bruce johnson

Way cool!!! I sit on Charles Collinsstitching horse when I hand sew. Mine is a saddler's horse and not the more common harness stitching horse. He had a lot of colorful history.

I left the ram on mine to still be able to use it as a shop press if needed. I use a piece of steel large enough to cover the die and center it under the ram. That works for what I need to use it for. Texas Custom Dies has a shop press with a top plate, but I am not seeing a picture of it on their website. Weaver makes a benchtop one also with a top plate that bolts onto the ram.

Looking really good, Calvin. I lke the button mix and the colors.

Wyoslick or somebody more in tune with Craftool history probably has the answer. I looked at a large set of tools a few years ago from a closed down summer camp. They had several sets of stamps that had that brass finish. There were a few still in sets in bags and boxed with low end swivel knives and wooden mallets. I assumed they were made for bulk sales or entry level craft programs.

I've got a few of the "combs" and the bent piece that go on one. PM or email me.

Art. It was one of those "seemed like good idea at the time" deals. I was mixing my beeswax/parafin mix in the pyrex cup on the stovetop. I thought "Hey they make a wax that has dye in it, how hard can that be?" so added about a third again of dark brown dye and let it go a bit swirling to mix. When I poured it into the muffing papers it stayed separated. That would have been the point where a prudent man would have stopped and left hot solvent and melted wax to professionals. I was not wanting to waste my $3 worth of beeswax and probably 50 cents worth of parafin. I went on and cooked off solvent while she was gathering important papers and family heirlooms for evacuation. Like I told my wife when I was done "No flame - No foul!".

And here's another safety tip. If you decide to add a bunch of dark brown dye to make brown wax for edges, you will need to gently boil the solvent off to allow the dye particles to disperse throughout the wax sort of evenly. It is a good idea at this point not to tell your wife exactly what you are doing on her new stove over the recently laid laminate flooring. It can be done, but the safety tip here is - if you tell her then wear proper hearing protection. Wives tend to yell really loudly at that point. The real lesson out of that whole deal was that the brown dyed wax didn't really make my edges that much darker, but I am not admitting that to her.

I occasionally use horse butts and finally used up what I got from another supplier a few years ago. I have been to Maverick Leather a couple times in the last six months and have looked at them. They are bigger and cleaner than what I had, and look worth the money to me. Maverick has a good selection of leathers that come directly from Horween. Good folks to deal with.

Michael, I am with you. I don't cut a lot of lace, but occasionally need some. I like the Australian strander much better than the plastic stick Tandy cutter. The strander is adjustable, and just is more comfortable for me to use.

Really??? I finally find this out now about the active topics?? I guess I can now forget about my little hand written notes about posts I want to go back to. I've been here how long again?

I use both about every day. With the blade sharp enough, both will cut belt width straps. The differenece between the two is in the design. The draw gauge is pulled. The blade on the end of the bar means the wider the cut, the more torque there is on your wrist to keep it straight if the leather is hard or the blade is dull. You should be able to easily pull the blade into the leather. If you have to push it in to get a start, the blade is too dull. The leather has to be off the table to use a draw gauge. The plough gauge is pushed into the leather and the blade is in line with your wrist. No matter the width, there is no torque. The roller in front of the blade keeps the leather from riding up the blade also. The leather lays flat on the table with a plough gauge.

Thanks Tony and Clair, I had a guy who bought a plough gauge tell me he could buy three for what one new would cost him. When the second guy told me that I did get curious then. Lefflers were the only ones I could find online selling plough gauges.

I have a question for the Australian members. I had heard from a couple of you some of the prices for new quality leather tools in Australia. I got around to checking one mentioned and it was dead on with what I was told. Are there any other suppliers with published website prices other than Lefflers to check out?

I think overall steel is the best choice. I have some good ones from Chuck Smith and Barry King. Henley makesa good one as well. I have got a few ceramic blades in some Tandy knives that were so-so to really draggy. I recently bought some tools and with them was a Chuck Smith knife with a ceramic blade. I was not expecting much out of the blade because my experience was about like dirtclod's. It is a heck of a good blade. I am not sure that Chuck made a ceramic blade so this might be one somebody stuck in it. Whatever the case either this was a good blade to start with or somebody worked it over to be good. Sorry I left one off my list of steel blades. I have one from Leather Wranglers that is the longest lasting of the steel blades I have.

I am going to have some more up on my website pretty soon. I still have some left on there right now in different sizes in English point and round ends.

If they want to pursue it, I think Hamley's still may able to tell you about that exact saddle based on the serial number. I have had a couple that were interesting - got copies of the work order and shipping tag with the saddles.

No matter what the illustration shows, it is easier to taper your thread back far enough that you have a tapered section in the eye when you have finished a proper thread. This makes the thread not much larger than the needle at that pint and pulls easier. Pretty much most of my handsewing is done with the smaller of the two sizes of needles TLF sells. I can't remember if the smaller is "O" or "OOO" off the top of my head. Push the awl in far enough that the needle pulls easily by hand and you will get faster and work will be easier. If you need to, stack small discs of leather on the awl blade to set the depth and bury the awl to that depth. It will also keep you from getting rat-butt marks from the awl chuck hitting your leather. That is a real term I learned from an esteemed maker in Texas. If you make a slit type hole with the right awl blade, each successive stitch will press and close up the previous hole more. Another advantage to angling the awl when you stab. Too low an angle or straight won't close up as well. If you are using pliers you are doing two things. One is you are way slower. The other is that you are putting little nicks on your needles that will abrade your thread as you pull the needles through. Another lesson I learned from my Irish harnessmaking visitor several years ago. He sewed 16 SPI with a regular awl and some 346 machine thread by eye to show me it could be done. Awesomeness would describe it.

