bruce johnson

Tor, I understand about the sentiment of nobody carrying the tradition of tool making. One of my Australian customers wrote me this - In 100 years somebody will find a 2012 plough gauge and wonder why they used a square fence plough gauge with a plastic roller.

The top wheel is narrow and coarse and you'd have to have a new one made smooth to not mark your leather. Depending on how this particular model feeds, that might be a problem. The screw backing the blade is broken off. Not the end of the world, but if you break the piece trying to back it out, that could be. Overall - pretty rough and probably would need a good breakdown, clean up, and reassembly. On Ebay that means you buy it, you own it and you hope to hell they pack it well enough to arrive in one piece and expect it in 2 or 3 pieces. Once you do all that, you will have a machine that will skive and cut leather out on the end. There is no Osborne machine comparable. These were designed for shoe shops. The end wheels would cut and the skiver would put a tapered skive in soles. Good for doing a consistant skive for groundseat work, a folded edge, or run a strap through cross-wise and do a lap skive. Handy to have one for sure, but I'd be wary on this particular version and condition.

Pcox is right. Don't grind, you can mess up the spacing and won't work. It looks like the bottom wheel is a driver. If so then you could get a wheel made by a machinist that is smooth for the top. A friend of mine got one made for a wide American for $40 last year. These will work with one driver. They will do vegtan and firm latigo OK with a good sharp blade.

Only a few makers send out tools sharp enough to use straight out of the box. Right after you buy the first edge tool figure out how to sharpen it and what to use to sharpen it with. It can go from wet-dry paper to stones of all varieties to power systems. Get a comfortable sharpening method and learn how "sharp" is really sharp. Not an orginal quote from me but "Sharpening is not an optional skill".

I have Ferdco machines I bought several years ago.

I didn't write the laws but some distributors will ship and some products can be shipped if you have a business license and not as a retail customer. Not a real issue to have it shipped to AZ or NV either that I can see. With all the stuff coming across porous borders, a case of glue or finish is small potatoes. Next spring there are leather shows in Wickenburg and Prescott AZ, people that sell this sort of thing will be there.

Another maker to consider is Wayne Jueschke. I use a 12 oz, 16 oz, and 32 oz the most. The 16 oz is pulled most of the time.

Kate, As far as replacement parts, Pilgrim Shoe has the most in the US I'd guess. A few others like Bogle-Greenwell might, but otherwise you have to either have them made or scab them off a parts machine. Problem is that the stuff that commonly breaks or wears is probably what made a "user" into a parts machine.

These can can be adjusted a few ways, Like Kate said the top screws will raise and lower top roller and working one side or the other will level the roller and blade edge relationship. You can adjust the bottom roller buy working the nuts and machine screws below. These were designed for sole material period. If you are running thinner leather through consistently then you need to raise the bottom roller some to get adequate pressure between rollers to grip and push. If you are splitting really thin splits off heavy leather consistently then lower the top roller for less clearance and the lower bottom roller to allow the split to go through the gap between it and the blade without really compressing those springs and straining the frame. These can be tuned for about whatever thickness a guy starts with and expects to end up with. Set them up like you use the most and most of the time the tolerances will let you do outside those ranges easy enough.

Look really good, Bret. If I had about 2 more horses I needed to rig up for, I'd sure be looking hard at these.

Beautiful paring machine Walter! The maker had some good ideas on the design also.

Hey, Mikey likes it!! I do too.

Good looking reins.

Walter, More great tools! I really enjoy seeing them and the variations from anything made here. You did another awesome job finishing off that Randall splitter as well. Enjoy it! - Bruce

It may also have been done with the nylon beveler that fits in a swivel knife or a push beveler. Either make short and smooth work of a long straight line like this.

Walter, You are very welcome! I am glad you are enjoying it and putting it to use. It looks great and you did a wonderful job cleaning it up. - Bruce

I hold mine with my middle finger on the trigger, my index finger on the right side of the frame above the bar pointing forward and my thumb is to the left side of the frame guiding the leather and keeping it down. I set my gauge blades in tipped towards me just a bit. That slicing action helps keep the leather down on the bar too. - here's a little unrehearsed off the rack action clip some schmuck was featured in for a museum display of saddler tools - .

I replied to your email, but to share with everyone - I would contact Dan at Campbell-Randall - http://www.campbell-randall.com/ .

Damn. I fixed a title. I am earning my keep around here after all. Yup, American. Americans tend to be pretty easy to take apart and get back together. The drive wheel on this is the top wheel. The lines can mark damp leather but not so much on dry leather or latigo.

I have added some more tools to my website today - Chase pattern splitter – 12 inch Rein rounders – three of them including the nicest CS Osborne bench mount I have seen Stitch groovers – CS Osborne compass groover and Dixon compass race Overstitchers – Gomph #7, CS Osborne #’s 6,8,9,10 Pricking wheel – HF Osborne #13 French edgers – HF Osborne #5, CS Osborne #’s 4,5,6, Vetter #1 Scalloping punch – Nice 3/4 inch half round/end scalloper Creaser – Nice unmarked adjustable screw creaser Shoe tools – Whitcher #8 lasting pliers in great condition, if you need a vintage folding measuring stick to see how big your feet are – 2 more up today.

The problem I had was not the design of the attachment. It actually worked OK. The problem was you had one hand running the machine and one hand to support the piece you were sewing and keeping it shoved up in there. That was a two handed job, especially going around a curve.

Very cool effect with the dark strands. I like that. Neat kind of a look with the casing swivel ends too.

Slick an edge with real bone one time and you'll want one. In some of the old sets I get there is a slicking bone or two. We have two lambs in the freezer and suspect some of the bones will make it out to the tool shop.

Got that price fixed for you. Fair prices for some nice tools.

I am just going by some that I have. These came with a bunch of lift the dot fasteners in a couple styles that fit these punches and the handled drivers are apparently to work the stud portion. Some of the sockets did have the tabs wider above the hole than below. I got these with a bunch of handled drivers and some of the punches were different from these also. I sold the fasteners, all the different handled tools, and the punches to a car restorer back east somewhere a few years ago. I kept the few duplicates back. The handled tools are all marked Carr and "Lift The Dot" but no markings on the punches. .