bruce johnson

Good advice so far, and I will throw out a little more. Some based on being a vender (leather shows) and some as a person who visits a lot of antique fairs, shops, and some farmer's market/craft fairs. You have three things going on in one booth - teas/botanicals, crystals, and your leather work. You need separate signage for each. That signage should be readable from at least a 10 foot distance from the front of the booth. You have about the 3 seconds it takes for them to walk by to grab their attention and for them to decide if there is something they are interested in. Sometimes I look at a booth and immediately think - too unrelated and stirred together, not serious. Other times I see a booth with signs for Tupperware and used motorcycle parts and I'm like "That's a hell of a mix! I need to talk to these people, they gotta be fun!" No reason to assume in either scenario but I guess I do. In the later case I am probably leaving with a food storage item, a greasy crescent wrench, and new contacts that I didn't have on my radar screen walking in. Candy dish - wrapped and all that. The 1 pound tub of Red Vines? - I ain't touching that when it's had 27 hands in it already. Mix of chocolate (fun size and not those minute mini's), some kind of soft mints, and something like individual wrapped licorice. The whole world loves Tootsie rolls and again - midgies and not the little rabbit turd size. MY wife has put the "no hard candy rule" in for us, choking risk for kids. Have a garbage can or basket with a little sign by it available for wrappers. That little bit of time when they are opening and tossing the wrapper is an engageable moment. Here is something that became HUGE for us. A separate bowl with signage for sugar-free candy. Several years ago one of our fellow venders asked if we had sugar free, she is diabetic. I told her for sure we would next time. I am still amazed at the response. First show with sugar free a lady with a diabetic kid was all over us thanking us. At the Prescott leather show one guy thanked us and said a lot of the people in Navajo Nation are diabetic. Our booth is now his first stop! At the last several shows now we have expanded to about half regular and half sugar free, and often run out of the sugar free first. Take home stuff - business cards at a minimum. Maybe brochures. Brochures can be printed on your computer probably with a software template you've got pre-installed. After our first show I was looking at giveaway promo stuff besides business cards - pens and stuff like that. My friend suggested 6 inch rulers with my info on them. handy size to go in your pocket, you always need to measure stuff, etc. OK, I'll try some. Let's just say that 13,000 rulers later - it has been a good suggestion. Ditto for stickers. You don't have to give away expensive stuff, but have something that helps to keep people remembering you. Start small and grow. Bags - definitely. You can buy paper bags and a rubber stamp and stamp your logo, apply stickers, something to get started. One I got rolling - my promotional products guy again. I can buy good sized reusable shopping bags with my logo cheaper than most paper bags. Talking to people - some of this is from a seminar I was at eons ago. First and foremost - engage people with what you have to sell. You are there to sell not chat it up like you are in the checkout line at the grocery store. Don't comment on the weather first - you are not a meteorologist and they know if it is hot/cold/humid/raining/nice weather same as you. Don't ask how they are doing if you don't know them personally. Most people are going to say fine or OK and go on. If they stop, you are screwed. You are going to hear about their dental or medical issues, ingrate kids, crummy neighbor, or latest car repair. Start with what you have - We are a little family business. My daughter has beautiful crystals, my wife has some really good teas and botanicals, and I do handmade leather goods and am also the chauffer that lugs the heavy stuff guy. You don't have to be a used-car salesman, but let them know YOU made it and you can do more items than what they see there. I can go to some 'handmade" craft shows and see the exact same items in three or four booths. Unfortunately, that can be the mentality of your buyers that handmade means some village or cottage industry in another country. Not many people wake up and think "I'll go to the craft show because I need a new handmade belt or wallet". Probably more like "Honey, I know I've played a lot of golf this week, how about we do something together - maybe go to the craft show tomorrow and we can get lunch after". It is his get-out-of-jail-free card. Sales on site are nearly all impulse buys - but they plant the seed for the good orders with the right people. Feedback at and after the show - Once you are set up ask someone in show management for suggestions on your booth space for next time. They see it all, and they really want to see you succeed and come back. Same for other venders - ask what they think. Ask customers during the show. You might get the chatty one that you can ask what they think about the layout. For items you have laid out you can ask them what else they might be interested in besides what you've got, either a custom order or suggestion for next time. As the show winds down talk to other venders - maybe everyone had a bad /good/average day. If you like the experience want to try it more, ask them about other shows that might be a fit for what you sell. Debrief with the family on the way home. what could we do different, what worked and didn't.

Don Voss - Cuba, NM Yes dlvtoys is his EBay name

And the problem is - you see more of it all the time!! I get the question at least once weekly at least - "Do you have any stitching punches?". Ummm not often but what I want to say is that I have sharp awl blades and hafts, stitch markers, and harness needles in all sizes available 24/7. Much like the saying that "PVC pipe makes anyone a plumber", stitching punches make anyone a hand stitcher. Large holes for easier passage of needles and perhaps the biblical camel, holes that don't close back up, mismatched needles and small thread sizes, and there is no leather to thread friction to hold stitches. Machine sewing beats that all day long. Good hand stitching with tight holes, even spacing front and back, and that is some kind of pretty! Hand stitching well is an acquired and practiced skill for sure, but once a person has it - you have that skill for life. In reality - there are places you can't machine sew and there are places that hand stitching makes no difference. The best is the person who can both hand stitch well with awl/needles and set up a machine to sew a nice tight stitch. Then decides which is more appropriate and gets it done.

