chrstn53

Its a decent haul, I drove up to Chicago a few months back and it was just shy of a 5 hour drive. Too bad I'm at the opposite end of Indiana

Up for sale is my 20 ton hydraulic press that I modified to work as a clicker press. The press has a 3/8" welded steel plate under the top cross bar and above the bottom cross bar. I upgraded to a larger press due to the volume of work I have been receiving. The press works great, I'm just trying to clear up some space in my small shop. If your interested in the press, I am located in Evansville, IN which is in the southern part of Indiana just above Kentucky.

As mentioned above the buckle guy is great especially for small buckles and button studs. For my leashes and collars I get all of my hardware from weaver leather in either solid brass or stainless steel. I've heard good things about Ohio Travel Bag, but I have never used them. Stay away from Tandy's hardware... Tandy has some good stuff but markup is pretty horrendous.

That is some amazing work. I was checking out your website and your Frankenstein head looks like a young stitched up Arnold Schwarzenegger. Very impressive...

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Mid 90's tandy and midas put out a few tiger stamps. The number on this one is 8505 and they pop up sometimes on ebay.

there is loads of information on this site about mallet/clicker dies. I have had good experience with Texas custom dies in the past. One thing you might consider is that your die cost will go up $20 to $30 for the added handle compared to a clicker die. I made my first press for around $150 using a 20 ton harbor freight shop press (the press was on sale and I welded my own plates/reinforcements). So if you plan on having numerous dies made, a press might be something worth looking into before you invest your money into mallet dies. link for press details http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=35165

I think its called a bleeder if I remember correctly. I use it for cutting strands when I braid leather, it a useful tool.

The Cobra, Artisan and Techsew machines are manufactured in china, the weaver is made here in the united states, so it has a higher labor cost. The morphan looks similar to the older Italian made strap cutters I have seen and looks like a good old simple work horse. If you have the option to attend a leather tool/equipment auction, you can usually pick a good one up for less than $1000. The last equipment auction I attended had two Italian strap cutters with table and motors and they went for around $600

Looks like a fun project. If you get a chance I would also like a copy. aldersonoutdoors@gmail.com Thank you

Weaver makes a tool called the malan chicago screw tool which is a modified vice grip that does wonders. http://www.weaverleathersupply.com/Catalog/ItemContent.aspx?ItemNumber=27271 There is another similar tool out there called the JP equine tack tool. I actually purchased this tool first, but was not impressed at all. Its made of some type of plastic and feels like its going to break in you hands and bends quite a bit. I was never able to get the screws as tight as I wanted so I purchased the Weaver one and it was exactly what I needed. I'm sure there are others out there, but I only have experience with the two I mentioned

I put a couple of the harder to find Boy Scout Craftool stamps up on an ebay auction. Ive seen topics on trying to find the wood badge stamps on this forum before. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Craftool-Co-USA-BSA-Boy-Scouts-Adult-Leadership-Wood-Badge-Logo-8507-/131495763572?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e9dc21e74 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Craftool-Co-USA-BSA-Boy-Scouts-OA-Order-Arrow-Chief-Logo-8508-/161684016429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a51e4d2d

I put up my extra swivel knife designed by Paul Burnett on ebay. They don't come up often http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Paul-Burnett-Swivel-Knife-Leather-Carving-Tool-/161684013452?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a51e418c

I've had the same issue in the past trying to find a specialty concho for a customer. He was a retired Air Force Pararescue Commander and wanted pararescue conchos added to his dogs collar and leash. I searched high and low but could not find any on the market, so I made my own. I found some pararescue lapel pins, cut off the pin part and soldered a double cap tubular rivet to the back and they worked perfectly.

Southern Indiana

bylinesupplyco, I cut the ram off and welded a 1/2" 10 x 20 Steel plate to the top and bottom cross bar. I welded some nuts to the top cross bar/attached two eyelet bolts and drilled/added two bolts to the top of the frame to add two extra springs to the top cross arm to help support the added weight. It has worked wonderfully for me over the past two years, but it has it limits. Unless your working with scraps you have to precut a lot of your leather to get it to fit under the press, so you will have quite a bit more waste compared to a traditional clicker press. As far as the minimal investment you can't beat it, I picked my press up for $150 on sale at harbor freight. Too bad your so far away, I finally decided to purchase the weaver 8 ton press due to the volume of work I have been doing lately and will be selling my press shortly.

I hope you get your funding, but if it doesn't pull through you could always rent a fuel efficient car and drive to Wyoming. A mix of sleeping in you car/low cost hotel rooms and not so healthy food will put you under the $1,000 mark. good luck

Carver tools was an attempt by the Kelly Tool company to introduce low cost stamping/tooling kits for beginners. The tools were made out of a nylon and fiber glass blend which lowered the barrier of entry to leather crafting. They were around from the late 70's to the mid 80's. Value wise, a set like yours usually goes for 10-15 bucks and sometimes more with the swivel knife. I normally see the instruction pamphlet and books go for way more than the tools.

I just came across this auction on ebay that has 93 hackbarth stamping tools for sale. I just thought this would be a killer set for someone wanting to upgrade their tools. I only see high quality sets like this in a lot maybe once a year. http://www.ebay.com/itm/161647479191?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I found youtube almost as helpful as my collection of books, plus it is a free source of information.

Different link for the first book since it seems to be no longer active https://archive.org/details/leathercraftfora006855mbp

http://www.barrykingtools.com/page7.htm

Looks exactly like the ones bunkhouse tools make. www.Bunkhousetools.com

Weaver sells one that is extremely well built and solid. If I remember right a local Amish wood outfit makes the stitching horses for weaver. I just checked their site and the run $240 retail or $155.50 wholesale. If you check some local antique shops you might get lucky and find one. I got lucky a few years back and picked up two 1800's stitching horses with hand forged parts for $30 a piece. Good luck with your search..

If you expect to do 20 or so luggage tags a month, your better off picking up an old Kingsley, Howard or kwickprint heat embossing machine. If you do some research on the brands you will come across the units and type at a good price. Last year I picked up a Kingsley machine with 16 different boxes of type large and small for $400. I normally use my machine to brand the leather with the initials and since I have started the service, my sales have increased 20 fold. The only foil you can use on leather is 23k gold foil since all other foils will eventually turn green. The pros for using one of the above machines, is that you can find hundreds of different style and sized letters at reasonable prices ($20-$40) a box with 4 to 5 types for each letter. Hope this helps