bruce johnson

At Prescott people fly into Phoenix and either rent a car or take a commuter bus to Prescott. I'm not sure about any puddle jumper flights to Prescott. I'm not sure about the bus schedule either, but I know several have done it. Once you get to the facility, it is handy. It is held at a casino/conference center/resort on the edge of town. A few dining options right there, trade show and classes in the same building. Being a casino, there are usually waiting cabs at night for a run downtown. Nightlife and restaurants in Prescott, or over the hill to the east Prescott Valley. Sheridan. Until we started exhibiting we always flew. Billings mainly and rent a car. One time I checked out other options and Rapid City was a fair bit cheaper to fly into. The cost difference for the two of us paid for the rental car. Longer drive to Sheridan but we made a week out of it, spent a few days in the Black Hills first and it was a good way to do it for us. Tips of the Tradeshows - Sign up for classes you want early. The hot ones always fill. Don't sign up for classes the whole time and miss the trade show. Last year they started keeping the trade shows open an hour later on Friday, but that's only an hour. Between lunch and an hour at the end of one day, it can still be tight. Most everyone is very approachable. There are some top dogs teaching and some just showing up to hang out. They are regular folks. Gotta question, ask it. Just want to introduce yourself and meet and greet, that's cool too. There are a lot of people walking around just like you - they like to talk leatherwork and you can BS with a lot of neat people. Prescott also has big comfy chairs in the hallway. Great place to meet new people. Trade show - you can learn a bunch there too. See a tool you don't know, ask about it. Don't see a tool you are looking for, somebody likely will know where to get it. Ask about different leathers, hardware, machines - it is all there. You will see stuff that you didn't know existed. You can pick up all kinds of info. on a side note - I know a guy who gives away rulers and stickers, and has a pretty well stocked candy dish too. I just asked my wife what her advice would be to someone going to their first show. She said "Tell them shows are a kick-ass good time and to bring money!" Yeah, that too.

This is a good show and fun. It is a really nice facility. My wife is taking some classes for the first time (joys of retirement!). We will be set up as exhibitors at the trade show also. Stop by and say hello!

As KGG wrote above the fittings on the wax pot are strippers to remove excess thread lube. The plate to the right of the needle plate is the base for the roller guide. I've got one and can't remember if I bought it from Ferdco or later from Weaver. Somewhere in a place probably far, far away is a block that fits that slot and two arms - one with a single roller for curved pieces and one with two rollers for straight line stitching. The dealers can chime in here, but yours is built on the Juki frame not a clone. I'd think the plates will fit. Any parts like the tension disc assembly that go on the Juki should go on this. When I bought mine I got the clone version and with sage advice from Art Van Hecke I bought every plate and foot they made at time with it. I bought feet they came out with later also. The sole stitching foot was a particularly good one I used a bunch. I had a couple of the Juki frame ones through here at different times too and I don;t remember anything not interchanging. Hoffman Brothers bought out Ferdco and might have some of the feet and plates.

Everytime I did a tool related injury the first thing I said was a bad word. The second thing I said to myself was "Well, you could sure see that coming dumba**!". Don't shove leather into a dull draw gauge blade, the draw gauge will stick into your knuckle pretty far when the leather edge finally pops through. Pull the blade into the leather or make a knife knick if it is really hard leather. If the blade is dull - address that first. Don't pop your bare hand down on the bench clamp to loosen your leather while your draw gauge blade is still sticking up in a short cut. The sharp top point that serves pretty much NO purpose will bury right into your palm. Be careful of that point or do like several old guys did - round off and blunt that top point. You can have one of the safest designed splitters ever, the blade edge right there between two rollers. You sharpen the blade and screw it back in place. You grab that stubby screwdriver right there, not the longer one you usually use. About then you drag a ring finger over the edge and wonder where the hell all that blood is coming from. You notice a dime on the bottom roller and realize it is your fingertip and not spending coin. Watch all of your fingers around blades and use the proper tools not the closest tools. You don't want to be finishing up a saddle in flipflops. You will be stringing on conchos. You set the string bleeder down and watch it roll off the edge of the bench. In slow motion "real time" it does quarter turn in midair to land perfectly vertical in the top of your foot. Right there in that big vein like a lawn dart. When you pull it out you realize why the tool is called a bleeder. You watched the whole thing happen and didn't react to move your barefoot. It is a mesmerizing experience until you realize you are the target. From my old tool mentor, God rest his soul. He witnessed this repeatedly. People have some inborne desire to always check the sharpness of someone else's knife edges by running their thumb over it. Without asking, they just pick up knives and check them. If it is really dull and you can push on it, you will embarass him. If it is really sharp and you slice yourself, you bleed all over another person's shop and the embarasses you. Don't be that person. Just drink their coffee,njoy the comradierie and admire the knives visually. Murphy's Law - the further you are from the bandaids - the more the cut will bleed. Keep them everywhere to ward off the self inflicted wound juju.

