lariat

Was cleaning out one of my boxes of miscellaneous leather "stuff" and came across and empty bottle for Omega Carve-eeze. It was promoted by Tandy as a alternative to plain water for casing leather prior to carving. The person I learned tooling from in the 60s swore by it and I used it or several years until it was discontinued by Tandy. Some told me that it was all in my mind, but I did feel that it made the swivel knife cut a little more smoothly and I felt that that it increased the burnishing effect of tooling — and maybe a little less tendency for the leather to dry out quickly. Does anyone have a comment or know what the chemical makeup was. I'm sure it was probably a low concentration some type of light oil. I do seem to remember it having a slight slick feeling on my fingers.

Your photos confirm my observations — that the blanks for early tools with designs larger than the shaft were forged, either to make a blank for filing and machining (e.g. the cams) or to create an interior counter to be machined to shape (e.g. the Masonic logo, leaf, and background). I have heard people site the mold lines on the back of the stamp as shown in your first picture of the cam stamps as proof that these stamps were forged rather than hand cut. Your photos prove that in the early days, it was a combination process -- the same cannot be said of current production! It also explains why I have three #453 cams that if it wasn't for the numbers stamped on them, you would think they were different tools. Two have no prefix letters and one has a C prefix. Two are the same proportions, with one being wider than the other -- but not quite as large as the 455. The other is the same width as the smaller of the two others, but the center is machined out to a greater depth making the contour more narrow. All three have earned a space in the tool case. I have also observed variations in other tools. One of those is the #206 Pear Shader. One of the variations is tall and more narrow, the other is shorter and wider. All of this just proves that the earlier tools were hand finished and that standards varied from lot to lot and/or machinist to machinist. In every comparison I've ever made, the early Craftools deliver a cleaner impression than current production. I bought many of my tools in the "no letter era" and I will stick with them -- they will outlast me! That "dates" me, but after nearly 60 years, one of my favorite things is seeing and feeling a carving come to life as I apply the final decorative swivel cuts.