bruce johnson

I am very happy with my Ferdco 2000 also. My flat bed is Ferdco's version of the 1245 and like that one a bunch too. I had an Alder 205-64 that was heck of a good one too.

I get the Renia by piggybacking onto another guy's order. It comes from a shoe supply distibuter and they have a route. I have seen it for sale through other shoe supply houses on the internet. It is NOT less toxic than Barge, and actually has more smell than Barge. I use it either under the covered porch out the back or open the big door if there is a good breeze. On the few times I use it inside closed up, I mask up, do my glueing and then leave it overnight with a window open some. The guy I get mine with used to use Masters, but found this better. It does latigo pretty well. I do a lot of doubled and stitched latigo reins and it works well. I can still peel it apart to insert a popper, but it won't come apart while sewing like Barge did if you weren't paying attention.

First off, it would have gone better with mulehide or latigo. My guess is that the rawhide was still a little too damp and then didn't get pulled tight enough. As it dried it maybe thinned down some more left the standing gaps. You have to keep working the rawhide down as it dries also. Keep levering on it and you will be suprised at the amount of stretch you can continue to pull out of it. Once it dries down, it should be pretty tight. A strap sure helps them to pull tigher and lay better. This vast experience I have is based on one rawhide hornwrap for a customer who thought it would be a more durable base for rubber. My first one was loose. My second one turned out Ok. About a month later he brought it back. It was a lot slicker than he thought it would be. A few times the rubber turned on him and barked his hand apparently.

A little more from the book here now. They started building saddles in 1905 and then under their own name in 1909. The built them up until the 50s. TLM - you need to get the book. Yours is pictured and is "The Duhamel Mortgage Lifter" I mentioned above. Oregon Special tree, 8 button seat, ring rigged, and stamped in that exact pattern. They wrote they came out with it after the war and cattle took a drop. Customers were looking for something strong and durable neat looking, and at a price to compare with the prices they were getting for their cattle and stock. Since proven to be the biggest selling number they ever manufactured.

That's what I get for typing faster than I think in a hurry. I meant to type that yours is pretty different than mine. Mine is a 6 button. I'd rather ride yours. LOL. Looks like yours has a little scoop to the seat. Mine is like a ridge pole from fork to cantle. Little more swell on mine maybe too. Does yours have a ring rigging? Looks like it from the pictures. Thanks for the additional picture too. I like that spiral basket stamped ring pattern on the seat jockeys. Cool effect. I haven't seen a lot of the Duhamels around. There are a few in Don King's Museum as I recall and a couple in the High Plains at Spearfish SD.

The book is called Duhamel - From Oxcart to Television and written by Dale Lewis. Abebooks. com has a few copies under $10. I recall seeing one Duhamel saddle catalog. It is behind glass in the Don King Museum. There have to be more out there, but haven't run across any. A little more about my great grandfather. He fed cattle in southeast South Dakota. They'd put them on the train and sell them in Chicago - ate a big steak, stayed at the Palmer House, saw a show and took the train home. He fed a pen of big older steers once in while for a long time as a novelty. They were apparently huge. They called them "steamers". The steaks were huge with a big rind of fat and spilled over the plate. They were destined for the upscale dining rooms on the steamships. The horse that came with the saddle was supposed to be pretty juicy. My great grandfrather rode him to my grandpa's. Grandpa offered togive him a ride and lead the horse home out the truck window. My great grandfather figured he got him there, he'd make it home. Sold him to a guy who put on Sunday afternoon jackpot bronc ridings. That guy ended up and got Bob Barnes started with bucking horses when Bob was starting out in the rodeo contracting business. I think Barnes is still one of very few contractors to have buckers at every NFR since the beginning.

OK, here's a little of what I know. I have my great grandfather's Duhamel saddle in the living room. His came on a saddled horse with a trainload of steers from Miles City in the early to mid 30s. The Duhamel business started with the elder Duhamel freighting into Rapid City. Some kind of interesting stories there. Eventually the had a store and later generations got into having a tourist attraction cave, broadcasting concerns, and other enterprises arounf Rapid City. There is a book about the Duhamels. I don't have it in front of me and am going offf memory. As far as the store, they pretty well seemed to have everything. They traded in Native American artifacts and were a general merchandise store. It was kind of necessary visit to got to Duhamel's when my grandparents and great grandparents went to the Black Hills. I don't know for usre what year they started building saddles I want to say early part of the 1900s. I had heard they closed the saddle shop in the early 60s maybe?? They used trees from Newton Bros in Vernal UT. Intersting tidbit was one or both of the Newtons were someowhat or totally blind. They used leather from Hawaii - called them pineapple hides or something. They never serial numbered the saddles and according to the book, not even a real close estimate of how many they ever made. They were kind of known for a low priced cowboying model in the 30s called "The Mortgage Lifter". One thing when I was reading the book was the head saddlemaker they interviewed said one of their more popular saddles was an acorn border on an Ellensburg tree. It was model number 106 and they stopped building them in the early 30s. They marked the model number on the latigo carrier. SOB! The carrier on my great grandfathers saddle had torn out on one side and was tied up with baling wire. There was the number 106. I am grateful he never had it replaced. What they called the acorn border is what a lot of shopos call a shell border stamped with scalloped veiners and sunbursts. I see yours has Al Ray stirrup buckles. Not sure when they came out, but that might help to date it some also. Mine has laced leathers and word has it that Al Rays worked in the spacing of some laced leathers. The rest of the style of yours is pretty much like mine.

