bruce johnson

I missed this thread for a while I guess. Everyone is welcome, I was glad to do it. Tinneal, you made me test my brain. I had to go back and think what I had going on back then. It was either shoulder problems or a dislocated thumb. The shoulder was helped by my doctor with a bit of background in sports medicine. Mindless endless tedious exercises did the trick and avoided surgery. The thumb has been out a few times, but the first was the worst.

Rob, I am sure there a few different terms, but a burr or foil edge is what I am referring to. Basically taking the edge out to a feather edge. Then stropping off the bur to leave that fine edge. It is even easier for me to do a strap end punch. You can use stones or some sort of abrasive to profile the edge and then raise the burr or foil. I strop them off with a firm buffing wheel and green compound. I strop inside and out.

Not to sound like a smart a**, but it depends on how sharp you get it or how sharp you like them. Some people like them sharp enough to almost use by hand and others like a blunt edge and beat on them. Personal preference, kind of like strap end punches. It depends on the type of punch too. The thin walled maxi and mini punch tubes can sure benefit from sharpening more than they come out of the package. Get too fine an edge though and the edge collapses and rolls from not having enough material backing the edge. The drive punches have more material and I like a really fine edge. I take it out to a foil edge on a slack belt. Then I strop that off on a firm buff wheel with green compound. I take a small awl or nail wrapped with fine wet'dry paper and run it around the inside to make a light micro bevel inside the punch and remove any foil edge that flipped in. A couple times of each and I'm good. If it isn't taken out to a foil edge, there isn't much point in stropping one in my mind.

All good advice so far. When the leather tends to always move across in one direction, it is usuallyt a mismatch between the roller and the leading edge of the blade. For all intents and purposes the leading edge of the blade should be even with the dead center top of the roller. It also needs to be dead level with the roller, higher on one side will make your leather run to one side too. One less common thing that can cause that is the bevel is not consistant across the the blade. As far as chopping, one of the things that can happen with any splitter with a single roller, but more common probably on the #86. I had one a month ago that was mounted on a base with a roller in front of the splitter. You could run your leather under that and it feed up into the splitter. A really nice set up for a braider. Otherwise you need to be sure that the leather is feeding from below the leve l of the roller. You also need to make sure you are pulling at the very highest even withe the level of the roller and best practice is probably to pull below the roller level. This is the most common thing I see with a #86 chopping. The other is that sometimes you hit a harder spot in the leather and that hard spot rides right up the bevel of the blade and chops it off. I have seen a picture of at least one #86 that was modified to have a guard/hold down rod in front of the blade like a #84. It can be done.

What little I know. Back in the day the guys who stamped saddle parts in the shops were called "stamp hands" so I would have to assume that Ed Robinson was a stamper there. The guys who worked there in the heyday have mostly passed on, but I'd think someobdy has heard of Ed Robinson. I have had a few email conversations going with guys trying to get some info on IDing Eberle stamps. File marks are one of the things mentioned right after "you just know them when you see them". Hopefully these guys will weigh in here.

Please post photos. There are a few here who would have some insight.

Jon, I use machine thread for handsewn repairs and to match machiune stitching in places I can't get a machine into. You can get a little sticky wax like besswax to grab it a bit.

Now you are going to make me go look, Knut. I think I have a few tools with the shanks like that. I never thought to pull them out and look at the other end.

I am with Jim. A round knife will do a nice job on thicker leather and should do it in one pass. You can cut straight down on your corners with a round knife and should not have any fraying. Fraying makes me think a dull edge or tearing an incomplete cut.

Jon, I stamp my rope in first,. then basket stamp up pretty close. If I need to extend the leg impression of some basket stamps to get them even, I use a screwdriver blade the same width as the legs of the basket stamp. Sometimes I can do partial impressions with the stamp without overlapping the border though. Last thing I do is bevel the rope.

Jon, I usea rope border stamp quite a bit. Here's an example of some different ways I run it from a thread a while back - Rope Stamp . The second post in that thread has some of my examples. I had Barry make the two sizes he shows on his website. I use the smaller one 90% of the time asa frame for a geometric or basket stamped pattern. About the only time I use the bigger one is either a stand alone border pattern on soemthing plain or to frame a huge waffle stamp I have.