I like the self healing mats for rotary cutters. High density polyethylene for knives. HDPE is hard enough to not let the edge dig in, but forgiving to an edge. The blade skates over it and doesn't dig in. That can be an issue with tight turns on softer plastic and mats. It is easy to twist the point off a round knife if the board is soft enough to let the blade dig in. I bought a 4x8 sheet and cut it down to fit my cutting table. I used it a good 8 or 9 years of hard use and it still was good. When I switched gears and concentrated on leather tools and not leatherwork per se, I cut it into smaller pieces to test knives in the tool shop and gave away a few pieces. My wife retired and first thing she did was kick me and the tools out of "her leather working shop". Second thing she did was to drive over to TAP plastics and have them cut a new piece of 3/8" HDPE to cover the cutting table again.

I agree with the end grain wood as a best surface. Another good choice is the poundo board, which I believe may be neolite sole material. It can have a fairly short lifespan and punches can go through it. My other favorite is low density polyethylene (LDPE). It is softer than the HDPE i like to cut on. The LDPE is softer and edges can penetrate without damage. HDPE is too brittle, can fracture, and can turn an edge on some finely sharpened punches.

Nice blade - ok handle. Here is my take on the old "patina vs. restoration" discussion. Unless you are hanging it up to look at, get it off. The old single name makers (J English, Crawford, et al) have collectible value as a display pieces. Light patina and original are a plus. Remove and arrest the rust and call it good. Rose knives were production type knives and lots of them out there. I think their value is more as a user. First thing I would do is get the curl of metal off the ferrule. It isn't adding any value and is a detractant to use. For the metal I start with rust removal. I might use a rust chelator solution like EvapoRust or MetalRescue. Usually I am batching knives to work them and put them in my blast cabinet to remove the rust , especially in the name stamped areas. Either way works. Then I go to a wire wheel and knock off everything loose. Before I got the cabinet and variable speed knife grinder I would go through the grits with papers or steels wool to clean the surface everywhere, not just the cutting edge. It can be eye opening at the point as the "patina" starts coming off as a nice pumpkin orange color - rust. What some people call patina, I call polished burnished rust. I get it down to a near mirror finish. I'm going to say right here that there may be some shallower pits you may not be able to totally rub or grind out without making divots. I get to where 99% of them are gone and call it good. Some knives are too far gone to get that good, and some will clean up with no pits left. Rose knives are a little more notorious for pitting. You've already found out the hardness of the steel stropping the burr off. These and the older English&Huber knives are the hardest I've dealt with. You get an edge on them and they'll hold it a good long time. The handle has been burned at some point. I would go through a few grits of sandpaper to clean it up, smooth it up, and knock the black off the burned area. You probalby won't get it totally even and symmetrical but it'll be better. Some Rose knife handles have a really pretty grain pattern and others are plain Jane. These knives take a bunch of time. On average by hand I used to have about 8 hours total in a Rose knife. I thought I was really slow. I was visiting Keith Pommer several years ago and remarked about a nice Rose he had. He told me he had 7 hours in it and probably another hour left. I didn't feel so bad.

