bruce johnson

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.

Renee, Could you get a picture between the jaws from the front? About 20 years ago Tandy sold a stitching horse you sat on. I got one in a store drawing and used it a lot. I did a little rasping on the edges to make the seat and waist area contoured and more comfortable to sit on. Later on a guy visiting my shop took a rasp to the top of the jaws and that helped a lot with using it too. It was left foot operated. I got an old historic one a few years ago and passed the Tandy on to a guy in need. Even a few years later when I sew on this one I still keep reaching out with my left foot to work the jaws. I have a customer looking for the old Tandy version. He had one to start with and wishes he had it back.

Weighing in a bit late here but it looks like a good buy. In traveling around I see them priced from around $100 up to $300 depending on style and how solid they are. Surprisingly I see quite a few, and end up buying a couple a year. If you could, I'd like to see a view of how the clamping mechanism works. This looks different than the common strap through to the opposite jaw, and not the bottom scissors clamping of the saddler's style stitching horse. FWIW, in front of the TV is fine. I've normally got one in my living room. Is the Tandy you have the one they carried about 20 years ago? PM me if so.

I have added quite a few tools of boot and shoe making to my website this morning. Here is the link - Boot and Shoe Making Tools For Sale Thanks!

Thanks guys. It is marked in cm out to 10 cm, but has some more bar length than the Blanchard 10 cm versions. It is like the old Blanchards in most other respects. Nice smooth sliding of the fence.

Used to be they used double cap rivets that are too long for the thickness of the leather. If you lightly set them in the slots, they slide. Now some are using the rivet back conchos the same way.

Somebody is going to be very happy with these.

Another satisfied customer here. I sent Terry a Dixon and later a Blanchard to have for patterns. He has the patterns for both on hand. I had the first prototype of the Dixon and it has yet to be need anything but a light stropping. He made a Blanchrd for me to try recently and just as good as the first Dixon he made me. As far as new plough gauges, Dixon and Vergez-Blanchard still make them but it is great to have source of quality replacement blades through Terry Knipschield.

A trick to use with a compass is to tape a scrap of leather down in the center with blue painters tape. The scrap takes the mark and the tape pulls off cleanly afterwards.

I was in a shop a couple weeks ago and he had a few of them. They do seem pretty comparable to the Osborne #150 punches except for the welds being a little rougher and no paint. He thought they were a little sharper straight out than some of the Osbornes. The regular price on them was about $20 more than the Osbornes from Springfield, but on sale they are better.

Good buy, they usually run $75-125 in the antique/vintage stores. Chandlers seem a little less common. It's a hand crank pinking cutter. Had a guy tell me they were originally designed for cloth and he uses one I found him on canvas bed trap material. I tried the one I had on chap and did OK with the pressure adjusted up a bit. It rolled right through chap but wouldn't go as well on 4-5 vegtan.

Harness leather is usually a veg tan leather that has been treated with oils, waxes, and greases in proprietary mixes depending on the tannery and the different types of harness leather they may be producing. Some can be pretty "dry", some waxy, and some pretty greasy/oily. Some of these treatments are going to repel dyes or inhibit penetration to any great degree. Treating with the solvents may strip some of the compounds off the surface that the tannery added and allow some level of dyeing to happen. Still I don't think it is going to do as good a job as it does on plain vegtan leather. I don't buy harness leather anymore. I chose several years ago not to compete with everyone else selling clicker cut harness lather tack then. I had a good relationship with a rep at a now closed tannery and he steered me towards what I do now. Occasionally I need "harness leather" for loop ends for reins or repair work. I pick a nice firm section of skirting leather and oil it with an oil of choice - pure neatsfoot or olive oil. Some I oil pretty heavy for more color, some lighter. Once the oil has settled, I go back and dress it with a paste conditioner. He was not a Tandy rep or affiliated, but he recommended I use the Dr Jackson's Hide Rejuvenator as the paste. Pretty cheap and works well. I apply it in several thin coats and lightly heat it with a hair dryer to soften it and help it penetrate. That works for me and I end up with a good feeling leather for my needs. On some of the repair work I need to match color. I dye the leather, then oil. then paste and most of the time can get pretty close. The dye goes on the plain leather so I get a good penetration.

