bruce johnson

Tim, You just asked me about the one foot setup I got with the "saddler's package" and have not used. I have the harness maker's presser foot and have never hooked it on. It is supposed to be for sewing close to buckles and hardware. I put full or tapered fillers in my breast collars, bronc halters, and other straps that are about the same thickness as the ring. There is no lump from the ring and I can sew as close to the end of the filler as I need to. I just use my double toe and normal middle foot, or a single toe and foot setup. I use the normal flat slotted plate. Even doing a repair on something with no filler, I can get close enough backing up. There is enough lift on the walking feet and presser foot to get close enough. If I need to get closer in to a #5705 type buckle I use the holster plate. That raises up the work enough I can tip the buckle back more out of the way. If you are anticipating doing different sewing applications, it might pay to look into getting the package of feet, plates, and guides. If they can price out the package well enough might be cheaper than buying a couple sets of feet individually. I never thought I would use the blanket feet (I have) and would have thought I probably should have played with the harness foot before now I guess. I use both the single and double roller edge guides a fair amount too. One thing about getting the attachments, the 441 clones show no signs of going away. You never know what your next machine will be, and all these should pretty well fit most of them. If not, there is someone out there who wants the foot you don't. After the Christmas orders, I will play with the harness foot and see what it does. Ed, With my stirrup plate I use the right toe toe foot and the narrow center presser foot. On my newer 2000, the double toe foot uses a wider center foot than the R/L feet. I don't know how universal that is from one seller to the next. If I use the double toe and the wide center foot, the walking feet are just barely on the right edge of the plate, and not on the left at all. They can push down, walk off, and twist the work and I sew crooked. The narrow center foot and the R foot will walk on the right lip. On the used Juki 2000 (from Ferdco originally too), the stirrup plate has a little wider ridge on the left than the new one, and not sure how it compares on the right.

Regis, I use mine several times a week. In fact I think I spend as much time changing feet and plates as as I do sewing. Another reason to keep the second 2000 and set them each up differently. I use the holster plate whenever I am sewing gussets into firm leather, like on saddles bags and purses or zippered gussets into dayplanners. It allows the work to be up and provides an area for the gusset to stand up and and sew tight. Anyone who has ever NOT sewn across a wrinkle on a gusset corner can leave now. Since we are all still here, that is what I use it for. I also use the stirrup plate for this too. The holster plate is flat across the top and both sides of the slot are the same width. The flat top makes it more stable for long runs with no sewing into a bend. The stirrup plate is rounded across the top and will make a sharper corner. It will reduce the turning radius and let me sew tighter corners in 3/4 gusseted things like purses, shaving kits, and briefcases. It also has a narrower lip to the left of the slot. That lets me get closer to the wood on sewn stirrups, and sharper gussets also.

Dink, Not to jump in sideways here, but have you looked for an Adler 205-64? I had one and it will sew 12-14 oz all day and not break a sweat. It is a cylinder arm machine, and like Art said - they are tanks.

Right off the bat this is a pretty sparing connection to leatherwork in general. I picked up a copy of a 3 song demo CD from Colleen Watt last weekend. It is by a 15 yr old young lady named Adrian. She has a full debut CD coming out called "Highway 80". The CD is due out around the end of the month. This little girl wrote all but one song on the CD, and is a TALENT in writing the ones I heard, and dang sure can sing 'em. She wrote one about Dale Harwood. There have been songs where saddles are mentioned for sure, but I am hard pressed to remember one about a saddlemaker. Her website is www.buckaroogirl.com. Turn up the sound, allow your computer to run the music. Each of her webpages plays a different song. The Life and Times of Dale Harwood is on her home page. I don't know her, have no connection. I am thinking Adrian will be getting some orders. She is going to be on the main stage at the Elko gathering, and deserves to be there.

