bruce johnson

Some are just jammed in and friction fit. Some are glued in. Some have a small wooden wedge on one side or the other of the tang.

I'd go that. Please message me. Thanks, - Bruce

Here you go - The white substance is most likely "spew". It is a combination of waxes, oils, and soaps that exudes from leather not being used much (or over conditioned). It may also be mold. The quick and dirty test is to apply a little heat to it with something like a hair drier. If it melts back in - spew. If it sits there and looks at you - likely mold.

Normally this version would have a maker mark on the shoe (sloping tip that sticks out in front of the blade). Most but not all I have had also have a mark on the brass piece that binds the beam when the lever is tightened. Some had just the dot like yours. I think you are right - unmarked Dixon (and a good one!)

It is not good. I am not a huge fan of rawhide either for the questionable sourcing, but it will somewhat breakdown in the stomach and gut. Leather can behave differently. Being softer the dogs are more prone to chew less and will swallow bigger pieces. After leather is tanned, it tends to form really hard balls that don't digest. I have seen for sure cases where a dog chewed part of a leather leash and TWO months later I got to remove it from the stomach. Have removed leather from the intestines several times. Unless you have a burning desire to share your cash with my colleagues, I would stick to dog treats and separate the dogs from the leather scraps. Bruce Johnson, DVM

I had free rulers in my booth.

Did you pick up a ruler while you were there?

I am with Art. This tool has been sharpened that way. When I'd get the occasional one I figured it was poor sharpening. One some you can see they held it an angle against a stone or wheel, the scratch marks showed that under magnification. I went merrily along believing that was always the case until I got a set with matched right and left Gomphs in 3/5/6 sizes in an old harness makers chest. Gomph likely didn't do it, and that led me to believe some special purpose or the way a guy was taught. Since then I have got two more pretty intact estate sets of similar vintage with matching rights and lefts in either Gomph or HF Osborne. These sets all came from within a close enough region of each other. These were all level on the bottoms and looks like these users knew what they were doing when they modified them. Same shop?similar purpose? Same mentor? Still I sit here - without a definite reason why they did this. I mean I can see the right or left for right and left handed users. What I am still trying to wrap my brain around is why rights and lefts in matched sizes in the same sets? What special purpose was there to these 100 years ago? When I square them up one side of me says "Bruce, this guy when to a lot of effort to modify this French edger his way and you are wrecking it!". The guy on the other shoulder stabs me with the pitchfork and says "Dude, you're just fixing what that putz mucked up 100 years ago. If HF and Henry meant for them to be angled, they'd have angled them right off, GRIND, GRIND, GRIND!! ".

I get them like that too, and some a lot more extreme angle. I see enough that I think it is intentional by the user. Some estate sets have had rights and lefts in a few sizes. Specialty purpose?? Somebody's mentor probably did it and on it goes. I don't see enough difference in use of angled vs straight to convince me one is superior to the other. Some of the Japanese style skiving blades have a square front edge and the English paring blades are angled. What's up with that? What do I do? The guy who taught me a lot about tools was in the business about 60 years and he never showed me any angled ones. I just square up the edge and start over. Also I grind the toes back to stick out maybe 3/32-1/8".

I pulled the stem out of an old bobbin winder. I stick it in my drill and tension the thread off the spool with my thumb and first finger. I go back and forth like a level wind bait casting reel and wind a pretty good bobbin in no time.

Are you going to the Prescott Leather show? If so or you could get it there, I am interested in buying it back. Most everybody I know that could pick it up for me down that way is north of LA. I am tied up until the show, but otherwise we'll figure some way to get it.

Tandy - maybe 20-25 years ago. nice knives

Will, Business is at the house, and so it is considered residential. Yes, I'd be up for trades. - Bruce

If you'd ship to the US, please message me a shipping cost.

All are McMillen stamps except for the Craftools

At first glance I thought bleed knot too but this is different. The end is a rolled button. Basically you roll or fold the leather a time or two or three. Then punch a hole through the layers in the middle and feed the end down through the hole and pull tight. This looks like they cut a slit in the tail and fed the button up through it.

Make the template, then use that on your baseline to establish the angle

Ed,' I bought a new replacement blade for a 5-in-1 from Pilgrim Shoe in October for $52. Shipped for about $3. Harris is a good guy - very knowledgeable and helpful.

