bruce johnson

I would try a very small section first. When you said you had a "whole cow hide" that sent up a flag for me. Upholstery leather is more commonly sold in whole hides. Upholstery leather can also have top treatments to color and finish it. Many of these are a pigmented sprayed on finish. Think of them almost like a paint. That is how they get uniform color and texture. As we know with most leather, different parts of the hide can take dyes differently and have different textures. Putting a pigmented topcoat on and texturing it or smoothing it makes the whole hide look the same. Every section of the couch or car seat will match that way. Some chemicals can dissolve that coating and it will peel off or look ratty.

I do have a couple of Dixon edge shaves that are smaller than a #1 Tandy I found. I have a really fine French edger that is super narrow too.

The only time I have it open up is when the front screw wasn't tight. I use a pair of pliers now and haven't had a problem. That puts enough hurt on the bars they aren't moving.

I'll be toasting your good fortune in about an hour!

I have my choice of strap cutters and still use a wooden cutter for some things. I like them for most chrome tans and soft leather, and narrow straps from latigo and veg tan. Places that are just a little tougher with a draw gauge or plough gauge. I use razor blades in mine, and strop them before I put a new one in. I have used these for up to skirting on one that tracks true (they don't all do that). The razor blades will definitely stick up. I put a new blade flush to the bottom and tighten the bottom screw. Then I squeeze the bars together and take a pliers and break off the excess that sticks above the top bar. I leave the top bar screw a little loose to allow some slide on the blade for adjusting to thickness.

Tor, Good deal for you to get the clicker, and for you to be helping him out with a stitcher.

The English made edgers and some old Osbornes can get pretty small. I'll see what I have when I get into the tool shop later on.

Here's how I do it. You either fold the leather back onto itself ot around a filler piece of leather and sew it to hold it "closed". It is best to sew into a channel and glue the channel closed once you done stitching. Then I knock off the square edges with a pretty heavy round bottom edge beveler. I dampen my leather pretty well - about like a good casing would be - back to color and cool to the touch. I apply a light swab of saddle soap (I use white). Then I start with whatever hole the piece will easily slide through and draw it through a few times. The I step down the next size and so on until the round profile is there. The trick is to get the thickness right before you start for the diameter you want to end up with. I usually split my leather and filler to make a combined thickness of about 1-2 oz over the diameter I want to end up, There will be some compression of the leather as you work it in the rounder.

Start in the middle, pull it through, turn it around and pull the other way.

Billy is right. I got one of these in a trade and they are really nice for lap skives. It is a keeper for just the laps. Match one of these up with a precision fixed thickness splitter like a Krebs or Chase pattern pull through splitter or a crank splitter and you can pretty well do anything you'd need to. The cam action is smooth and they just want to roll over without a stick or bind.. They have a set screw to limit the depth for tapering out to a fixed depth. The down side is using them as a splitter, There is not a way to hold the fixed depth for level splitting without holding the handle forward against the stop with one hand while you pull the strap with the other. If you are doing narrow straps without a lot of drag, that isn't a huge deal. Wider straps and it sure can be a little tough to one-hand them through.

I will have a couple in a week or so.

Yep, you need a tire. It goes on the grooved pulley looking thing there.

Tor, I use those brushes in a larger size for my drill press. They do a nice job for sure. They come in a couple grits. I haven't looked for them in Dremels, but will check for you. There are some hobby stores with a big Dremel accessory display and Home Depot here shows them on their website as an on-line order irem. I'll see what I can find. Art's right with his post above, but this half took about 3 weeks so far. I called home for details. The Aquavit I am working on here is Lysholm linie. It shipped out on 8/5/2010 and came back on 14/8/2010. For those not of Norwegian heritage, it is a Norwegian liquor I only had before at the local Sons Of Norway lutefisk feed. I did a little scouting around and found that our local Bevmo carries it.

very fine steel wool would be my choice for the steel. I'd use somethng like Brasso or the equivalent polishing compound you might find there for the roller.