Bev, There are several other suppliers of leather tools besides Tandy. We have have a few threads going in the saddle section, leather tools, and suppliers sections which discuss different tools. There is also a section in resources in the saddle section discussing the DVDs and instructionals. I would expect that you don't have a resale number. Weavers are wholesale only. Others have a website and you could look at them to get a bit of an idea of tools and price ranges. Jeremiah Watt (www.ranch2arena.com) has stamps, tools, and DVDs. Ron Edmonds (www.ronstools.com) are good. Hidecrafter sell tools. Siegel of California (www.siegelofca) sells leather and tools. They have Osborne as well as other French and English made tools. Other tool makers and sellers are Wayne Jueschke (Elko, NV), he makes stamps, mauls, and knives. Barry King (Sheridan WY) makes stamps, mauls, and cutting tools. Bob Douglas (Sheridan WY) sells old tools - stands behind them. My thoughts are that unless you have unlimited time to sit there and money to buy duplicates or possibly used up or incomplete equipment - avoid ebay. Buy outright what you need. Ebay is the place to buy entry level sets that often sell for more than new. Also a place to buy collectible or obscure tools you may not need early on. It pays to know what you are bidding on there. There are tool collectors, who are just that - collectors and traders, not leather people. Leather tools are the hot thing right now. They are running on anything with Gomph, HF Osborne, Rose, and the other oldtime makers. A lot of these are good, useable tools and were designed correctly, but theses folks collect, show, and trade among themselves. They are not users, and will pay more than the useful value.

Pete, A few "old guy rule of thumbs" from different mentors. 1. The margin from the stitchline to the edge should be the thickness. i.e., If the piece is 3/16 thick, the margin is 3/16. 2. The stitch length should be equal to the margin. i.e., if the margin is 3/16, the stitches should be 3/16 apart - about 5 per inch. 3. There are no rules, do what looks good. I usually true up my edges, stitch, and then edge the piece. I don't know why, other than that is how I was taught. Regarding the rules above. Sometimes I will stitch closer than the thickness. I have also come dangerously close on thick piecs I have sewn closer to the edge with a right toe foot, like on a belt inlayed and with spots. Have had a few slip off, and bad words heard in my general vicinity. Some things that are really thick, I may sew and then trim the margin to be closer than the thickness. Generally that rule about the margin and thickness being the same gives me good stability sewing in machines I have/had though. Sometimes those old guys really did make the mistakes and want to teach us not to. When you sew it the way I was taught, and then use the right size edger, it usually works. Old men are generally wise.

It really depends on a lot of factors - skirt patterns, a flate plate rigging uses more leather than most dee ring setups, pretty open. I have never got by with less than two sides, and usually get into a third side on at least half of them. I am getting my patterns down a little closer, not as much trimming, but still 2 sides minimum. I may get two longer sides, and not get the yield of two deeper sides. For the first one, I was lucky to get by with three sides.

Beeza, And you can always get a table with a cut out for the cylinder arm to make it a flatbed machine. Some suppliers offer them as an optional accessory. I made mine bigger from plywood, and got the folding table leg set from the hardware store. It sits about 5" lower that the top of the arm. That works for sewing gusseted things like saddlebags and ropebags. If I need the table flush to the top, I slip sections of PVC pipe over the bottom of the legs to raise it up. My wife gets credit for that tip - she saw it on HGTV or one of those satellite channels. I did the same thing to raise my cutting table, $2 worth of PVC saves $$ bottles of Aleve from bending over slightly. PVC ergonomics.

An average width for a gullet is probably 6-1/2" and crawling wider now. That may or may not be helpful. A few questions to kind of help us out here. Whose trees are you looking at? If they are stock trees from a production company, then you may need to try a couple different widths and bar angles to see which tree is closest to what you need. Yeah it's a hassle to try them and send them back, but not the hassle of putting a lot of work into something that doesn't fit. The trial and error fitting system unfortunately is still pretty prevalent. Becasue every maker's trees and bars are generally a little different, I don't think anyone can reliably go from a description of wide/narrow/meaty withers/peaked withers and tell anyone exactly what to get. Then it gets into what are you doing with the horses? How many different ones and different builds do you ride? What kind of padding. Rigging styles. Are these horses level or built downhill? If you look in the section on Choosing the right saddle for the horse, there are a few threads that will help. There are two on Dennis Lane's system, and a pretty lively discussion on saddle fit in general. Gullet width is really only a small part of getting a closer fit than shooting in the dark. The bar patterns, how much they "open up" in the front, the shape on the front pads and where they are designed to sit by the tree maker, bar angles have changed over time, and now some guys are going to 95 degrees. How do you determine what you need? As the Nikkels say at the bottom of each of their posts, no two tree makers do it the same. Dennis's card system for measuring is about as simple and repeatable as it gets. How many treemakers will get on board with it and when is the factor here now. I think Dennis posted that he thinks a lot of horses in the US are ridden on trees that are too wide. We have had it pounded into us that gullet clearance is a big factor in saddle fit - reduce leverage on the horn, all that. One way to get a lower gullet is to widen the spread. We get the two-finger clearance and think everything is OK. Problem is the saddle is tipping forward, the full double rigging is pulling it down, and the front points are digging into the shoulders. The lower it gets, the worse it gets in this case. All this said, what are you riding now? Does it fit you horses well enough? Who made that tree if it does? What does it measure? That is at least a baseline to start from.