Bob, For what it is worth, I bevel like you did and then add a beadline border around it. Any border stamp inside just hasn't looked good to me either.

Ralph, Please post the pictures you have. I have several Blanchard plough gauges and one or two from Mayer-Flamery that are very nice also. I have a Mayer-Flamery knife too. I've gopt a few Dixon and Barnsley tools as well.

Each one of the strap cutters has an advantage. Here's what I use. For narrow straps under 5/8", I use a wooden strap cutter with a razor blade mostly. I have a good one that tracks pretty straight, they don't all do that. For straps from 5/8-1", I use a draw gauge. For anything over 1" for sure I use a plough gauge. Between the draw gauge and plough gauge, the biggest differences are torque and sometimes applications. The wider the strap, the further the blade gets from the center of pull and the torque increases on draw gauges. The plough gauge is inline with the push so no torque. I cut up to 8" strips of latigo with a plough gauge without a wiggle. Sometimes I need to put a slit in a strap. The plough gauge can feed right into it and go. The roller on a plough gauge prevents that. On the upside, that roller keeps the leather from riding up the blade. It has to feed into the blade. With a draw gauge you need to have tension to pull against. I have a "third hand" cam clamp now, but before that relied on someone to hold the strap end while I pulled against it. Without help I screwed the end of the strap down to the bench or clamped it in a vise. With the plough gauge I can push and tension as I go or with heavier leather just push as fast I can walk the edge of the bench. Plough gauges go right on the bench top. A draw gauge has to go under the leather so you usually have the leather off the edge of the bench.

I use Renia pretty much for everything. It seems a little stronger than Barge for me and tacks up quicker. If I need to stick and stay, I let it tack up. If I need to adjust and slide, I will slather it on both sides wet and go to it before it tacks. It will slide around like wet Barge and then stick once left alone. It also heat activates like Barge. I can put on a couple light coats, let it dry, and then soak the piece. Once I take it out of the tub I just pat the water off and hit it with a paint stripping gun, Tacks right back up like Barge. Better bonding on latigo than Barge too.

You kind of brought up something that a few of us have questions about. A lot of these old stamps (and even some older new maker stamps) can look pretty similar. I had an old guy who had been around think a Jusechke I had was a McMillen or that era. I've got a few CLTs that were mixed in with what look like McMillens too. Kind of the standard answer from most guys seems to be that McMillen had the most patterns of stamps and likely sold the most volume. Odds are if it looks like a McMillen, it probably is. I know some of the makers in the southwest learned from or compared to each other so they can be really similar. I guess those are probably the ones that have the most confusion between them. Is there any real definite ways to tell let's say an Eberle from an unmarked McMillen from some of the other makers? You hear about knurling, ends, shank length, shank diameter, and the the old "once you have seen a few, then you know". Any thoughts?

Weaver sells a red in 277 nylon if that will work. The color choices are a lot more limited with poly.

Thanks for posting these. My grandmother had two loves in her gardens - lilies and hostas. Everytime I see one or the other, I think of her. Thanks for bringing up a fine memory this afternoon.

Scott, I have seen some chrome tan Holstein a few years ago in odd lots, but can't remember if it was Springfield, Siegels, or who. It was probably from when the Holstein patterns were big on large purses and some upholstery. Now "zebra" seems to be the hot pattern. You might check with Springfield and see if they can track some down. Another guy who can find some odd lot leather is Matt at Maverick Leather in Penngrove, CA.

Drinks are on the house!!! :cheers:

As much as I have some good knives and appreciate them, I still use a rotary cutter daily. I use mine to rough cut linings and then trim linings after glueing. I cut my soft leather with them next to a plastic or metal ruler as a straight edge. They are the fastest way I know of to cut deer reliably. Press down on the ruler to hold it and run the blade on the edge. To straighten the backs on sides of everything from 3/4 to skirting I have 6 foot ruler from Ace and run my roller cutter along the edge. On the 15 oz or up it won't cut all the way through but scores it enough that a round knife will track right down the scoreline and finish the job as fast as I can push.

I am with Luke. I had a Boss and liked it a lot. The throat clearance was an issue with some things and you needed to plan out the attack for sure. I went to an Adler 205-64 and it was 11-1/2" maybe. Still had some problems on some things like saddle blanket wear strips and inlays on rope cans and bags. Not a big problem but sometimes it took some engineering. I have a Pro 2000 with 16" and a lot less problem.

