FlHobbyist

As promised here is a picture of some corners I cut with the Chinese punch. It was sharper than I thought it would be, albeit the leather is pretty thin. I rubbed the punch in paraffin just to make it go smoother.

Tandy sells the book.

My strap end cutters came in from China and they look like they are indeed around 90 degrees. In the next day or two, I'm going to cut out a couple of small pieces with one of them, and I'll post the results good or bad. The one I bought (though the listing will disappear in 90 days or so. ): http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1497.l2649 The term most of the ebay sellers are using to describe them is "English Semi Point". Though it is very important to check the picture and make sure the cutters are 90 degrees and not 180 degrees. Many of the sellers are not particularly good at English since it is apparently a second language for them.

One piece of advice about the Douglas awl blades is that they are very sharp. Even the sides of the blade are sharp, I've cut myself twice forgetting this piece of advice.

Douglas blades are expensive at 27 a pop, but one should last you a long, long time: They are expensive, but so is replacing crap awls. http://www.sheridanl...e=DT-awl-blades I got a Barry King haft with mine, but there are several other alternatives: http://www.barrykingtools.com/handtools.htm

I'd lay down the money and buy a Douglas blade, and a haft from any one of several sellers (Barry King, and Bearman come right to mind). The Douglas blades are very sharp and are made from good steel. I don't remember their website right this second, but if you do a quick search you will find them.

I would like to be able to shave the edges of a piece of ostrich hide so they are paper thin. I would like to skive in 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch, and have the cut be fairly rectangular, so that the edge is almost notched all the way around. I have tried using: A) Box cutter - Couldn't get the right angle Exacto - Couldn't get the right angle, and it wasn't sturdy enough b1) Super Skiver - Absolutely useless for this task. c) Round Knife - Found an angle that sort of worked, but it sort of didn't work either, also I couldn't figure out a way to hold the hide without a real danger of skiving my left knuckles as well as the hide. I think what I need is a Angled Skiving/Paring Knife. I've attached a picture of one to this post. The only manufacturer I've spotted is Vergez Blanchard. Is this the knife style I need? Who makes high quality knives of this style. For me, money is no real object because I would rather buy 1 quality knife that will last a lifetime, rather than a Tandy knife now that I will have to replace as soon as I try it and see what a piece of junk it is. Bob

Where would one find his book? I did a quick google search and a search here, found plenty of Bob's works and words, but no book.

I'm amazed by the beautiful artwork and the fact that it made it to our era.

Aha! I thought I was missing something. Does overheating the steel cause the direction of the steel grain structure to change? And, is there any way to tell what the direction is without a bunch of laboratory equipment?

I'm a little confused. I thought that something like a hunting knife should be around 22 degrees, and that a round knife should be somewhere between 16 and 20 degrees. If I remember the swivel knives are sharpened to around 30 degrees. 45 sounds like a very large angle for a knife.

Me to

Welcome to the forum. I would very much like to see your photos and see what the resident experts say also. When you get the pictures you may want to post in this thread http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=17 instead of here which is an items for sale thread.

I have thought a lot about this for future projects. The best answer I've come up with so far is velcro.

This is a definite no. The sharpening angles are different and it wont get your round knife sharp enough.

I would also like to join the party in the zone.

lol.. I'd always wondered where cow-a gators came from.

That is an excellent deal. I've bought enough in the last 3 months that I seldom bid on group lots. Instead, I can usually be found with the other harlots and weekend warriors, on Sunday evenings bidding up the Pre 63 tools for Pro Leather Carvers. And when Hackbarth tools go up for auction, I'm usually lurking around making sure they go for at least 50% of new value.

Doing some more searching on ebay, it looks like at least 1 shop in China might be making these punches. They're calling them "English Semi Point" though one has to be careful as it looks like "English Semi Point" may mean other things to other Chinese entrepreneurs. In any event here is a link to a current auction offering them. Late next month I'll add to this thread with what they sent. http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1497.l2649

Thank you for the clue. Just eyeballing it, it looks like a #8 sweep gouge is what one needs. I'll be ordering a #7 and a #8 this afternoon, and I'll post back my luck either good or bad.

I'm still looking for those under a buck stamps on Ebay, haven't spotted any yet. I'm really licking my chops about getting some of the rare numbers I don't have cheap.

I've done a fairly through google search and it looks like the answer is still two options: 1) Buy metal working equipment, learn how to use it and make your own quarter round punch. 2) Put in an order with Bob Beard and with a little luck you should have it in a year or so. There is another pair of observations for doing quarter rounded things that weren't mentioned here: External corners: Draw corner on leather and use good scissors to make the cut. Scissors are a lot easier to control than a razor knife. Admittedly this method won't work with thick leather. What is thick leather? For me the answer is 8 or 9 oz is going to be about it with my pair of scissors. This trick was in one of the Hurst videos. Internal Corners: Draw lines of where the corner will ideally be, then carefully align circular punch on top of lines and punch out the corner. This trick was in one of the Stohlman books. I believe if someone with a little metal working skill wanted to make some money, this would be a good place to start.

Congrats on getting the ostrich. There are a world of things you can do once you learn to handle it, and decide how you're going to do your edges.

It is Springfield Leather Company. They carry many non-Tandy items and come highly recommended. If you do a quick search here you will see many accolades. You can get their web address by doing a google or bing search.

Thought I'd jump right in here and talk about Super Sheen as a resist. Super Sheen works pretty good as a resist except when it doesn't. I.e. results are real unpredictable when using Super Sheen, as I learned much to my chagrin this morning. I've been using it as a resist for the last few months over acrylic paint and it worked pretty good, though I now suspect the acrylic paints were what was doing the resisting to Tandy's discontinued hi-lite stains. I close my eyes and see resolene and clear-lac in my future from Springfield. I've only had 4 months of dealing with Tandy goodies, but the more I see, the less I like, though it sure is nice to be able to hop in the car and drive over to Tampa to check out their wares.