bruce johnson

Looks like fun …. Next year for us maybe

You will figure out what will sell after a few times and what sells one time may not the next. There is no rhyme or reason, be flexible and don't give up on an item for a least a few events. Having a range of products helps - variety of items and a variety of price points for cash and carry - physical examples of work for custom orders. You may not have every product in the lineup ready at every show but after the third person asks if you make an XYZ, I'd have at least one or two examples or "for sales" at the next show. From a seller point of view - Be able to take card payments, be able to take card payments, be able to take card payments - on the spot - Square, Klover, whatever. POS system and not writing card numbers down to process later. - Have business cards, a brochure, or something you can hand out to everyone. Professional looking business cards, not punch outs done on your computer. If you do brochures, you can buy nice brochure paper and D-I-Y looks pretty good. I give away 6" rulers with all my logo and info imprinted. You have a different market focus but something they need can take home and call you later. - Packaging - to be honest, I buy reusable shopping bags printed with my logo for less money than plain brown paper bags. - Logo stickers - If you asked me about stickers 6 years ago you would have gotten a quizzical look. That's exactly what I did in Prescott AZ when asked at the second show we did there. Since then I have given away about 4000 large ones and 3500 small ones. I see them in on-line pictures everywhere - coffee cups, stamping rocks, shop refrigerators, Yetis, sewing machines, you name it. People like stickers. Those stickers and rulers I give away for free pay me back. - Know your competition and don't be afraid to refer customers to them. At one of the first leather shows, I wanted some peanut brittle colored elephant for seat inlays and bucking rolls. One guy had a few smaller pieces. He walked me over to his competitor's booth and helped me pick out a bigger panel that would yield better. Everybody was friends and the customer (me) was taken care of. If you get an inquiry for something out of your wheelhouse, know who to send them to. Customers will appreciate it and more than likely next time you'll be their first stop for the stuff you do have.

I am assuming you are using it as a walking tool. If you tip it at all in either direction, you will get chatter marks from the end impressions. It is nearly impossible to hold exactly vertical and also get even pressure from every hit. If this stamp was a walking tool then the ends should be chamfered or curved up to avoid chatters. I've got no idea the original intention and lack of thought if it is supposed to walk. If so it should be like good bevelers and curved up on the ends to glide and avoid chattering. You can use it by hand to slide over and burnish after stamping but those marks are nearly impossible to totally clean up. If you are doing a single impression like a "crease" in a flower petal radiating from the center that chatter mark is your friend. Was that the original intent? I don't know. What I can say is when I started making handled push bevelers, about the third day I had inquiries for push double bevelers to address this issue. You can get more pressure on a handled tool than pressing a stamp by hand. Good for quilted patterns. One or two passes and go to the next line

Always glad to help people spend money! Here is an early Celtic rope stamp thing I did from 2009, the early days of leatherworker.net. I came across this picture tonight looking for something else. As I recall Bert or Ernie (one of the "Clay's") set up a challenge with a Celtic pattern. I tried it with rope. This was pretty rough but I learned a bunch about beveling, sliding the rope stamp around curves and making sharp bends with that stamp. I did a bunch of the cowboy headstalls with that border also and an example of I used tipped impressions on the curve - keep the outside full impression and tip to narrow up the inside curve. the beveler will clean up the inside. The other is a quick and dirty example of ending a rope.

Actually I haven't stamped for a few years. Once the tool deal took off I just didn't have time for managing tools and doing/selling leatherwork both. Tools won out. I used a Barry King rope stamp when the 2012 reply was made above. The beveler is a Craftool that I ground the face out with a Dremel to make it concave and fit the rope end curve. Basically a checkered crowner stamp. I started out using HideCrafter and Craftool rope stamps. Because of material and construction those stamps tended to bend up on the ends after a while and eventually would break when they were bent back one time too many. I was going through 5 to 10 of those rope stamps a year. I got with Barry to make a copy of them. He eventually made it a stock stamp. That stamp held up well. I got a couple other rope stamps through the years. One particular rope stamp had a bevel built into the end of the stamp (possible a CLT stamp) and it is really dimensional. Richard Brooks duplicated it a couple years ago and I sold several of his versions on my website. Richard has since stopped making stamps and rivet setters. They were taking too much time away from his core business.

This is something that is heavy and hard to ship but still pretty sought after by some people, especially if you have several rolls for it.

Can’t help with the DVDs but sorry to hear he passed away. Several years ago he got some period tools from me and we had some good conversations

depends on how loose. If there is enough of a gap fill it with epoxy or thick cyanoacrylate with a needle dispenser. Leave it sit at least 24 hours to cure.

