bruce johnson

JW, Another good tool to trim the excess single welt is a large round bottom edger.

I have an unmarked gouge that I suspect is a McMillen by the handle anyway. It is a scoop type gouge and the end looks somewhat like a small woodworkers's gouge. It makes a nice elongated half-rounded gouge. In cross section it tapers up without leaving sharp edges or shoulders like a French edger or the saddle makers gouges.

Ken, What you want is a pull-through leather splitter with a depth adjustment that moves while splitting to make the transitions to the skived/split area smoothly. An example of that would be handled splitter like an Osborne #84 splitter. That is not the machine to do what you are wanting to do. It will split the whole belt down if you use the wide foot, set it level, and set it up with the correct feedwheel for vegtan leather. It will not selectively do one area without a lot of practice and hassle. They feed pretty fast and would be hard to control for a short area. As a side note, I am not sure I would buy one from a seller that had no idea of the capabilities of what they are selling unless the price was so fabulous that I could afford to lose it if it didn't work out. Some of these are good and some are wore out from production work. There are other resellers around who know these machines and can give you a good idea of what they have and condition.

Thomas, I used to think mine were sharp until I spent some time with an old guy who could handsew a little. He took mine and made them so the acute angle sides of the awl will easily slice the edge of test piece of skirting. He worked the grits on some stones alternating with the edge and against the edge when he switched grits until the last grit on some wet dry (600). That he went into the edge until he had a foil edge the first 1" or so of blade and then stropped to remove the edge. He had that muscle memory to hold the angle constant and was quick about it. I have done that and can get the job done without as much effort now. I recently tried the 1x30 belt sander I have with superfine grit belts. With the platen as a backup and eyeing the angle from the top, I am getting pretty fair with that.

Roger, I use it some for inlays and also for a few purses. It actually works up about like a medium weight chap leather for me, maybe just a bit more body. The very surface seems to be harder than most leathers other than shark or stingray. I don't know who sells it in small pieces. Sometimes Springfield Leather sells exotic scrap. I got a couple scrap bags of ostrich with some decent sized pieces from them last spring. They might have a handle on some elephant the same way.

I added a few more tools today - Two rein trimmers - a Gomph and a CS Osborne. Also the handiest saddler hammer I have used - 10" long, well balanced, and clean. Iam keeping the other one just like it.

Lasse, At least in the US, retired dairy cows are slaughtered to a huge extent. They almost all go to slaughter if they can walk. It is how the dairy people recoup some of their investment, much like spent laying hens go to soup. It is also how they use "buy-out" programs to send cows to slaughter and reduce milking cow numbers in oversupply/low milk prices times. The hides on these dairy cows tend to be bigger than beef hides although thinner. They are generally not branded (although a lot in my area are), and tend to have less scarring. They are still a by-product of the cattle industry, not the primary goal. Not many producers worry about the hide value at any point in the production of beef or dairy cattle.

Drop the skirts and push them up. Sometimes you can push them up one at a time into the channel without dropping the skirts and spray/soak them with warm water to break down that kink and then pull them over.

I have worked both sides of this animal death deal in some pretty good numbers - slaughter, natural death - attended and not, euthanasia, gunshot for something you can't handle, etc. and am not about to argue the merits of one vs the other. A good share of the population is now removed from the farm and seeing death first hand by a few generations. They are 40ish and thanks to health care advances, both grandparents are still alive. The first death most of them personally face is their pet. I do have some thoughts on the rest of the discussion. I think one thing that is continuing to be overlooked and Steve just mentioned it is that animals die and these hides do exist and they can go to the tannery, get processed into another byproduct, or drug to the back pasture bonepile. These hides are still by-products. These animals all were raised with some economic or production goal in mind. They may have outlived that, or they may never have lived long enough to fulfill that. These cattle are not frolicing in the pasture or living on some pensioner farm awaiting death so they can be skinned for "slaughter free hides" as their primary goal in life. The only difference between these hides and the others is a premortem inspection (at least in the US)and being pulled off the animal in an inspected facility. The slaughter-free die and are then loaded to go to a processing facility. Just how big that niche market is for leather coming from cattle who didn't die in a packing house I don't know. It hasn't been around long enough and explored enough to be tested yet. This is really the first time out, and for the right maker with the right clientele, it could be a bonus.