There are some old threads on the forum here discussing this issue. It may be 5-7 years ago. At the time Rod Nikkel was still making trees and Denise had done quite a lot of studies about pressure, bridging, fitting most horses, etc. The room to round up issue was addressed and Here is what I believe the consensus came to - At one point in the stride the back may round up into that area but generally the whole musculature is lifting through out the stride. To allow a space for one group of muscles to round into at the expense of increased local pressure on the rest of the supporting muscles doesn't pan out. You mentioned cowhorses and a whole different ball game than a walk trot lope events. Horses have to adjust their stride, stop hard, turn short and fast, stretch out, shorten up run hard slow up and rate. Rounding up throughout all of that is not generally the case. I am attaching a picture I took back then. This picture has been around a bit. Denise and Rod may have used on their website. The test monkey in the picture is cowhorse bred and might have been 7 years old then. The customer had ordered this tree brought it to be built on. The tree was from a production tree maker and popular with some of the cutting and cowhorse saddle makers. I did as much lifting tricks I could from the ground and could never get him to lift his belly enough to make any difference. I passed on using that tree.

Bikermutt, Thank you for the video link!! I have zero experience with this new version but quite a lot of experience with a cast iron Boss. I paid off a ton of medical debt with one. Basically it would sew whatever I could cram under the foot. I sewed corner leathers onto 1" felt saddle blankets, 4 layers of skirting for a few odd ball projects, and some other stuff that would be an issue for most other machines. Coincidentally I talked yesterday with a saddle maker who has a ton of experience with old stitchers who had a Boss with a lower serial number than mine and his experience with the Boss matched mine. The cast iron ones were good once they got the early bugs worked out. Simple to use, easy to control, and did a pretty decent stitch. A Boss then was around $1500, a hundred or so more got a few feet and accessories. At that time, a powered machine with any sort of capacity was either a used needle and awl machine that you took your chances with ($1500-5000) or you paid $5-6K for a new closed needle machine. (I did that later too). This was before Artisan brought out the short arm clone and priced them under $2000K and started the low price machine ball rolling. It was before Servo motors too. You "kids" don't know how good you have it now. Addressing some of the concerns above regarding use. After a few uses I set mine up on a lower table and sat on a stool up a little higher so my hand was no higher than my shoulder. That reduced quite a bit of the user fatigue.Easy to learn to sew on and you control the speed. After about 5 minutes you have the "stroke" down and it becomes muscle memory. My first wife was making some things while she was going through Chemo treatments and she sewed at her speed. My son was sewing spur straps by the box when he was thirteen. After my wife died and Rundi I started dating, Rundi sewed belts on some of our "dates" when I had wholesale orders to get out. User friendly. It sounds like from what Bob wrote, this Outlaw has addressed some of the "improvements" that have plagued the later version of the Boss. I've got a relative who does some leather work and handsews. He needs to step it up - something portable and I've been sort of looking for a good used cast iron Boss for a gift. Pretty sure I just switched trails and will be thinking pretty hard about one of these Outlaws for that price.

The blades can be resharpened. There are 12 edges to use. Weavers offer a resharpening service for them once you've gone through them. They are worth the $$$ if you are doing a lot of strap edging. There are two versions one does two edges and one does all four edges. I just sold two of the smaller top edge versions at the Sheridan show. They will do two top edges at a pass, flip the piece over and pull through again to do the bottom edges. Handy dandy.

We will be there - the now semi-famous free rulers, stickers, what's been described as a pretty good to excellent candy dish, and some stuff to sell on a few tables.

Here you go - http://www.gfeller.us/lacecart.html

I have not found replacement screws with that type of head either. On some the head is actually threaded onto the shaft of the screw. I found this when the head screwed right off a few jammed screws. I have also found at least 2 or 3 different threads in equivalent screws on different Blanchard ploughs. I've got about 25 or 30 Blanchards in the back shop right now with various problems with broken or stripped screws. When I get to them, plans are to redrill and tap for modern screws.

There are a lot of hotels in Prescott so while the host hotel may sold out - Prescott and Prescott Valley have rooms. Sheridan usually sells out pretty much the town.