Not surprising at all, I have known Clay for a long time. Always a standup guy and one of the bright spots at any leather show. What a many people don't know is what an outstanding leather carver he is also.

At this point I don’t do outside sharpening anymore. I’m still working a full time day job for another 329 days. I resharpen anything bought from me but between tools I am getting ready for sale and doing the other stuff with this business I don’t have the spare time for other work right now. Sorry

Paulette, Yes, I joined this forum on the first day. We've had changes over the years, social media wasn't much if anything back then but we see how much of a force that is now. Still this group is solid and searchable for topics from several years ago. I have shared with Tyler how I made reins and I am sure that he will do a good job for you.

I kept them paired up for equal thicknesses and feel. As far as thickness, yes that is what I meant. I bought 7/8 or 8/9 oz sides. Shallow is the top of the back to belly dimension. The "break" is where the leaher goes from firm to more stretchy. A 3rd generation leather distributor showed me how to check that. Basically fold the side up from the bottom and where it naturally wants to fold is the "break". Above that is firmer leather. Latigo is oiled and depending on source may be waxed as well. I dipped mine in olive oil for added oil and weight and then let them hang for a day before I worked them.

With my new website update, I have got a whole new bunch of people tuning in. I am sharing here one of the makers of new tools that we carry. Wayne Jueschke is known for his detailed stamps and mauls (we also carry his string/lace cutters). Wayne is old school - no website or social media. You buy from him at a show or call him up. He mails you a flier, you pick the tools you want and call him, he tells you how much and you mail him a check. I have been a user of his stamps and mauls for several years. A few years ago we struck a deal to sell tools for him on-line. It has exploded and we carry a good share of his stamps and all sizes of mauls. Below are some representative samples of his stamps and mauls but we have a LOT more. Please check them out at https://brucejohnsonleather.com/products/wayne-jueschke-new-tools/wayne-jueschke-stamping-tools Thanks! - Bruce

Barry King had or has WyoSheen . I’d see if he still does.

I grooved my stitchlines for several reasons. One is that I started off handsewing and grooving front and back gave me a target to keep my stitchlines straight. Good for practice and devloping the muscle memory and consistent angles for hand stitching. I groove to the depth of the thread. I don't need to dig a ditch to recess #92 and a dent in leather isn't going to recess #415. I hear the weakening argument a lot. OK, for most leather the rules say stitchlines parallel with lines of tension and not across. Take that little thread of leather you grooved off. Pull it apart between your fingers and see just how much tensile strength there is in it. On machine sewing. I sit right there and with a "soft-eye" watch the length of the needle line up with the groove line. It helps with that target line to keep stitching straight. . If the axis of the needle is lined up over the stitchline down the road, my needle is going in the right spot. I don't need to hard-eye look at the needle point everytime it punches in. Number one, that is fatiguing. Number two the stitchline wanders. Pick a point further down the road, lineup on it, and let that focal point float on ahead. Like driving a car down the highway.

You can groove really deep on shoe soles to recess that stitching. Many makers use a channeler though.

Rose knives are among the most difficult to restore. They can be among the hardest steels. They can be prone to pitting when found. Combine those two factors and refurbishing equals time. Lots of time. My first Rose was an education. Short anecdote - I was visiting Keith Pommer several years ago. I picked up a Rose on the bench he had about finished for himself. It was a beautiful knife. He made the comment that I probably wouldn't believe him, but he had 8 hours in that knife and wasn't quite done. I told him I definitely believed that. Been there on several Roses. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to buy his personal set of tools after he passed away. My wife knew what Keith and those tools meant to me so 4 days later I was on a plane to pick them up and ship home. One of my prize possessions is that Rose.

I cut on HDPE and punch on LDPE. HDPE allows your knife to glide more without digging in and twisting off points. LDPE allows punch edges to lightly punch into the board for cleaner punches on the leather and less damage on punch edges than harder synthetics. Other materials are soft wood, or masonite for cutting. Punching - some old guys used lead slabs and when they got chewed up - melted the surface with a torch to smooth them up - health issues with that material. I throw them away in shop buy-outs so I'm not tempted. End grain wood works well, the rubber poundo boards, neolite sole material ia another of my favorites, rubber conveyor belting, mud flap material, etc. only time for cutting mats is Olfa roller blade knives around here.

Not that are going to work like baby powder. Most of the treatments are going to help soften but not many will add any appreciable lubrication for long. Saddle soap makes strap work slippery but absorbs in pretty fast. Powder is predictable.

