bruce johnson

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 .

I ship to the UK, but it can take a while to get through the British customs. I have quite a few Dixon edgers as well as a lot of other edge bevelers. Here's a link to my website page with the bevelers - Leather Edge Bevelers .

I use contact cement also. I rough up the can like Double U said. I put a thin layer of contact cement on the leather and let it dry.Then I put a second coat on and one on the plastic. Once they are pretty tacky then I stick it down. I press it around pretty good to get a good bond. I lay it face down on a towel and weight them overnight - usually a bench anvil and whatever it takes to make about 30 pounds or so. I also use the Smith Brothers cans and get them from Jeannie Willard. One of the real bright spots of people I buy from. She is just a peach on the phone and ships fast.

They are nice, and the bonus was that we collect things with Johnson name. These were made by Wm Johnson so it was a real cool deal to get them. They are slick for marking out rope can and rope bag parts. They are nice, and the bonus was that we collect things with Johnson name. These were made by Wm Johnson so it was a real cool deal to get them. They are slick for marking out rope can and rope bag parts.

I have added a whole page to my website today of wooden tools. There are three nice smashers or bouncers or seat slickers or whatever you were taught to call them. There are a couple wedge type and strap slickers including an Osborne marked steel insert model. Lots of edge slickers. These came from sets of old tools and are all in good shape. Some are CS Osborne Newark marked. You could be slicking with the same tool as a guy did 100 years ago. I also added some CS and HF Osborne draw gauges, a few different edge bevelers, and a HF Osborne Eureka channeler. Here's a link to the landing page for the tools - Leather Tools For Sale . Thank you, Bruce

I had typed in the #86 in error and corrected my previous post. It should have been the Osborne #84 splitter that has the handle and will do lap skives. Another handled splitter that will skive is the Heritage splitter/skiver. Campbell-Randall makes a handled splitter as well. Sorry for the confusion.

The bigger problem here I see is with the chrome tan. For softer leather like that, I use a bell knive skiver. I can set them to level split up to about 2 inches wide. I have run straps through crosswise and done laps. Somebody may have some experience with the Scharr-Fixx unit for this, but I don't. Other than that - it's the knife or hand skiver. There are a few more options for vegtan here. A handled splitter like the Osborne #84 will level split if you tighten the handle down. You can skive laps by pulling the strap through as you push the handle forward. I just got in a Heritage splitter that is a handier lap skiver by design than it will ever be as a splitter. In fact I am pretty impressed with it on a few laps I have pulled through it to try it out. A crank skiver can also run straps through crosswise and skive easily repeatable laps. With either of those and a pull through splitter you could do laps and level splits and sure be under $1000. Edit - I had orignally typed that the #86 was a handled splitter. It is not and I had a brain freeze thinking about the #84 but typed #86. The post is now corrected.,

I started off with a Boss when they were the only affordable option for me at the time. The next step for a powered machine was about $4500. I sewed a ton on it, and it was pretty easy for a 14 year old son and wife to use and help me out. Later I stepped up to a 205-64 and then a Ferdco 2000 from there. The Boss still got use. I could sew tooled wear leathers on whatever thickness of saddle pads I could cram under the foot. It was good on repairs. I could replace stitchlines in a lot of hard old leather. I could resew woolskins on curled skirts that the powered machines would skip on. I eventually did sell it, but still some situations I could probably still use it. Mine was one of the original cast iron models and was a tank.

Mijo, I know a guy not too far from you that has the Lucris III press and likes it. PM me and I can put you in touch with him.

I have it saved to favorites. Mine is running about 3 seconds per page to load. I use a cellular modem through Verizon. Once in a while on any site, there can be a "lag-time" when I click to go to a new page, It may be anywhere from 3-10 seconds but once it starts the page loads in about 3 seconds. A few forums are faster for me. They are the ones with plain Jane headers and no avatars. Some load slower that have more header ads.

Without a maker's stamp, that is a fairly common style of saddle from the maybe early part of the 1900s and that would be about all I could say. How are the stirrup leathers adjusted? I get the hint of a slide from a Blevins buckle in the picture, but can't tell for sure. That could sure change things if so, either a later addition or a more recent make of an older style. Value is all over the board. I have seen them bring $100 at local auctions and some decoraters pay up to $500. If it had a stamp from a maker, that could change things.

If they are the standard round screw in punches like mini-punches and maxi-punches I chuck the handle into a drill press and spin them on in. It makes a clean hole and pulls right out easily, No cranking the punch back and forth trying to pull it out of hard or thick leather. The holes are smooth. I use scrap cutting board on the drill press table as a backer.

