bruce johnson

I would like to invite you to check out my website and see what you think. This has been much like an elephant pregnancy. It has been about two years in the idea and acting on it, and now it is time to trumpet . Criticisms, critiques, and complaints will be borne on my shoulders. Any compliments and congratulations will be heaped upon the site designer and developer . Here's the link - Visit My Website - brucejohnsonleather Feel free to sign the guestbook too.

It kind of looks like the things that are interfering with what you want to do have more to do with the maker than the tree. At least they are things the maker can help out a bunch. The width across the middle that makes you sit wide. - Wider midseats are a plus for a calf roper to stand out there and not be leaning into the center. That is about the only place a wide seat is much of a benefit to me. One of those function vs. comfort factor things. Otherwise I wouldn't ride mine to the road (50 ft). The groundseat makes a lot of difference in how wide a saddle sits. You can build one up higher with narrow build ups and the rider will swear they are sitting closer than a broad across the middle model. My first flat seat was a Billy Cook board. It about split me in half, and I was young and limber then. The seat on that one was right down on the bars, and I'd wager those bars were not real thick. As far as getting your feet up into the flats. You can do that probably the easiest on a 14" wide association tree with a 5/8 EZ dee setup. The rigging style and frender and leather shapes probably limit more stirrup swing than swells. For a general using saddle that you want a little swell in front of you there are several options. I like something I can kind of lean up into. I use some Dee Picketts, Nikkels' High Country is a good tree, Olin Youngs, the land of Bowmans, etc. I am not a fan of low TMs personally as a user. That leg cut is just asking to bruise you when you hit it, and they put it on a lot of them. It really sounds to me like a narrow seat with a plate rigging to allow some forward swing will be pretty close to what you are looking for.

CW, The ones I use the most are 1/4, 3/8, and 3/4. I use the 1/4 to gouge channels for folds. I use the 3/8 the most probably for sharper tapering. I don't use the 3/4 much except to skive riggings where they go up around the swells.

Some of you on another leather list have no doubt read about this. A guy was using a jerk needle and ran it through into his waiting finger on the bottom side. He had to call some friends to get him unhooked from the saddle, and then to emergency to have the jerk needle removed from his finger. I had sent this guy one of my cantle binding helper things a few years ago. He usually used it, but didn't here. I am attaching pics of this deal. I never really liked beating up a tickler pushing a binding up, broke the awl tip occasionally on the small hammer handle, and tacks caught thread and were a pain. I made this deal up out of scrap LDPE cutting board. I cut it with a jig saw and shaped it and rounded over edges with a benchtop belt sander and a Dremel. The bottom is angled to really push up into the crease. The slot gives a place for the awl to come through without embedding into something. They really don't take long to make - 10 minutes maybe. I've done about a dozen and mostly given them away to guys who asked what "that" was on the wall. One guy has added a wrist loop to just drop it to pull thread, and flip it up into his hand to use it. Saves time picking it up.

Elton, Interesting way to mount the rounder alright. However, I am not seeing one item in your shop that should be a necessity. Where is the CD player to play the Kandace Kalona CD???

JW, I have some with pretty thin blades with very little angle, and others with more meat and a relatively steeper bevel. None of these have much bevel though, at least the way I like them. I got some of my first french edgers and read the Stohlman book. At the risk of sounding like a heretic, I don't think his method is correct for all situations. He recommended keeping the bottom flat (I'll agree with that). His method of removing material was to use a stone on top between the channels. Looking at any of my favorite french edgers, it personally would be hard for me to maintain that same bevel angle as original and work a stone back and forth across the width of the blade. I would be making a steeper angle with the stone. With a thicker blade and steeper bevel, maybe it would work Ok for me. I now have better luck maintaining the bevel by doing my material removal from the bottom. It is a lot easier for me to keep the bottom flat and work it on a stone or piece of wet-dry than maintain the angle on top. I will make a few passes on top to make a burr, but the material has been mostly taken off the bottom. I mostly use wet-dry now and very little time on stones unless they have a chip or pit to get past. I was taught this by an old guy who asked me why I had stone marks on top of my french edgers. This would be have been right after I told him I didn't like french edgers much. On the thinner blades I do put a slightly steeper secondary bevel with a stone on top. This is to help keep from rolling the edge. On the meatier blades I don't. I power strop with a soft wheel and am good to go. As I sharpen some, the toes start to get longer as the material is taken off the bottom. Once in a while I will knock those toes back with a grinder. As an aside Herb French has a pretty good little book on sharpening leather tools. Costs about 10 bucks or so from him, or Vandy at Sheridan Leather Outfitters sells it also.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you who are fighting this or supporting someone who is. I have a grandmother who was a 55 year survivor, an special aunt who is, my mother will be on chemo for the rest of here life, but is holding her own. A special prayer for everyone who has lost someone to this. I look forward to the day when a guy doesn't go home and stamp out the guest book for his wife's funeral. There's a reason for a lot of pink shirts at our house. Big AlC, To follow up on your suggestion and drop a challenge to everyone. We could have a raffle here easy enough. However you have planted a seed to have a bigger vision. What if each one of us made something and donated it to a local or regional cancer fundraiser? We could multiply a single fundraising effort 3000 or more times. Think of the impact there.