Yep, they are saw sets. They are about always tagged as a "leather tool" or "unique clamp" in antique shops. The average price is $25. I bought a really cool looking tool a while back with a nice 2 line rosewood handle (ala CS Osborne). It has a sliding blade on the square shank with a hook on the end. I had never seen one and thought it looked cool but couldn't quite figure it out. At the next shop who had a lot of kitchen things, There were several there tagged "vintage can opener".

The belly on the pelican horn will keep a rope low on the horn neck.

Sara, I use one like the second from the left, but in the old days they made one for glove snaps and one for belt snaps. As far as the caps staying on, I use an anvil with the concave dish on one end and the hole to set the stud on the other. There is kind of a magic thickness of leather that lets the female part of the snap collapse into the cap and the scallops on the cap will crimp on the mushroomed socket end. Too thin and the socket collapses too much and the stud won't seat. Too thick and the cap won't grab. Like Ashley mentioned, the other suppliers snaps do better sometimes too.

Sara, This thread is from 2009 and I still do snaps the same. I am not home to give setter numbers. I meant that I use the setter that goes into the socket to set them. My setters are pretty old, but don't look like a pencil. They are kind of rod with a tip surrounded by a concave rim. My belt snap setter has some number and the letter "B". My glove snap setter has a smaller post on the end and has the suffix "G". I use the "G" setter for the belt snaps (should be using "B" setter ) and the caps seat better and the snaps stay closed better, at least for me.

Lois, No offense at all. In fact I find that interesting. I had a running email conversation with a guy in Europe a while back, and he wrote he finds beveling on the inside (toward the fence) works better for him. The blade will tend to push out if anything and not narrow the strap. . All the plough gauge knives I have run across so far have the bevel on both sides of the blade. I have had some old draw gauges that are only beveled on the inside though. They worked good like that and not as well with a double bevel. I think that the angle the blade sits was the difference there. This reminds me of a skiver blade I had a few years ago. I had an American crank skiver and an American 3-in-1. I used them both about equally at the time. I confess to being a little slow on the uptake. Every so often I would take them off and give them a stropping or touch on the stone. They both worked well. I'd probably had both off 3 or 4 times, but never at the same time. It wasn't until I had both blades off at the same time I noticed something. The blade on the 3-in-1 was a flat single bevel like a splitter blade.. The crank skiver was double beveled like every other crank skiver blade I have had since. I could never tell a nickle's worth of difference using them though.

Ann, I am thinking you have a Dixon and the fence does flare out some in front on most of them. I watch where the leather is in contact with the flatter part of the fence and usually I am keying in about the area over the beam which may be about 1/2" or so in front of where the blade meets the leather. If they don't feed right into the leather I definitely strop. I usually strop my blades at least every other day in use, and if it has been a couple days, I strop before I start. That keeps me from having to use a stone on them much if at all. If it has been since you got it that it hasn't been stropped, it might need a little really fine stone work again.

I had the same trouble when I first started using a draw gauge. An old man showed me how he did it ("and old men are generally wise"). The tendency is to want to look at the blade since that is where the cutting action is. He told me to just look at the fence or guide as you work. Keep the edge lined up on that and the blade will take care of itself. When I went to plough gauges I mucked up the first strap, by watching the blade. Once I looked at the fence, no more problems. HOWEVER, one thing to be aware of. The blade angle needs to be pretty right on alignment wise with the guide in a draw gauge or a plough gauge. If the angle is off enough the blade might want to track in or out and that can really mess you up and that torque deal gets big in a hurry. The draw gauge blade slots are not 100% precise, and so even taking a blade out and putting it back in can be a slightly different angle from just bit of change of positioning in that slot. Usually a few strokes on a fine stone and stropping on the offending side of the blade will make a big difference. The same thing can happen with plough gauges, although a bit less of problem. There is a longer slot for the blade and they are generally more precision made so the blades tend to go back the same. Once the blade angle is set, then equal stropping on both sides will maintain it. The other thing that can happen with either one is that the fence and guide may not be exactly at the right 90 degree angle with the beam. The blade may be eqaully sharpened but isn't being presented squarely into the leather. The older draw gauge and plough gauges made with matching numbers on the frame and beam were individally made and matched to be precise. Some are dead on and some are probably off some. The new ones are supposed to be precise and are mass prdocued and not "matched". They can be off just as much or more. Again, fixing the blade angle on side to the other is an easier fix than file or grind to fix the frame. I use the wooden strap cutters some too. I had a couple of the old "Original" strap cutters and not a problem. A few years there was sale on them (proved to be knock-offs) and I figured I would get a few and just leave them set at some common widths for strings and lacing. A couple were alright but others had the blade slot cut that you could see by eyeballing it was off. I use razor blades in those and there was no fixing the blade angle there. For the $12 or whatever they cost, it wasn't worth my time to try sanding of fixing the handle/bar alignment.