bruce johnson

Use something the same profile as the hole so you don't widen it out. I have got a ton of #1s that have been converted to #4s by sharpening with something too big. I wrap wet dry over a small dowel, nail, etc. I strop on the edge of some firm leather with compound. I strop the top with some package twine that has been rubbed with compound. The biggest thing is to make sure you are not bumping into the opposite edge throughout the process.

Travis, Some leathers do better with the wooden strap cutters, and some wooden strap cutters are duds. Soft leathers strip out better for me with a single edge razor blade in a wooden strap cutter. Firmer leather like vegtan and latigo can go either way. With bias because I sell refurbished old tools, I'd not seriously consider a new Osborne or Craftool if I was buying a draw gauge tomorrow. I haven't had a recent Tandy one in th elast few years, but the newer CS Osborne draw gauges have a hollow back aluminum bar. The old ones have a solid steel full thickness bar. It is the difference between formerly selling to a quality standard and now meeting a price point.

Pilgrim Shoe would be my only guess. Progressive used a different skiving blade and whole different mechanism than the Landis, American, and Champion 3-on-1. Hopefully they stayed in line on the cutter blade.

#30 for tighter patterns and #35 on larger ones for me. I could do it all with the #30s though. I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I did get some #45s I had been wanting to play with.

All good advice, plus one more tip. When you are punching try to get a little "twist" as you squeeze and it normally will take less effort with the slicing action. It took a guy watching me work at it to show me the easier way.

who made the punch? It may be that the replacement tubes from Osborne will fit it. The guys there will tell you that they have not changed the threading on the replacments since the originals. That is what they say and I'll leave it at that. For the cost of a tube though, I would sure try a new replacement first. The problem with sharpening much of a chip out of the existing tube is you are shortening it. That changes the angle it meets the anvil and brings on another set of problems.

Every letter on every thing I have done was dyed with a Sharpie marker and black dyed edges are done with a jumbo Sharpie marker or refillable marker with black dye.

My top 10 Things that work for me to keep my tools sharp A good cutting surface Good solid stamping bench with the rock inlaid Comfortable stool to work from with good back support. Good Lighting Comfortable mauls in weights that allow everything from a light touch to a smasheroo Good ventilation Good tool organization system Tools adequate for the job , they don't all have to be topshelf Someone to keep my shop clean

Great Job Mike! The feedback has been great and I am looking forward to jumping in once this merry go round slows.

Evaporust won't hurt anything. To answer the last first. I sure would not remove the handle. That pin is through the tang. Easy to mess up the wood trying to get it out. You will say bad words when the wood splits. You aren't going to hurt it by cleaning it up with fine grit sand paper and work up to superfine, then buff for a good finish. The big thing is getting the rust neutralized in the pits if you don't work them out.

I wish I could help you out, but don't have any of that kind of scrap. The used Blanchard and older Dixon pricking irons rarely come available. Most are spoken for ahead of time with a shop retirement or closing. When they do come up, prices almost new cost. There have been some pretty good reviews on the Japanese made pricking irons here lately, and hopefully somebody has a link to them.

Not sure where you live, but consider adding on insulation, heat and AC, more windows for ventilation, and electricity. Consider the floor in the kit sheds too. Most are weak, not designed for pounding and working in. I built a 12x12 shop a couple years ago for working on tools. It is inside what most people would know as a machinery shed. I have some framing and construction experience so I built it myself. The floor is 1" plywood on pressure treated 2x6 floor joists, walls are all insulated and covered with paneling, ceiling joist are open inside and sheathed on top, just no felt or shingles needed. Four windows and locking exterior house type door, switched power outlets for ceiling shoplights, and 3 outlets on each wall. Stall mats for the entire floor for comfort, and a small window AC for creature comfort. The exterior walls are exterior siding panels and trimmed out. At the time a similar TuffShed was quoted at $3200 with 2 windows, slightly smaller kit shed from the DIYs was +/- $2400. Neither had insulation or covered interior walls. My deal came to $1300 total in materials and took me about 3 days by myself. Electrician was around $250 and put in a new sub for that part of the shop plus wired a 220 for the air compressor in the main part of the shop. You might price out a handyman sort of guy and see if you could do better for the same or not much more money.

