bruce johnson

Bob Douglas usually has some ready to go - (307) 737-2222.

Looks good Elton. Nice taper to the maul, and the stamps look good. He ought to like that wiggler.

For the time it would take a silversmith to get those letters off and engrave that area, they might be able to make a new plate with your daughter's name or initials. Might be a something for the next birthday or event in her life.

Josh, It all looks good, and the workbenches are nice with the storage underneath. Seems to be plenty of light too, that's a plus. Looks like a saddle stand next? It will make them easier to work on, and a three tier stand from the supply store will free up floor space for the waiting ones. You have a great sized stamping rock too. Glad to see that. You are going to be having some fun in there. Downer time. It really scares me to see the round knife in the apron pocket sheathed or not. Have a hang up place within reach. If you lay it down, always lay it down handle toward you. If the blade is sharpen enough to cut leather, it will cut leather. I have put them back into sheaths and eventually just the motion of setting them in has cut the welt. The blade working back and forth from wearing it, then bend over and it can drive it through the welt and mulehide. Contrary to the deer hunter T-shirt slogans, happiness would not be a large gutpile. We want you around.

Bob is at a leather show and I expect won't be home until early next week.

I spent today and some $$ there. Casey is right, there may be a few here and there show specials, but usually not many. For me it is not so much looking for a deal as it is hands on comparing. I am a little biased, because I do most of my serious buying of tools at the shows. This show let me compare stamps between Wayne Jueschke, Barry King, Bob Beard, Lana Smith, and Hackbarth and buy based on that. For hand tools, Bob Douglas had new ones he makes, Barry King,Ron Edmonds, Osborne, Weaver, Tandy, and HideCrafter. Bob Douglas and another guy were both there with older refurbished tools. You can compare mauls between Barry and Wayne, swivel knives between Lana Smith, Leather Wranglers, and Barry. Hermann Oak, Wickett & Craig, Sheridan Leather, and Tandy were there with leather. Two sewing machine sellers are set up. You can learn from all of these how something is supposed to work, how they are supposed to be sharpened and maintained too. Just BSing I pick up a lot. The offtime has been really special and entertaining at this show.

I used to tie those side pulls out of rope when I used them and sold some too. I used nylon heel ropes. You can tie them in a simple overhand knot but it is a little bulky over the ring. There is a knot that is used on the end of lariat ropes that is similar to a overhand knot, but the rope is stranded out and each of the the three (or maybe 4 now) strands is treated individually and makes less of a knot on catch ropes and lays smoother over a ring. Melt the ends with a torch. When you strand out these tight lay ropes, you need to wrap tape at the places you want them to stop, because they can unravel a mile once you cut them.

That is one of the coolest cans I have seen. Great job on the design. I'd love to get an order for one like that some day. Keep them coming.

Here's another rope can from the last batch. This one is a little more undersatated than some, but it fits the style of a lot of my customers. She got a goat string can last year for her birthday. This year she added breakaway roping to her events, and we made this can to match her goat string can. I am hoping she tries team roping next year and needs a rope bag.

Doug, Hansen's sell wholesale. If you don't have a number, they are right across town and I can pick up whatever you need.

I have only run into this requirement (along with guaranteed minimum annual orders) for wholesale pricing on finished products from a couple suppliers. It was for cinches, finished halters, bags, and things along those lines that I would directly compete with other retailers. As far as getting anyone to waive it, only in a limited way from one supplier. I was able to buy one product in a minimum number for each order at dealer price, since no other local dealers of their products were buying these in any quantity. They sold to another company and that deal went away with the new management. Most suppliers of materials only require a business license and/or a resale number for wholesale pricing.

The only splitter Osborne has made for a while and stocks parts for is the model 86 in a 6" width.

MY thoughts are that all these guys are "fitting" on some level, whether they choose to call it that or not. Everyone does. The difference is that very few of us are doing what somebody has termed "microfitting". Most of us aren't doing back molds to fit every nook and cranny. We order a tree with a gullet/handhole width and bar pattern that we think will fit what our customer rides. We do that at minimum. That has to be considered part of "fitting". I don't know of many customers who comes in to many of us and says, "I want a 6-1/4" gullet, 90 degree, northest bar tree" that doesn't have some background. Some or most of the time, they don't know what to ask for. Either we have to guess based on their pictures, descriptions, and our own experiences that tree maker X's 6-1/2 90 degree fits most of them like that I see and from tree maker Y I need a 4" handhole 93 degree tree. Not everybody's bottom patterns are the same either, and the bulgy horses might not go as well in a crowned up bottom that the narrower back would. These guys aren't just calling up a tree maker and saying "send me a 15-1/2" low Assoc". They are calling someone they have experience with, know what has worked for most of the past ones, and at least telling them some basic width measurement and ordering that. It might well be the same each time, or it could be "He rodes big blocky horses, ropes calves, and uses 1" pads with a Navajo and orders a 6-3/4" and the next guy rides mostly colts and narrower horses and he orders a 6-1/4 for him". THAT is fitting on a basic level to me. If we don't do that, we are about the same level of competance as the kid at the feedstore. Horses are pretty tolerant, and there is a range of what works and what doesn't. If we are within that, we are doing alright. How big that range is what the question is. A whole block got left out, so here it is. If we don't want to guess at what they ride, pictures, or whatever. we do have the card fitting system from Dennis Lane. That can give us an idea of a few dimensions and give us a better idea of the general profile of the back.

