bruce johnson

With my new website update, I have got a whole new bunch of people tuning in. I am sharing here one of the makers of new tools that we carry. Wayne Jueschke is known for his detailed stamps and mauls (we also carry his string/lace cutters). Wayne is old school - no website or social media. You buy from him at a show or call him up. He mails you a flier, you pick the tools you want and call him, he tells you how much and you mail him a check. I have been a user of his stamps and mauls for several years. A few years ago we struck a deal to sell tools for him on-line. It has exploded and we carry a good share of his stamps and all sizes of mauls. Below are some representative samples of his stamps and mauls but we have a LOT more. Please check them out at https://brucejohnsonleather.com/products/wayne-jueschke-new-tools/wayne-jueschke-stamping-tools Thanks! - Bruce

Barry King had or has WyoSheen . I’d see if he still does.

I grooved my stitchlines for several reasons. One is that I started off handsewing and grooving front and back gave me a target to keep my stitchlines straight. Good for practice and devloping the muscle memory and consistent angles for hand stitching. I groove to the depth of the thread. I don't need to dig a ditch to recess #92 and a dent in leather isn't going to recess #415. I hear the weakening argument a lot. OK, for most leather the rules say stitchlines parallel with lines of tension and not across. Take that little thread of leather you grooved off. Pull it apart between your fingers and see just how much tensile strength there is in it. On machine sewing. I sit right there and with a "soft-eye" watch the length of the needle line up with the groove line. It helps with that target line to keep stitching straight. . If the axis of the needle is lined up over the stitchline down the road, my needle is going in the right spot. I don't need to hard-eye look at the needle point everytime it punches in. Number one, that is fatiguing. Number two the stitchline wanders. Pick a point further down the road, lineup on it, and let that focal point float on ahead. Like driving a car down the highway.

You can groove really deep on shoe soles to recess that stitching. Many makers use a channeler though.

Rose knives are among the most difficult to restore. They can be among the hardest steels. They can be prone to pitting when found. Combine those two factors and refurbishing equals time. Lots of time. My first Rose was an education. Short anecdote - I was visiting Keith Pommer several years ago. I picked up a Rose on the bench he had about finished for himself. It was a beautiful knife. He made the comment that I probably wouldn't believe him, but he had 8 hours in that knife and wasn't quite done. I told him I definitely believed that. Been there on several Roses. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to buy his personal set of tools after he passed away. My wife knew what Keith and those tools meant to me so 4 days later I was on a plane to pick them up and ship home. One of my prize possessions is that Rose.

I cut on HDPE and punch on LDPE. HDPE allows your knife to glide more without digging in and twisting off points. LDPE allows punch edges to lightly punch into the board for cleaner punches on the leather and less damage on punch edges than harder synthetics. Other materials are soft wood, or masonite for cutting. Punching - some old guys used lead slabs and when they got chewed up - melted the surface with a torch to smooth them up - health issues with that material. I throw them away in shop buy-outs so I'm not tempted. End grain wood works well, the rubber poundo boards, neolite sole material ia another of my favorites, rubber conveyor belting, mud flap material, etc. only time for cutting mats is Olfa roller blade knives around here.

Not that are going to work like baby powder. Most of the treatments are going to help soften but not many will add any appreciable lubrication for long. Saddle soap makes strap work slippery but absorbs in pretty fast. Powder is predictable.

@pqstraub As much as I’d like to, I don’t make reins or do leatherwork anymore, just sell tools to the folks that do. My picks would be Taylor Meeske or Tyler Shupe. Both are around the horse business a lot and have good stuff. https://www.shoptmleather.com/ https://tylershupeleather.com/

Paulette, the poppers were usually cut from the lower belly middle of the sides. The top edge was lapskived and they were sandwiched between the rein ends. They were sewn 3-4” with backstitching at the start and end of the stitch lines. there are several areas that could be in play with your reins. Wanting to have them stamped pretty much limits you to veg tan and that is probably the biggest factor. There are a lot of things you fight making, using, storing, and maintaining veg tan reins. To be honest I never made any because as a user I didn’t like them. Personal preference

