bruce johnson

Dye the background with dye and a brush. Some people are handy enough to use a syringe and small needle, some use refillable dye pens. Not really a new thing but some makers dye the sides and background, basically everything but what is tooled. Lots of stuff out there like that now. Google JD Filho, Joey Jemison, Travis Stillson for some good examples of that. There are a ton more but those folks will get a start for examples.

Simple and easy to identify from a distance. We live in an area that still has some big remote pastures and forest service leases. cattle can get through fences onto the neighbors. Being able to sort these cattle on horseback and get them back through is easier than driving them to a corral and sorting by tags that may be lost or tattoos. Cattle get brand inspections when transported very far or sold to prove ownership. Some will get rebranded if they are going to be turned out. Hides are a byproduct and obvious proof of ownership is more important to the producer than hide damage that may or may not be docked for at sale time. Packers that buy western origin beef cattle expect brands and that is just a fact of their business.

I like the prelubricated thread also. For most work I did not need to use the thread lube pot on the Ferdco 2000. It is kind of a pain to set up and fish the top thread through the guides and strippers. Where I did use it was on production straight run stuff. I made a bunch of doubled and stitched latigo reins for contract and also my own sales. Basically set the guide and let 'er rip with the servo wide open for 7 feet across the end and another 7 feet of pedal to the floor. Smoke would come off the needle and thread would get "sticky" and skip if I didn't lube. Sewing machine people told me the lube is more for heat reduction and lubricating the needle than actually lubing the thread and that made sense to me. I used Sellari's, Lily, and at times even Lexol conditioner as thread lube and not much difference I could see. I was in one shop that ran wide open. He set his spools in coffee cans and the thread ran off them from inside the can. He squirted the new spools with oil pretty heavy to start and then every so often as the spool went down. The wax pots are heated and the thread goes through melted wax. As it cools the wax hardens and helps lock the thread and seals the hole. Pick some petrified stitches on some old saddle skirts and you will understand.

Just to be clear. Are you talking about a hard wax or thread lube? Reason being that many people actually mean the liquid thread lube pots that still get called wax pots. The old timers refer to a wax pot as a pot that heats (gas jet or electric) and melts wax into the thread. Thread lube is a liquid lube like Sellari's, Lily, or silicon.

Look fairly similar to my 17-1 except for the press foot. I like this machine a lot. My wife sews wallet interiors and thinner work like that on it. Pretty bullet proof.

Thank you for the tips. The actual business aspect of pricing and selling is hard for a lot of people and most artists and craftspeople start with minimal business training and marketing experience. It was for me and I'd have loved to have gotten more training than I did. I got more than many people through a small business mentorship program, classes, and books. The internet has changed and a lot of what I had to go someplace and sit through is now on a screen and often for free or minimal cost. People don't have to follow everything you read or hear literally but I have found some the marketing and business concepts are pretty universal. I appreciate the efforts.

Yes oily rags catch fire. I use BLO, mineral spirits, wood finishes, waxes, and solvents galore. Everybody has some tip - lay them out flat, soak them in water, sprinkle them with salt, etc to keep them from catching fire. I’ve got a better method. I beat them to the punch and just burn them myself at the end of the day. Just light them up. It’s not like they are going to be hazard or anything after that. You probably don’t want to cook hotdogs or make S’mores over that fire but works for me.

The real beauty is in the use! I am glad it got used. Leatherwork can and should be artistic for sure, but being put to use is where the joy is for most of us as a maker. My grandmother was a quilt maker and understood this. I made Grammy a leather magazine can for her garden magazines. She put her sewing stuff in it instead. When she moved to the rest home she used it to hide her contraband jars of dried beef at the bottom under quilting squares. Looks like your mother-in-law's pens and paperclips fit just fine and had a nice home too!

I have heard them called a "plonky" in some other countries. I like to say "plonky".

Looks great!

Threads on the tube that doesn't fit appear they aren't cut deep enough. When I talk about old CS Osborne frames and tubes, I'm going back to some of the Newark marked frames and maybe 30 years after. Anything in the last several decades all are taller threads. You got a dud tube. It will be interesting to see what they say. Probably grab a new tube and send it on. The threads that work on these 00-7 sizes is a M8-1.0 metric tap and die. I've had people tell me that is BS and have several reasons why these #00-#7 threads are not metric. They cite some SAE die on the tube or tap on the frame that somebody else told them. I stopped arguing it online years ago. Here are pictures of new CS Osborne #00 and #3 tubes screwed into the thread checker board in my shop. Chase the threads in a 120 year old frame these new tubes screw right in and bottom out where they are supposed to. You can screw 120 year old tubes into newer frames without anything but I don't trust old tubes off a Newark marked frame. Easier to just unscrew and toss them and put new ones on.