Elliott, I had the same thing happen on a few websites when I got a new computer and the updated explorer. On Lw I have compatibility view checked and the drop down and message deal works right for me that way. Doesn't work for me if I am not in compatiiblity view. Might be the deal for you. Bruce

Much as I would hope they are rawhide like Joel suggests, I am sort of familiar with Billy Royal. It is what it is. The silver is probably plated and so you have to be careful what you might use to dye or prep to dye. I can't enlarge that picture enough to tell, but my suspicion is that they are braided vegtan or some sort of chrome tan and not rawhide. The finish may be a dye, but I would not bet on it. Several of these companies are using a pigmented sprayed on topcoat to get an even color in their finished products. If so, consider it like a coat of paint on top of the leather. Some of them use this on "light oil" saddles to keep the color from darkening. It prevents any sort of conditioning. If it eventually thins out or cranks, any attempts to condition end up blotchy. If you try to change coloron something flexible like reins you might have a problem with peeling or cracking with your coating. It might work for a while if you don't use them much.

It has something put onto the flesh side and then it is glazed, kind of like putting gum trag on a plain belt and then slicking it with a glass slicker, except this is the whole side.

Great advice so far from guys who know a lot more than me. One more maker/machine I would add is a Pfaff 1245. I have a clone, but I haven't talked to many people who have one that don't like them. Mine will do up to 1/2" with #207 as easy as it does #69 thread on 3 oz. On occasion I have run 207 on the bobbin, but my usual set-up is 207 on top and 138 in the bobbin.

I have added about 40 punches for sale to my website. There isa wide range of sizes in slot punches and round end strap punches. Some nice pinking chisels and pinked scalloping piunches also. Here's the link to the tool section of my website - Leather Tools for Sale . Thanks, Bruce

Raquel, CS Osborne started in the US when CS Osborne bought an existing company from Wm Dodd who bought it from Joseph English. It has always been in New Jersey, first a Newark address and now a Harrison address. I have not seen any of the Osborne tools marked with France. There are some punches marked CS Osborne and England that the supposition is were contract made by Dixon. They are nice punches. There are or were some internet references to the different leather tool makers. Probably the most complete book is RA Salaman's book "Dictionary of Leather Working Tools, c 1700-1950" for identifying tools. Alexander Farnham also wrote two books on New Jersey tool makers and there are several leather tool makers from that area. None of these books will give you values or quality measures of the tools. Values change over time and the condition of an individual piece is a big factor. As far as looking at a picture of an old tool or sometimes even the tools themselves and telling if they are going to be useable - experience and judgement. Even with that sometimes you get some goats with the sheep. When you are on Ebay or someone selling a storage auction find, estate sale, or auction pickup then you may know more than the seller. With those sellers everything is "vintage". Once they get past that adjective they are done. If a seller has worked leather and knows the tools, that's an advantage. I have personal favorites of the old makers. Some may be better suited for a particular person than another. Some people like one style of edger than another or person may do better with a particular size or shape knife for example.

I use one.

I have a pretty cool old French pattern Mayer-Flamery knife I skive with. I've had some Mayer-Flamery plough gauges and they are pretty comparable with the old Blanchards.

CW, They were originally called Fast Buckles and Ben Veach patented them. A few years ago he sold the patent and couldn't or wouldn't say who bought the rights. Since then a few places have knockoffs - pretty sure I saw some on Walsall's site and one of the saddle tree companies had a variation too. I haven't seen anyone come out and advertise they have the original Veach design. You were good to put a keeper on, they need one. I used quite a few of them. They are pretty quick to adjust. The big advantage I saw was that they twisted over a shorter length. That makes them really nice for short legged riders. They also ride over a latigo pretty smoothly too. I put a bunch of them on barrel saddles.

I have a bobbin wnder on one machine, bobbin winder that runs off the belt on another and never use them. I still use the spindle that came with the Boss for all of them. I sold the Boss several years ago but Tippmann had packed two winders in the tool kit. I keep a pretty good separation between the hand that feeds the thread and the bobbin being wound. I tension the thread between my thumb and forefinger and start off slow until I have the threads laying in, then hit the gas and let it rip. I get more even bobbins doing that than with the winders. I can do them up faster than setting one up on the machine and am not distracted by watching a bobbin fill while I am sewing.

I have a couple Harringtons, one I use. They are good knives and not very common.

I don't think anyone sells new Blanchards in the US. I believe there is a Dixon distributer on the east coast somewhere. If it doesn't have to be a new knife, I know I have a Dixon and may have a Blanchard too.

Cool looking work. I only see a couple things I'd change. I like the floral tooling to go down the cheeks rather than up, but that's a personal preference. I would also round off the bit ends or at least chip off those square corners.

Thanks for the link.That site is a lot easier to get through. I have a few concerns. When somebody is selling a punch for more money than a round knife and sewing palm for the same money that makes me wonder which is off there. If the plough gauge they show is a new one, I would be suspect of anything new they make. I use an old Barnsley plough and that one they are showing isn't in the same league. It isn't even close.