bruce johnson

They are a good skiver for doing laps on straps. Put the leather in, push the handle with one hand as you pull the leather with the other and they will taper right down. As a splitter- not so bueno. There is a stop screw you adjust for thickness. Put the leather in, hold the handle forward with one hand against the stop while you pull with the other. Narrow straps work OK because you can one hand them easy enough. Wider stuff is harder.

RDL, If you want to give me a call, I should be around most of tomorrow as of current plans. If you happen to miss me, leave a message and I'll call you back. Thanks, Bruce

Ditto on what Aaron has told you. I took apart a repair saddle in my old shop, green dust flew when I opened it up, and had a problem after that. I was using ProCarve after a while and it really stopped it. I have switched now to a different casing mix that has thymol in it (Listerine) which is an antifungal. It works for me.

They are good people to talk to on the phone. I thin they close down until after the first of the year right now, so don't be worried if you can't catch someone until end of next week or maybe even the week after.

Walter, That looks great!!! The base is perfect and I would not have expected less from your work. On a side note, I finally got the last of what you are looking for and will get pictures to you tomorrow. - Bruce

Other than the swivel knife blades, the rest of the tips look like they fit into a handle system. I am not sure that I think maybe X-Acto made that. Hope this helps, – Bruce

Great job Wayne! Really like this one.

The quick and dirty way to check a side is the fold it up from the belly. Slightly above where it breaks over is gong to be the better leather for straps. Some sides are going to be deeper than others.

Ideally I'd have both within reach. One only and it depends on what you're making. Mostly cutting straight lines and I'd pick a round knife. Lots of tight patterning and I'd get a head knife.

This is one of those things that has a few variations in definitions. The most accepted is that a "round knife" will make a near half circle on the same radius from a focal point. A head knife is more elliptical and a shorter radius forward that gets longer as it reaches the points from a focal point. A round knife will have more blade in the leather and tend to stay on a straighter line. A head knife has more pointed tips, less blade in the leather and easier to do a tighter inside curve.

I edge bevel and dye the cut edge first. after it is dry I use an acrylic finish (Fiebings LeatherSheen). When it is mostly dry, I rub it to slick some. Once dry, I slick it with a wheel. I apply another coat of sheen, and maybe takes 2-3 applications to stiffen than edge and take a slicking. My final application is paraffin wax and slick it hard. It will not be the same effect as burnishing, but will be slick and the two layers should appear as one.

Devilbiss. Spelling might be off there, but that is the maker. Made a line of tools for the craft back in the 60s?

Looks great, Wayne. Gotta like those kind of customers too.

I have put a few more tools and bench machines for sale on my website today. There are four CS Osborne #86 splitters in 6. 7, and 9 inch blade widths, I got the waiting lists for the Rose knives cleaned up and added Rose round knife and Gomph round knife. There are some handtools added as well. Here is the link for the index page of tools - http://brucejohnsonleather.com/content/index.php/leather_tools_for_sale/ . Have a great week! - Bruce

This is all assuming we are talking about a round bottom edger. Not exactly what I am talking about but similar. On the round bottom edgers you need to strop off the bur on top. the top side is convex and the Weaver board is convex,. You need something to get down into the corners of the edges next to the rails. A skived edge of hard leather with some compound on it will do that. You can also use a soft buffing wheel with your compound of choice on it.

The old Blanchards are nice knives and well worth the effort. I start off with whatever grit I think will get me to even with the bottom of the pits. Then I scrub out the grit pattern with a finer grade, go to a finer grade from there until the grit patterns are all but gone. Somewhere in there I set the edge bevel and taper I want. Then I go to polishing compounds on buffing wheels to get a final shine (black then green for me). After that I go back and do my final edge sharpening, then stropping off the burr. I have to be in a "zone" to clean up knives. If I am preoccupied, tired, or in a hurry to just do something it isn't going to be knives. I figure the average knife takes me about 3-4 hours. Some of the really hard steels like a Rose knife can have 4-8 hours in it.

Mike, Sorry to hear about continuing problems. It is sure possible he could be comparing yours to three others that are off just the same. It may take some emails of the pictures directly to Osborne to get somewhere here. It wouldn't be the first run of tools they have had problems with. Several years ago they had some bad cantle pliers, I have seen the draw gauges like yours and have been able to tune them to work though. I get some old ones like that rarely, but more common with recent manufacture - TLF and Osborne. My thoughts are that it in your deal should be fixed at the corporate level, not by an Ebay reseller. However it is much like some other modern makers here and abroad, They seem to be riding the reputation of the tools their grandfathers put out, and have to/choose to cut corners now to be price competitive. FWIW, I use a wooden strap cutter as well for some things. I have had a few of the Original Strap Cutters and not a problem. A few years ago the wooden strap cutters went on sale at TLF. I thought it would be nice to have 4 set to the common widths. A buddy picked them up for me and they were now a TLF item, not the "Original" they previously sold. Three of the first four were off in the blade slot. I went to the store and between the manager and I, we could not find anymore of the lot that were true. I haven't heard much since so expect that problem may have been somewhat corrected.

Keith, That saddle is really a treat to see. Impressive the way it all came together. Thanks for posting it here. - Bruce

FWIW, I don't have a 000 tube to check. If the revolving punches have sizes you'd use, I'd get both. I'd have the spring punch set up for the 000, and the revolving punch for the others. That would save the hassle of changing tubes all the time with just the spring punch.

I have one, have seen a few others. Very pretty, nice for light burnishing and setting in folds.

Agate tipped burnisher. Pretty cool, aren't they?

Bill Buchmann

Bill Buchmann

Mike, This very well could be new and the gibs are different than the replacement ones. If it is new I seriously doubt switching the gibs will make a difference. It was parted together, stuck in a box, and sent on. If the seller doesn't get back to you, I'd work on the rear gib to tune it and get the blade and handle parallel. One thing that will help after that is sharpening the blade. They aren't close to being sharp enough new.

Mike, Is it new or old? The gibs look new, but an old style. The nice thing about having gibs front and back of the beam is you can tune these pretty easily. If it is old, first thing I'd suggest is taking the rear gib out and switching it end for end. When they went to the cast models (and Henry Ford's technique of interchangeable parts) some of the handles and beams didn't always mate up to be 100% true. The gib could have a little more taken down on one side vs, the other and correct that discrepancy (like a shim). If that gib gets replaced or even reversed along the way, they don't line up. If it makes no difference to switch ends then one side will need to be taken down. some wet-dry sandpaper on a flat surface and leaning to the one side will take one end lower. It usually doesn't take much. Final little note, don't totally trust the longer lines on the scale for lining things up. The blade slot is what is important. check how parallel the blade is vs. the side of the handle. I have seen them recent and old with the slot slightly off vs. the scale marks, but true with the handle. That is what makes them work. Hope this helps.