StrigaMort

I use cc on all of my sheaths and wrist cuffs. I use Weldwood Gel.

Good advice. I have a set coming and I'll be writing a review on both pieces. Just speaking with Nigel and Jason Cherry (from Justwood.com) I'm expecting great things.

Hey that's cool. Small world. I bug Paul at least once a day (ears burning Paul?) over on Bladeforums. I know he's here as well, although I don't think I've bumped into him. You ever get some time, stop by and say hi, I'd love to see your work. Obviously some of the leather guys at BF are also knife makers. I dabble in both, but sheaths are what keep me busy.

I'm very interested in reading this. I'm especially interested in watching what happens with your blade design Dean. Leather is my primary concern, but I come to leather directly from the knife world. I have the means to heat treat simple eutectoid steel (1080/84) properly, so your experience with o1 will be fun to watch. Please keep us updated.

I just looked and can't find his email. Hmm hopefully he'll see this and reply? Actually,I'm not sure why there are two threads. Weird. Here's the original. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=57477#entry374435 He posted in that one and you can contact him from his profile.

Not a problem my man. I really am pleased with your work, and I always appreciate a shout out when a customer digs my work. Hopefully some of my friends from Bladeforums will hit you up. I will be soon for another one.

Oh, for what it's worth, I plan to buy another, slightly smaller stamp. Mine is 1.5" which is a little large for my sheaths, but great for some things I do.

I'm actually going ghetto at the moment using two boards and a heavy clamp, or the boards and a vice. You shouldn't use a maul. The stamp, I believe, was $35 and $5 shipping. May have been $30. Either way,it was a fantastic bargain and my customers love it. I've had a few requests to put the stamp on the FRONT of my sheaths which makes it obvious that I made a good choice. Shoot Steve a message. He couldn't be better at what he does!

I was gonna say the same thing. I work with cyanoacrylate often. You definitely don't want to confuse the two. Might call it CC, contact cement instead.

Thanks Bruce.

How do you guys figure out the weight? Op, I hope you don't mind me butting in? I use a 2lb dead blow mallet and it just doesn't feel heavy enough. I guess how well the leather is cased, and how good your stamps are are factors too. I'm a big guy and I have to whack my little basket weave and camouflage stamps to get good definition that doesn't blow out easily on bends. I was wondering about the head shape too so i'm glad you asked.

Careful which kind of leather you use around knife blades, especially if they'll be left there long. I just finished testing the Weldwood Gel formula. Absolutely excellent product. Not quite as strong as the Original formula, but still very good. Tip of the day! Put your cement in one of those diner table condiment bottles. Someone recommended that to me the other day. Wish I had tried that from the beginning. Really. Go to the dollar store and try it.

Just a shout out for my man Steve at etsy (CustomMadeStuff). I found him here (somewhere on this website) after he made a thread offering us free "Made in the USA" stamps. After talking with him I decided that I wanted a new stamp made. No pressure at all to buy btw. I approved the design this morning, got a message that it had shipped and he sent me a pic of the stamp. For the price (or any price I should say I cannot imagine better service.

Just a shout out for my man Steve at etsy (CustomMadeStuff). I found him here (somewhere on this website) after he made a thread offering us free "Made in the USA" stamps. After talking with him I decided that I wanted a new stamp made. No pressure at all to buy btw. I approved the design this morning, got a message that it had shipped and he sent me a pic of the stamp. For the price (or any price I should say) I cannot imagine better service.

That's exactly right. Most Japanese kitchen knives, even when they are clad in stainless have a high carbon core. I don't mean to put down stainless. I have a Santoku made with powder stainless (cts xhp) at 64hrc and it's a beast. Lots and lots of great chromium containing alloys. Just seems like a lot of tools are made unnecessarily with low grade ss when carbon makes more sense.