Bree, Now to accessorize it.... I have machines from a different supplier, but I shop Artisan for a few things. Their buck apiece thread snips work well for me. I buy a strip every so often. Stick a cow magnet on the machine somewhere and the thread snips to the magnet. I like their halogen gooseneck lamps pretty well too. Better than an incandescent and less heat. At the show this spring I bought two of their magnetic base LED lights for my machines. They mount facing down on the bottom of the head around the needle bar opening. They have 7 LED lights in an L shape. They are the ticket for lighting up the sewing area. I rarely turn on the goosenecks anymore. If they didn't give you one with the machine, call them up and beg for one.

Clay, Hope you are having a good birthday. Rundi and I are singing in your honor.

JW, Another good one, and the use of that stamp. You run that stamp about as well as anyone I have seen, and I'm glad you are doing it, not me. It was always a tough one in my hands. Steve, Thanks for the drawing. I have a large bruise on my head form hitting it when I saw how simple that was. Great tip, got my money's worth today.

I got into the museum Oakdale Cowboy Museum and got a few pictures. Primary is the bareback rigging made by one of our newer members - Peter John Hennessy. It belonged to one of my good friends - John MacDonald (aka "Hotdog"). He went to the finals a few times in the late 70s. Two days before he died in an accident we made a 24 hour run to southern California to pick up a horse. His mom gave me his gear bag after he died, and his chaps, rigging, and PRCA card. It is all the museum, but the gear bag is mine. I have also attached pics of some other saddles we have. The bronc saddle is made by Allan Pursley (Broken Arrow). The trophy saddles are all world champion saddles. Two are from Keyston from 1945 and 1947. The black one is made by Garcia from 1936. The others are two from Ryons - 1975, one couldn't find the maker from 1969. My favorite is the Chester Hape made saddle from 1977. The cool thing is that all of the stuff in our cowboy musuem has come from local cowboys. We're pretty deep in rodeo history - All of our displays have come from people who have lived here. As an aside, a couple things I am looking for for this display area - flank straps. I'd like to get a bull flank and a bronc flank. If anyone has a line on one that has some use on it, I'd appreciate it. It doen't have to be real functional - display pieces to show exactly what they are, how they fit, and "No Virginaia, they don't have spikes in them".

Ray, Vernon Weaver has always been a pretty good guy no matter what machine I have talked to him about. About the only thing I have from Weavers right now is the dye box. When I was trading up from the Boss, he was a pretty decent source of info and recommendations for good used machines, and he wasn't selling any of them. I wasn't really well connected, internet forums didn't exist to any degree, and he was kind of my sounding board for what the guys selling them were telling me.

Ray, I would call Weaver's (1-800-932-8371) and ask to talk to Vernon. He is one of the real bright spots of the outfit, and has a real sense of humor. He ought to be able to help you out.

Dale, Good point. I was doing these for a wholesale account. They had been stocking some that were just glued down. Two factors - one was that the other suppliers were using plastic plates and the glue would sometimes let go on the edges and curl over time. They were getting customer complaints and returns about that. Also the plastic plates plus just the leather on the front were sometimes too thick for the switches to flip properly or the plugs to pull out flush depending on the electrical installation to start with. That is why I suggested the metal plates to thin them down. The glues I was using wouldn't reliably bond to metal in use without the sandwiching to hold it.

Russ, I haven't done any for several years, but used a Boss when I did. I used the metal switch plates and outlet covers so they were thinner and stronger to start with. It relieved some of the thickness the leather added. I made my patterns so they overlapped about 1/2" all the way around for a sewing lip. I probably used mostly 3-4 oz on the front to tool on. I used 2 oz stiff vegtan (Siegel's commercial oak) on the backside. I had patterns made up so they just overlapped the edges about a scant 1/2" inside the back of the plate. After the fronts were stamped and still cased I just kind of pressed them to the plate to mold them and established the edge impressions on the back side and then let them dry. I oiled them up and let it even out. I used Barge to stick them to the front of the plates, and had the edge markings already pressed into the back side to align them. Slather a little glue on the lining piece and stuck them on. I used a deer spike to press the two pieces together and sandwich the plate. A bone folder or tickler run around the edge of the plate impression will establish a tight sew line. I used a right toe foot and sewed away. I really don't recall any issues sewing them. I might have used a stirrup plate to raise them up and angle the plate down and away slightly to get the center needle guide right in the channel. I don't remember that for sure. After they were sewn, I trimmed the excess off an even distance away from the stitch line and edged and slicked them.

