Tim Schroeder

Decided to try some Wickett and Craig American Vachetta from The Buckle Guy. Been using Herman Oak for 15 yrs and still love they way it tools but personally I think the HO quality has just gone downhill. When you order A grade you should get A grade. There's not anything A grade about any of the A grade HO I've been getting lately. It's nice to be able to order by the square foot but I have to order double what I need to get a usable piece. It turns out there prices are really good. Try to buy HO by the foot anywhere else it is 3x the price. Now it takes a min of 3 days to get an order out and then for some reason it gets to Dallas in 2 days and then takes at least 3 more days to get to my door and then you open it and you get crap. I called The Buckle Guy and ordered The American Vachetta Tues. at 3:30 and it was at my door Fri. at noon. It was also two almost perfect pieces. I don't know what was wrong with them but nothing is perfect. I think this W&C tools better than the HO. It is very soft and you have to be very careful not to make unwanted marks. After tooling the W&C was all one color like I tooled it to wet. Almost no burnishing color. This is what it looked like after oiling. Still not as much burnishing color as the HO. I usually dye and antique finish everything so the burnishing color is not really an issue.

I draw my patterns on grid paper, then copy on regular copying paper. Then lay it on the leather and put this big heavy piece of glass on for 5 minutes. If the paper wrinkles very much it is to wet to do anything to. You can see in the picture the paper is barely starting to wrinkle. I threw this copy away and waited a few minutes and used another copy. Then remove the glass and let sit for 5 min. and the paper starts to dry a little. Then tape it down so it can't move. I trace with regular ball point pen with ink in it so I can see what I have traced. Knock on wood, I have never gone thru with a pen. I did try a ball point stylus in the beginning, but it just tears the paper. I try not to move the paper until I'm sure I have traced all lines.

No longer for sale. Thanks

Yes I’m a tool freak. My wood shop is a lot better than my leather shop. I do wood for a living, leather is just a hobby. I’ve been working on organizing my tool rack. Just about finished. @chuck123wapati I’ve been sharpening everything I have and it really makes a difference in the final product. Everything now is polished looking. I need a buffing/polishing wheel for my bench grinder and I will be able to polish everything. Sharpening up to 10000grit makes a big difference. Used to be 800 paper 1200 diamond stone and a 10000 grit diamond stone from Leatherwrangler. The 3,5,7000 before the 10000 is a big difference. LOL @Mulesaw I use as many as 9 different bevelers and 8 or 9 different thumbprints and at least 7 or 8 other stamps on one carving. @AEBL yes that wet stone and strop just turns 90 rpm. You can use it on a lot of tools.

Im at home now

@MClarkI bought that one from proleathercarvers. I just started using a back beveler and I'm gonna get a Barry King now. I think his are just a little better. I'm gonna work on this and see if I make it a little nicer. Barry King's are twice the price.

00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 Craftool Pro Edge bevelers. $60 I just sharpened the four smallest. I’ve never used the 3 or 4. They cut really smooth. Located in Lewisville, Texas $18 shipping to the lower 48.

Just built a deck out of Ipet. Second or third hardest wood you can find. Figured some scrap pieces would make good strop boards. I would have run them thru the planer to thin them down but I was afraid it would tear up my planer. Just ordered a new set of edge bevelers so i built a new strop board for them. I had already sharpened my big Gomph French edgers to 3000 grit but just bought a pack of sandpaper from 1000 grit to 10000 grit and have been sharpening tools for the last week. Now I have a sharpening jig and strop that fit each of my French edgers perfectly. Also have the strop wheel on my wet stone grinder. Great for the swivel knife and anything else you can get on it.

Checking for the edit button. Yes it is finally back. Thanks @Johanna Thanks @Northmount

This is Johanna logged in as Tim checking the problem. Edit button now works. CFM means you can see the part of the forum that was political, controversial and busy, until I hid it.

Nope still no edit button. Its been well over a year since some of us lost our edit button. Would also like to know what the CFM for my title means.

Just checking to see if the edit button is under the three dots.

I haven't had an edit button for well over a year. Just checking to see if it is under the three little dots

Thought I read all that post before posting. Still don’t have an edit button. This site does this all the time to me. When I posted the Craftool swivel knife for sale it came up Craftsman Oil when I posted it. Sure would be nice to have an edit button.

I have this set I got off EBay. The seller said they were James Jackson’s son and he was selling some of his tools. 1/2”, 5/8”, 3/4”, and 7/8”. Marked Gomph with no numbers. They were unbelievably sharp when I got them. I used them to make the welt channel on boot insoles and they cut thru insole leather like a hit knife thru butter. Now you can almost alive paper with them.

And yes I cut thru many times and the swivel knife blades don't like granite. Had to start doing the swivel knife on my cutting mat. Eventually you'll learn just not to cut thru. Then you have good control to get half way when you move up to thicker leather.

Tandy had those 2/3 oz. hides on sale really cheap so I bought 2. I made those backgammon boards and all the stuff my wife is carrying right now. I started tooling in the 7th grade and then picked it back up 15 yrs ago. So a lot of practice. This forum and Bob Park were extremely helpful.

This is the stuff my is carrying right now. All out of 2/3 oz. from Tandy probably 10 to 12 years ago.

Both of these are on 3/4 oz. The practice piece is in some Brazilian Import from Frogjelly leather. Practicing on thin leather will teach you touch. In my albums there is some backgammon boards and they are both done on 2/3 oz. The pictures are 10 yrs old so you can’t click on them but you can still see what can be done on 2/3 oz.

From tracing to finish it took 6 hrs. I ordered a diamond tuck stamp from tuningstar in Bulgaria off EBay. Getting ready to make my wife all new stuff. Purse, wallet, make up bag, check book cover and tablet case.

The skin care company my wife works for has a Foundation. They asked to make a wallet for an auction for the foundation. Outside cover is 3/4 oz Herman Oak The inside is made out of some 1 to 2 oz veg tan. So I can dye the inside to match the outside. The dye is 50/50 Feibings Chocolate and Light Brown and then reduced 2 to 1 with reducer.

This is the six swivel knives I use now. Leatherwrangler Green Regular 1/4” .0625 for cutting borders. Black 1/4” Ground down to .046 cutting the vines and leaves. Silver 1/4” Ground down to .027 for decorative cuts Red 1/8” angled for the flowers and detail work Craftool 50th Anniversary with a back beveler blade. Barry King 5/8” barrel with a beveler blade and a yoke off some swivel knife from Ebay for smoothing long bevel runs.

I usually use a modeling spoon to smooth out the long runs of beveling. I will still bevel and use the swivel knife beveler just to smooth it up.

I got a gift card for Christmas so I decided to buy some new tools from Barry King. I called them so I could ask how to use that gift card and Lindsay told me no problem she could probably get it to work. After I gave her the card info she said she would have to wait until she processes the order then she could run the card. She called 4 hrs later and said the card wouldn’t go thru so I told her to just send a PayPal invoice I would pay it. Between the time I gave her the card info and she called me back someone used the gift card for a $1 charge and then a $190 charge at Goat.com. The scams on these gift cards are a real drag. They only charged me $15 shipping and I got the tools the next morning in Texas. I do have 51 of his stamps already. New set of #35 bargrounders 3 15 degree smooth bevelers and a swivel knife beveler blade