bruce johnson

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.

My random thoughts here. The arena roping saddles have gone through a change to shorter seats, just as the cutting boards have gone to longer seats. Both of these were taken to extremes, and seem to be drifting back again. Fat guys cramming into 14" seat ropers doesn't work much better than skinnys sloshing in 17 inch boards. Most of what I see in the ropers is the shorter seat brings you up over the stirrup slots more. Push on your feet and you are there. It can be a factor of the cantle being forward and the slots in the same place, the slots back a little more than normal, or the groundwork built so the leathers are at the back dedge of the slots. Your feet are under or even slightly behind you. Good to brace yourself coming out and get up and forward. You tend not to slap back down on a big lunge. The lower front to the seat helps with that too. The lower TM swells don't get in the way until your horse scotches and your thigh slams into that square edge of a leg cut you could never use anyway. I don't think Tod Slone was the first guy to revolutionize the shorter seats, but he sure made them popular. A couple things to watch for. Some of these saddles have really wide bar spreads in the front. That can make the fork sit lower on the horse and the horn lower. You can get that "2 finger clearance" that was pounded into our heads. Sometimes it comes at the expense of the tree sittng downhill-forward on the horse though, and that can bring its own set of problems. Some of the extreme flat seats can contact the back of the withers on some horse depending on how far forward the saddle is set and if the breast collar in cinching it in place. I don't kow about other guys, but before these saddles got a little more common, I would get some requests to put reverse binds on the stirrup leathers to keep them back some. For a while Smith Bros and some of the other suppliers sold a little pad thing that fit into the dish of the cantle and laced in place at the corners. It shortened the seats up some. Kind of the problems are that these short seats and the stirrups under or behind is limiting. Down hill riding or a colt taking a jump with you will put your feet behind you. On the other hand getting up over the front and the wider seat holding you out there instead of shading to the middle give you advantage roping. As far as trees, a lot of these are made on fiberglassed trees, but it isn't the same glassing process used 20 years ago by most makers either. Most of them have the groundseat glassed in place with the tree, and that is supposed to bind things better and strengthen the tree. They get more strength in the seat with less thickness than a leather or strainer seat, so the buildup can be lower. Some use glass reinforced and rawhided trees, and some are full rawhide, somebody probably still will do a double rawhide cover too.

Bobby, Another great looking belt. I am guessing from the lining initials, it might be yours?

My cast iron one didn't have the graphics on the faceplate of the head that the aluminum ones I see have.

I just finished this belt up for my son. It is a hair-on hide inlay. The basket is one that Barry King made up for me with my son's brand on it.

JW, I had an old guy tell me about it, and just kind of stuck with the two lines. I oil up my plugs and skirts before I sew them. I was using Barge, and that didn't always bond the oiled leather all that well. I would set the "curve" to the skirts, then went to stick my wool down and my plugs would sometimes shift and the skirts would flatten out when I pressed down the wool. Try to re-establish the curve and the plugs moved and the wool would get a bubble in it. Bad words said, etc... If I sew the plugs in first, they are there for good. Another thing that is my impression (and told to me by an old guy) is that if the plugs are sewn in, they don't shift or shrink as much at the edge over time. Bob Brenner referred to it in another thread today about having to replace plugs on nearly every reline job because the plugs shrink back and the needle holes aren't true anymore. Granted you shouldn't have to reline one maybe once or twice in its useful lifetime, but on the double sewn ones I haven't had to replug any. I have done several oldies that the plugs came right off with the wool too. I do soak my plugs and work the stretch out a little. I am sure a lot of the curled skirts and shrunken plugs were never wet when they were made, just pulled out of the scrap and cut, skived, and stuck. It is kind of a cosmetic thing too. One line of stitching looks a little cleaner. I rubber cement the woolskins too. I am using another glue right now for the leather, and it is bonds better than Barge. I think I could glue the plugs and feel pretty confident with this glue now.

I bought some of those "$99 HO specials" sides from another supplier this summer and fall, and the ones I got then were better than any medium wt. HO I had tried in the past. We both kind of wondered why they were in that pile. I am sure mine were picked out, because the rep left and last ones weren't as good. Usable for the most part, but not the same as the others for sure. Kevin at Springfield has the rep for service. I am sure if you tell him what you need it for, he'll do his best to get the right one for you.

My best luck for getting that old petrified stuff out is Dawn, warm water (plenty of it), and a natural sponge. That will get the majority of the stuff off for me, and the detail work with the toothbrush and picks is a lot less.

Most of the time I sew two lines on new saddles - one to hold the plugs and another for the woolskin. Some repair places cut the stitches on the backside of the wool and don't pick the old stitches. They sew the new woolskin with a new line of stitching and end up with two that way.

Kate and Johanna did my site. It is on Concrete5, and I find it pretty easy to change out and update.

I have had a few optical mice, and they do alright on leather. Mine read on a varnished wood desktop too. The only place I have had problems are some of the motel room desks with a glass top.