Andrew, Thanks for the timely review. We just got a copy sent to the museum for a review, and I was planning on looking at it today.

Holly, smallboxhardware looks like it does have some harder to find hardware, but for 4 binder clips, I might think shipping could add enough to take some of the advantage out of the deal. Ohio Travel Bag has clips too, but by the time you do a minimum and pay shipping, cheaper to go to Office Depot or department stores. You can buy good quality binders and drill out the rivets for less money than ordering, plus you get the stiffeners.

I have always had machines with a speed reducer and also put small pulleys on the motors. I noticed more "power" on the wheel when I got the first servo motor and put it on the Adler. I used to "feather" the wheel by hand going into a corner to slow it down, and hand wheel to get it started on some heavier leathers. With the servo motor I couldn't feather it nearly as easily or start it by hand, it would throw my hand off. With the low speed I didn't need to do this nearly as much anyway. It was kind of like breaking a habit of reaching up to the wheel. Another tip I got for speed control from an old guy. Put your whole foot on the pedal, not just the front half of your foot like you'd do on a gas pedal. Load your heel to stop it. It gave me more control that letting the return spring slow things down.

I've been playing around with lighter sewing machines to sew up interiors and doing some repair sewing with lighter thread. I have tried several machines in the stores and found the Singer CG 500s do a pretty good job on even heavier leathers. The 1952 Singer 66-16 sitting in my living room does just as good a job, and at least with the upholstery thread I've been comparing machines with seems to do a tighter stitch even. I just got some spools of 69 thread, and have been told it will take 92 also. Seems like the stores all stock a leather needle in size 14, and have a deer in the headlights look when I ask what thread size that is for. My charts all say to use a #100 or #120 needle, but no cross-reference to other equivalent sizes. WHat is the Singer number comparable to the #100 or #120?

Randy, LOL, and on the other group you posted this to, they got talking about tanned horse fronts and using it to line wooden legs in about 2 jumps also. Must just be one of those topics...

Tim, I stretch them with the fenders on. It is probably more of a shaping deal and mating the fenders to the leathers though. I soak and prestretch my leathers first on a long board. Then dry and cut them to the finished size. While the fenders are still cased from stamping I shape them instead of letting them dry flat. Once I put them together and on the the stretcher, there is not a whole lot more stretch taken out, but it helps to "set" the twist and the outside stretch for the stirrups to hang more level.

I've got one and like it pretty well. My wife talked me into it with a stand and both have been worth it for me. It looks like he made the handle out of some heavy SS strapping welded to the collar and then bolted the turning handle on the end. The collar above and below the top bar have set screws that bind them into the threaded rod. I like his design although I have seen some homemade ones pretty handy too. Some have jacks instead of a screw mechanism.

To clarify the question for me. Are we talking half round scallops or "flares" for the conchos to sit in? I guess I was visualising flares on a nose band. browband, cheek piece sort of thing. For regular half-rounds you can take a round punch and grind half off like Brandon said. Do it slow and keep it cool and it works. The end punches are not half round. They have longer legs that go part way down the straps to help line up. You can gring them off a little. Be aware though, some makers round end punch cutters also are not a true half-circle, but more elongated.

I use an old head knife that has been pretty used. Pretty short front to back and the tips are good. It maneuvers a little tighter than my bigger knives. Another knife I still use sometimes is a grapepickers knife I got at the local surplus/supply store. Basically a hook blade knife with good steel, like like a lino knife but smaller. You pull the knife and it gives me maybe a little more control on really tight curves. I used to cut a lot of shaped pieces with that grape knife. Now it seems like I am regressing and using older tools more and more. I use draw gauges more than my wooden strap cutter, the round knives more for other cuts, etc.

Pete, Welcome to the forum and thanks for jumping right in. Feel free to go back through any old posts and add to them too. Thanks for your insight on this thread, and a situation I think a lot of us deal with. You can have a pretty good tree combination for the horse, and if they set it in the wrong place, it all goes for nothing. As an aside, if you are the Hennessey who makes the gear - thanks again for joining. Your reputation precedes you. This is an area several of us deal with kind of on the fringes, but the insight of those who have done a bunch is sure welcome. Pretty sure it is a Hennessy bareback rigging one of my best friends had in his bag when he died. His mother got it to me to put in our local cowboy museum. If it is and you are interested, I can get you a picture and the museum info.