bruce johnson

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/

I've used a vibratory tumbler with pretty good success for cleaning. Can do a bunch at a time if you are talking volume. Put them in and walk away for 4-12 hours depending. If you are looking for a high polish then the buffing wheel and compound. A benchtop drill press was the handiest thing in my shop and you can chuck a 4 or 6 inch buffing wheel in it. Move the belts around to the lowest RPM. I did all my saddle rivets on a set up like that. They can heat up pretty quick though or catch and fly. I used a vise grip to hold the shank with better results than burned fingers and flying copper shrapnel

The chart I posted above shows the size for each number on the #169 setter. For copper rivets the #8 setter sets a #14 copper rivet. These are tinners rivet setters for iron or copper rivets and probably some reason they are size numbered like they are. It may have been some trade standard at the time. 150 years ago they probably found a #169-8 tinner rivet setter will do a #14 copper rivet for leather too. The #169-4 will do a #9 rivet and the #169-6 will do a #12 rivet. To further confuse things, the #170 setters looks similar to the #169 but not described as hardened at the working end or intended for iron rivets . They are listed in sizes for 8, 9 and 10 rivets and they do correspond to the size of the rivets.

I guess I should have gone to the source a few days ago. Here is the catalog page and explanation. Cleanout for anything that gets stuck in the setting hole.

The hole on the bottom is for setting the bur. Most of the answers I've been told the hole on the side is to hang it up. Don't know for sure. One ironworker told me if a piece off the shank breaks off in the setting hole with a hot rivet then you can drive the scrap up and out that larger hole. That sounds more real.

Might not be what you want to hear, but I'm going to be straight up. I'm not sure from what I see I'd trust it to rope a goat in a pen, let alone something big in a pasture. I'd pull everything off and start over. Breast collar dee is pretty low, The skive on the top edge of the rigging is coarse. Skive on the swell cover edges same. I covered dally horns before I put on the swell cover, wood post horns are a toss up as far as covering before or after the swell cover on a new build. That depends on who you learned from and a bit regional too. Doesn't appear the front edge of the swell cover was skived and there is a ridge there where it was folded under. The strainer liner looks thick under the back of the plate and that needs to be covered and blended. The ground seat end at least on this side is thick and not skived at the cantle corner. I doubt a seat leather is going to be enough without leaving a ridge over the ground seat or strainer and would likely take another piece of ground seat anyway. I cant see the screws holding the front rigging and with everything else, I'd be leery there. If it was me, Id take a day and a half to start it over and make it right.