I appreciate the advice. It does have a micro (small primary) bevel. Do you think that the tips are prone to breaking because the steel is over hardened? A funny thing about knives in general... High carbon and tool steels are cheap. I can buy a 4' length of 1095/o1 for much less than I can any normal stainless cutlery steel. Not only that,but the heat treat for any stainless alloy is vastly more complex than the heat treat of any normal carbon or tool steel. That's why I'll never understand why the new inexpensive knives are made from a crappy alloy. The junk stainless may be super cheap (I have no idea), but dealing with it is gonna take a lot longer and be a lot more trouble than if the company just used a high carbon steel to begin with. Maybe a poor ht regimen is so automated and cheap that it offsets the cost of a low grade of steel, again,I don't know, but they aren't doing their customers or reputation any good by doing so. Is the end user (customer) so corrosion stupid that a stainless is mandatory? Maybe a superior steel that has the possibility of rusting is too much a warranty liability. Anyway,I'll just use this sucker until it's unusable. I can appreciate the idea of keeping it for fun, but I bought it to cut with. I made a quick sheath for it last night. Hopefully the sheath doesn't out live the knife!

It just occurred to me. Was craft tool its own and separate company from Tandy? I'm not well versed on this stuff, but I seem to remember seeing that somewhere. If they were, and aren't now, did they make quality stuff?

The instruction sheet is well written and illustrated. Blade is thin and tapers nicely, although I feel like the primary bevel could be more acute, that all depends on how stable the steel is though. Poor quality pic, but it's the best I could do with my phone.

Thanks Trox, and I second that Colt! Oddly enough, while I was typing the above, my daughter brought me the mail and it included the knife. Very well packaged and a day early I might add. Here's the knife. There are no markings that might give a clue as to age. I think it's likely that the knife was made for Tandy by another US company, but I'm not sure if anyone can tell which company that may have been. One thing that stands out is the use of wood colored epoxy to hold the walnut handle on. The blade itself is very thin and "sings" when tapped. It's probably sharp "enough", but I'll definitely sharpen it. It has a secondary (very acute, though not measured) secondary bevel and a more obtuse primary bevel which I'll fix. Grind marks on the primary bevel are present so I'd guess that it was applied with a belt or stone. The sheath may have been okay when new, but the flaps want to stay in a closed position from age. I'll make a new sheath for it otherwise I could see cutting myself trying to get the knife in and out. Aside from the possibility that the steel is not hard enough I'm happy enough with the thing. I won't truly know if it's good or bad until I get a known quality blade in hand. I now need a chunk of hydroma for cutting on. Right now I use an Olfa green cutting mat, but I don't think that will last long using head and round knives.

What a thoughtful post. I really appreciate it! My experience with cutting leather is probably a fraction of what most here have done. I've watched a number of videos on using these knives and only one fellow mentioned what you are describing. His advice was to keep your off hand out of the path of the knife! It's interesting that I've never noticed this density issue, but then I've done very little push cutting, and even then, with an incorrect tool for the job. I'm pretty careful with blades in general. I *really* shouldn't say this, but I very rarely cut myself. I'll be certain to keep the knives razor sharp and try to be mindful of my hands and fingers as well as the issue you describe. May I ask who the knife maker is that made your blade? I suppose there's a chance that I might know him.

Thanks for showing that tannin. I have a very similar knife for wood carving, but I figured the recurve blade would be useless. I've got a couple of head knives coming by I see no reason to limit myself.

I could re-heat treat it if I knew what kind of steel it was. Tool steel isn't much of a description. I built a small propane forge for knife making, but without knowing the steel I'm more likely to bin it. I could maybe treat it like o1, but I'm not positive. I friend of mine who is a full time knife maker and leather worker mentioned that he plans to send me one of his (aeb-l steel, very thin and 64hrc I think he said) and he does just gorgeous work. If that happens, the Tandy knife will be used for practice using, sharpening etc.

So you're saying that it's pretty much maintenance free? :D Kidding. I'm good with a stone and strop so no worries there. It would be nice if it would hold the edge, but hey it's $50. I'm no knife maker but I have made a knife and ground a few more. If the steel is half way decent I can probably put a more acute bevel on it, but that sounds like the last thing it needs. Thanks for your view.

I just won the bid for a US made Tandy knife. Cost $50 so I'm not out much if it's crap. Still,I'd like to know if these are any good. I'll find out for myself, but curious to know what you guys think.

That's funny, I thought a lot of people use SS to burnish their edges. I use it. One benefit is that it doesn't resist dye. I do my initial slicking with it, dye (or not) then apply the finish. On the other hand, I haven't gotten a glass like finish so maybe I'm doing it wrong.