Phillip, I have never seen any pattern packs with them. What I have done in the past is trace off one the guy already has or likes. Kind of like most breast collars, somne guys prefer different shapes and different amounts of drop and drop in the center.

Even though I prestretch,work, and set my stirrup leathers on stretcher, I like mine better after a few rides have set them and the back and forth movement has freed up a bit.

Another vote for Jeremiah Watt's DVD. I always bought bucking rolls before. The inserts he sells are alright too. There is a bit of a learning curve, even with the DVD for a few of us. I would fully expect to not have the first set come out as well as you might want. After that - cake. A few things to watch for - welts tend to wander over the insert a bit. If you stuff your own, not some much of an issue. Be sure to trim the back side of the welts close and then pound them down pretty flat. Another issue is making sure the insert is perfectly lined up in the body. I have had a couple want to tweak to one side or the other. Aftyer you get comfortable with these and learn some of the finesse things, it is not that big a step to tweak sizes and stuff your own.

Paul, Great coloring and it looks pretty handy to use too. See you in a couple weeks!

I am extremely happy with cellular internet from Verizon - portable and good service. We can't get DSL at home, and the satellite deal wsn't as good as Verizon. Had it two years on one, and just got another modem and account for my wife's computer. She was still on dial-up and it was t-i-m-e.

Butch, I just do leather on the tops. Several years ago I had a wholesale order for one that had some tooled patches on the sides, kind of like leg shields on chaps. They went between the latches and sort of looked cool.

I just finished this rope can and strap up for a nice young breakaway roper from NV. She came up with the design, and I am really liking her idea of the star overlaying the border partially. I haven't done much barbwire for a while, and that was kind of fun. I did some others too, but they are gifts for birthdays that haven't happened yet.

A second to Steve's recommendation to call Melanie Machine. Great people to deal with. As far as which splitter you need, it kind of depends on what you are splitting, how often you'd use it, and how much skiving. I am not a particular fan of the Osborne 86. No blade guard, not impossible to skive with, but not very handy. If I was buying new today, I'd get one of the Keystones from Campbell-Randall. Otherwise if you buy used, the Osborne 84 is tried and true. There are some other splitters I like better, and each has their strong points. There are a few threads on splitters and skivers on the forum, and a lot of information in those.

Buddy, On some of the hair-on they use a backing leather and may just glue the hide on the nosepiece and stitch it. Others will inlay, pretty much like you said, except cut the "window" for the inlay first. As far as what weight of leather, there are several on here who make the decorative bronc halters and I have seen weights that go from 9-10 oz combined up to 14 oz or a little more. I don't do many of the decorative bronc halters, but do some for saddle bronc riders occasionally. With those I use a doubled skirting, so they are about 26 oz or so. I am attaching a pic of one I did with a hair-on inlay that we ran the guy's brand into the hair.

Will, to date things back a little further than my earlier post, I have part of an old Schoellkopf catalog, and they list swivel knives (called swivel top cutters then) in what I have. The source of the reprint has one from 1924 and one from 1935. Not sure which I have, but I would suspect it is the maybe the 1924. I am basing this on the Landis 3 being the latest sewing machine listed. I thought the 16 came in the early 30s, but someone who has more machine history will know more on that.

Will, In a class I took from Chuck Smith last month he talked about some of the history of tools. His mention was that the oldest he knew of was an FK Russell. I can't remember what year. The knife was given to Don King for his museum. I have an old Hinkley-Tandy catalog from the 40s, and they have one in there, but no identified maker.

Ntex, Williams is a soft paste conditioner from Australia. In previous threads we have tried to find a wholesale supplier for the single man shop. No go there that I recall. Most of us buy it from someone who buys in case quantities and retails. I usually get mine from Tip's in Winnemucca, Capriola's in Elko probably have it, got some from Big Bend in Alpine once or twice.