Tex Shooter

As a former wholesale knife salesman I did a lot of testing on hand sharpening and also did a lot of hand sharpening. The only couple of things that I would add to this conversion is be to be careful of the temper at the micro edge. If dry sanding even by hand, take it very slow. You would be surprised how easy it is to heat a micro edge red hot. If it cools to fast it becomes brittle and if it cools too slowly it loses it gets soft and does not hold a edge long. You can only see this red hot micro edge in the dark under a microscope. It is very hard to detect as it cools almost as fast as it is generated. Also don't forget to strop the wire off of the edge. Most commercial new products, even if sharpened properly still have the wire edge on them that will roll at first cut a make them appear dull. That is one of the things that famous custom tool makers take extra time with that makes there products superior out of the box. The edges that I use a lot, I have touched up on a machine from time to time by a pro. -- Tex

When stitching a belt loop on knife sheaths I got to wondering if anybody had ever sold a stitching punch made to do this? Maybe like this sketch of a tool and the finished stitched loop. -- Tex

Welcome from a fellow Texan Matt! -- Tex

Yep, me to! -- Tex

I just bought a refurbished American crank type splitter and it will be here this week. I have never used a splitter before, so I know that I have a learning curve. I have two very basic questions. 1) does the leather insert with the grain up or down? 2) I have a couple hundred of 3 sizes of veg tan folding knife blanks that are too thick and need to split. These blanks are about 16 years old, but are in good shape. The leather is very dry and stiff. Should I split then dry or should I try to condition them first. I have clicked a couple of them down one size and they cut clean on my Lucris clicker press. I have recently made a few knife sheathes with the thinner blanks and they worked fine. moistened the stitch line a little before stitching. -- Tex -- Here is a picture of one of the blanks.

Update! I have glued some scrap veg tan leather strips to the vice to get a little clearance. Also I had a 2 dollar price tag on it to sell, which means that I only paid one dollar for it at the garage sale. The notches on the edge of the vice were there when I bought it. I took a picture of it flipped over to show how it can be used for a vertical clamp. I had not used it yet when I shot the first pictures, but I have now and it works great for knife sheathes. I still like to stitch without a clamp when I am watching TV, but it is slower. -- Tex

Oh, So its that counter clockwise that has been screwing up my holes! -- Tex

Have you considered a water jet? -- Tex

Pick up only in Kerrville Texas. This press is almost like new! I has been used very little! It came out of a strength testing lab. I have had it about one year and I had purchased it to back up the new one that I bought 2 years ago. I have decided that I need the room more than a backup press and I have purchased crank splitter that I will put in its place. Here is a link and pictures that I have on Craigslist of it. -- Tex http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/tls/3900840742.html

A arbor press set up like this for end strap cutting should be very quick. If I was running a saddle shop or any shop where I did a lot of clicking I would have a big swing arm clicker. However having used the manual Lucris clicker I would not be without a small manual clicker in such a shop if I clicked a lot of small items. It is so easy and fast it to click small items. The 3 items that I sell the most, I sell maybe 500 and up a month and I can click 250 clicks per hour. When I get a large custom order of say 300 and up on one order the Lucris I own pays for its self every time. -- Tex

You could make a end strap cutter out of a short socket and then screw it to the ram of a arbor press through the square hole. Make it like this one made with a tall socket. By the way I made his one with a bench grinder and and sharpened it with a Dremel tool. Dipping it in water quite often to keep from losing the temper of the socket tool. You could use a extension for a tool holder for all the rough grinding. -- Tex Seventy Five Cent End Strap Cutter Or Punch - Leather Tools - Leatherworker.net

The item that I made with it had about 10 inches of clicking edge. It is the combination of lever pressure and the striking of the ram that gives the clicking power. It is also the pressure on the handle that keeps you from damaging the press. -- Tex

I think that if I was going to modify a hydraulic shop press into a clicker from Harbor Freight , I would spend the 140 bucks for 20 ton, then you can click larger or multible items with it. Because a hydraulic press makes a slow clicker, clicking multible items at the same time would help with the speed. -- Tex

