bruce johnson

It is mostly called filigree work or filigree punching. Used to be pretty common in the 70's and some people referred to it as "hippie style bags and belts". Those shaped punches can be bought in sets and really quite inexpensive.

Tonight we have added another section of leather tools for sale on our website. At the leather shows my wife, Rundi, has a table she manages of lower priced leather tools. Stamps sorted into cups by type only, trays to contain hand tools, punches, hammers, etc. Set price and U-pick kind of a deal. These are the lower priced more common tools like Craftool, Rampart, Midas, and others. We don't actively seek these tools out but still accumulate them throughout the year from estate and retirement sets. A large share end up donated by us to veteran's and youth programs, and most kids at shows get a few free stamps. They get a free youth project pack from our friends at Makers Leather Supply and come over to us for stamps. At the shows these other tools have been sold in as-found condition in the past. We have decided to start offering them on the website along with our other leather tools now. Here on the website the tools are cleaned up and sharpened to be ready to use. Everything is functional and no junk. I have the initial tools up and going tonight with more additions to come. Please check them out at https://brucejohnsonleather.com/bargain-table Thank you! - Bruce and the ever gracious Ms Rundi

I know it is semantics but it makes them adjustable creasers. Creasers make parallel lines. Beaders are a fixed width tool that rounds up between the tracks to make a rounded bead line.

Got done early with some shop stuff tonight and pulled out some handy Danny Duncan stuff. Two of the "lever punch" machines, two svivel knife sharpening jigs, and one of the wooden handle lace punches. I'll probably just leave them out and put them in the Old Corner Museum of Cool S**t Leather Tools.

It isn't speed to start with but practice, muscle memory, and getting a rhythm. To avoid chatter marks I probably don't move more than 1/3 of the stamp width at any stroke. I am also not holding the maul like a hammer, I am rocking it like a see-saw and letting the weight do the work. I hold the stamp slightly above the leather and relax my last two fingers to allow the hit and rebound. I am holding my maul with the thumb and index finger/middle finger doing most of the gripping. The last two fingers are loose and that allows the rebound. I rotate my wrist and the maul dead falls in a rocking motion, the last fingers rock the heel of the handle and raises it up for the next stroke. Between the right and left hand being "loose" i am not striking, I am rocking the right and moving left. Speed comes with wider stamps for me.

Mark, I get them pretty often, and have new ones from Wayne Jueschke - https://brucejohnsonleather.com/products/stamping-and-carving-tools/border-stamps - Bruce

Yessir, I am in Oakdale

Decide what you are interested in first. People say “I don’t like basket stamping patterns” but you can learn a lot about casing and ideal moisture with a basket stamp and a border. Want to carve? Then get the basic stamp set and play with it, that will help you decide if you like it. It will also give you a basis for which stamps to upgrade and the sizes that fit your projects. As you go along you will find a whole range of stamp makers, some priced more than others. Barry King is still a pretty good bang for the buck. You may decide this is not for you or you got a stamp you just don’t use. The resale is generally good for Barry King and higher end stamps.

They could have came that way or sharpened that way. Some styles of edgers come sharp to the tips - CS Osborne fine edgers and Gomph common edgers were sharp at the tips and several old guys called them "finger stabbers". Pretty good edgers and great for trimming a binding near a stitch line. Yours are a pretty common style edger and it is no crime to round the tips. Sometimes those are purposely narrowed at the tips to allow them to get into the edge on thinner leather. Wider tips will hit the surface underneath unless the leather edge is raised up otherwise. If your tips are hitting inside curves and you like this style edger then grind the tips back closer to the edge. That will let you swing them in a narrower radius without the tips hitting as much. With sharpening edgers and French edgers as you wear and sharpen the edge back the tips get longer and working them from the bottom will make the tips more pointed. I round over a lot of tips when I am done squaring up a French edger and then sharpening French edgers and edgers. You want some tip to serve as a guide but you don't need a bunch in front usually. Another tip - Test on scrap first. Hold the sharpened edger at the lowest angle you can and try to "feel the cut"- keep raising it until it cuts smoothly and then don't go higher. Higher angle and it still may cut but longer tips may raise the edge up and the blade wont engage as much and cut full width. The other thing with shorter tips is the edge can dig in and chatter and bounce. That will dull an edge a lot faster. When I have people test edgers at shows, i commonly see them try to push the edger at way too much angle. It surprises them how that edger they tell everyone is dull at 45 cuts like butter when I show them the sweet spot is 15 or 20 degrees. Think of it as micro-skiving. Bob Douglas used to say "You have to make friends with your tools".