Just to weigh in here because I have a lot of punches, makers, and times when they were made to compare. I didn't measure every punch, but did several randoms off my bench and what I have for sale. I checked maybe 50 here - a mix of English points and round ends. The wood handled punches are all less than 1/16" except for 1-1/2'' HF Osborne that is a full 1/16" over. The HF Osborne forged punches are mostly dead on but a few are less 1/16" oversized. The CS Osborne forged punches are mostly less than or right at 1/16" oversized. The "CS Osborne Made in England" forged punches are all less than 1/16" over and very consistant. I have a few arch style (CS Osborne #150) punches. They vary the most. The 1-3/4" English point on my bench measures 1/8" over, the rest all measure right at 1/16" or less except one dead on. The dead on one is the round end 1-3/4" arch punch on my bench.

Jake, I have a section of them on the single line creaser page. They start at about half way down the page. Here is a link to the page - Large/Layer Single Line Creasers .

You can also do this with creasers. The larger size creasers like the CS Osborne "layer creasers" or Gomph's equivalent "round edge creasers" will do the edge bead. The next one can be done with a push beader or beader blade. For that deep effect on the inside bead, I have used a edge creaser and followed the track from the first pass in both directions.

I have had them from 8" to the tip up to 18" or so. There aren't dimensions in the old CS and HF Osborne catalogs I have, but going off the perspective of the handle looks like they were maybe 10" or so in the CS Osborne 1897edition. They were used in different trades too. I sold a long one to an old guy who used to work in a mill. He said they would fold the end of a sack over three or four times and then run the awl through pleats as far as they could gather. They'd pull a string or lace back through. It made a sort of running stitch and seal the end. I have seen them sold as "ham stringers" too.

It is a collar awl. The edges are sharp enough to cut. It is pushed through the leather, the lace is fed into the eye, and then pulled back through and brings the tip of the lace with it. The next stitch the lace is carried forward with the push. Originally used for making horse collars. They can also be used for carrying saddle strings through the tree for repair work. The edges on some are blunted and I have heard those referred to as "drawing awls". They can be used for pulling lacing strings back through a braid like on saddle skirts and rear jockeys without cutting the braid. .

I got this plough gauge that is a real dandy. I have seen references to this maker's mark before but can't recall who it is. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Bruce

Some people do have pretty severe reactions to the dust from cocobola along with other woods. I think when Big Sky Dies were still in Michigan they were having them made from hard rock maple. There's a guy on Ebay from Utah that has one listed about every week. He works with some exotic woods it looks like.

I heard Kevin Kolasch at Double K Leather bought HideCrafters recently. I don't know what all he has moved to St Louis yet, but worth a call to see if he has any. I have one of HideCrafters seat sticks and it is about 24 inches at least. Pretty Ok piece of lumber.

I have the whole floor area of my shop covered with them except under the shelving systems. I have not dropped a knife that I can remember since I did. Before that concrete had a magentic attraction for knives. I was always fixing an edge on something that fell blade first to the floor. FWIW, I have them under my stamping bench and cutting bench that I also rivet on. I do have a 150 plus pound granite surface plate inset in my bench and set rivets on an 80# anvil I sling up on the cutting bench. Their mass helps a lot to negate any dampening from the mats, but the mats have sure made the whole shop quieter. One thing i'd recommend is to tape the joints. I used black duct tape and has held up for about a year and half. Otherwise the seams filled up with stuff and even with their weight sometimes an edge would lift trip me up.

I am attaching pictures of a few types of edgers that will do a good job on slots. If they display in the order they load, I am good here. Not all bisonette edgers are made the same. The first picture is an older CS Osborne bisonette. It doesn't have a lot of bend at the cutting hole. It is great for running down a straight edge or gentle curve.l The leading edge of the hole will ride on the leather like a training wheel and the cutting angle is consistant. On tight inside curves though it can raise the cutting edge away from the leather. The second image is an old Rosecrans bisonette. They were made with a lot of bend at the hole. They will do a tight curve easily. The third image is a Gomph round bottom edger. With the open toe design, I can do most all inside curves pretty well and they sharpen up easily and have a ton of life to them. The next picture are two old Rosecrans turnback edgers. They are designed for the tight inside curves. They are basically a bisonette bent over almost double. I have a side view of these as well in the last picture. These are all older tools I have or used to have. There are a few who make versions of all of these new now - Bob Douglas has new ones he makes along with Barry King and Jeremiah Watt.

I have sold the last splitters mentioned in the previous post. Today I added six more leather splitters. There are three Osborne #86s - two 6" and one 8". There are two Osborne Chase pattern splitters in 10" and 12". I also have one Randall Improved Chase pattern splitter in 8". Here is the link to the page - Leather Splitters For Sale .