Mike, Safe travel and good wishes. I cut back on wholesale work, so nobody selling my work this year. However,one of the belts in the Wrangler ad they show at home and on the big screen at Thomas & Mack - inlaid red roany hide, a few spots knocked off, a missing concho, other concho is a iron cross - I made it. That said, my travel guide for the NFR. My Highlights for the tradeshows, although they are mostly all good - Cowboy Christmas - Capriola's, Hamley's, Keith Seidel, Jay Palm (usually has some Ortega braidwork for sale), Tony Chytka's art Country Christmas (Sands Expo Center) - King's (and Barry will have tools there to sell and be working the booth), Dale Bass - great silver work, Custom Cowboy Shop (Don Butler), Whatever they call the show at Mandalay Bay - Platte Valley Saddle Shop, Rocketbuster Boots (you have to at least look) SASS Show at the Riviera - dressed up folks and kind of cool looking stuff. Kansas Saddlery is a good one here. Also good stage entertainment - one of our favorites, Dave Stamey, will be singing. Regulation nice guy. He is not going to be at the Monterey Cowboy Gathering this year, which is where we will be this weekend. Pace yourself to keep moving or you won't get through one show a day. My wife usually scouted on ahead while I BSed with someone. Tip - You don't have to look at every "Welcome Partner" wooden sign booth, after a while those do all look the same. Another tip, never say "I'll meet you at the Bob Berg booth", there is about one per aisle at the Sands. There is usually some young new guys with pretty plain looking booth setups. They will have some work to knock your socks off. You won't have heard of any of them before, but in 10 years we'll all know their names. Dining - Beef, It's What's For Dinner. I like the steakhouse upstairs at Binion's downtown. Spring for the lobster bisque as an appetizer. Another nice place is The Primerib Loft at the Orleans. Good primerib, some kind of interesting house dressing, and the potato is approximately the size of a regulation NFL football. Quiet places to eat after the rodeo, and you will be dining with some of the guys you just saw. You have been around noisy people and just heard Bob and Boyd yell it to sell it. Quiet dinner is good. Getting to Thomas & Mack - They have shuttle buses from most hotels. We found after a few years, it was easier to buy a pair of tickets, and just use them for the return. Cab it (find another couple and split it) or plan on a really early bus to get there. Coors has a hospitality tent there. The later buses fill up and say they will be back...... Shuttlebus back to your hotel or wherever you are going to eat after the rodeo. The cab lines after the rodeo at T&M are about 2 hours plus long, and it gets cold. Have a blast. Now I have to tell myself again why I have some days off next week and am not going. HMMMMM.

Wood, I think the carving one is worth the dough too. He has a tip for lining up angled basket stamping patterns that was worth the whole cost for me. I was having a heck of a time with my wife trying the angled patterns. I just couldn't explain the concept right. Jeremiah could. I think anyone could benefit from the carving set. He shows how to do stamping, different borders, and lots of different flowers. Also making up patterns. Good one.

K-man, His initials are V.E.A. We just got another one yesterday with a little scabbard, so he may do holsters too.