Cheryl, I don't braid, and even if I did, Bret is way over on the right side of the bell curve of braiders. I have the dark colored reins he posted a few months ago. They are braided straight as a rule, feel good, and are a pretty color to boot. The body of this hackamore is the same color string. I think it will look outstanding paired with the reins in a two-rein set up.

The more I look at it, the more I like it. Pretty stoked to get one like it!

Super cool!!

And it is a two half-day deal. I was kicking around an all night drive Thurs night. I decided against it. Starting at 7:00 and a two half day deal It looks like fixed price estate sale with some silent auction stuff. If something grabbed me on the sealed bid or silent auction deal I'd have to stay over until Saturday afternoon. Just not worth it for me, but somebody local can make it work.

Most bisonettes should follow that curve but some won't depending on the angle they are bent at. A turnback edger and a round bottom edger will do it.

I have added several round knives to my website tonight. There are some very nice old CS Osbornes. I also have a cool combination knife that Frank Ringel made. It is patterned after the "French pattern" knives made 100 years ago with the straigh side like a head knife and the trailing side like some round knives. There are some affordable users - a Weaver that is all but new it isn't unused. There are a few unmarked ones too. One guy who bought one told me was giving his name brand knife to his wife to frost cakes with after getting an unmarked one. I also added some patent leather tool/freehand stitch groovers. Osbornes with a bunch of length to them. There are quite a few fresh stitch markers too. There are the usuals and the unusuals. I have a Gomph #18 if you care to sew 18 to the inch and have the most elegant make of pricking wheels to mark them out. If you want a little looser work, there is a #15 Osborne pricking wheel instead. Lastly - fresh creasers and ticklers. Here is a link to the landing page for the the tools on my website - Leather Tools For Sale . Thanks, Bruce

Here are a few ways I use blood knots - bit hangers and concho holders on some headstalls, strap ends, and saddle strings.

A wise old man told me that the name came from pushing your knife through the string into your finger. Everybody has done it. On the other hand, I have personal experience with a tool called a string bleeder specially made to cut that slit. I was wearing flip-flops and had a string bleeder roll off my bench, do a 90 gegree turn, and land vertically stuck in the top of my foot like a yard dart. It was like slow motion and I still didn't respond. You know that big vein on your arch? String bleeders are on them like a heat seeking missile. It didn't bleed until I pulled it out, but then was a real stream. Wore a casing bag on my foot to get across the house to the bandaids. Cats that were around then are still traumatized if I rattle a plastic bag. The same wise old man told me you will never cut yourself if you have bandaids handy in your shop.

Bill, Kind of think of the software like a car. Every year they come out with new models, kind of like new versions of software. Things change a bit with every new version. After a while they stop supporting the old versions, kind of like not stocking OEM footswitches for the dimmers on '67 Chevy pickups anymore. Because of other changes in browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome, FireFox, etc. the software has to change to keep compatible. Just like new cars, the controls are moved and things look different because we have gone from the '67 Chevy to a 2012 Explorer without some of the changes in between. Even the administrators don't know exactly how things are going to look or work until the new version is in. That is where things are at right now. The big things are being squared away, other changes are being found and dealt with. As far as the applications like the flags, think of those as the aftermarket accessories. They will be reinstalled on the new version, but the first priority was to get the new version up and running first. To further this car theme deal. I drive a 2002 Ford pickup. I know every control, can work them without looking. When I travel and rent something, it is an experience. If I can get the radio going and lights and wipers figured out in 10 minutes I am pretty pleased. Last year I changed the rear view mirror in Indianapolis and 10 seconds later was connected to OnStar. About time to turn the rental back in and I have them pretty well down. The new version of the forum will be that way too.

I am not much for change either, but with software it has to be updated occasionally. These forum wasn't built from scratch, it is on a software template. I don't think this particular version has been updated for a while. I am not a computer expert, but what I have found is that as the newer versions are developed, some of the previous features that I get used to aren't supported by the developers and you can end up with an orphan set up. Thye work with older browsers but not with new ones, and things like that. There are still some tweakings going on with options in the background, more apps to be added, so this isn't the final version but at least it is up and running with pretty minimal problems so far. Much happier than after the historic crash several years ago when everything was lost and a ton of hours were put in by Johanna and Kate to unscramble text and pictures and recreate the forum. The main thing I have noticed so far was the "view new content". On the new version mine was on a setting that didn't list posts once I had read them. I knew it was there an hour ago, but where is it now?? I found the setting on the left menu bar and it gives you lots of options.

The small Chuck Smith flower center bevler, braid center basket stamp, and set of decorative cut stamps are gone now.