bruce johnson

I would guess your cutting board is LDPE. I use that to punch on because it has some give and won't crack as fast as HDPE. However the HDPE works better for me to cut on. The knife won't bury as deep. Some leathers can be pretty tough. You end up pushing down as much as forward and that tends to make you bury a knife more too.

I have one that mounts on my hydraulic stand from Ron's tools. It is just Ok to use. I could get by without it. It is a little unsteady and you bump the stand and the arm moves and you need to reset everything. Good for checking one though.

Mijo, CS Osborne made that pattern splitter in 5,6,7,8,9,10, and 12 inch sizes but the 6 is the most common. Never fails, we are looking for an 8" blade and I find 10"s.

Joe, It is kind of a humidity and terrarium effect. I used to suck all the air out and if I had more water than I needed I'd have to wait. With the air in, if I come out and first thing see a bag that is foggy, thenI know I have too much moisture and will open that one and lay the piece out to evaporate some while I work on another.

The Lexol is the conditioner, I am not sure what all substitutes there are. I have been told that Bick 4 conditioner is the same or close. The baby shampoo helps break down the surface tension of the water and penetrates faster. I double that up on hard leather. The Listerine I use is the old tried and true brown formula. It is the antifungal. Contrary to what some think, it is not the alcohol in the Listerine that is the active ingredient here. It evaporates off pretty fast. Listerine contains thymol and will prevent mold growth. I use tap water here. Some people with iron flecks from the pipes will be better off with distilled water. I slather it on my leather and depending on thickness may let it sit for a few minutes and add more. I bag my leather in ziplocks with enough air to keep the plastic off the surface of the leather. Ziplock makes some huge storage that will hold anything up to saddle skirts. I case overnight usually and may go a few days at times. If my leather is drying while I tool, I spray more of the mix on with a hand sprayer and set to a fine mist.

Randy, I haven't been to any shows this year, but in years past Barbara was at all of them including smaller ones like Elko. This is Barbara Sorenson who was in the booth with Ron (Ron's tools). She bought the lace business (and at that time the bevelers) from Jim Downey when he retired.

It cuts at 90, 30, and 45 degrees.

J Cook round knives have been around for maybe 10 years. I have had a couple and my experience matched what other people who have them have said. The steel is hard. It takes some effort to bring up an edge, but once it is there it will hold it a good while. I whacked around with a one 4 or 5 years ago and found it to be in the upper tier. If you twist off a point or ding the edge, you will have some time involved redoing it, but that is true of any of my favorites.

Where I put my mark depends on the piece. On some small things like wallets or belts I put the small maker stamp on the back. Briefcases - larger one on the back. On rope bags I put the large stamp on the top of the pocket flap mostly. On rope cans only have the front. I use either stamp and sometimes put it into the border pattern especially on full tooled. On stamped ones I usually go low in the pattern. Sometimes on my can straps I skip the maker stamp and tool my website name in small subtle lettering.

Plough gauges are pushed. The blade is in line with your hand so there is no increased torque as the strap gets wider. There is a roller bar in front of the blade to keep the leather from riding up the cutting edge. The width is adjusted by a guide fence the left of the blade. The blade is only sharpened on the front edge - and sharpened about like any other knife. They are used flat on the table instead of off the table like a draw gauge. Here is a short video we did for a museum display of leather tools showing a draw gauge and plough gauge in use -

Fair chance it was Al Shelton. He did a bunch of them.

To add my 2 cents in here. I used box cutters and utility knives to start out and if a person has limited sharpening skills or equipment, then they will work well enough. They don't skive though. If you are on a budget and have some sharpening skills then a new Osborne or Weaver knife are going to be a step up. They are going to take some work out of the box, and at least for me are going to need to be stropped more and go to the stones more than the next tier. There are some great handmakers of knives - I have Dozier and Knipschield round knives and can sure recommend them. They are Energizer bunnies - strop every so often and go on. The price is only exceeded by the quality there. I have had some others I am not so high on. There are other options for cutting - hook knives, straight knives, half rounds, etc. My wife was blocking out some coasters yesterday. I found my rein trimmer outside on the glueing table this morning. She likes using that for cutting. On the old knives, I like them a lot and have handled a bunch. Most of them have good steel unless they have been mucked up by a previous user. Better than new production knives once they are cleaned up? Yes I think so. An old guy told me a few years ago that a Rose knife is "harder than a wh*re's heart and stays sharper than a mother-in-law's tongue". As far as collectors driving prices up on Ebay. Yes on some things for sure, but I don't think knives are generally one of them. There were so many knives made for the trade and still floating around that 99.99% are not really collectible. I'd wager most are getting cleaned up and put to work. I think the realized prices generally reflect the condition and probable usabilityof the knife. An average as-found old Rose or Gomph should sell for more than a new Osborne. Likewise a pretty good CS Osborne Newark marked knife should bring more. The cleanup on these old knives can be time consuming though. I have a minimum average of 2 hours on most knives for me. The old Blanchards and Rose knives are double the time at least.

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I guess I apply it differently. I have been using a paint roller for years. Fine napped paint roller and plastic tray. I can control how heavy I apply it by how much I roll out on the ramp before I got to leather. I get a good even coat all the way to the end on belts by running the roller a bit diagonally. On the big surfaces I slightly overlap. I don't end up with swirl marks or spend a lot of time applying. If I have 3 or 4 small pieces like checkbooks I just line them on the table and roll over them all in a pass. Two passes on a stirrup leather will do what I need. It is a time saver for me and does the best job of anything else I have tried. For my lining sides I can do a whole side in about 5 minutes. For molded cases I use a woolskin patch and dip into my oil tray, then squeeze it out to leave what I want in it. I lightly slather it on. I leave my oil set for 24 hours after I apply before I decide if I want more.