Skip, I was there last year. I took the different carving styles class from Jesse Smith. I also took the saddle classes from Jesse on covering horns and covering swells. We went to the banquet as well. Kind of a hassle being 20 miles or so outside of town, but worth it. I know other folks who lurk here were there, like Harvey Lutske. A few of the guys (and Belinda) I met at saddle week in Sheridan the year before were there. For those who didn't go, a little report (although there may be one archived too). It was the best non-Sheridan show I have been to. I have been to Ventura and Reno at least twice. This show was heads and shoulders above those. They offered essentially the same class lineup as Sheridan. About 2/3 of the major exhibitors at Sheridan were there. The trade show opened on a Thurs. I was thinking that opening on a Thurs would be lightly attended. Wrong, lots of attendees. Good time of the year to go, a nice town and good weather. We have a few friends who have winter places down there. My wife spent time with them, and shopping was good for her. Shopping at the show was good for her too, she found a few things we could use. The down side of the Wickenburg show was that classes were spread out over town. Some classes were moved midstream due to space or noise generation the hosts weren't counting on. There was not a central social meeting place like if it was all pretty much under one roof. The community center where the trade show was held was pretty maxxed out for exhibits. Two or three classes were going on at the VFW, so we were able to mix a bit there during breaks. Things that are either first year things or just have to be because of the space available. If they keep the same format, I see it as another good show and probably better with the first year learning curve out of the way. We skipped Sheridan last year, and are going this year. Probably doubtful we will get down to Arizona.

The handled splitter like the Keystone or Osborne 84 is the most single versatile splitter. I am not sure that I have seen a new Osborne 84 listed anywhere for a while. You can easily set the depth, you can push on the handle as you pull the strap to do lap skives, and it has a good width. The only issue is that sometimes a strap will ride up the bevel of the blade and chop off. Not very often, just at a bad time. The lower end models or oldies can have a bent frame and not have the roller level with the blade. Some can be shimmed easily, others not. That said, I like the old Chase pattern splitters. They haven't been made for a long time. Osbornes(s), Horn, Chase, and others made variations of them. They have two rollers top and bottom. If you adjust the blade so the edge sits right at the rollers, the leather has no place to go but straight into it. I have an 8" and 10" now. I can set them at different depths and do repeatable two level splitting. If they get out of level, you can raise one side or the other a tooth at time easily to relevel them. They really don't seem to sell for much on ebay relative to other splitters. Bob Douglas and I talked about that a while back. They just must be so different from what most people see as splitters today that they scare people off. The disadvantage of the Chase pattern splitters is that you can't easily do lap skives without a ramped jig. No issue for me, I have had Landis handcrank skiver to crank out lap skives and the dges of groundseat buildups for a while. Another piece of really handy equipment for me. I am attaching a pic from my shop before I got the 10" splitter. They now sit side by side, and the handcrank splitter to the right in the picture is being sold. Good splitter, I just don't use it as much anymore. The handcrank skiver is the gray handcrank tool in the foreground to the left of the rein rounder. The 8" Chase pattern splitter is behind that on the left side of the bench. I like the Chase pattern splitters, but they are not for everybody.

The Cambell-Bosworth is the real thing in that style of splitter.

Walsall Hardware in Scottsdale, AZ carries hardware in Italian Bronze. They have bolt snaps, rings, and buckles in Itl Br. Can't speak for anything in bronze but their buckles, which have been good for several years. Website is www.walsallhardware.com. I am not sure if they required my resale number or have tiered pricing. The last few orders I have got from them have been very good and good service. They do have a $100 minimum order, or a fee for orders falling below that. You pretty much have to call for prices. The way hardware prices change, they can't keep anything published current. As I recall it is hard to determine prices on the website. Quantity pricing and such.

My thoughts are a few here. First off, I would recommend buying from a company that sells machines set up for leather and stocks the parts. Sometimes the clone parts fit other clones, and sometimes they don't. Service is just as important as price. Buying a reputation machine is almost like sewing for free. The resale and trouble-free use is time and money saved. Looks like on Artisan's website that they have a few versions of the 797 leather machines. My concern is that the largest thread they handle appears to be 138. If that is OK great, but something that could go up to at least 207 seems more versatile, and probably could be found in a close price range. Dave from Artisan can probably chime in which comparable machine will do heavier thread. It just seems to me that sewing 138 max on 18 oz is a little light for me. An old time leather machine guy advised me one time to get machines that the capacity is about twice as much as what I am sewing. If I am sewing 3/8" regularly, the machine should handle uo to 3/4". I don't know how serious a rule of thumb that is in the industry, but it works for me.