When you say the best that opens it up some. I don't really know of any braiders that would say "best". It comes down to what you get used to and comfortable with. There are probably at least 10 different makers of string cutters if I thought hard enough here right now. Most braiders trade around string cutters some until they settle on one. Some like one better for rawhide and another for kangaroo or latigo and have a couple. First off you mention splitter function. Some of the cutters with built in splitters work OK and some don't without tweaking. The angle that the blade meets the string can vary by depth and that can make a difference. I will just throw this out - I don't have numbers to back this up, but my guess from shop visits and talking is that over half of the braiders I deal with have a dedicated splitter. Usually it is either a Chase pattern splitter or more commonly the tried and true Osborne #86 splitter. A few folks like the little old Tandy splitter that sold for around $100 for rawhide. String cutters - There are several makers. I have new ones from Wayne Jueschke with two bars for $500. I also have new ones from Y-knot Lace. The three way Y-Knot cuts string and can bevel 30 and 45 degrees for $230. I have the handheld lace splitter from Y-Knot that runs $230. They work differently but the Y-Knot cutter behaves more like a Hansen, the Jueschke is like the LaceMaster. I get used ones through here too. Like I said - braiders tend to trade these around. Haughts, Hansens, Neuberts, LaceMasters, Vaqueros, Budds, Joe Benner, Tim George, JSE, home mades have all been through at times. They never sit long. Here is a link to what I've got now - https://brucejohnsonleather.com/products/braiding-and-lacing-tools/lace-cutters

Thank you! There is always a story behind something. One thing I found interesting was on the intake sheet he was listed as a 4th grade education. Life sentence originally too. He did well. A friend told us we needed to go the prison there in Deer Lodge and then the craft shop. At the prison craft shop the makers price and describe their items themselves. Especially with the hitched horsehair you can see quality and skill differences. One belt jumped out at me, really clean tight work, excellent color transitions, and priced about $200 more than most others. He described the size, colors used, and his comment section was "27 years experience hitching hair". He had been there a while. Hope he got some good commissary with his proceeds from me. I bought a bag with 5 hitched key fobs. One had a pink heart hitched into the pattern. Tag said "Give the heart to a sweetheart, mine left me - why I'm here". How can you not buy that? I am not sure how other prisons operate. I know at one time in Colorado the inmates working in the Canon City leather shop produced stuff that went into interstate commerce and by federal law were paid minimum wage. Huge money for a prison job. The guy that used to run that program said almost zero disciplinary issues because the guys did not want to lost those jobs. One guy got out and buys from me for his own shop.

If you rotate the barrel so the width of the blade contacts the media evenly then a straight or angled blade will sharpen. That is the problem with illustrations, they skew things. The angled blade drawing shows that angled blade sitting in there parallel to the stone. Lay it in so the blade edge contacts the stone evenly and the blade edge will sitting at a bit of an angle but sharpen evenly. The old timer trick for this particular resharpener Is to loosen the set screw in the swivel knife barrel and let the blade rotate freely. A light finger pressure on the blade ensures the blade stays flat on the media. Then you just rotate the blade to the other side and leave the barrel alone. The angle of the barrel hasn't changed = even angles on both sides. I have some other sharpening fixtures for swivel knives that operate on a similar principle and even though some have a set screw, I never tighten them either. Finger pressure and push strokes only. One exception is the flat shank blades like Gomph-Hackbarth, those I would tighten.