The knife is at least 100 years or better. CS Osborne changed addresses in 1906 from Newark NJ to Harrison NJ. Probably they had some old stock that still had the Newark marking after that for a while, but that is the timeline. The cross looks like a factory marking and not an owner's mark added later, but this probably not 100% for sure. They did do a size marking with "X" markings at one point. The single X was a 6-1/2" wide, the XX was 6-3/4, and the XXX was 7" wide. That is the subject of some mild debate but the old catalogs listed the X markings that way. Some people say the X was a quality mark - the more Xs, the better the knife. I don't think so. They did list a second quality knife of the same stylein the catalog for a bit less. That said, the X marked knives I have had were marked between the CSO trademark and the brass, but no reason to think they might not have got close with the makers stamp and put the X above on your particular knife. I like those CSO knives quite a bit. They are a good mix of fairly easy to profile and sharpen, but still hold their edge for a good while. I would taper that bevel back more than what it is. It looks pretty steep. It is going to take a few hours to do right, but will be worth it when you are done.

At least half of my orders want the rope border. Unlike Jeff's, most of mine are not contained in bead or cut lines. Mine are beveled to stand up . I used to use the Tandy or Hidecrafter rope stamps. I wore out and bent a couple a year. A while back I got Barry King to make me two sizes as a custom order. Looks like Barry now has them as a stock item stamp now. Nothing against the Tandy and Hidecrafter ones because they made me a lot of money, but the ends bend up on them if you do many tipped impressions. I have a scan somewhere on the forum that I can't find right now comparing the impressions of the Tandy/Hidecrafter vs. Barry's and there is a difference. Here is a link to a thread a few years ago when I was still using the TLF/HC stamps - Rope stamping

Several years ago I had the good fortune to have an older Irish harnessmaker spent the afternoon with me. The first thing he did was to take a shoeing rasp to my stitching horse to properly shape the ends for closer sewing. Then he took my awls and sorted through them. He picked about 5 out that were OK to his purposes, and went to sharpening. Muscle memory and all that, but about one minute each on the stones going through the grits. He raised a bur edge on the actute angles of the diamonds almost to where the taper leveled out. Stropped the bur off and then used that edge to cut leather as a test. Used them like a knife on a the edge of a piece of skirting. They sliced like a good knife. I just thought I knew how sharp they were supposed to be before that. THAT was a lesson learned. One bad awl he worked into a round point to use for oversewing with less chance of cutting the existing threads. The rest went to sharp points for a game of "awl darts". .

:popcorn: Don't ya just really like a good ending.

Actually your are going to have to sharpen that edger you now use too at some point. The techniques should be pretty much the same. As far as ordering a #2 and #3 and having to machine them to that size, it should have nothing to do with the size. The size designates the width, and every maker is a bit different with the same number sizes. One contemporary and a couple of old line makers are way different on their sizing number compared to others. Your #2 shoud cut a narrower edge than the #3. They should both be sharpened exactly the same way. Properly sharpened those Dixon tools will outlive your other one by years or generations. If you don't want to got through it, I'll buy them both as is without sharpening. On a side note, what is the Ebay seller you bought them from telling you? Are they reselling new tools with an Ebay store without adding any value over ordering from Abbey or Dixon straight up or was this a one time deal for them?

They look just like the one I have for sale. As far as the tip profile, that is how they are. They may not come deadly sharp from the factory, so a replacement may not be any better. I don't know to what degree of sharpness Dixon goes with their new tools. Some of the old line companies did not put a final edge on cutting tools. I have not had a new Dixon so can't say. I have pulled old Osborne tools out of the paper that hand no real edge. Older guys have told me that was to put your own favored final edge profile on. I got a pretty old Dixon plough gauge knife last year with the blade having a profile somewhat but a square edge on the front - it is my most reached for user. Pretty much most tools you get are not going to be using-sharp out of the box. For new edgers, Bob Douglas and Barry Kings should be. I don't know about Ron's edgers since he sold the business. although we expect to get sharp ready to use tools when we buy them new, they mostly aren't. If they are, we are generally paying the price for the maker to do that. In some cases that doesn't mean the tool is bad - just that it takes a little time to finish it off and make it good. Sharpening up that edger might take 10 minutes. In the process you will get a feel for how hard that steel is and what you can expect out of the tool. Even the ones coming sharp will need to be worked on every so often.

Been there a couple times. They have a big warehouse and kind of let you freely roam. I am pretty sure most of the hardware and tools are at San Dimas though. At least that is how it was started out for San Dimas. Lots of leather to look at and they are very hospitable. Realize that most of their business is telephone orders. The reps will be on the phone and might point you to an area, but usually are tied up enough they won't lead you through and go through the different options in every aisle. Kind of find something and they will break away to explain a particluar leather and be happy to do that.

Does it look like the one I have attached? They make a flat bottom version and a hollow ground which has a rounded bottom. If it is the flat bottom then the sharpening is pretty straightforward. You sharpen them on a fine stone from the bottom until you get to a fine foil edge. Then strop if lightly from both sides to remove that foil edge. Biggest thing is to make sure you get all of the foil stropped off. For the round bottoms, do like Bill suggested and use a round base like a nail or screwdriver and wrap it with the wet-dry sandpaper. Make sure the radius matches the tool. If there are grit marks when you are finished then go to finer stone or wet-dry sandpaper and do it again until the grit marks are gone. You can strop the slot out with a thin piece of leather or the edge of a piece of cardboard from the back of writing pad works. I use green compound. I would not toss the Dixon's, I have a some Dixons I have kept and the steel is pretty good. The shorter toes are easier to do inside curves with. Pretty nice tools overall.