bruce johnson

fudge wheel

Those EZ dees are on most bronc saddles. I've got my great grandfather's saddle from the early 30s at the latest and it has EZ dees. I kind of think they originated in Pendleton at Hamleys but I am not sure on that. In a Hamley catalog reprint I have from 1942 they show them on bronc saddles as well as on a few using saddles. I keep a set on hand, and maybe use them every other year. I'll attach pictures of a dee off and then on a saddle. You can see on one view how they shaped them to a slight curve to not sidesore as much.

A high end show saddle that cost some $$$$ should not have plated silver on it. It should be solid or overlay, especially if the saddlemaker did the silverwork too. Sterling can tarnish black, but should polish back. That said, there are some pretty high dollar catalog show saddles that have plated silver and are charging overlay prices or better. There sure are different qualities of plating too. The base metal plated over varies too. The maker needs to see this.

Ben, WHERE'S THE BLOOD?! THERE HAS TO BE BLOOD TO BE A GOOD STORY!! Good point about the rotation direction and safety aspect though. I have flung a knife or two also. In every case it was from not paying attention the where the rear edge of the blade was. I would be merrily buffing along and catch the back edge of what ever I was working on. The back edge would get up into the wheel and it would grab and throw. The tips of round knives are particularly easy to catch if you are not paying attention.

I have a Fortuna bottom feed. With the roller presser feet I can feed about any vegtan I need to.

About the only saddle related thing I do with mine is to thin mulehide horn wraps. I use it for a lot of smaller projects, but not for saddles.

Randy, I really don't have a particular like for mountain oysters but here goes. You have a better product to start with if you are getting calf fries locally. dip in milk, sprinkle with seasoning mix (Art's secret mix looks good), flour up and fry. Never take an odd number off the tray, they came in pairs and need to travel together. Because our local Testicle Festival is a public event and serves several hundred, we have to use testicles from a USDA inspected facility - that means butcher bulls, old rank butcher bulls. They are boxed and frozen. They are allowed to thaw to the point of being firm. That way you can halve them and just peel each half out of the membrane. They tried skipping the skinning one year - not good. They are diced into about 1" slices/cubes and run through a tenderizer. They are marinated overnight in red wine and fresh garlic. Next day they are breaded and fried that morning in batches and then transferred to steam trays. That is when they seem to be the best. At the big event they are reheated in the steam trays covered with foil and ladled out.

The last couple sides of HO I got were pretty crusty on the back side too. I am not sure if it is a tannery issue or a splitting problem. Most all of my stuff is lined so the appearance isn't a big deal. It was kind of hard cutting too.

"Maul poor", I like that. That is a very cool maul. Ed outdid himself yet again.

I have added quite a few tools for sale to my website. Instead of listing them all here, I'll just post a link - Bruce Johnson's leather tools for sale . There are some round knives ranging from unmarked to good oldies to good newer ones. I have some good overstitchers and some in unusual sizes too. I am also selling some Gomph round bottom edgers.

I use rope borders quite a lot. I run mine with just an outside guideline. I try to run at about a 45 degree angle. I bevel the rope, and have made bevelers from cheap Tandy stamps to match the curve of the different rope stamps I have. Just take a round stone on a Dremel and grind a curve in the toe of the stamp to match. I am attaching a few examples. One is the 90 degree corner, and how I tip to get the corner. The next is a Celtic pattern I did for a stamping deal we had here a few years ago. The only Celtic thing I have done, it was kind of fun. I forget who but someone asked me off forum a year or two ago for some help with tight curves with the rope border. I knocked one out pretty quick as an example of how I do those on a sample bridle cheek. In a nutshell I stamp a full impression on the outside of the curve and tip the stamp to do a partial and shorten up the inside. It is a little tricky to keep the angle right, but after a while you kind of get a feel for it.

Spot setters work well too, and will dome up the center.

Thinking a little inside the box here. At one of the Reno leahter shows a few years ago there was a stamp company who made embossing dies. It was a hard plastic type 8-1/2 x 11 sheet. They would do s many of a single impression or several impressions that would fit that sheet for one price. You could cut them out, attach them to a hardwood block and they got good results with a small arbor press from Harbor Freight. If a guy is taking these kinds of orders, factor the cost of the press into the intial pricing of the order to the customer. I used an arbor press for small dies for a few years. I sized up and sold it. I use some delrin and metal press plates a fair amount. A $200 shop press does that job. For the people that don't have one of these or the room for one, I would bet a little asking around will find someone you know who does. Other options are book presses or woodworkers vices.

Hello Janet, I use oil like JW too. The roughout is more porous and will absorb the oil a lot faster than the grain side. A little goes a long way. Where most people get into trouble is they apply the oil and it sucks right in. To them it is an obvious sign the leather is too dry and they add more. I use a sheepskin too, and mostly squueze it out and lightly run it over the leather. It will pull right in instead of spread like on the grain side if you have a lot on the patch. I usually use a light coating of a paste after a day or two. I have tried several, but keep going back to the RM Williams.

Can you post a picture of this saddle and then lift the jockey to show the rigging? Some of those oldies had the rings up pretty high. With some rigging designs, that running the leather through the ring was not just a bind to hold the stirrups forward some. It was almost necessary because the front atttachment for the ring was cut pretty straight with very little relief for forward stirrup movement if the leather didn't go through the ring. If the leather has to go through the ring, then a latigo knot is going to be right there too. Some styles of the ring rigging have the ring dropped more. If you ran the leathers through one that low, you'd be pretty locked. I've got a nice oldie here that is that way, and the rigging pattern has relief for forward swing. In any case a latigo knot is going to make more bulk than a buckled cinch. If it is a higher rigging, then put a dropped plate rigging like Keith said is the way to go. You could put a dropped ring in if you like that too. If it is dropped, then try a buckled cinch first.