I relined skirts on one and rerigged the front on one. It was a calf roping saddle - heavy thick bars. I think they are all glassed, not sure if they rawhide any or not. If you build on one, you have to deal with the issues of building on a glassed tree with a glassed in seat strainer. Anecdotally, some of the calf ropers really like them. I have also had a few Texas guys tell me they like Faith trees, but I have never found a contact for them.

FJ, They are pretty OK guys to hang out with. I have not used one of their trees. I talked to one guy who did, and he thought they were alright. Not sure if they hold nails very well, but he felt the screws got a good bite. The material is supposed to be lightyears ahead of the comparable Ralide material. THey have been around maybe 5-6 years now? The issue with any of the molded trees is you get what they have in their mold. You can't get a different bar pattern, a little here or there, or anything else like with even the options of most production wood/rawhide trees. Some of the guys back in that area that have built on them may have some other thoughts. Cable rigging isn't a new concept. Hamley's tried it a few generations ago. If it was so great, we would all still be doing it today. My thoughts on it are a few. We strive, make gauges, tie strings, measure, remeasure, and laser to make sure our rigging rings are equal front to back so our tree doesn't twist. I can't believe that a latigo sliding on a cable will seek the same equal position on both sides every time. Not only that, what prevents it from settling at the 3/4 position one time, and the next time at 5/8 of full. Blake has talked about different pressure mappings with the same saddle just changing rigging positions on the same horse. If my horse humps up one morning, or is standing downhill in his dugout hole next the the tie-post, it may settle differently. The smaller diameter of the cable is harder on the fold on latigos that a thicker ring or dee. Finally a little philosophy. I think if I am handmaking a product, my gut level tells me that as much of it should be as handmade as possible. I am not saying we need to tan our leather or make our own trees, but I want to have a tree that someone touched. I don't even have to know them. I just want to know that a person nailed and screwed it together, the rawhide was laced on by hand, and a part of them is in my work. I want to know that someone engraved the silver, it wasn't stamped. What I do inbetween those two things then falls on me to not mess it up. Wow, maybe I have been watching the bootmakers too long.

Mike, I used to have dial-up. Very slow dial up. My normal connection speed was 14 kbs. On a good day I could hit 24, and one time hit the dizzying speed of 26.4. I was in tall feed when I traveled and got free high speed. My ISP was telling me that I needed an antennae, a dish, or whatever. Curious fact, my landlord was one of the inventors/developers of DSL, and I can't get it where we live. A few months ago, I learned about cellular wireless. Basically anywhere there is cellular service, I get highspeed. A little antennae thing hooks up to my USB port and I am off. It can be taken from one computer to another. For the heck of it a few weeks ago I pulled off the road between Kaycee and Buffalo WY (not much there for 40 miles besides me and roadkill). I got three bars and a fast hookup. If you can get cellular service at home, it might be an option. Smarter folks than me will have to help with the Paypal, ebay sales, and website deal. I know when I started receiving funds on PayPal that were not through ebay, I had to update to a Premier Account I think they call it. I have only had a few minor kind of things paid on the Paypal account. I added a few bucks onto the cost to cover the fees.

Equipro, Another magazine subscription would be ShopTalk. They have a lot of advertising from equipment sellers that LCSJ doesn't. Also a little more candid industry news. They also publish an annual directory of suppliers called the "Big Book". Although it isn't as big as it used to be, still a good resource. Their website is www.proleptic.net. To see a good cross section of sellers and do some comparisons, it is hard to beat the leather show in Sheridan WY in May. Most of the equipment and handtool/stamp makers are there. You can see tools from makers and decide if you like a $45 round knife or a $245 round knife. The stamp sellers about all have scraps of cased leather and a rock. You can walk from one to the next and carry a piece with you do literal side by side comparisons of each maker's version of a stamp. You can also see old tools from guys like Bob Douglas that may not be made anymore. Kind of like a museum you can buy at. For exotics, Sheridan Leather Outfitters have some, and I like Jerry VanAmburg too. I haven't dealt with the El Paso sellers or John Fong, but some guys who have can comment.

