too http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1844034747

Hi Macca, I can't share a link sorry. It's not that I don't want to, but because I simply haven't got one. I bought them directly through the seller, but I can let him know that there's more interest in them, and if they become widely available I'll forward a link to you straight away.

I've tried both. Blanchard may be slightly better, but I would definitely go with Dixon because of the price. However I haven't heard about a decline in Dixon's quality... There are some Japanese makers of pricking irons (ie with the angle and NOT the diamond shaped) and I recently purchased a full set. They were a whole lot cheaper than Dixon - I think I paid in the region of $175 for 6 irons. But I haven't received them yet, so I don't know about the quality. But Japanese made tools are often rather good, but not quite as good as European/British tools.

Lousy picture, so it's hard to tell, but I would say that it's a combination tanned leather like Chromexcel from Horween.

You should perhaps look into currying if you don't like natural imperfections like growth marks and such, which to me is often the most beautiful part of a hide. Currying is the process of treating vegetable tanned leather in a certain way - like with the British bridle leather, which is a little different from the American bridle or what the Americans call English bridle. Anyway, you can experiment with a slicker made of glass, steel or wood, which has been shaped/rounded, so it doesn't mark the leather. Then you make your own mix of oils and waxes (from the tanneries I've visited, I can recommend tallow, cod oil, neatsfoot oil and some other), then you saturate the leather and start moving the slicker across the grain, and thereby removing any marks (except for holes or scratches that penetrates the grain). Or you could just order you English bridle from some of the English makers like Sedgewicks (which Dunhill probably buys from), Clayton or Barker. Or actually not Barker, as their leathers are quite natural still.

Somehow I never get tired of looking at old sewing machines and these ones are very special

At Tor: I just got back from Laederiet, and they have some new edge dyes from Italy. They're supposedly what a lot of industry companies use. If that's a good thing, I don't know. But I'll let you know, if they're any good once I get the chance to try them out. At Walter: You're probably the second guy ever to recommend using hide/pearl/animal glue to finish edges. The first one was an old saddler that I bought some tools off. However he didn't seem like a very good craftsman, so I didn't take his word for much. But I have some glue lying around, but how do you apply it and how do you rub it in?

Did you receive the samples? What were your take on them? I think Prym/Ykk can make them for you and so can Dot/Scovill, but they might be a bit expensive.

4 years later and it's still hilarious! Thanks for a good laugh

You can get a very similar surfaced, if the surface of a piece of natural veg tan leather is pressed. I buy direct from a few tanneries and at one of them, I always request, that they press the surface, which gives a shiny surface with an almost glazed finish, however it still retains it's natural feel.

I hope it's OK, that I ask questions like these here. I have a feeling some of the best people on the forum are watching this thread and it's mostly people that have a bigger passion for quality than I have.

I was just wondering, which maker/shop/company should I be buying awls from (preferably in the EU/UK)? I need one suitable for 5-6 spi and one for 7-9 spi.

Great to see who you're bidding against on eBay from time to time. Fantastic tools, Macca

Very nice tools. I only know Thomas, but I've only seen it mentioned in a book (RA Salaman's tool bible), but please remember that both England, France and Germany had a lot of tool makers that went bankrupt, closed down or was bought by another company. So basically many of them made really good tools, but we don't know much about them. You also bought some pinking irons - the oval ones. They're not made for marking stitches.

I would buy vintage tools trough eBay or since you're based in the US, I would buy tools from Bruce Johnson. His tools are refurbished and from reputable makers.

Looks beautiful. Compact and solidly built the way all machines in the workshop should be. //Simon

Where are you located, Macca? I sometimes come across the German tools, but I was under the impression that the English and French tools were the best, so I haven't been buying many German tools - besides some wad punches and such. But reading this thread has made me change my perception af big. I recently bought the estate of an old shoemaker, and he had some tools from the Swedish maker E A Berg from Eskilstuna, who is mostly famous for woodworking and woodcarving tools, and those tools - especially the knives are also looking very, very good. But I suspect that they're mostly for the shoemaking trade.

I feel a bit embarrassed posting in this thread because you guys have the most amazing tool collections, but I've almost only started my crafting, so my tool collection is less impressive, but I'm continuously upgrading, so at some point I'll hopefully have a tool collection that can somewhat match the ones you have. At least I hope so. But Walter, I purchased this German plough gauge quite cheaply from an old gentleman who bought it some years ago on a flea market from the remaining family members of a deceased saddler. Now I'm fairly certain that I saw the name of the maker somewhere else in this thread (Mezler & Feller?), but what I would really like to know is what the "Import" and "Import 14" means? Here are some pictures and please know, that I took the pictures after opening the parcel, so I haven't had the chance to clean it and restore it.

Out of curiosity, what knife are we talking about here? :-)