Tom, In my experience, they aren't worth the $9.50 to buy one new. What I found was that when I punched into leather of any thickness the blades bent. The bevel on the blades was steep and the material was thick. Add in the soft metal used and they just rode that bevel and bent. Replacement blades cost 37 cents from Weavers, so that tells of the quality material used and the utmost care they must use when making them. I don't do enough spotting to justify a foot press spotter. I have a hand press and dies to fit 1/4" I use some. I still mostly use the sleeve type setters (Heritage, Weavers sell them and probably others that have a harness trade). I use them over a piece of scrap skirting. I turn over the piece and curl the prongs back to the leather with round tip jeweler's pliers to clinch. Then I set the clinch with a light tap of the ball peen hammer over the same skirting scrap to protect the heads.

Darcy, Thanks for the heads up and link again this year.

Casey. Some of the bench tools are universal and others are specific to one thing like the shoe trade. Same deal with machines too. Some people use a 12 for sewing in gussets from the side on bags, a local guy does it. There a few guys here with a lot of experience sitting or standing in front of the old machines. There are some threads already going on some of the specific ones too. Pictures are always good too.

Maybe Steve Siegel or one of the leather guys will respond. From my understanding from the boot and chap makers, they use the term dye struck or struck through for the leathers that are dyed all the way through. For overlays the gray center isn't showing on a cut edge. Also scratches don't show. I don't know if drum dyeing is the technique they for getting them all dye struck, but it seems to me a soak would get better penetration than a spray on dye.

For the Priority Mail I can print a label but since we aren't home at mail time, it is a trip to stand in line at a post office for most of what I send. I have a UPS account and it is no big deal to print a label at home then pass it off to a driver, drop it off at a UPS Store, or the UPS service center. They are all a drop and run deal rather than wait in line. Ferg is right about the UPS store fees, and the independent shipping centers are even higher. Last year I shipped a saddle and a few other things in one box to Indianapolis for the guild show. With insurance and everything, it cost about $125 going ground. For the return trip I wasn't able to print a label and took it to a UPS Store. Same packaging and contents were $235. I don't begrudge them - they are a franchisee trying to pay rent in a strip mall and earn a living. He was sitting there on a Saturday afternoon and I was glad to see him. The alternative of asking someone to handle an 80# bulky box or trust the hotel to make sure a UPS pickup driver got it was not as attractive. Everything arrived in both directions just fine. I have found that UPS website is handier than the post office for me, and their tracking for me has been much better. I still have delivery confirmation on some Priority Mail listing as not delivered from last year. They got them 3 days after I shipped. One was scanned as delivered in my hometown the day I shipped it. It was supposed to go across the country and did. Everybody has had different experiences with Priority Mail, UPS, and FedEx. I had a FedEx sit in AZ until they got a load to go to a remote location. It was delivered one day short of 30 days after I sent it. Insurance claims with the post office are not much fun and they can drag things out. I filed a claim with UPS and had a check a week after I sent the paperwork. For the small stuff replacable - Priority Mail is less expensive. Some of the bulkier things or the better stuff I care about and insure, I go with UPS.

Chris, A lot of the old timers heated their creasers. There were special lamps used under a ring or rack to heat them. I have seen the lamps once in a while on Ebay, and think there are some in the Barnsley tools being sold now. I have tried it and it gives a nice burnished effect with minimal effort. When you get the temperature right, they just glide and give a really nice darkened line. The problem was that I only had one creaser I was using it as a sacrifical tool in case the heat/time equation didn't work out so well. It took a little while to reheat and get back to temp and that slowed things down. My old buddy said they used to have a couple going at a time, and it wasn't a problem.

The frame can be cracked in several places. The legs are most common probably. Another place is on either side in the middle. Also the cradle for the bottom roller can break off underneath. Final place to look would be to make sure the top assembly is soldi to the frame. One tooth broken off the adjusting knobs is not a deal killer, but two adjacent ones is getting pretty iffy. Plenty of blade left is a plus. Make sure all the screws move. Especially check the screws holding down the blade. Make sure the top roller moves the entire range of the adjustment. I had one that the connecting rod between the two knobs was slightly bent. One knob was out of true and got a bind in it as the roller came up. Average selling price depends on condition. The range is probably from $300 to $500 for a good 10" one most days between informed sellers and buyers. As-found ones - I've seen them from $100 up, but mostly they are over $200. Once in a while you find a bargain.

To throw another iron in the fire here, total weight is not the only consideration in an maul. Balance is also a factor. For instance I have mauls from three makers. To compare between two 16 oz mauls, my Barry King is more neutrally weighted and my Wayne Jueshcke feels more heavy to the head. I use them both but prefer the BK on most tools and the WJ for small geometrics and baskets or larger surface area tools like thumbprints. I use some larger mauls too and match them to the size of the stamp.

Chris, You probably want it at one end or the other if it is a multipurpose bench. It keeps the granite further away from the dye and working area.

I see a few things with this knife. The tip is broken off the one side. The blade edge is sharpened at too steep of an angle right now. These are both easily fixed on some sharpening stones and will make this nice old knife a user for several more years. I would not attempt to reprofile this knife to a round shape. You will be taking a lot of metal off with no real gain. Tony is right about not changing it. These knives when they get this much wear still are pretty handy for skiving in tight spots and will cut a tighter inside curve than a regular round knife. Mine is getting down to the nub. If this knife hasn't been had anything done with it since the picture, I will trade you straight across for a Clyde round knife ready to use.