It is not the threads on the new tube that are the problem, it is the threads on the old frame. The old dies and tube threads had a lower thread height, same pitch. Run a modern tap through the old frame and the new tubes screw right in. Three different tap sizes. Zeros through #7 have the same size tap. #8 tube is unique to that size only, and #9 and #10 use the same pitch. As far as polishing your tubes….make a steel wool Q-tip. Start with coarse steel wool. With a variable speed drill and small bit. String out some steel wool and wind it on lol the slowly spinning bit. When you’ve got enough of a wad on the bit tear it loose from the string. Shoot a little WD40 on it. From the threaded end slowly spin it through the tube to the tip back and forth a few times. Go to a medium steel wool and repeat. That’ll do it. I will be interested to see what thread pitches they tell you. It isn’t what you think.

Looks great, he's a good guy to deal with for sure!

Stitching punches are relatively new and mostly imports to the US from countries based on the metric system. Overstitchers, pricking wheels, and pricking irons traditionally were/are made in countries based on inches. BTW, pricking irons and stitching punches are not the same thing.

My friend Eric Van Alstine makes a bunch of the period bags. For some inspiration his Facebook is Eric VanAlstine and Instagram account is ironweed_leather.

Thank you! That was really fun to do.

As much as I’m a fan of PB Blaster, I’ve found a 50:50 mix of acetone and Automatic transmission fluid works when PB Blaster doesn’t. Saw the comparison chart a few months ago and it was higher than my tried and true PBB.

I’ve had some through here a few months ago. Nice stamps for sure but as has been posted nearly the same price as Barry King unless you take your chances on AliExpress. It looks like ProLeather Carvers stocks some.

Hard to date catalog saddles like that because they made them for a long time and generally didn't change much except hardware like Oltoot mentioned and maybe stirrup buckle styles. That style tree and horn covering says 1930s to maybe the 50s to me.

I’ve got them from a few places. Tim at Steel Stamps is my first pick. They did some for me when I was doing wholesale work with clients marks. My wife had him make her a couple. None have shown any wear. For Delrin I have some from Jeff Mosby at GreyGhost. They’ve held up reasonably well. After maybe 500 impressions you can start to see some wear but very legible. I had a couple other delrin stamp makers send me ones to try. one was OK and two other makers were cut pretty shallow on the background. Still legible but not a crisp impression.

Good tips Will! If you don't have Cratex a good workaround is wet-dry sandpaper over a surface with a little give. Something like a scrap of mousepad material works well. It has enough give and conforms to prevent flat spots or divots from bouncing the drill. Chucking the handle in a drill press with the belts at the lowest speed works well too and some folks find more control with that set up. I deburr my tubes with a tapered diamond file with hand twisting and buff the outside, then by hand I spin the tube into the end grain of a fresh 2x4 to wipe the final foils off the edge.

Depends on how sharp your punches are, what you are hitting them with, and what kind of supporting surface. I sold two stitching punches to a guy who said he had trouble with his last punches getting through the leather. He was using an import poly mallet with soft plastic head, pounding on a self healing mat on a table. Not a real wonder why he was having trouble. He buys two punches from me. Buys a 2# maul from someplace because someone told him that's what he needed for 6 teeth. The LDPE I advised wasn't needed apparently, even though it cheap and available about everywhere. He moved his punching to the table end to get some support from the legs. He writes to me the punches did great but then hard to pull out. Long story short - he was used to dull punches and bounce. He now was using too much maul and force for sharp punches, and they were punching through the mat and sticking in the kitchen table. Yeah, they are a little hard to pull of that. Pictures of the kitchen table were nice. My song for everything goes like this - "Punch on low density poly, cut on high density poly..." Low density lets the punch edge penetrate slightly without damage.

I have had that one or a version from another die maker and a few others. I also have the one from the local ACE hardware store I have attached pictures of. I like this one better. With this handle I can "feel" it better and keep it vertical easier than the round handle versions. The handle also helps me navigate tight turns on some figure punches. Realistically with dies, you just need a somewhat sharp straight edge without a roll here or there. This will straighten an edge and sharpen it. You probably don't want a really fine thin edge or you will fight rolled edges and this angle works well for me. I just bought my wife about 20 figure dies and I'll be dragging this down the edge of all of them tomorrow to start with. Might use a narrow wirewheel or cratex on the Foredom or Dremel to clean up some stuck on crap on the inside, run the outside around a soft buff to make them "pretty".

Great work yet again. Hope things are going well for and your family!

I don't generally make a lot of announcements here on this forum about daily updates on leather tools for sale on my website but today is kind of a high water mark. I have added 6 knives made by Bob Dozier. I doubt I'll ever come across this many again in my lifetime. These are in as-new condition and I have sharpened them all. Really nice knives. Here is a website link for more information on recently added tools - https://brucejohnsonleather.com/leather-tools-sale/recently-added-tools/