Donnie, What Tandy sold several years ago was just an ordinary Boss at that time, the original cast iron model. They had them pretty early on as far as Tippmanns even selling the Boss. There was nothing that was special for Tandy and they were not relabeled. This was before the Tandy store closures. At one time Tippmanns had several dealers. HideCrafters sold them too. They had all kinds of independent sellers as well, but they were the same machine and had the Tippmann label. After LF took over Tandy, they still sold the Tippmann aluminum models for a while. What Art is referring to is a few years ago, Tandy had an ad campaign for the StitchMaster which looked all in the world from the pictures like a Boss and maybe was only slightly different (longer throat depth?). It might have made an annual catalog, but some print ads and flyers for sure. It was kind of a unique turquoise looking color. Weavers were touting a new machine they were developing that looked like a 440 top and Adler cyclinder arm or vice versa that was the same color. Someone might remember closer, but I think the reference was Weaver was having both machines developed. Tippmann was definitely not part of the deal on the StitchMaster.

It is a secret, and you have to tell the story of how the blood got there in the first place. If it was your own blood, welcome to the club. Hyrogen peroxide has helped some, as has washing with diluted oxalic acid. I haven't ever got one to totally clear. I usually dyed a rust color and the blood never showed up. On my worst draw gauge injury, I told the customer I had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in his strap. I wasn't kidding.

The only place I use tacks are on horn cap fillers where they will clinch. Otherwise if the wood shrinks ever so slightly or they back out the least bit, thee is no grip left in them. I don't use many ring shanks, but I do use them in the same place as JW. I mostly use twist shank where I want them to stay like on strainer plates. I use smooth nails for tacking or places that will be opened up like through leather conchos. I use SS nails.

Steve, Another great looking rig with that really lines up. Two questions - Is the rope strap throught the swell cover or just under that leather concho and screwed down? How wide are your strings? Hard to tell from a pic, but they look maybe a bit under 1/2"? I had a guy call yesterday looking for off the rack silver slotted for 3/8 strings.

Harvey, Johanna, Bobby, Steve, et al, A fine spouse said that four nights in Las Vegas is about right and I agree. We are going to go to Wickenburg after all. What was that old Geritol deal - "My wife, I think I'll keep 'er"? Yeah... Called tonight and got into the Best Western downtown there. They still have some rooms, but are getting close. We will get there sometime Weds afternoon, partake of a T-bone at the Bar 7, and move it on over to the Circle K later on I imagine. Show Thursday and the soiree that night. We'll start towards home sometime Friday I imagine.

Charlene, I just cover the tops. Leather bottoms would get pretty torn up from getting thrown down into the dirt. I have done a couple of them with the sides covered, but haven't had anyone ask for several years and that is just as well. I got started doing leather kind of casually one winter after I broke my pelvis. I was making up belts and headstalls. I have had experience doing several different things with horses, so that varied background has helped with relating to how something is used, and some of my personal preferences come through. Once I healed and got to going again, I'd sell headstalls off my saddlehorn and pay fees. I got a business license then. It just kind of built from there, but on a local kind of level. I got asked to do little awards, then more and more stuff. I did wholesale work for a few different sellers as word spread. That got me to doing a lot of different things. Last year we started up the website, and that has really expanded things. I don't do trade shows, but have had people resell or sell some stuff on consignment at bigger shows like the NFR in the past. Good luck with the working cow horse, it is a ton of fun. We did that for a while, and my sister-in-law is into the reined cowhorse on a big scale. She has shown snaffle bitters, hackamore, and bridle horses for a long time. She also sshows versatility and qualified two horses for the AQHA Ranch Horse Versatility Finals this year. I made her the rope can with a spade bit cheek tooled into it for Christmas. The finals finished up last night, and she ended up 5th and 6th overall in the open. She had a great run on one in the Working Ranch Horse and won that last night. It was pretty cool.

Charlene, Thanks. These are porbably my favorite orders. The font came off my computer. The flowers are tapoffs. The overall pattern took about 3 hours to draw the first time. I have modified it a little for each one I do, and that took about an hour maybe. I was thinking of fillling in the center with floral, doing a plank wood background, or basket stamping it. My wife said to stop right there where I did and leave the center open. My other advisor said the same thing without prompting so I believed them. Total time on the ropecan and strap - about 9-10 hours maybe. I don't have a picture from the side, he already has it. However here is a link that shows some I am kind of proud of - rope cans . At least two of the rope cans in there I did, and maybe a third. Some photographer thought they were photogenic.

JW, Thanks. I never did either. Firs time I tied below 11, a 9.7 won it. When we were this kid's age, rope cans were made out of tin with a star pressed into the top and we wrote our name on them with a magic marker. They had a sack of dessicant in the well you'd throw in the warm oven every so often in humid places. In the dry we'd stick a pilfered wet Holiday Inn washcloth to raise the humidity. Remember those days? I got one of the early Sierra cans from Smith Bros in about 81 or so. They only came in tan then. Now we have a choice of 6 colors and tan isn't one of them. I'd like to find one of those old tin cans and a tan Smith Bros just to have again.