bruce johnson

On some I put a 1/2" concho there. Depends on what the customer wants. It is sure easier to put a screw and washer in there and get it tighter more easily than some conchos.

The leather is softer when I am done. If I want to make something that needs the leather stiffer, I use warm water.

I use the mix for molding too.

Art's list is about as good as it gets. There are also some regional shows that are not as big. There are smaller shows in Elko NV and Pendleton OR too. These are smaller, fewer venders, limited class numbers, and most attendees haven't traveled as far to get there. Still they sure serve a purpose and although they may not appeal to someone looking for the biggest bang for the buck for a one time experience, they are a chance for some people to make a weekend trip if the timing is more convenient than other shows. Social aspects aside, all of these shows are a great chance to meet suppliers, see and compare what they all make, and put faces to names. I would make one other suggestion based on some conversations with some venders. BUY from them at the shows. With a few exceptions most of them have a website, and they all take phone orders. Yeah, you can take a flier and buy from home later. They will be glad to ship. They would be happier though to swipe your card or take your cash at the show. This shows them that you appreciate them being AT the show. They have time and money tied up in travel, booth displays, and lost production from not being at their shops. It shows some appreciation for their efforts.

Josh, Thanks for posting. One of our favorite singers, as evident by my signature line.

Billy, Welcome also from me. I am glad you are kind of creating a one-stop site to see some of what is out there from a few of the stamp makers. I sure think that is a good idea, and should make it easier for customers to compare.

This is on Ebay and that is the difference. Ebay puts the burden on the seller of proof of shipping, insurance, and proof of delivery. International packages are not tracked in either envelopes or small flat rate boxes. You have to put it in your own packaging, do the proofs, and insurance or stick a single leather stamp in a medium flat rate box. That gets up to $20 pretty quick. I found this out with some sales to Canada. The mediums I sent first were all tracked. When I sent a couple small flat rate boxes, the tracking ended at my local sorting center. Here is the text of a response to an inquiry I sent to Customer Service - Right off the bat, Bruce, the package you are submitting is either a Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope or a Small Flat Rate box. Any customs forms that start with the letter "L" are not trackable. The "L" means that it is considered a LETTER POST item. Unfortunately, the Universal Postal Unions of the World, voted NOT to track letter post mail. Believe me, the USPS would love to be able to track everything for you....so bottom line - I have no information on this package, nor can I submit an inquiry. No one tracks Letter Post. In the future if you need tracking, either send it in your OWN packaging and pay Priority by weight, or upgrade to Express Mail International. You will receive tracking then. I apologize for the inconvenience.

There were some hardware updates last night on the host server and some of the posts put up yesterday were lost from time of the last backup until the new hardware came on. It is a pain, but hey, not anything like the entire meltdown a few years ago. Thanks for reposting.

I am with Chris, they don't do much if there is resistance. I use mine after I start the concho or once I have it loosened. They do good on the tedious hand turning there. I got mine in a set, I don't know how much they even sell for. For what they do, I wouldn't pay a lot. One little warning is if you chuck them into a drill, be sure you are centered over the screw. Otherwise they turn pretty wildly and slip off easy. SOme of the conchos I deal with don't have the screw exactly centered and that can mess you up.

Pete, I have had some when I was getting yard sale sets. Those weren't much more than a glorified edge creaser with one side sort of sharpened. I have made a couple out of regular Osborne edge creasers. Some wet-dry sandpaper on the appropriate size nail will profile the center groove. Then sharpen the edges of the cutting leg but leave enough bevel to lay open the cut a little.

It's been a while since I posted anything, but here's some of a batch of spur straps I just finished up. The oak pattern is a new one for me. It kind of has a softer look than some, my wife has already claimed a set. There is also a new style for me. This guy ordered a set that is a variation of the rough stock spur leathers that double through a ring and buckle back. I did a running vine kind of pattern on them. They were fun to do.

I don't know if it is a trick or not. I use a round bottom kind of French edger with some sweep to it. If I sew dry to avoid a rat butt pattern on top, then I spritz a little water on the bottom and let it soak in before I trim it. Cutting the binding with this tool and little moisture makes a nice slick edge. I just kind of try to run one rail over the stitchline and so far I haven't cut any off. If you keep the toes ground off the tool, you can run it right up into the corners. My leather is probably 6/7 or so there. This is an old Osborne #1 and it works.

I pretty much do like Jim but an old man showed me a trick after fighting a few. I cut my binders on a slight curve. I don't use a pattern, just kind of do it by eye. I skive like has already been mentioned. Once I have it wet up and cased to be back to right and moldable, I kind of fold it a little down the middle where it will lay over the back of the Cheyenne roll and shape it some. Put a stitch groove in the leading edge with will be the long side of the curve. When I lay it in place, center the binding and tack in the middle and work ymy way out to the corners tacking every so often in the groove line. As you lay that long side down, the shorter back/underneath edge will tuck up underneath almost on its own. There is a lot less bubble to work out underneath for me. I do that like Jim and kind of compress small bubbles at a time. I was taught to start that in the corners and work in about 3" sections at time. By the time I get up on top, most of the time I don't have any bubbles at all. I run a tickler around underneath to push everything up tight ahd throw a few small nails in the from the bottom the hold it up tight.

Valley Mfg Co - Woodburn OR (800) 527-6385 I ordered some from them last summer for covering. They were a little better quality than some of the catalog sellers. I had to wait a couple weeks for some deep ropers, but they had them done when they said they would. Easy enough for that one time I dealt with them.