Danny Duncan was mentioned in another thread about a swivel knife sharpener he patented. He also came up with a handheld lace punch and a punch machine called the “Lever Punch”. I learned a bit about Mr Duncan when we toured the old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. I’m just going to say if you find yourself in that area - well worth the visit. The prison has a large craft program and across the street is the craft shop where these folks can sell what they make. Part goes to a victims fund, part to maintaining the store, and the remainder to the inmate. Leatherwork, horsehair hitching, and more. I came across a display case of leather tools and this history on Danny Duncan. They had a few versions of the Lever Punch on display. Chuck Smith knew Danny when he was in Southern California and we had a good talk about him. There are several good leather workers trained in prison. Some still there. Texas has a good program and so does Colorado. Sometimes these guys have to go through a lot of steps to get tools they need and some are provided in the prison shop. I’ve got a lot of respect for these guys and the officers who run the programs and teach these guys.

The patent link above is it. The picture below is from a 1959 Tandy catalog.

Danny Duncan was the one who came up with this swivel knife sharpener. He also made a wooden handle lace punch. He patented the lever handle punch machine that punched lace and stitch holes. Tandy bought the rights to that and sold them 40 or more years ago. Chuck Smith had a version of it a few years ago called the Punch O Matic or something like that. Chuck knew Danny in his later years.

You already figured out the trick for doing the round blade in place. The touch up will be easy now with an ultra fine stone or diamond stick as needed. Depending on the machine you can use a tapered diamond round file and not remove the feed wheel if there is enough space. Just have somebody crank while you hold and eyeball the file and edge. The skiver blades are way easier. Most have a double bevel although a very few are single bevel. Jigs or angle guides designed for wide chisels on stones, paper, or machines will work for them.

He may still have some himself. I saw him at Prescott but didn’t ask.

Looks great!

I had one of the original presses of that design - Lucris Mach III. It was pretty good. Height adjustment for different dies was pretty simple. Platen size was OK for smaller dies - i could do spur straps, rosettes, and coasters easily. For a bench top press - small footprint and worked OK. That price is pretty good.

Nice even work!

Paul, thank you for the compliment. It means a lot coming from you and I am humbled. Some people are quiet legends on this forum and you are definitely one. - Bruce

Good Info Ben thanks!

I was thinking a pig snouter (livestock tool) with the curved cut out for a blade but can’t find any pictures exactly like this one.

List as a manual leather clicker die cutting press. That should cover all the key search words. That is great there is a local market for that many dies. I'd bet if you have a local market for the dies, the presses should be an easy sale. That big press is a beast and works well. About one pull for a buyer to test it and it should sell itself.

Auctioneers are common. Auctioneers are few and far between that know leather tools or have a good second man who does, can promote that auction right and get the right buyers there. Maybe 5-10 in the US , not sure about Canada. As far as that press. Is the platen about 12 inches across? Seems like it weight around 150 pounds? Handle about 2-1/2 feet? If so - I used one for a while and really liked it. Other makers and designs have kind of taken over the market since that rolled out but that is still a good one. Biggest draw back is getting it shipped or moved. If I had it and a direct buyer with no shipping involved, I'd have $700 on it and no backing up. Where to sell the press? I would try to sell here, Facebook marketplace, some of the Facebook tools for sale groups, approach local saddle or leather shops. Unless you have access to palletizing capabilities and shipping at a reasonable cost, Pick up only. Selling dies is tough, especially thousands in one whack. Unless they are figure designs or project parts that are labeled and in complete sets (like all components for a wallet, spur straps, something like that) they are almost scrap at most local auctions. At a dedicated leather tool auction a little better but unless they are special - not big movers.