bruce johnson

Sheridan Leather Outfitters.

My suspicion is a Hackbarth. It looks a lot like the impression on one I used to have. Most of my Hackabarths have finer knurling, but a couple larger flower centers have that coarser knurling. I can't remeber what knurling my basket had.

I haven't seen one of those live yet, but had a guy email pics of one he had from his grandad. He was told it was originally from England, his grandad had a lot of Dixon tools so that might fit. Can you show some pics from different angles? That is sure a unique design.

I have done most of my lighter stuff lately on a piece of granite countertop that is 1-1/4". It is large and alright for small things, but noisy and not as good for bigger stamps. It was free. I have a broken headstone and small granite surface plate that are 3". I like them better, but the height is not as handy on top of bench. I am building a bench with an inlaid stone and need the edges square to inlay it. I am going with a 3" granite surface plate. The best deal I found with price and shipping combined in the sizes I am looking at is from Grizzly.

Jeremiah Watt's carving and layout DVD is right in that range.

The Landis, American, and Champions are 6" wide and come from the shoe trade. They are/were used for splitting and leveling soles. The Weaver has an 8" blade and costs $1895. The wider handwheel or motorized fixed blade splitters are going to cost some bucks. One guy used to charge $200 per inch of blade for the ones he refurbishes. You get to the wider widths and a bandknife splitter starts to look more attractive too. There is a guy around Harrison ID that makes or used to make a wider handcrank splitter. His name escapes me right now, but I want to say it was 12" wide. There was one someplace on a used board for $2500 a while back. Artisan sells a motorized 18" wide fixed blade splitter for a little over $2000 too.

Good clean looking work again Steve.

OK, I fought this for years, seeing only two functions of the 3-in-1 and 4 functions of the 5-in-1s. Here's the three functions of the seemingly 2-in-1 machines as told to me separately by two different really old guys. First off the cutting wheel on the end cuts. The skiving balde "Skives" (#2, if you are keeping score). Drummmmmm rooollllll. They both swore function number #3 is... you can set blade level and "split" welting. I have to believe them because as another old timer advised me, "Old guys are generally wise". That said several companies made these - Landis, Champion, American, I had one from a Minneapolis maker that escapes me right now. The skiving function is probably more popular than the cutting function except for horseshoers cutting pads. Yours is probably the least desirable setup for a leatherworker because the top wheel has the aggressive milling to help push the leather through. This will mark or tear the top grain if used to skive tooling leather. It works for skiving ground seat buildups and pieces that are hidden, but not exposed leather that appearance matters. Usually these sell for about $50 in as-found condition. Cleaned up with a smooth wheel, I have seen them sell anywhere from $125-350 on Ebay. I sold one for $300, but buyers aren't as scarce at $200. The aggressive top wheel I had I took $125 for it. One thing that also detracts on yours is the edge guide for the skiving/splitting feature is broken off.

Actually the skeleton is multitasking. She sent me the rough graphics and instructions to make him a dancin', drinkin', shootin' skeleton. I really had a blast doing this one. It is a little out of my style repertoire until recently, but bring 'em now.

Cool idea for a display. I like that idea. I like your work too, but then again I have for a while.

Like most everyone doing leatherwork, I get asked for donations and sure try to accommodate the ones that benefit people or groups I believe in. I normally give things from stock, but this spring I was asked about donating a custom rope can for another fundraiser. It worked out so well to donate a credit to be applied toward a can, I did it again for a college rodeo team fundraiser. Ends up it sold twice, and it was worth the trip to their fundraiser (Auction, silent auction, Ian Tyson concert, dance, and I am gald to report that college kids still party hearty). All three of the girls who bought these came up with challenging designs and I sure liked making them.

I would think a bandage pretty well sums it up. It may not fit today's horses, if the lacing has gapped that much the tree may be twisted. I would clean it up and maybe restore it as a childhood keepsake. I have my great grandfather's saddle in the living room. It is the first saddle I probably ever rode, for sure the first one I was been bucked out of, and my touchstone to a guy who was one of my heros.