I have listed a few more knives for sale tonight on my website. These are all good solid vintage knives - sharp and ready to use. If you are interested, here is the link - Leather Tools for sale . Thanks,

I would suspect the milled feed roller is slipping. There is a spot for the set screw in that roller to seat into the shaft. It doesn't just bind against the shaft, it seats into it in one spot for a positive movement. You may need to take that set crew out, then slowly move the roller around with a flashlight in the screw hole to find where it should seat.

Julia, There are sure two ways and both work. There are regional and personal biases for either way and it is kind of one of those saddlemaker's debates that won't ever be solved. Personally,I use maybe heavier strings than some people do. Some of my customers tie doctoring bags and saddlebags on. A lot of kids pull themselves up with a string. Lighter strings will break before they tear out leather, a stronger string pulls leather. The problem when they pull leather is they tear off the front jockey or seat jocket at the cantle ear. These are pretty expensive repairs.

I am with JW, I use tugs whenever I can. On some of the repairs I have to deal with pocketed bars and just don't like them. Sometimes they don't pull up tight and it is a pain to resew them through the woolskin. I use one twist nail and one drywall screw for my lugs. I've done a few pocketed bars for guys riding in the pines who worry about needles working in under the bars though. I drill for most strings, but only through the bars not the skirts. I gouge out the rawhide between my string holes and seal with a little varnish. The strings lay flat on the bottom of the bars. It makes them secure and easy to change when one breaks or is cut off for a repair. Unscrew the lugs, drop the skirt, restring, and screw the lug right back in the same hole. No fiddling around running one through the skirts and under the wool.

I added a few new tools today to my website. Gomph knives sold right off the bat, but I have a nice Chase pattern splitter, plough gauge, and hand tools left. Here's a link - Leather Tools for Sale . Thanks,

My customers are dinosaurs. I make several a year. I buy the planners at places like department stores or office supply stores. I shop around and it is less expensive to buy them made up than to buy the inserts. I drill out the rivets and use the clip from them. The hardest ones to find right now are the ones that take 8-1/2x11 inserts, but Staples came through for me. Ohio Travel Bag is a source for clips too.

Jerry VanAmburg has a lot of exotics and different colors of frog. Here's a link - Van Amburg Leathers . I think that is the old address and he has moved everything to Idaho now. The phone number I have is (208) 785-0800.

Good advice above. For tight curves in heavy leather, I use a punch for the curve.

If you are going to do a lot of them, I like the JP tack tool. I have had one for a couple years and use it quite a bit. It makes getting a old one out easier for me, and the price is pretty good. There are some out there that cost more, but this one hasn't marked up leather has got them all out so far for me. Here's a link - JP Tack Tool

A fine napped paint roller is about all I use for big pieces or straps. Little stuff I use a clipped woolskin scrap and squeeze it out some.

Any questionable exotic you buy from a dealer is going to be tagged. These are CITES tags - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This is currently the best system in place.

Like Art, it has been explained to me as no sorting - they pull your order the way they are stacked on the pile. When I made the step from buying locally to ordering, I received one TR side that had a forklift track the length of it about 6" below the spine and footprints. I changed my mind and believe that to one seller "tannery run" means to run over it in the tannery.

I have been following the drop a day advice and probably heard it from Art back in my early IILG days. I started off with the advice to use a little Prolong oil additive in hydraulic oil. A few years ago they had that whole flap about the super friction fighting, surface binding oil additives not doing what they promised so I'm not sure what it did now. About that time I got some Lily anyway. The Lily is about gone, so guys - more Lily with shipping charges? hydraulic oil I can buy at 10 places along the drive home? Buy some Dritz from the sewing machine guy who practically mugs me out of appreciation for not being a crabby woman who ran over her vacuum cleaner cord again and wants it replaced while she waits? Now another question that gets to the solvents. I have been using Ballistol to clean my machines for about the same length of time. In regular use, I clean my machines about once a week, taking off plates, remove the hook and shuttle, and looking for gunk. If I am doing repairs, I clean after those for sure. My concern now is that I just willy-nilly spray into the shuttle area and Q-tip/paper towel it out. I add a few drops of oil to the race and dab a little on the bobbin case. Any thoughts or advice there?

I get crocus at Ace Hardware. They have it in the "by the sheet" displays at the stores here.

I use it for stiffeners in thin or small things like business card cases with inlays. I glue my inlay material to an oversized piece of film and then sew around the cut out through the materials and Xray film. It works particularly well as a backer if you plug your inlays and have a very thin lining.

Sheridan Leather Outfitters usually have them also.