My wife asked a few years ago what I was going to do with all these tools. She didn't see the same humor I did when I simply said "estate sale". and that's how it started....

Tom, I can't claim this as an original thought. I had an old guy who showed me this about 15 years ago. He was in the leather business for almost 70 years or so and I learned a lot sitting in his garage. He traded in tools and machines later on in life. I was heading home one day to reline skirts, saw his door was up, and stopped in to BS. He was good about "Did I ever show you how to....." and then he'd show me. Right after that, he'd sell me the tool to do it with. I called him after I did the first one, and asked him why he didn't show me that about 5 relinings ago. He said it sort of came up that day, and he figured a guy always appreciated things more once he'd done them the hard way a few times anyway.

Not a clue

Looks great Bob! There's a lot I like about it.

Looking great again, Bret!

The only thing I can add is that Terry Nawrot ("tnawrot2") used to rep for saddle companies and I believe TexTan was one of his lines. Unfortunately Terry passed away a few months ago. This is a cut and paste of Terry's reply from another thread asking about a TexTan Hereford saddle - "The numbers you posted are of great help, they tell the whole story. The first set of numbers is the model number, the second set is the month and year it was made, and the last set is the serial number."

I'd like to see a picture, - bruce@brucejohnsonleather.com Thanks!

There are two Stohlman books that are pretty comprehensive and relevant. The leather tools and care book is really good. There is another on stamping tools that is a good one also.

It sounds like it might be an Akins (Atkins, Adkins, something like that anyway) splitter. Very old , Got a picture?

Not to hijack or redirect the thread, but I have used several gallons of Renia's All Purpose Cement. Just because it doesn't have toluene or MEK, don't put safety protocol too far out of mind. It has xylene and other juju to mess you up if you don't respect it. It has way more smell than the old Barge or any other cement I have used. It also works better than any of them ever did for me. I mostly use it under a covered roof outside, masked up if no breeze. Inside- everything is open and I am always masked up. I was not this strict with the other cements, but sure am with this now. It dries a little faster, so the continuing off-gassing doesn't seem to be as long as some of the others though.

Shoe burnisher, shoe burnisher, skiving knife, circular welt cutter/knife used for shoe work

The other two things to consider are punching surface and how sharp your punch is. You need a firm backing to punch against.I use a piece of LDPE cutting board on top of either an anvil or a stamping rock. You don't want any bounce or give in the surface. No punches come sharp enough out of the box. They need to be taken out to a fine edge, then stropped and polished. My personal drive punches are sharp enough to rock through the leather by hand. I have some of the wood handled end punches I use for fun too, and once I put that same edge on my drive punches they came to the party. Some people don't want that fine an edge for various reasons, but I think you should be able to slice leather with the edge on any of them.

Acids can etch them if the chrome is gone. Many thanks to Ray who referred me to EvapoRust/Metal Rescue. These are rust chelators (not converters like Naval Jelly) and remove the rust without harming the base metal. Almost safe enough to drink and minimnal warning labels. Most of the big name D-I-Y stores have one or the other, Harbor Freight, hardware stores, etc. I have used both brands and think they are probably very similar. You soak the stamps or whatever in the solution from a couple hours up to a day or so. It is room temperature sensitive, so the warmer the room the faster it works. (more on that later) The solution gets dark, but lasts a long time. Basically you use it until it doesn't work anymore. I strain it through a coffee filter back into the jug to keep the particles out. If you Google the brands you can see that two TV personalities endorse each brand. I called one and under condition of anonymity he shared a tip. He heats small parts in an aluminum pot and what takes 18 hours normally takes about 15 minutes. I tried it and same experience. You just have to get the solution warm. I go warm enough to stick a finger in for a second, but too hot to leave it there. Swirl the pan every couple minutes, fish the parts or stamps out with tongs and check them. If they need more time, drop them back in to stew. I have now done a bunch of stamps and parts, and don't think twice about dropping Jueschke stamp or a propriety threaded fastener in anymore. This stuff works and is safe.