Kristina, Unless I am not thinking of what you are, about everybody makes them. I have one from TLF that makes a pretty good impression, within 5 years old (not one of the celebrated "pre" prefix era stamps). I have a custom waffle from Barry King that is good, reeeally good. Hopefully the rest in the set are in the mail. Jeremiah Watt has a good one. Some people refer to what I call "block" stamps as "waffle" stamps. I have good blocks from Jeremiah, and also Wayne Jueschke. I think Wayne makes some of the best and most interesting centers. My wife and I never agree, and we usually end up with two. Personally I think across the board, Barry King's stamps are among the best value. I kind of fill in from Jeremiah and Wayne what Barry doesn't have. I pick up a few others here and there that are either relics or match up an old pattern I like.

Wolvenstein, I used to store my stamps in 4x6 sections of fencepost that I cut to length to fit into tool boxes. I drilled the holes in the grid pattern, and it worked out just OK. Whenever I got new stamps, I had to the left shift/right shift to make a place for them. I would take some out for my working rack. When I put them back, invariably I would forget one, start in the wrong hole, and not have room for everyone. PIA to keep organized, had to open 3 boxes to get all I needed for one project, but they did look nice. I went to a more open system. I bought a stack of plastic juice cups on the aisle end display at Target, drilled a hole in the bottom for the pegboard organizer to go through and hung them up. I sort them by type of stamp only now. The old guys used to use soup cans on their bench, my stamp bench is a little shy on space so this way works out for me. These are my most used stamps. The extras that I can't quite part with yet are rubberbanded together by type and kept in an old tacklebox. The only problem with my system is that I have a few stamps by one maker whose stamps are about 3/16" shorter than most, and they tend to hide under the others in the cups. Probably ought to just put all his together in one cup. I have a little block holder for the project at hand. Usually 10-20 stamps are out, and then they go back into the cups when done. For travel, I made a little rollup bag to carry the stamps and knives. My tooling neighbors at the Wickenburg classes gave me crap about having an 18" strop, and then carrying tools in ziplock bags. Since one guy was going to be at the Elko class too, I made it to shut him up. I attached pics of my wall, the at-hand block, and the tool roll.

Randy mentioned lasering on quotes, and for vegtan leather I think it works well. I am attaching a pic of an item we bought last year. If you are doing very many of these, looks like lasering is the way to go for me. I recently did a planner with pretty small lettering and a logo. It was too small and detailed for knife work. My neighbor has a laser and it worked out well. Johanna mentioned foil leaf, and I have a bit of experience with that too. Several years ago I had an order for some report covers, and "souvenir" coasters for a meeting. They wanted dark chrome tan leather, a logo, and each director's name on them. A local printing shop had the equipment and did it for me. They have since moved out of state, but I did have a local Christian bookstore do some foil names on a couple things since. They have a lettering foil press set up for doing names on Bible covers. That might be a suggestion too. I think their press handled up to a little bigger than business card size. If a person knows what they are doing, and looks around, there are several models and price ranges of foil stamping setups, I just don't have the demand.

Ryan and Calleather, The electroforming deal sounds kind of neat. They don't give that processing away. but like you say for 4000 pieces, that dilutes it out quite a bit. I found the info and sample on the stuff from Reno. It is a hard plastic material. The design is pretty crisp, probably lasered, and like I said the price was good. I think it was priced for one or several designs on the sheet. This company exhibited at the last LCSJ show they had in Reno. It was Nevada Rubber Stamp Company. This stuff is a dark amber to greenish looking color and hard. They stuck it on a wood block and used a hand arbor press to press it into the leather when they demo'd it at the show. I don't know of anyone who has tried the magnesium embossing plates, but it looks like it is not handwork so might be priced OK and should work. With all the different people getting the laser engravers (Ryan, our neighbor has one), there are more sources for getting that done too. I know Richard and Jeff both laser maker's stamps out of delrin rod, and they seem to hold up really well, and are not all that spendy. The detail on some of my press plates is pretty impressive. Some of my delrin plates have quite a few pressings on them, and they are still good.