bruce johnson

Specifically, I price them based on “what would this have been worth to me as a user?” When I was making a lot and “what is the market for this stamp currrently?” Some stamps get popular and then not as much - like barbwire stamps are not as common now as 10 years ago. Some stamps are timeless. The cluster/sunflower flower centers are popular now but the ring seed centers have always been used and will continue. On McMillen baskets, I am mostly $65 and up on them. That is the price point they sell at for me. I sell new Wayne Jueschke stamps for the same price. Why? Some people like one more than the other. Some people are recreating a work from the past and need it to match. Some like the look. A lot of times past work was done with a McMillen. I have loaned out a few harder to find McMillens from my set to some top makers needing to replace a part and wanting the exact match. The McMillens have stood up over time and are durable good stamps. There are no standard prices for McMillens, original Ray Hackbarths, Gore, Chuck Smith, and other stamp makers no longer in business. I base pricing on experience and watching trends. Some collectibility factor but mostly on those I am looking at “user pricing”. If i don’t have a particular stamp I like, I am probably personally going to pay more than a more common rope center basket, but at the end of the day - it’s a user too. Don King stamps are little different deal for me. They are collectible and we look at them as users too. I price them to honor them. I have a flower center I had never seen before, another guy with a bunch had never seen it. When I was getting a few together for the Prescott show last month my wife stamped off about 8 Don Kings for the examples to go in the showcase. She told me that she didn’t know what I was pricing them at but she was bidding $499 on that flower center. It would take $500 to buy it. I sold some other Don Kings and had a few people look at that flower center “I can’t buy it but I’d just like to hold it”. In the end, it’s now in Rundi’s tool rack and getting used. Auction bidding can be fickle. Something will sell for $100 this week and $50 next week, takes a lot of following auction trends to get an idea of value. My auction bidding is usually “figure what I’d pay” and stick to it. They generally made more than that one and another will or won’t come along. I’m not a get in at $10 and ride it $5 at a time to $75. I am not afraid to jump a bid to a fair value and go from there.

The 245 and 246 are good for straight borders, you can angle them across 90 degree corners and go right on also. That list looks good. I’d suggest a 84 or 87 for the 3/16 basket and lean towards the 87.

I am coming at this from two angles for feedback. As a user - we have a mix of off the rack and custom dies. Most all are steel rule dies with a few wooden backed dies. Height from 3/4 from Kaspar to 1-1/4 from most other makers. no real preference there other than some of the presses need adjusting for height. We have an air/hydraulic jack press with plates top and bottom - no adjustment and the workhorse. We have a 4 ton Weaver hand press - needs adjusting for die height changes but works good. I just got a WUTA large size hand press. My wife likes the small footprint on her bench and easy to use for even some complicated smaller dies like purse or saddle charms. She has a running horse die with a lot of cutting edge length and it goes right through. I also deal in tools and get quite a few dies in used. I don't care for the stitching holes - bent and broken tines are common. On some of the ones with slot or round punches the punches can be chipped. Some screw out or press out easily and some don't. Screw in tubes are better for me to replace. I do like the punches and slots in them, but ease of replacement is a consideration

Here are some rope borders. The rope cans have a larger size. The little pad holder has a smaller size rope stamp

That looks great. He has not missed a step. One of the great toolers and a top tier stamp maker! I have a bunch of his stamps and always a delight to find more and pass them on.

The “rule” is more for the cam or flat side border stamps. On the rope borders, I’d pick a rope size according to the project size. I did a bunch of rope borders and used a larger one for rope cans and bags and smaller size for checkbooks and most wallets. Interesting side note. Several years ago I started off using the Craftool rope stamps and bent the ends on several - still cost effective to toss them but not ideal. I had Barry make me some and eventually they got to be a stock item for him. I still have those originals

Just to help with sizing. Years ago the “golden rule” I was given for sizing. On basket stamps the width of the border stamp should be the width of the end of the basket stamp. On square geometric stamps the border stamp should be 1/2 the width of the geometric stamp. As far as each of these stamps on work, I can pull up an example of the wagon wheel pretty quick here. Julie Baugher uses the 246 and 248 stamps a lot. I’ve sold a lot of the 218 to 221 stamps also. They are a half flower stamp and make a nice border - more dimensional than many others.

Sea turtle or print depending on how old it is. Think the ban went in during the late 70s??

Mark, there are no standards with colors as it sounds like you have found out. Here are my #1 picks from coarse to fine for metals. I use them on buffing wheels, grinder stropping belts, and manual strops Formax Black Magic - I get it from Tru Grit - This will take grit marks out and leave a particularly fine finish too. It is some voodoo stuff and not like any other black compounds I have used as far as taking out marks to leaving a pretty shiny final finish. Others leave a matte finish, this goes noticeably past that. Green from Maverick Abrasives - finer than black and more of a mirror polish Purple from Maverick Abrasives - super mirror finish and removes residual grit marks left by green. Downside is that these are sold in 3# sticks. Remind me the next time you order tools and I can break you off some chunks of each to try. From local hardware and home improvement stores - Dico black (E5) Dico white - kind of got to skipping it and I don't miss it much Dico Green

we can add slit braid and snake braid to the list of names I have heard it called also.