The general rule of thumb in the old edge Gomph, HF Osborne, and CSOsbornes edge bevelers was each size number = 1/16 inch of cutting edge. realize that when these tools were made horses were transportation - harness was the primary use and saddlery second so they were mostly used on heavier leather. The finer sizes were not used much. Most of the edgers follow that sizing general guideline fairly close. Some of the European and other makers varied a bit. As was mentioned above - improper sharpening can change the profile or width of some styles of edgers. Bisonettes are notorious for that, Use something too wide for the size and you can make a wider hole and change the size, Gomph and HF Osborne are no more, and CS Osborne has sacrificed some old tried and true patterns for ease and lower cost of manufacture. The modern CS Osbornes can be pretty different than the older equivalents. French edgers were also sized at the each number =1/16 of cutting edge for the most part. Again some individual tool variation and a bit of variation between the other makers. Creasers - Took me a while to figure the sizing there! After a few hundred the light came on. Each size number = 1/32" . Gomph and the Osbornes made a smaller size range from 1-5 in 1/32" increments. One in a while you will find a #6 that is 6/32". Then they both made a larger size range that Gomph called a large round creaser and Osborne called a layer creaser. To slightly complicate things they again numbered them #1 to #6. The large range #1 started at 6/32" and went up in 1/32" increments. As found creasers can sure vary. The creasing edge will round and wear over time and use. Some sharpened them for a nice fine crisp line and others are rounded for a bolder line according to preference I can and do try to bring them back to the spec size with bits of the proper radius to regrind the groove and then polish them.

Here's what I got on an average of several new tubes in the #3-#6 range that Osborne says are interchangeable tube sizes for the single tube punches. The outside of the threads is 0.31 inch With my thread gauges the M 1.0 is a fit as far as I can tell with magnification. My SAE gauge jumps from 24 to 27. The 24 is too coarse and the 27 is too fine. My experience with the old single tube punches is the threads seem to match interlocked in TPI but the thread height on the old ones is lower. The new tubes do not run into the old holes very often. Run the M8x1.0 tap through and the new tubes go. I take the old tubes out before bead blasting the handles and toss the old tubes so I don't have any right now to check the outside of the old tubes vs. the new tubes. Whether we are dealing with very close but obsolete or propriety threading in the old frames, I don't know but the M8x1.0 makes them work for the new tubes. I am sometimes dealing with 80-100 year old or so frames and last month's replacement tubes.

Interesting because the #1-#7 tubes on the single tube punches I use a M8x1 tap. From there they got to a fractional for the #8 and I'd have to double check what runs the #9 - #10. Osborne does not seem to follow the KISS rule.

Dallas, There are a few considerations and a lot of it comes down to how much you have, how much you want to put into selling, and how long you have to sell it. There are a few people around who would buy a whole shop no matter the size - tools, machinery, hardware, the whole deal for one money. The other option is to sell machinery by the piece, tools by groups, and hardware by groups. Somebody might want a heavy stitcher but doesn't need a chap sewing machine, next guy wants a splitter and skiver but has a stitcher and machine. These are likely the bigger priced items and less of them so selling them separately isn't a huge hassle, especially if somebody can pick them up. Grouping tools like strap end punches together, hammers, stamps, pliers, etc by type will shorten up that group up some. If you have a bunch of stamps from different makers, sorting them by maker will bring more. Hardware by groups. Most all this could be shipped without a problem. That will likely bring a little more money without a ton of work on your part. Final option is piecing out the machinery and tools by the piece and hardware by size and type. Lot more work and time involved, and the returns may or may not be much better than grouping them. Figuring out what it is all worth is the big thing. You no doubt know from experience in the business that some machines and tools are more desirable than others depending on maker. Then factor in condition. Finally there is the demand. - Bruce

Good guy. Matt has been in the leather business a long time in a partnership or two before he started Maverick a few years ago. Recently moved from CA to Oregon. Talk to him and tell him what you need and he'll do his best to get the right stuff the first time.

Likely nobody had to work very hard to polish out the maker mark. The Clyde and Shapleigh knives made by Clyde had an etched marked that is pretty light. A lot of them you just ID by the handle shape because the mark is pretty much gone. I like them - nice knives and especially for a first knife. They are a good mix of "hold a pretty good edge but don't take all day to sharpen". You will have to strop and stone them more often than the higher end knives, but they will do the job for you. Price wise - you paid ballpark for one.

Thanks, I saw it on Ebay and will just let it play out there.