I gave up on vegtan reins when I was about 18 years old and showed my last western pleasure horse in buckstitched vegtan reins. No feel, stiff, and get stiffer. Sometime close after that in college I got my first pair of Dennis Moreland harness leather reins. (He is a legend and hero in rein making) Those were all I used for the next 15 or 20 years. Once they broke in - feel, weight at ends, length, durability, the more you used them the better they got - the real deal. About 25 years ago somebody gave me a set of doubled and stitched latigo reins for a gift. These were nice right out of the box! I figured out the weight they used, then made a few pairs for myself - sewn on a Boss hand crank stitcher. Figured a treatment I liked pretty quick and then a set up to pre break them in. A couple people tried them and I was in business. Between an awards order and reins I paid for a powered machine in a month when machines weren't cheap. I was pretty dedicated on making reins for years. I kept them paired up start to finish to keep them equal in feel. I asked for long sides with an 8 in the thickness number m(7/8 or 8/9, I didnt care), no brands, and I didn't care how shallow. I never cut below the break in the hide for reins. Fox Valley latigo was my favorite and after they closed Matt Foster at Maverick Leather got me good latigo sides from Horween. I made several hundred pairs of split reins, 100 or so roping, barrel racing, and bulldogging reins, and 50 or a little more latigo romal style cowboy reins. Width - cutters, reiners, show pleasure, ropers, barrel racer, cowboy, and pleasure-pleasure riders - usually 5/8". Snaffle bitters, bulldoggers, and colt starters - normally 3/4", some 5/8" .Then to further mix it up, A few trainers asked for in-betweens and I started doing 11/16" widths. Those got to be sort of popular with some other folks, especially ladies showing snaffle bitters. I made some 1" but only by order, never as a stock for me or others who sold mine. Maybe 40 pairs of 1 inch if that. Romals were a contract deal and either 1/2 inch or scant 5/8" reins with 3/4" romal. Length - 6-1/2" for a few juniors, lots in the 7 to 7-1/2 foot range for colt starters, some snaffle bitters/western pleasure/some reiners/pleasure/cowboys and trail riders. 7-1/2 to 8 footers for the rest of show pen snaffle bitters, cutters, and reiners.

I tried through my bank's allied card processing service a times. They were not geared for most businesses under 250K a year in transactions without add-on fees that weren't practical. They still try to contact me and they still can't compare close enough to make me like them. I have used Square from the time of the old Iphone slide reader up through the Ipad stand setup and now the Square Register. I haven't gone on the latest POS hardware yet but see businesses that use it. When I ask they all like it. Realistically at the end of the year, I am 45-45 square vs PayPal and 10% cash and checks (shows mostly on those). My costs per $ processing fees are not different enough to worry about between PayPal and Square at the close of the year books. Square takes every card at the same rate (most bank providers don't). International transactions are simple. Square service has been good when I've needed it. Money is in my account next business day for transactions before 5:00 pm. I can print my book keeping records for square with no charges, my bank's processor has fees. My son uses Clover for one of his businesses and likes it. He helped me at one show and said it pretty similar for Square or Clover. I looked at Quick Books and the integration would be nice, card fees were OK but the package of accounting software for my business set up was astronomical. If yours is simple - good option.

Just a question, did you insert the pictures into the text or add them as an attachment? I can't get them to expand. Yes I have had stitching make curves and humps on reins and narrow straps. You go down one side and have a pretty good curve, come back up the other side and it usually evens out, but not always. The needle holes and thread will expand that edge length. The humps can be from sewing over a cylinder arm and not staying flat. Can be tension too. Can be memory from rolling them up after finishing. Stamping can cause distortion and a narrow strap that like can magnify it. As far as the tool burnish, it can and does go away or lessen with staining or dyeing. It can go away with rewetting too. That is one of the reasons for antiquing.

Jerry Van Amburg has been our go-to guy for exotics. I've been buying from him for 20 years at least. Has a bunch of stuff that isn't on his website. At the shows he always has a bunch of ostrich shins and cane toads that I don't see on his website. Best way is to contact him through Instagram or Facebook. My wife orders enough she calls him and its a half hour conversation sometimes.

Yes I just clipped the hair off. That said, I have had some I added stuffing to that originally had some small pieces that were squares around an inch that were just cut scrap and leather left on. One of my friends has stuffed quite a few doing piece work and did that. Stuff with clippings to get a layer and lay smooth under the cover, then packed in cut scrap and finished with more clippings at the flap. He had the first stuffing rods I saw and worked the wool all over. He could get them packed really tight down into the ends. The synthetic fiber I was thinking of in the earlier post is Fiberfil. I already had two phone calls about the stuffing rods mentioned in the earlier post, I don't have any pictures I can find or any on hand right now but I will get some made up.