@pqstraub As much as I’d like to, I don’t make reins or do leatherwork anymore, just sell tools to the folks that do. My picks would be Taylor Meeske or Tyler Shupe. Both are around the horse business a lot and have good stuff. https://www.shoptmleather.com/ https://tylershupeleather.com/

Paulette, the poppers were usually cut from the lower belly middle of the sides. The top edge was lapskived and they were sandwiched between the rein ends. They were sewn 3-4” with backstitching at the start and end of the stitch lines. there are several areas that could be in play with your reins. Wanting to have them stamped pretty much limits you to veg tan and that is probably the biggest factor. There are a lot of things you fight making, using, storing, and maintaining veg tan reins. To be honest I never made any because as a user I didn’t like them. Personal preference

I gave up on vegtan reins when I was about 18 years old and showed my last western pleasure horse in buckstitched vegtan reins. No feel, stiff, and get stiffer. Sometime close after that in college I got my first pair of Dennis Moreland harness leather reins. (He is a legend and hero in rein making) Those were all I used for the next 15 or 20 years. Once they broke in - feel, weight at ends, length, durability, the more you used them the better they got - the real deal. About 25 years ago somebody gave me a set of doubled and stitched latigo reins for a gift. These were nice right out of the box! I figured out the weight they used, then made a few pairs for myself - sewn on a Boss hand crank stitcher. Figured a treatment I liked pretty quick and then a set up to pre break them in. A couple people tried them and I was in business. Between an awards order and reins I paid for a powered machine in a month when machines weren't cheap. I was pretty dedicated on making reins for years. I kept them paired up start to finish to keep them equal in feel. I asked for long sides with an 8 in the thickness number m(7/8 or 8/9, I didnt care), no brands, and I didn't care how shallow. I never cut below the break in the hide for reins. Fox Valley latigo was my favorite and after they closed Matt Foster at Maverick Leather got me good latigo sides from Horween. I made several hundred pairs of split reins, 100 or so roping, barrel racing, and bulldogging reins, and 50 or a little more latigo romal style cowboy reins. Width - cutters, reiners, show pleasure, ropers, barrel racer, cowboy, and pleasure-pleasure riders - usually 5/8". Snaffle bitters, bulldoggers, and colt starters - normally 3/4", some 5/8" .Then to further mix it up, A few trainers asked for in-betweens and I started doing 11/16" widths. Those got to be sort of popular with some other folks, especially ladies showing snaffle bitters. I made some 1" but only by order, never as a stock for me or others who sold mine. Maybe 40 pairs of 1 inch if that. Romals were a contract deal and either 1/2 inch or scant 5/8" reins with 3/4" romal. Length - 6-1/2" for a few juniors, lots in the 7 to 7-1/2 foot range for colt starters, some snaffle bitters/western pleasure/some reiners/pleasure/cowboys and trail riders. 7-1/2 to 8 footers for the rest of show pen snaffle bitters, cutters, and reiners.

I tried through my bank's allied card processing service a times. They were not geared for most businesses under 250K a year in transactions without add-on fees that weren't practical. They still try to contact me and they still can't compare close enough to make me like them. I have used Square from the time of the old Iphone slide reader up through the Ipad stand setup and now the Square Register. I haven't gone on the latest POS hardware yet but see businesses that use it. When I ask they all like it. Realistically at the end of the year, I am 45-45 square vs PayPal and 10% cash and checks (shows mostly on those). My costs per $ processing fees are not different enough to worry about between PayPal and Square at the close of the year books. Square takes every card at the same rate (most bank providers don't). International transactions are simple. Square service has been good when I've needed it. Money is in my account next business day for transactions before 5:00 pm. I can print my book keeping records for square with no charges, my bank's processor has fees. My son uses Clover for one of his businesses and likes it. He helped me at one show and said it pretty similar for Square or Clover. I looked at Quick Books and the integration would be nice, card fees were OK but the package of accounting software for my business set up was astronomical. If yours is simple - good option.

Just a question, did you insert the pictures into the text or add them as an attachment? I can't get them to expand. Yes I have had stitching make curves and humps on reins and narrow straps. You go down one side and have a pretty good curve, come back up the other side and it usually evens out, but not always. The needle holes and thread will expand that edge length. The humps can be from sewing over a cylinder arm and not staying flat. Can be tension too. Can be memory from rolling them up after finishing. Stamping can cause distortion and a narrow strap that like can magnify it. As far as the tool burnish, it can and does go away or lessen with staining or dyeing. It can go away with rewetting too. That is one of the reasons for antiquing.

Jerry Van Amburg has been our go-to guy for exotics. I've been buying from him for 20 years at least. Has a bunch of stuff that isn't on his website. At the shows he always has a bunch of ostrich shins and cane toads that I don't see on his website. Best way is to contact him through Instagram or Facebook. My wife orders enough she calls him and its a half hour conversation sometimes.