Not to totally change gears but did you say it doesn’t smell? It may not be mildew or mold at all and could be spew. Those usually smell, spew doesn’t. Spew is waxes and oils in the leather that migrates to the surface and makes a whitish film. A quick and easy test is to hit it a heat gun or hair dryer. Spew liquifies and may resorb somewhat into the leather. Mildew doesn’t melt. Some leathers are prone to spew to begin with. Some of the latigo leathers especially. I loved Fox Valley Tannery latigo but it came with a variable coat of spew right out of the roll. Lay the sides in the sun and it absorbed enough to soak in. Cut it and edge when it wasn’t as messy, then the spew would eventually come back when it got cool . Made great long lasting latigos and straps. Sometimes the treatment after making something will contribute to excessive spew. Conditioners and saddle soap add even more waxes and oils and makes more spew. I’d check this out with some heat first.

This is a quick and dirty demo I did for bleeding ties on zipper tabs. Normally I would saddle soap and slick the leather first. I tap the braid after finished to set and flatten it a bit. Did a lot of these ties on zippers for motorcycle jackets and pockets on jackets. Easy to grab with gloves and the ties don’t turn on the tabs. I did them after that on most everything with a zipper to dress them up. Sometimes matching, sometimes contrasting

The braid is called a bleed knot

Here is another - https://www.jbldleatherschool.com/

Your dad is making stamps again too or just hand tools?

It is for cutting “kilties” on shoes. They go under the laces and extend over the arch and top of the foot.

A few things that will help with softer leather. Your comment that the leather is bunching in the throat tells me you are pulling the cutter and not the leather. Tension and pull the tag end of the leather through, don't pull the cutter into the leather. Doesn't matter if it is a draw gauge, plough gauge, wooden cutter, or Aussie strander - the cut piece should be tensioned for best results on all but really firm leather. Second thing is to rotate the brass cylinder around to allow just the thickness of the leather to pass. Too much gap and it can ride up and down more with uneven cuts. Final thing is to cut wider than you want on the first pass. Then stretch your lace to straighten it some and go back to cut your final width. One some really floppy or spongy leathers I have applied a layer of masking tape to the back of the original piece to give it some body. Then peel off when you are done cutting.

Beehive, Thank you for that heartfelt post. I have been on this forum since the beginning and your comments bring it home why we are here - community. I have been there brother. I have been in dark spots and leather pulled me through financially and emotionally. I get some of what you are saying and things worked out and changed. I recently bought the estate tools of a saddle maker. He had bought a few tools from me over the years and we would talk then about people we knew in common, what the latest project was, etc. His son sent me some pictures of his dad. One picture was the last day he worked in his shop. I have a blog post on my website about it. I hope he didn't know it was the last time he would work in his shop. When the time comes I hope I don't know either. We just got back from the Prescott Leather Show last weekend. A tool maker and I were talking - we could make the same amount of money staying home, but these are "our people". We feed off the energy and interaction. Rundi and I met several people that are world class leather workers and others you may never hear their name - they are all great to me. I truly wish I had more time at these shows. Some I knew before, I met some "legends" for the first time. I said good-bye to some that I may never see again. I go to the restaurant or hardware store in a town I've lived for over 40 years and might know one or two people. I go to leather shows or Facebook or here and know a lot more. These are my people, this is my tribe, and glad you are all a part of it.

No sir, I still have too many irons in the fire to learn proper braiding. I am pretty close to retirement from the day job but not sure braiding is in my future when I look at the backlog in my shop here. I am still buying or trading tools for good braid work. Same goes for silverwork. My wife has enough braided bracelets and necklaces to go for a week or more and not wear the same one twice. Silver? She can like go a week there on cuffs and a few weeks on pendants to hang off the braided or Navajo pearl necklaces. She puts up with me and earns every piece she gets.

You just missed the Southwest Leather Trade Show in Prescott. Leather Machine Co ("Cobra") was there and wheeled a few machines back into the trailer for home on Sunday. Either they were machines demo'd and used in classes or ones that didn't sell. At the shows there are discounts.

A few things can cause that. One is the tension on the leather holding the zipper may be different side to side and that causes the one side to curl a bit when it is open. The other may be the amount of zipper tape that is stitched. Again if the tape is sewn with a wave that can tension or throw excess into the tape when open. Overall, it is probably way more noticeable to you than a customer. Still things to watch for when assembling. I had heck with this same problem when I was doing a lot. Back in the dark ages we used glue and usually two coats on the tape to hold our zippers in place for fitting and sewing. Now my wife takes it up and double sided tape makes it much easier.

The letters came in after 1963. Before that the stamps are called "Pre Letter" by collectors. They used the letters for general stamp categories in the catalogs. Some of them as you say are intuitive - P for pear shaders, etc. Others like bevelers, basket stamp, and borders all start with "B" so they used other letters. To confuse things further, some stamps of a certain number were discontinued over the years and another totally different stamp came in with that number.

For the Ron's Tools that we stock I sell a fair amount of #5 and #6s to sheath and holster makers for welted work as well as saddle makers. I stock up to #8 - the 7s and 8s mainly go to saddle makers. What I find interesting is the #1 Montana edger. It takes off 1/64" - higher end wallet makers for pocket and falcon hood makers.

He should have the #3 size on hand now. I sent in a restock order today that I am picking up next week in Prescott at the show. There are several of the #3 round edgers on that order and he didn't say they were out.

Tell him "Hello" and that many people still value his stamping tools. Quality endures. We just stamped off several that we will be taking to the leather show in Prescott in a couple weeks. Thank you also for resurrecting this thread. Reading the names of responders is a list of friends who have a had lot of influence on us over the years, and some continue to!