Winterbear, Thanks for the link. Spooky, that looks fine to me. You can take it all apart and polish it all up. The old Dixon plough knives have been good for me. You can sharpen that blade up to better than shaving sharp and it ought fly right through whatever you throw it into. I haven't seen that handled screw on the back edge to bind the fence before. Most of my Dixons have had either a handled screw on top that binds down or a thumbscrew on the back. They always keep you guessing. Tor, Thanks for the Aquavit lesson. I heard from a Finn who likes one makers that has a lot of cinnamon flavor to it. I will have to inspect my bottle a little closer and see if it is Loiten. I know it has a picture of a ship on the label. On the backside of the label you can read through the bottle the sailing and return dates from the aging trip to Australia. It is a little under half empty now, so I can nread the dates clearly.

Spooky, Can you post a picture? I can't get the link to work.

I visited a shop that has one. He does mostly plain or creased straps and does like Billy said. He allows some extra and cuts it off.

Tor, At that price, you stole it. The blade is worth three times that by itself. From the looks I sure agree with everything you wrote. That wedge looks like it would do nothing positive. I want my leather to ride down and flat to the right of the blade. That wedge can't do anything but make it drag and want to drive you off line it looks like to me. The maker adding about $3 more for prettier and more substantial screws would dress this up a lot too. In your honor I just had a snort of Linie Aquavit and time to call it a night!

Here's a link to a website that will answer all these questions, plus the ones a lot of people haven't thought of yet - http://www.rodnikkel...ntent/index.php .

It is going to come from a custom handmaker with those specs. My first call would be to Terry Knipschield. He makes one that is 3-1/4 with the directional handle. www.knipknives.com

Probably way too stretchy for shoes, but deer makes a nice lining for some things. I made some gloves based on the patterns from TLF several years ago. I made the Buffalo Bill type gauntlet gloves with 6" fringe for myself from deer and elk. I sewed them by hand. They came out well, fit good, and were kind of fun to wear. I was kind of limited where I could wear them. Apparently some people (both wives) thought they were not as fashionably appropriate as I did.

Clay Miller makes one

PrettyPrettyPretty

To just address the wooden handled tools, those tools have been available. McMillen made nice handled tools with pretty good steel and plain sort of handles. They had a pretty good finish to the steel and most were and still are pretty good workhorses. The original McMillen was in Kansas City and then was bought and moved into Missouri. It has been a family run busines. They sold through a few distributers, but never have the upfront marketing of other makers that are now somewhat riding a reputation. The guys making the higher end tools today have a lot invested in equipment and more importantly - experience. The machinery to make them isn't cheap, they don't have a shop full of employees cranking them out, and to compete they have to put out a better product and make it look nicer than the off-the-rack tools. Good steel properly shaped does that on the working end and a pretty handle does it at the other end. The older tools from most makers generally had rosewood handles, brass ferrules, and were pretty. There was competition and pride between the makers. The harness and saddlery trade was big and these tools were made for professionals. They had to work and pretty was just a plus. Pretty much by WW1 most of these makers were out of business - 3 generations of wealth rule and lesser demand. One company carried through and still made working tools until the craft business came on. After that, tools tended more towards a price point and plain handles with dipped finishes and nickle ferrules got more common. Eventually some of the old designs got dropped or changed in favor of less hand work and finish that still will sell. Some of the end users took a lot of pride in their tools too. I am attaching a picture of an old Dixon round knife I just got. Here's some pride! My wife claimed it right off and it is in the glass display case for now.

Are you using a rivet setter to set spots? They aren't domed up as much as spot setters and will deform them. I start my spots with a hand setter, then finish them off in a press to set the prongs and clinch them. Yes, there are Chicago screw backed conchos as small as 3/8". I use a lot of them. They are 3/8 Hi-Dome conchos from Hansens - www.hansensilver.com