If I had got a good Osborne #84 to start with, I wouldn't know as much as I do know. I started off with TLF's knock-off version that a manager sold me for probably close to cost on a "I need to cut inventory drastically by the end of this month" deal. An old friend sold me a Landis crank skiver and an American crank splitter. I bought a Chase pattern splitter and it was a dream for a pull through splitter. After that I sold the TLF to a guy who has some machining expertise and he corrected some of the issues with it. Since then I have developed an interest in splitters and have bought and sold several different splitters. For lap skives I sure like the crank skiver. I have a Landis and it has smooth wheel on top so it doesn't mark the grain of the leather. American has two versions, I think the original version has a milled wheel on top, and the American "B" has the smooth wheel. There is a version that has a wider blade, but mine is the regular 1-3/4" blade and is fine for my needs. There is a skiver on the 3-in-1 and 5-in-1s and they sometimes sell for less than a crank skiver, just watch the feedwheel on top and make sure it is smooth. I like doing longer laps on an old Spittler pattern splitter, it was Osborne's #83 splitter with the plier grip handle. For splitters, I am torn here. I really like the Chase style splitters. The blades are thinner, there are rollers top and bottom to feed the leather square into the blade, and they are pretty safe. There is no exposed blade in use. I have two bolted down - a 10" Osborne left at an 8 oz setting and a 12" Hansen that I adjust for other thicknesses. There is no dial or setting for splitting, you adjust the top roller position kind of by trial and error. My other favorite splitter is the Krebs style. I have a Randall Krebs style right now I like alot. I think there were three manufacturers of them. Osborne called theirs the "#85". They have top and bottom rollers for good feeding and safety too. The bevel on the blade is pretty good. The real plus is they have a pointer and dial on a drum that sets the height. You can write down a measurement and 6 weeks later go back to that position and split the same. Some guys do laps by moving the setting handle as they pull. I have some other oddities and variations of splitters, but the two Chase styles, the Krebs, and an American crank splitter are my users. Like I said earlier, either a good #84 or a Keystone should do you fine. They can tightern down to level split or push the handle as you pull for laps. I just went another way because of how I fell into things. I have had a couple #84s since and liked them well enough. The only real problem is sometimes a strap can hit a hard spot or flip up, ride the bevel of the blade, and chop off. I am not a fan of the #86. The blade has no guard and you can't really do a decent lap on it without making a tapered jig to stick under the piece you are skiving. This is my least favorite type of splitter and the only one Osborne sells now.

For one thing to do all of what you probably want a handled splitter. Good ones to looks for are either an old Osborne #84 splitter or one of the new Keystone ones from Campbell-Randall. You can do level splitting with these and lap skives with a little practice.

Gore Tools and Harper Manufacturing both make or made them in metal versions with handles. About any of the delrin stamp makers that make press plates can do them from delrin. Hidecrafters used to resell some metal plates they got from Richard Fletcher at Green Parrot Laser, and he occasionally has those plates on Ebay too.

This is kind of comparing apples to oranges. A common edger is different than a round edger. Barry makes a round edger too. To compare between Barry's edgers, I would go for either a bisonette or round edger for a double layer of 7/8. The round edgers are easier to sharpen and maintain. The bisonettes are easier to run a consistant edge. For something that thickness, I have a #3 bisonette from Barry. To compare between maker's - besides Barry, Jeremiah Watt, and Ron there is Bob Douglas. He doesn't just sell older tools, he also sells new edgers. Each maker has their own advantages and disadvantages.

Monica, Texas Custom Dies sells a shop press with the top set up what I think you are describing. Someone emailed me a picture a while back. There might be a picture of it on their site. It looks like the framework bolts onto or through the top beam and then beefier return springs. That would sure make things easier for you.

Monica, My plates aren't welded on. The large bottom plate sits on the crossbeams. I have a piece of LDPE cutting board as a pad. I take a piece of steel big enough to cover the die entirely and center it under the ram of the press. When I got my steel, it was going to be pricey to have it cut to my sizes. The office guy sent me to a yard guy who went through the cut-off scrap pile and came up with pieces close to what I wanted. A dozen doughnuts got that deal done. I went back later for some more scrap and it cost me $10. That was still a bargain.

I use a 20 ton shop press for a clicker and have 1" steel plates under the pad and over the dies. Probably overkill.

It depends on the firmness and thickness of the leather for me. I use everything from a freehand stitch groover to a "U" shaped gouge. for a tighter corner, Sometimes I go to a narrow french edger to clean out between two parallel stich grooves for a wider one. The gouge I use the most is a no-name. The freehand stitch groover is an old Gomph. Bob Douglas sells some saddler's gouges in different sizes. The Tandy adjustable gouge works alright too, but I had to flatten the bevel on the cutting edge some.