Cotton balls, not my first pick. Will pack down and be soft in a week no matter how tight you pack then initially. You will be repacking forever and this will be the never ending story. You only do this once and learn. Some use horse hair or cowtail hair. I stuffed a few with that stuffing used for toy animals and it worked OK, can't think of the name. For natural fiber I liked wool. Look around for saddlemakers in your area and be prepared to ask to pay for scrap. Next option would be to call up Panhandle and see if they have some crappy woolskins that wont work for skirts and sell a little cheaper. I used to have a few bucking roll stuffing rods around here that made life easier for packing. All sold and havent found another source yet. Option B for the next pair - Jeremiah Watt sells bucking roll inserts. Sew them up, no packing time, and surprisingly durable.

Yes, there is! On the forum here in the right sidebar just under recent topics is the calendar of upcoming events. In addition, the major leather magazines Leather Crafters Journal and Illume (used to be ShopTalk) sponsor the shows and have information in their magazines, on their websites, and Face book/Instagram pages.

Yeah, picking stitches is no fun. There is a tool that minimzes picking on most saddles but you are past that point once the stitches are cut like these. Two things could be going on. 1).Most of these old saddles were sewn on needle and awl machines and the thread was hotwaxed - those machines had wax pots with heaters to melt the wax. Once that wax cooled it got hard and basically helped bind the lockstitch in place deep in the leather. 2). If it was hand sewn then yes, some saddle makers throw a half overhand in each stitch. Basically take a full wrap around the opposing front needle before you pull it through. Combine some sticky hand sewing wax/rosin mix on natural thread and it locks the thread like hotwax. Curiosity - how are you planning to resew the skirts?

To go along with our other machines, my wife decided last winter she wanted a 26. She had used one in a few classes and it could do more than the 1245 flat bed, not as intimidating as the Ferdco 2000, more robust than the Singer 17. We picked it up in February at the Prescott show. Every time she uses it she tells me how much she loves it. Forward and reverse match. I have dealt with machine help from Weaver (Vernon Weaver) and Ferdco (Ron and his brother) in the past and they were dead on great guys, Vince and the guys at Leather Machine Co are the same caliber and more. I am all in the world for manuals but if I have a problem with a Cobra rather than look it up, I'd have tools in hand and Vince on speaker on my phone. I found in the past that saved me more time and less frustration with other machines. I screwed around with reverse on an Adler I used to have for an hour and had the book. Called Ferdco and 4 minutes later I was thanking them. As an aside and unsolicited testimonial - Everybody talks about the service and that's true. Additionally I can't think of another company as dedicated to helping the leather business as Leather Machine Co. It started with Steve Tayrien and carries on with David Spiegel, Vince Alvarado, and the rest of them. They are set up at every show. I don't think there is a show that they are not a major sponsor of something. They quietly sponsor other things related to leather too (check out Steven Van Plew's video podcasts on YouTube). They provide the appropriate sewing machines and skivers if needed for all the classes at the shows. They have a huge trailer to bring presold and available machines. If you are considering buying ahead of time they will tag a machine, bring it to shows to save shipping costs, set up and running to learn on there, then they break them down and load them for you. This isn't their first rodeo doing that. They fit three machines and stands in the back seat of my truck with no rattling on the drive home.

They are called plugs or sometimes scabs. They help to stiffen the edge of the skirts to prevent curling and to spread edge pressure depending on rigging style. They also help to soften the transition from the bar edges to the skirts depending on how the skirts are blocked. Some saddles have the skirts plugged right up the bar edge and skived to blend that transition. Others have a 2 or 3 inch wide plug just for the skirt edges.

Here is what I can recommend - https://twentythreeplus.com/collections/tools/products/beginner-tooling-kit Joe is a good guy and sharpens the blade so you know how they should be instead of guessing with a dull blade.