Yes needle type makes a huge difference in the appearance and uniformity of stitches. The only times I used round needles was for nylon. I preferred LR needles for my leather, and then rolled the backside stitches with an appropriate sized overstitcher when appearance mattered like it does here. I have attached a picture of some backside stitching as it came out of the machine with one side left as-is and one side overstitched.

Looking at the picture there is a slit below each bullet loop/pocket. I am sure some bit of leather was removed at the bottom like a "dart" in patterning. The cut edges were then butted up and that allows some of the loop to form and still lay flat around the ends of the bullets. Cool design work and once you work out the patterning for the cuts, it probably falls together much easier than you think. There is going to be some wet forming to make a tight fit, but the design will make that a whole lot easier.

Less is more and reapply as needed. Think of leather like that dry stiff kitchen sponge. Like a sponge, there are little gaps between the fibers. A dry sponge is stiff. Add a little moisture and it absorbs - some swelling of fibers and some remaining in those gaps. The sponge is now soft and flexible. This is the place with oiling leather to usually stop. Yes you can add more and it will take it - just like the sponge. And just like the sponge - add too much and it drips back out. The sponge actually loses a little "body" and gets floppy - just like over-oiled leather. Oil is not a waterproofer. If you are worried about weather effects then you need something else. One brand is SnowSeal. My granddad and uncle fought over grandma's goose grease, Mink Oil paste, there's a bunch.

Going off my experience. I couldn't tell you who made trees for them - several commercial tree companies in business at the time. That rope roll and steel laced EVERYTHING was popular in the late 70s. Laced cantles only were popular for a long time. Tooling patterns on TexTans were always pretty simple and easy for a carving crew and I suspect some were press plate designs - not much of a way to date by that tooling for me. I bought a show saddle a little higher up the food chain in 1976 for $1280 and as I recall the better TexTan/Herefords were about $300-$400 less. In 1981 I bought one new and one lightly used Billy Cooks together for $2000.

Overall, looks really good. If you want fine tuning suggestions, read on. I'm not sure what is going on with your sewing but the back side wanders but the front side looks good. Round needle? Maybe shorten up that stitch length some too. My preference for "fine work" like yours is a little shorter stitch length. Finally, the thing pounded into me by one of my resellers early on - the oversew to lock stitches. You want to put it in the least conspicuous place. Never on the front and your eyes are also drawn to the top and side of the back. Bottom of the back is the best place to "hide it". With tooled work you see the overall pattern of the tooling and borders first. With plain leather like this, the first thing eyes are drawn to is the stitching and an obvious overlap breaks the "flow". Also, I would lightly round or "chip" the 90 degree corners and ends of your pockets and liners. 90 degree corners will eventually curl or lift.

I'm going to be the odd man out here and say most likely it is not compounded NF oil. The oils most are compounded with will not solidify as easily as what is recognized as pure NF oil today. I can't speak for other countries but here is the thumbnail sketch of NF oil as I understand it in the US. Traditionally yes - the recognized standard pure NF oil was made by boiling leg bones of cattle. During one of the world wars ( I am thinking it was WW2) the military need for neetsfoot oil out stripped the supplies. The military standards were relaxed to allow any animal based oils that fit similar characteristics of NF oil. I don't have exact details but pressed hog lard was one of them and available. Since there were few consumer standards but a military standard, depending on manufacturer other animal oils besides cattle make up some percentage of pure NF oils since then. I would suspect that some name suppliers have a standard and source and some of the lower end suppliers use price-point sources with less standards. I have used several and some did consistently smell different than others, all solidified at some temperature but melted easily with a little heat.

Good job getting it apart. Those lower studs can be tough to get out on a rusted up one. Here's a tip, instead of packing the holes you don't want paint in, get some rubber or silicon corks from the hardware store. Natural corks will wick the paint a bit.

Here are the dimensions of the new CS Osborne #151 bag/slot/oblong punches.

Chrome tan - I wanted something with at least a 5 in the weight like 5/6. My overall favorite was anything with a shrunken grain since that tends to be heavier. Customers with no cost constraints - shrunken grain bison. I can't remember the exact cutting size. I gave all my templates and patterns for purses, bags, home decor, etc. to an up and comer years ago. Tooling leather - something with an 8 - 7/8 or 8/9 weights cut from lower side or mid belly-between the flanks remnants from those weights or split to 8 oz from skirting leftovers. They were 2 inch strips as I recall. Pretty sure I rarely cut many strips from a whole fresh side, just remnants mostly.

