bruce johnson

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?

With a few exceptions, most cutting tools you buy new are not sharp enough to go right to using. It should cut really easily once you have it sharpened up and stropped. The Vergez Blanchard steel seems to be pretty good.

As long as the leather isn't stretchy or too soft, a plough gauge will cut it alright.

I have had the best luck with thinning them down with wet/dry on a small wood block and laying the blade flat on a bench. I just follow the arc of the blade around. I did that on the last few and it worked the best for me. Going down through the grits made it go fairly fast and then I did the final edge work with a slack belt 1" belt sander that was mentioned a while back. I am going back through some other knives and redoing them this way too to thin a little more and get the final edge.

They look good and I sure like those buckle sets, one of my personal favorites. It seems to run in cycles, but I have had more orders for that type strap than others this year. They should sell well.

I am attaching a few pictures to show I how I run mine. For short straps I hold the tail end in my left hand with the tail coming up over the top of my handle and push. For longer straps off a full length side I run both sides of the cut under the handle. I tension the free end with my left arm and push with the right as I walk along the bench.

I've got a few bench ones. These are all made from light colored chap and filled with coated BBs. I have a couple of 4" ones that weigh about 1#. They are alright for holding a tracing pattern. My users for stamping are bigger, one is 4x6 and weighs 4#. The bigger one is 6x10 and weighs 6-1/2#. My seat bag is made from that vinyl covered tarp material and I got it from a friend a while ago. I think it is stuffed with sand probably by feel. It is about 16x8 and weighs 18#.

Yes, when I slide the blade in mine, there is a small lip on the left side facing the machine and that sets the front edge of the blade. That lip is part of the piece that holds the feedwheel. I tighten the back screw to keep it up there and the side screws to hold it down. One caveat, I can't remember which one, but I have had Champions and maybe an American 3 in 1 and a couple American and couple Landis crank skivers. On one of them the blade was a tad narrower, maybe a little over 1/8". If you have a narrow blade it might go past the stop. They don't catch much blade.

On the Americans I have had and the Landis I currently use, there is a forward stop for the blade. Like my crank splitter, the blade pushes up against them on the corners and is held there by the back screw. That sets the blade relationship to the rollers. The biggest problems I have had with two I looked at that "weren't skiving, the leather just goes under or over the blade" were back off the stops. Getting the blade pushed up there solved the problem. The other adjustments control the height of the blade on either side and so the angle of the blade. That is where just playing with scraps will tell you which to adjust. Once I get one skiving, I leave the one side just change the other if I need to change angles. I will say that I rarely do that though. I mostly get the angle set and leave it though.

My thoughts would be to have a reputable saddleshop check it out. The potential for a broken tree is sure there. I have found some knowledgable and well meaning horse people have no clue how to check a tree for breakage. Full thickness tears or cuts in the leather, horn wrap ripped off, and latigos ripped off tells me it was a pretty good wreck. The rigging and stirrup leathers need to be closely checked. It is a safety issue for you and your horse. The mud is probably the least of the problems, but knocking the big chuinks off and washing will get the rest off.

I use a few power tools. I have two drill presses. One is set up for burnishing and the other is used for punching/drilling holes. I have a 4x36 bench sander also. I use the end for removing glue residue or mild trueing with a pretty used up belt. I use a shop press for a clicker, molded cases, and embossing. I have one bench grinder in the shop I charge the wheels with compound for final polish on edges. It sits under a three sided carboard box to prevent flinging excess compound around. I just got a 1x30 belt sander for "slack belt" sharpening. It was from a link someone posted here to a knife forum. It really works nicely for final edge work. For me, the drill press would be first and then the benchtop belt sander.

You are playing with some pretty cool toys. Enjoy them!!

I was talking with a friend this evening and we got to talking about glue dispensers. He mentioned that he really likes using the Kabi dispenser. I can find these listed from a few foreign suppliers, but no US suppliers are jumping up on a quick search. Anybody have any experience with these either way or know of a US supplier? Thanks.

Bev, Some use contact cement and some use rubber cement. I use rubber cement, and buy in small quantiuties to keep it fresh. I buy Elmers rubber cement in a pint can from whatever hardware or office supply store I happen to be near. I haven't found it that much different than Barge. I have had some of the brown clearish bottles of rubber cement be thick and unuseable when I got them. Likewise some other brands just weren't as good as Elmers.

I like the turnbacks too, and the Vizzard edgers will do inside and outside corners well too.

Phil, Welcome. Your name came up the other day in a conversation with someone who has spent some time over the hill there. I can tell her now that you are on the forum here. Welcome again, feel free to jump in or go back through the archives and add to them.

Those veiners look good. I am looking for some bigger ones like the leaves. I'll give him a call. Thanks.

This is from an email I just got - It started off and finshed with some words we didn't learn in Sunday school, but this part I copied and pasted out of the middle pretty well sums it up. Do you want to buy my tools? Between Darcy’s saddle and Mason’s now, I am about to sell out and run goats. This is like looking at National Geographic or Playboy. I am staring at colored pictures of things I won’t see again. I can agree with that sentiment.

Tim, I have some from Barry and they are good. I had some from Hackbarth that were some sticky son of a guns. My favorites came from Bill Woodruff. Bob Douglas had a few sets of four at Wickenburg and thought he might be getting some more.