Here's my thoughts on bisonettes. They have a few advantages. The front edge of the hole can ride down the leather and act as a "training wheel" to maintain the same angle. Easy to use for people starting out.They also are good edging pieces with a thin lining. Some other edgers can cut under the lining and end up scooping it out. On the downside they are the hardest to sharpen at least for me, and have the least life. You have to maintain that same curvature of the bottom edge when you sharpen or you end up widening the hole and turn a #1 into a #4. Then you have to be careful you are not running into the opposing edge. Stropping off the bur on top of the hole can be a bit tricky working inside that angle. Some of the newer ones have issues. I have had some that no matter the size number, they are all made from the same width stock. That makes it hard to keep the smaller sizes at a 45 degree angle without running into the bench on thinner leather. You about have to work off the edge of the bench. The old Rosecrans are my favorites. They seem to be the originals on these, and are designed right. The angle is good for push and pull, the width varies by size. They are close to 100 years old now and hard to find and harder to find ones that haven't been messed up through poor sharpening. The older Osbornes are pretty good too. One thing a lot of people think it that they can get into inside square corners with a bisonette. You can maybe get within 1/8" depending on the angle it was bent at. Some will do a slot and some won't - it depends on the radius of the end and the tool design itself.

Are you looking for a splitter just for strings or a wider one?

It all depends on what kind of a look you are going for. I did a ton of belts with the #500 basket set at an angle to get more lines. The guy who taught me to stamp was into the "ratios" of elements. . He gave me a couple rule of thumbs for sizing the border tool to match blocks and baskets. His advice was that the border stamp width should be the same as the width of the end of the basket stamp. If you lay that border back a little more to the heels it will fade into the basketstamping smoother and not take as big a bite out too.

Marlon, Not finalized as of yet, but I am working on it. If life stops happening here or at least slows, I am going to have some videos on using and adjusting splitters. I also will have ones on comparing diffferent styles of draw gauges and plough gauges and using them, relatively obscure super handy tools like freehand stitch groovers and rein rounders, different edge beveler styles, different stitch groover comparisons and more.

Jeff, You can check on a perfectly flat surface ot at least as flat as you can find to check. If so you may need to take a bit off the bottom at the ends or have it taken off by a machinist. My blades do have a very slight bevel on the bottom. When I do my final stropping to take the finest foil/wire edge off, I use green compound on a firm wheel. I do tip it some to clean that edge off. I found when I did the top side and left the bottom perfectly flat on the wheel I was straightening the foil edge but necessarily removing all of it. By tipping it up a bit on the bottom side I get it cleanly removed. The slight bottom bevel is from the final stropping only and not a stome or hard abrasive.

Another vote for steel although I did have an unmarked brass one that was pretty and looks to have held up surprisingly well. If you are making your own, the hinge is critical to not have any play in it.

There are no small veg tanneries in the US anymore. There are two larger tanneries. Hides are mostly brokered from smaller slaughter plants and the large plants may deal with tanneries themselves or go through brokers at times. A good percentage of North American hides are exported for tanning. Traceback would be all but impossible with the current system. The paperwork trail needed for tracing a byproduct is not economically feasible given the current demand for this type of leather and the way the hides are handled.

Jeff, I am attaching a PDF of an instructional I wrote up for customers who buy a #86. It is not all inclusive, but answers several common questions I was getting. Osborne #86 splitter instructions.pdf

For me professional quality stamps mean in no particular order - Barry King, Gomph-Hackbarth, Bob Beard, Elton Joorisity, Clay Miller, Wayne Jueschke, Chuck Smith, and Gore for guys making them now. They can run from $30 to $140 or so depending on maker and stamp type. Blasts from the past are Don King, Walt Fay, CLT, Ray Hackbarth, Bill Woodruff. Frank Eberly, McMillen and will cost more when you find them. Some of the old and new Tandy Craftools are still a good value depending on what they are. I have some CarftJapan stamps that leave pretty good impressions too. I use a mix of stamps from all of these and have seen the stamp sets of several top toolers. Everybody uses a mix of makers - and very few sets are not going to have some Craftools in there. Some of them may be old or new stock and some may have been reworked. I think it really depends more on the type of stamp in some cases. For example, as long as a smooth pear shader is symmetrical side to side, who made it and chrome plated, SS, or black finish doesn't mean as much to me. If we are talking about a basket stamp, border, or flower center with a set pattern, I think it matters a lot more.

One tip I can offer to keep on track with either a plough gauge or draw gauge is this - "Don't watch the blade while you cut, watch the fence". The natural tendency is to watch the blade because that is where the action is at. Instead concentrate on the leather staying next to the guide. Once you do that, it becomes a lot easier and more consistant to cut straight straps. If the leather is staying next to the guide and the beam is secure, that blade is taking care of itself just fine, An old guy shared this with me and it made a night and day difference. Jusdt tension the strap and pull with the draw gauge or push with the plough.

I don't think it is going to easily come out. It is basically a dye in itself. I use permanent markers for some dye work, and most of the dyed edges I do. A single application doesn't penetrate very far and I have been able to lightly buff out some mistakes with a fine stone Dremel bit. You trade a light scuff for a black mark.