Here's my take - both shows are pretty similar. Prescott is maybe in it's 5th year and Sheridan is coming up something like 26th. The same major vendors at both but a few more vendors at Sheridan. Pretty similar core of classes at both shows. Many of the instructors do classes at both shows, and some are the same classes at both shows. Prescott attendance is a bit smaller than Sheridan but still a good one and growing. It has been the most successful venue other than Sheridan that the journal has sponsored shows at. The Prescott venue is tighter - most of the classes are right there and there are areas to sit and socialize outside of the lounge or restaurant. Sheridan is bigger and classes are more spread out - some are at the college and not really a gathering spot at the hotel other than the lounge or restaurant. At Sheridan KIng's sponsor a party the Thursday before and it is a good time. Prescott is smaller and the journal sponsors a reception Thursday night as well. If you haven't been to any shows before, either one would be a good pick.

It is going to be hard to find a decent handled rosette punch under $60. once in a while a clicker concho punch shows up for under $60.

I have had people send pictures of blades or blades themselves done by professional shops with deep wavey edges and divots. some have severe grit marks - they never got past about 80 grit. some are longer front to back one end vs the other by a large amount. A few of these don't have enough material left to salvage the blade. The best options for a local service would be one who is proficient with doing wood plane blades. Things to check on an as-found blade are fairly straight edge and minimal chips at the cutting edge area (chips at the very tips don't concern me as much)

If you REALLY trust your local general sharpening service, or even the local knife sharpening service try them. Also have a back up blade just in case. I have seen some real basket case pictures from shops that don't understand these. There are a few of us that do them. Art Van Hecke does blades. Right now I am getting ready for the Prescott show and wont't have a slot open until I am back after March 8th. Once I am back, I ask people to contact me first but I can usually do them on an overnight turnaround. Unless a blade is really bad - I am at $15-20 average plus $8 return shipping by small flat rate box priority mail.

Only when it comes time to replace a tube or anvil. There are a bunch of CS Osborne distributor sources. Maybe what, two VB in the US and ordering the odd needed bit might not be a stock item with either.

First off, in the current market that is a good buy. Crank splitter prices have been crazy high with broken parts or not. That adjust handle broken off is the weak link on the American splitters. They always break if not removed for shipping or even in the shop if something hits them at just the wrong angle. No replacement parts available, they have to be made. As far as paint schemes - there are no rules. Mostly green but I've painted them green, brown, gray, burgundy, and have a solid black coming up in a week or so. Parts and diagrams - have not seen them for the American or Champions. It is a bit of an undertaking to take on totally down and refurbish but not like taking a watch apart and expecting it to run afterwards. There are a few tricks and "so that's how it goes together" things along thew way. I tell people it is a twenty chapter book or a 15 minute phone call to talk somebody through it. Be glad to help if you decide to go that way.

One of the best guys I have seen skive used a home made blade on a turned over glass bowl. You know those honking big colored glass bowls that Grandma put potato salad in for the family reunion? His was the green color with white insides. He had cut the blade out an old saw. He was skiving boot top inlays at a cowboy trade show and fascinating to watch him work. A guy needed a mulehide horn wrap skived the length of the edges. This guy just held his blade flat so the bowl curve made the gap, stuck out two fingers out as a guide and as fast as he could pull it through, he was skiving the edges. I mean he was ripping it through there like it was on fire with an even skive just peeling off. It wasn't his first rodeo so to speak. I didn't ask if he would sell the bowl but I did ask him about a blade. Took $20 and a while later I got it in the mail. He put a handle on mine - duct tape.

It always conflicts but if we weren't setting up on Thursday I'd be in Paul Zalesak's class on sharpening. A basic skill universal to all leatherworking.

Midas version of the old Craftool Pro that usually has a black barrel. nice knives and that's a fair enough price

I built my bench for both. The height was built for standing and I got an adjustable height stool then to make it right for sitting. I measured the height where my forearm was level with a maul resting on the end of a stamp. That is the height I made the bench. The stool was a an adjustable height draftsman type stool from the used office furniture outlet.

Yes, they were. The first striking stick given to me was a section of ax handle that had been drilled out and leaded, then rawhide wrapped. I used that one until I got the two fancier ones out of Art Vancore's shop i pictured earlier. I've had lighter ones that weren't leaded. Tandy sold one that had a hard plastic on the ends, that had a similar oval cross section. I have seen them made from balusters for handrails too.