I use 3/4" and 1" nails. I have ringshanks, twist, and smooth nails in SS. I get them from Sheridan Leather - they sell them in smaller amounts than most suppliers.

Ok, here's the Oakdale consumer reports file on the Kabi glue dispenser. I borrowed one and have been using it for just shy of three weeks. After using it for a week, I called Ohio Travel Bag and ordered one. Price is $55 or so and a spare brush and cap is $17. Unlike a Dremel, this only has one use, it dispenses glue. Like a Dremel, I would not be without one in my shop. I have used the carboy types with the brushes, the bottles with the glue in the cap, the glue pots with the upside down cone top and brush, and mostly squeeze bottles and sheepskin or leather scrap spreaders. The advantages of this one is that it is very precise. I end up with a lot less glue on my hands. You pump the handle and glue comes through the brush. A partial stroke and you have light loading of the brush. The bristles are just stiff enough that there is very little spreading down over the edges of narrower straps. I have used it on zipper tape and it makes a nice straight line. On big pieces, it is fast. Give a good pump every so often and you never have to stop spreading. There are no glue stringers either. It holds 1/2 pt of glue. Not a lot, but it has a wide opening and easy to refill. That keeps the glue fresher too. The disadvatages are the cost - the plastic squeeze bottles are cheap and the spreaders are scraps. This one costs a fair amount. The brush needs to be cleaned, so you need thinner on hand. The directions are to just put some thinner in the cap and replace it over the brush at the end of the session. I feel a little better dipping in the solvent and then smearing most all the excess glue off on a scrap, then adding a little fresh thinner to the cap and storing that way. I also run the brush over a scrap before I use the first time the next session. I didn't do this the first time and some solvent soaked through the lining leather when I was applying glue. No big deal it evaporated, but not an big deal to just brush first either. I don't know why, but a few different suppliers have recommendation not to use these for rubber cement. I am not sure why, but take that for what it is worth. Ask me again in 6 months, but so far this is a handy deal.

The limiting factor is thread and needle size capacity for the machine. The big machines that can do saddle work well use needles that are too big for the fine stitching on thin leather. The small machines have a maximum size needle that is too small for saddle work.

I used these bevelers for too long, probably longer than most of the people here have who told you to get another style. If you could look inside, you will see that many of these off the rack Tandy and even Osbornes have been ground at a fairly steep angle. If the edge is great, they work just OK. Once that edge is a little dull, they drag, chatter, or pull leather and make funky edges. Most of them do cut a flat profile and had been pointed out - the bigger the size the more evident that is. They don't come using sharp, and need to be reworked to be better. To get the bevel down to where they really work better is major surgery. I have never regretted any good edge bevelers I bought. There are a few major makers and I have had bevelers from about all of them. Bob Douglas, Ron's Tools, Horseshoe Brand, Barry King are some good choices. They are sharper out of the box and easier to sharpen and maintain. They will cut a nice rounded profile in any size.

I want to get a little discussion going on an article in the latest LCSJ on relining saddle skirts. There were a few things in there I guess I never thought about doing. The first was using thinned down dextrin paste and weighting the skirts to make it stick. He mentioned using that so you could pull the wool off easily later. Fair enough I guess, but I haven’t had much of an issue with getting skirts off that were rubber cemented on. Are there any advantages to the dextrin that people who haven’t used it much need to know? The other thing was his complaints with all the ring shank nails holding on the rigging with the pocketed bars in his example pictures. I’d sure agree with that, but I approach it differently. Nobody ever told me to leave the riggings on the tree, I just do. I cut the stitches to the skirts and leave the riggings in place. When the woolskins need replacing, generally the thread or lace used on the pocketed bars is ready to be replaced too. There are a few that the thread has worn or rotted out and the skirts fall away long before the fleece has worn. I reline and then usually resew the pocketed bars back through the original holes. Most of these were originally handsewn about 3 or 4 spi, so not a huge deal to do it on the stand. Not as easy as lugs, and I charge more replacing wool on pocketed bars vs. lugs to reflect that time spent resewing. Sometimes I will go ahead and trim back the excess and put lugs in on replacements. I usually do this for the pocketed bars/riggings that were machine sewn and the stitch line was cut close enough there is not enough good leather on the pocket to sew through. Any thoughts on any of this?