bruce johnson

I have added a few fresh tools on my website today. There is a mix of miscellaneous Barry King stamps, a nice Wayne Jueschke flower center, and few new basket stamps. I also put on an unsued Sheridan tooling set - 17 of Barry King's stamps sized for small and medium sized patterns, maul, slicker, Leather Wrangler swivel knife, and the two best tooling books out there - the Sheridan style book and Bob Park's pattern drawing book. Here is a link - Stamps for Sale . Thanks, Bruce

Pretty sure I have a 1" round arch punch for sale. Price on it would be $20 plus shipping.

I have had some with the same marking. The handles are suggestive of a European maker. Ropp might have been the maker.

Don't worry about how old a thread is - the classics never go out of style! Glad it helped.

Wayne Jueschke, Bob Beard, Hackbarth, Elton Joorisity, Clay Miller off the top of my head. Forgot - Chuck Smith (Ol Smoothie) makes some pretty nice stamps too.

Rich, Much as I'd like to say yes - it didn't do a good job for me. Just not enough pressure to get a good impression. On the cheap I have used a woodworker's vice with good results. I have also used shop press too. If you have access to either, they would be a better choice.

Bret, another nice one there! - Bruce

It could go anywhere there's a hole and a freespinning wheel or gear. My luck is taking them out. I drill out the peen on end and then drive the pin out. With one end smaller than the other, you stand a 50/50 chance of driving them out vs. driving them deeper. My luck runs about 30/70 even though I usually stay at Holiday Inn Express.

Have fun, Every Landis seems to have a surprise. Quite a few tapered pins to hold the wheels to the shaft instead of the keys and slots other makers used. My usual gotcha is that two gears may go on either shaft. When you go to put the gear cover back you realize you transposed them. Bad words are said as you drill out the tapered pins, put new ones, and peen them again.

Welcome Randy!

Gotta say I was pretty pleased this time around. In the past some things slipped through the cracks a bit. When they finished the tool sale web posting and processed my order they called to ask if they could split the heavy stuff off and ship some things UPS and some flat rate priority mail. I asked her to please send me a list of what I got and didn't. She emailed that within an hour. Everything shipped out the next day and received here well packed.

Might be interested. In CA and sent you a message. Thanks,

Another place to check is with your veterinarian or ask for a referral to a local pet cemetery/crematorium. Often times they have some options there for better than standard pet urns that can be special ordered. There are probably some on-line options for ordering also.

Here's what I was taught after I had enough stitch picking under my belt to appreciate it. Take a free hand stitch groover (aka "gum tool" or patent leather tool) and run it over the top of your stitches, An alternative is a loop style blade stitch groover like the Osborne compass groover. You want to either cut off the top of the stitches or severely weaken them. When you start pulling on the wool, the tag ends pull right through and there is little to no stitch picking. My old tool mentor taught me that and just happened to have the tool for sale to do it with. In that vein, I do too. Here's a link to what they look like - patent leather tool .

Pretty much going to have to sharpen them all as Jeremy said. Even sharp you need to use more force on a longer slot punches. The coning down and bevel effect is greater the bigger the punch and thicker leather just magnifies that even more. The punches from England don't have quite as much bevel and drive a little easier. Still I am driving most slot punches over 1" with a 3# maul on a 12x18x3 granite plate with a LDPE board on top.

For me it depends on the buckle. Some buckles with thicker heel bars I go up 1/8" to allow for the bottom of the tongue to lay down into the slot and have plenty of room for a good range of movement of the tongue back without binding.

If you are talking about skiving or thinning the fold area, I use a French edger. The skiving machine that Ralph mentioned will do edges well, but not enough reach to do the center fold and would require special presser feet not commonly available.

These are all as they came. I had a call about who made them too. Left to right - Walt Fay, pushes and lifts. Barry King under cutter - the thin profile "cuts" a nice pocket underneath but minimal lift. Good to cut and then follow with another lifter for maximum effect. Elton Joorisity - same angle as the Fays and nice. Gore - decent pocketing and lift, good depression under the impression without a heel mark so it lifts and compresses for a nice effect. on the right - original Ray Hackbarth. not a lot of lift, but a nice "push effect" on tight patterns.

Different makers have different profiles. Here's some representative ones I use.

I am not sure if they will have all you are looking for, but ShopTalk has a pretty extensive collection of manual reprints for sale. Here's a link - ShopTalk

Pattern punches. These were handmade for some specific part of something. A lot of these were made for shops that didn't use a press/clicker or maybe even prior to powered clickers being available. These could have been used for footwear, purse or bag pieces or trim, etc.

The last order I had from them took about 3 weeks. Slowest international mail is usually between the US and England, followed closely by the US and Canada.

Thank you Walter, Macca, and Tor! This is my favorite thread on the forum! One thing I am finding interesting after seeing several are the different configurations of the fences (guides). Steel, brass, two pieces of steel, etc. Then the shape viewed from the top is interesting. They all have some "flare" on the front. From there some have a long flat area. Others have a shorter flat area and may flare back out a bit on the back edge of the guide. This flare at the back seems to be a bit more common on some of the Dixons. One question I have is on the screws on the Blanchards. Is there a name for those with the rounded heads? Are they still available in Europe? One thing with them I found last year is at least some, the rounded head is threaded onto the shaft of the screw. I had a plough gauge that the head would unscrew from the shaft when it was loosened. Thank you, Bruce

Macca, Thanks for posting these. The pictures look much like my shop does right now. I just got several plough gauges and French knives. No French splitters or eyeletting machine though. Like you, I have plenty to keep me busy for time to come. - Bruce

The needle and awl machines were harness and saddle stitchers. They were mostly used for edge sewing and don't need the reach. The single needle machines were for other sewing, when you are sewing tarps, wear leathers on saddle blankets, and centered inlays, that extra reach is nice. As far as making the needle and awl machines affordable, the affordable 441 clone machines are made in parts of the world with a different cost of production than the US.