I have tried to stay out of this but its been a long week and new one starts tomorrow. I can't sit on my hands. After 40 years of practice I couldn't tell you how many dogs I have done surgery on for foreign bodies. Been there, done that, have the souvenir scrub shirt. Leash and collar eaters are right up there. About 20 years ago a well meaning crafter in our area made some dog chew toys with latigo and vegtan scraps left over from her leash and collar business. After the third surgery in a week, I asked one of the owners to maybe let whoever was selling those chewies at the weekly Farmer's Market to rethink her profit from the scrap bin idea. Interesting aside - she called to yell at me the next Monday after Farmer's Market on Saturday. She tried to tell me I didn't know anything about leather - natural product, digests easily, just a protein, yada yada, and they sell it in every pet store (yeah rawhide and my dogs don't get that either). I let her have her spiel until she ran out of air, and then explained the tanning process. Then I mentioned I had repaired her son's saddle the year before, How's he doing? Oooops, she knew who I was then and I did have a little knowledge. We ended on better terms when I suggested making key tags and zipper pulls instead of dog treats. Leather may pass depending on size but usually doesn't breakdown to any appreciable degree. It has already been treated to preserve it with acid in tannery vats, does anyone think that stomach acid will break it down? If anything it makes it harder. Rawhide is different (hence the name raw hide) and although it may swell. it can have some degree of digestion and tends to not get as hard. Still that is a slow process in itself with rawhide and not fast enough if it gets past the stomach.

That could be a Ben Veach saddle. Definite old school but he was a maker that progressed with the times too. Ben had been around but at one time was building out of Brackney's Western Store in Greencastle IN. After Brackney's closed he went to a shop set up on a farm I think by Terre Haute. I spent 6 years at Purdue and for no real reason I never went down to Brackney's that I remember. I know he had been in other parts of the country before that but really not a bunch of history out there I found other than Indiana. I talked to him a couple times when I ordered his stirrup buckles. Ben developed and patented a stirrup buckle. I liked them for some saddles and particular riders.

I've got that Home Depot table in the tool shop, but I have the version with drawer. It is a good height to work over the top for my smaller knife sharpener and a few cranks to lower and I can sit on a rolling chair with a fairly high adjustment to use for hand sharpening and filing. There is not the amount of adjustment in the table that I would be comfortable with for both sitting and standing while sewing. To be honest, I never liked standing to sew. I could sight my needle and stitch groove better sitting. go for longer stretches. and have more foot control. That's just me.

I email invoices through either PayPal or Square. Usually 1-3 internationals a week and 2-10 domestics a day with tools. When I was doing leather work it was fewer transactions but more dollars per transaction - same methods. Shows are different and in person - Square register to process cards in hand or cash, occasional check if you look legit (haven't been burned yet). Home Shop - at the end of the year it is usually close to even split of volume between Square for card users and PayPal. There are lovers and haters of each as both buyers and sellers. At the end of the year - the percentage fees for me aren't different enough to worry about. I email PayPal invoices for people that prefer PayPal. Square - taking numbers over the phone and manually entering numbers for a good percentage of card users. Most small to medium size businesses use a card over the phone but some have an accounts payable person and I invoice those through Square. Some customers don't like to give card numbers over the phone or with international transactions there can be time or language differences - no problem, I email a square invoice.

My thoughts on the Boss only. Haven’t used the others. Mine was the original cast iron frame but I’ve helped a few people set up and get going with aluminums. Forget the specs, mine sewed whatever I could cram under the foot. I taught two wives and a then 15 year old son to sew on it. Biggest issue with people saying skipped stitches is not making a full stroke on the handle. Edge guide? I never had or used one with it. Sight the axis on the needle down the stitch groove like a gunsight and your line is straight. Reverse stitch would be nice but you can lift the needle slightly out of the leather, slide the work back, and drop as many back stitches one at a time as you like. Bobbins are the standard large bobbins and fine. I did a bunch of repairs on mine and couple considerations. Over time on skirts the edges may curl along with the plugs. That makes the holes curved and not true vertical. That needle deflection can be enough to miss the hook. You will get to where you can feel the stitch miss on the slight upstroke- just drop it again until you feel it catch. New sharp needles help that too, one size up is better also Tip there is take your time sewing or put in new plugs. I had a pile of bronc saddles one week during rodeo here and my powered machines wouldn’t resew them but the Boss would. $1000?? Twenty plus years ago they were $1600 with the basic package. Powered stitchers were $5000 or more. My Boss paid for itself about a hundred fold. Ease of control, easy learning curve, and good support. Only reason I sold it was I had 3 other powered machines and wasn’t doing repairs anymore.