The only thing I can find is in Graham's book "Old Cowboy Saddles & Spurs". Ab Womack - Hailey, Grangeville, Kooskia, ID 1892-1966

Old men are generally wise, and here's the tip from an old departed friend. He told me about doing this and then sold me the tool to do it with. Besides a marriage license it may have been the best $75 I spent. First off take a freehand stitch groover/gum tool, patent leather tool/whatever you choose to call it. I am attaching an example of one I have. It is basically a very small U-gouge. Run it over the top stitches and cut them off or severely weaken them. It may take two passes. Then just pull the woolskin from the bottom and the stitches all or mostly all pull out. The whole procedure takes maybe 10 minutes. I have used the loop blade type race compasses also, but the freehand groovers do a cleaner job for me. As far as the tool, the only ones making them now are Jeremiah Watt and I believe Bob Douglas. The old ones were made by Dodd, the Osbornes, and Gomph. I had a waiting list for the old ones I have finally cleared, but none to sell right now.

I liked it. It is probably one of the more complete DVDs out there.

Here is my new stamping bench. I built it last summer after seeing several different types and sizes of benches in other shops and advice from guys on the forum here. It is 48" wide to hold longer things like belts and saddle skirts. It is 29" deep so I can easily reach the stamps. The height is 37-3/4 so I can stand or sit on a drafting chair. The rock is a granite insepction plate from Grizzly that is 24x18. I like the larger rock for less noise, bounce, and a bigger area to beat on.

I have added more round knives for sale today to my website. I think there 10 or so left. There are Gomphs, CS Osbornes, a Harrington, and a Rose, along with some other tools as well. Here's a link - Leather Tools for Sale Thanks,

This is one of the places a draw gauge really shines. You make a slit with your knife of choice where you want the cut to be and put the draw gauge blade up through that slit from the bottom. Then you just pull away. I have done them two ways, One was to set the width of the cut for the width of the strap and just hold the previous strands out of the way working from right to left. The other way that worked better for me was to make the width for the width of the strap minus the width of the strand. Make that cut and then readjust the blade for the width minus two strans, and work from left to right. I have never actually braided these, but several years ago cut quite a for a wholesale order for a group to braid. For the bracelets I used a swivel knife in the border edge guide thing and marked out the strands that way. I finished the cuts with a round knife.

I have cleaned up the waiting list for plough gauges and have had chance to use the last two I got for a couple weeks. I have added two 6" Dixons on my website today - here's the link - Plough gauges for Sale

I have not had a problem with using wet-dry over something round. I use everything from small nails on a size 1 or 2 up to larger nails. I rarely have to get much bigger except on the very large sizes. If you are widening the area, I would suspect the rod is too large. I personally use 4 styles of edgers but all of them are round on the bottom. I use the old CSO with the forked points, bisonettes, the round bottoms, and the french type edgers with a half rounded bottom and some sweep to the profile from the side. To bring the edge back to shape I use a coarser wet-dry like 400 on a round base, then go to 600. They are pretty easy to do, a few strokes on whatever wrapped in wet dry and then buff on a wheel with a lighter rouge. I usually go from brown to green. I can pretty well maintain them with the spiral sewn wheel and green rouge and touch them to the corner. I don't like the Osbornes and the Tandys with the slot. They might be alright for a while but still drag and chatter more than any others. They may be the cheapest to buy but for me they were the hardest to sharpen and maintain. For grins I took a few and ground one side off to see what kind of angle the edges were ground at. I should have taken pictures. The angle was pretty steep on some of the ones I dissected. There's a reason for the drag and chatter. To try to get something down in there and maintain an angle is pretty tough. There is some debate, but I think they sharpen up better working on the bottom and then strop out the slot with a hard cardboard or leather disc on a dremel. Still even at their best, not very good compared to a cutting edge with a thinner profile.

I use a 6 foot ruler and a 45 mm roller blade cutter. The roller blade will got through about everything up to 14 oz. With that it wll score it enogh that a quick pass with a roundknife in the cutline will do the job.

Bristles can be actual boar bristles or synthetics like the flexible wire or plastic. I watched a video of a guy using guitar strings and some boot makers use heavy monofilament fishing line. They are flexible and will bend to get into a confined are or follow a curved awl hole. The thread is attrached to the bristle with a wax and whipped on. They can be used in a traditional saddle stitch with the threads crossing in the awl hole. "Pop Stitching" to me basically means a running stitch - in and out with a single thread going in one direction just like using a thread to do a buckstitch pattern. This is used on some overlaid seats with the thread coming up and going down through each scallop. Some makers do it on cantle bindings too. Diifernet people use thread, lacing tape, or artificial sinew. Randy described using a jerk needle well. What it makes is a mechanical lock stitch like a machine. You can reach down into corners and hook a thread underneath and pull a loop back up through the hole. You pass the top thread through and then tension the bottom thread to bring the lock down into the leather. I sew my Cheyenne rolls with a saddle stitch. I start down in the corners nearly horizontal or even angled up slightly so I can get my backside needles in. I may use the same bottom hole twice before moving to the next one. The lets me catch up and keep the same stitch spacing on the bottom as the top. Once I get to where I am in the clear, then I go to the normal saddle stitch sequence. Hard to explain but it is shown in one of the Stohlman books. I usually sew to past center from one side or the other and then start in the other corner and overlap a few stitches. I do the overlap slightly off center of the binding so it is not quite as noticable. Again maybe from Stohlman, maybe someone here gave that tip. Some days I have done this technique with one thread and go all the way across for grins. You need to have the floor clean and things out of the way. It uses a mega-pull of thread and takes a lot of time pulling slack.

Cowdog, Thanks for the compliment and letting me know my impressions were correct. I have to say that in the last year I have dealt with a bunch of good young cowboys and cowgirls. The future looks brighter to me than it probably did to the generation before us. God bless you brother for all you do to keep them safer.