No help with the little Consew. I am not usually a Tandy basher but I would seriously like to see anyone at Tandy do even half of what they say that machine can do. The Janome - run away fast. That is a fabric machine. If they tell you it is what you need, that tells me all I need to know about their knowledge of sewing leather and/or business integrity. For what it costs you can buy the heaviest duty leather machine out there. Look up Bob Kovar or Leather Machine Co - people that sell real leather sewing machines. @Wizcrafts to customer service please

I would knock as much rust off as you can with a wheel or brush. Then soak in EvapoRust or Metal Rescue - WD-40 makes a similar product I have not tried. Wire wheel off the residue, use what ever abrasives are indicated to work out deep pitting, oil dip and work the hinges some, oil again until it comes out clear. Might end up OK. Here are a few I have had through here with the cast bells. The #10005 is a Barnsley.

After a rocky start to retirement I finally have most of that past me. I am nearly full time in the leather tool shop now. With that, my goal of being able to open up the leather tool sharpening service has come about. I still have the same 15 year old policy free resharpening for tools purchased from me. If you have other tools were not purchased from me or have not been a previous customer, I can take those tools for resharpening now. I have a new page on my website describing the services and cost estimates, plus a brochure/pricelist for downloading at https://brucejohnsonleather.com/sharpening-services . Thank you! - Bruce

I made a couple hundred probably. Some stock and some custom. My favorites (and most popular) were made from heavy chrome tan and then tooled side panels. The veg tan were harder to clean and tended to roll a bit over time. These chrome tan could roll up in a drawer for storage and lay right out flat. Handy for the folks with living quarter horse trailers. Heavy chrome tan and tooled strips. I treated them with at least three coats of acrylic finish and they wiped off well with minimal staining. I treated vegtan coasters the same.

A bit different but - First tip I EVER learned on the internet was from the old IILG group and Verlane Desgrange. (fun factoid - this group morphed out of the IILG - courtesy of a leather artist from Africa and a pizza baking momma from Ohio @Johanna). Verlane posted about chucking your mini or maxi punches in the drill press and turn it on. I literally read that, walked straight out to the shop and tried it. You want to make punching holes easy and no effort to remove? Even on damp sticky skirting with a big tube punch? This is it. That single tip was worth my annual dues right there. If you have visited the shop, I expect Rundi has demonstrated punching round holes with a drill press and using a rein trimmer to cut pieces. NOTE - As the punch tubes fill up the punchings will will fly out the ejection port in random directions. Eye protection is recommended.

Rodney, I sure don't know of any off the rack patterns for modern riggings. I can only think of three rigging makers now and I don't think there is anybody wants to sell their patterns there either.

Did you buy this from a reseller or direct from the tannery? Is this supposed to be normal vegtan tooling leather - not milled, dyed, jacked, rolled or otherwise treated? Does it look way different in color or feel than the other sides? It just appears a little glossy in the picture. The three evenly spaced vertical crease lines looks like it was almost folded or flattened. How long did you have it before you found this side was subpar? What do you use to measure thickness and where on the side?

That kind of thickness stacked - a plough gauge slight maybe but eat a good breakfast, a draw gauge - better have a grip on the strap and the gauge and a sharp a*s blade. I'm not sure how far you are from any draft or pulling harness makers because I don't think we have any on the forum. I would get with one of those guys and ask how they do it. I'm betting one piece at a time and then stack them though.

Sometimes I have noticed my own topics that I start do not show up in the side bar topic list right away even though they are in the forum and visible in that side bar for other viewers. I think I have noticed it more on my phone and iPad than on the computer but haven't really checked it further.

Size - far and away I sell more 1-3/4 inch to makers than any other size for pancakes. The standard 1-1/2 inch belt and the cant of the slots. The guys who wear a 1-3/4" duty or heavy concealed carry belt - then we go to 2". Some makers have patterns with less or more cant and they call for 1-5/8 inch or 1-7/8 inch punches. The big thing is for the belt to fill the slot and no up-and-down play.

Now for the stranger thing. I bought one in a set a few months ago- the first I had actually seen. I asked a guy at the Sheridan leather show if he'd seen them or used one before. He bought it. There is a glimmer of hope more than one made it to the US. However, there are other versions made here in the US that are available.

Yes you will need to take the skirts off and separate them to reline them. These nails help to seal up that top edge and keep stuff from getting down in between that skirt pocket and tree. The strength is in the screws. Lift the nails out, don't punch around them. The idea of fasteners is to have the shank fill the hole in the leather so it doesnt work around as much. If you punch the leather you will have a hard time finding nails to fill that hole without being so big you risk splitting the tree. Start at the back nail and get under the leather around the nail with your puller, pry it up until the nail lifts a bit. Go to the top side and remove the nail with the puller. Work your way forward a nail at a time. Since they are smooth nails you should not have much of a problem.

Yes You can clean and condition a saddle without totally taking it apart. If that is the purpose then you are as far was you need to go in the front end. If you are taking apart totally, then to get these rigging nails off then first remove the screws. I always have better luck lifting the nails from under the leather with a heavy tack puller. Once you get them lifted a little then you can go on top of the leather to pull them the rest of the way out. Otherwise you can chew up the leather around them trying to get that first bite. Here are the two I like and now carry for sale. If they are ring shank nails, be ready to say bad words and all bets are off.