Before I had a clicker press I had a one ton USA made arbor press (I still have it). I used it for several operations. A friend of mine put me up to how to use it for clicking small items. The one ton arbor press is not enough muscle for clicking on its own, but here is how you can click with one. Of course you will need a couple of small steel plates. One for the ram and one for the base. I would not use very large ones and would mount the one on the base permanently making sure it is square with the ram. Then you need a piece of polypropylene for a pad. To click place the leather on the pad and the die on the leather and the top steel plates on the die. Pull the handle down and firmly hold it down. Then Strike the top ram sharply the with a poly or rawhide mallet. This is a slow process but it will work for small items and is much faster than hand cutting. -- Tex

My last bundle of 4 1/2 oz oil tanned boot leather (6 sides) was $38. -- Tex

For what I do I buy mostly chrome tanned leather from a reputable source by the bundle. I will not recommend any source for leather, but the source that I use sends me sample swatches that I chose from before buying. I have found that what you get is not always exactly like what you order even when you get samples up front, so I recommend that you plan a way of selling what you don't want. I make a couple of small simple items for selling the leather that I don't want and also I have been known to sell sides that just did not work for me in what I make. If you don't get what you want, you might ask for your supplier to take some back to get there attention, although I am careful about this as it is getting harder to get good leather and if you are using a source that works with you, you just might want to keep them! -- Tex

Hi Ray, My wife was born and raised in Hackleburg AL and she still has people all over the state. We have spent quite a bit of time in AL through the years. One of my favorite memories is a few nights that we spent in a cabin on the Little River Canyon in De Soto State Park neat Fort Payne. That is sure a pretty area! -- Tex

I would go for a swing arm clicker as it is faster and easier to see die placement. -- Tex

For hand stitching, in the morning in the shade outdoors is nice for these old tired eyes and a couple of mocking birds sing to me also. -- Tex

Take a look at "Lighthouse_Honey_Farms" on eBay. They will have any quality for a reasonable price that you might want. -- Tex

Wow, I agree! -- Tex

Glendon, this post is not in responce to yours, but to anybody that is interested and has not seen a clicker work or has not priced clicker dies. Custom clicker dies run from about $40 and up depending on the complexity, holes and slots if any and the size. To me the difference between a steel rule die and a all steel clicker die is how many clicks do you plan on making with it. I have one all clicker die that has made well over 10,000 clicks and is still sharp. The size of the die that the MA Lucris press depends on several factors like how much cutting edge, how many holes, how sharp, how slick the clicking surface is and how complicated the outline. A five ton press like the Lucris will not click 30 inches of cutting edge with fifteen 3/6 holes for instance. For that you would better off with a larger press. Here are a couple of my dies without holes that have clicked a bunch of clicks and still are very accurate. I have clicked dies 3 times that size with several holes without a problem. I have clicked for other people with there dies. The press will click a die that is larger that the plate, but I don't. These die shown here are about $40/50 dollar dies. I have no dies that cost me over $100 dollers. Now a couple of my customer dies cost well over $100 but I will not show them. By the way the phone number on the pen is not mine. -- Tex

I got mine at Bar-Plate, but they lost there dealership. Ace is the only company selling the MA series clicker now in the USA that I know of. Personally I don't think that there is another manual press out there comes close to comparing with the Lucris Press. Lew Asherton did a great job designing this press. It is so much faster than any other manual press that I have seen. Think about this! With two of my small dies I can easily click 250 patterns a hour. I don't know of any other press that can do that. I don't know why that I have two as one will do all that I want. The press weighs 125 pounds and can be used anywhere with out any power. I knw I sound like a sales person, but I really feel that strongly about the Lucris press. -- Tex -- PS -- Here is a link where you can get the Lucris press in the USA and it is more than $1200 http://www.acesteelruledies.com/diepress.html

I believed the same thing for several years, but after I got one, it paid for itself in less than six months. I have two now and they are just great money makers. -- Tex