Oldtoolsniper

I like the jig, I have cut quite a few brass casings with varied results, never figured out how to do it straight except on my lathe. The lathe works but is a pain to do in quantity. My jewelers saw will be getting a work out. As for flaring the backside, would a splash rivet setter work on the smaller calibers?

Those black foam brushes. Squeeze them in the store to find the ones with plastic reinforcements attached to the end of the handle. Pull off the foam, trim reinforcement to suit the application and spread the joy.

Go to eBay closed autions. Item number 272127202950 both sides of the instruction sheet are there too.

Just for clarity when you say 20° it's the total bevel, correct? On a single bevel the bevel would be sharpened at 20°, on a double bevel it would be each bevel sharpened at 10° to make 20°. Is this correct?

Art, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this stuff. I like the fact that you don't just say "sharpen at this angle" you explain why. It's almost like you want to know what the customer intends to use the cutting edge for and its sharpened for that purpose. Could it be that a cutting edge is actually a specialized tool? Imagine that.

I use a marking knife woodworking and it's a single bevel grind, in theory it forces the blade back against the guide I'm using for the blade. Reality is that I'm only scoring the wood, I'm not cutting very deep at all so I doubt it helps much except that a flat back is easier to keep against a straight edge. On leather we are cutting all the way through, seems as though it might work. On draw gauges you only sharpen a bevel on one side for the same reason. As soon as I get a chance I'll give it a shot. I'm cleaning up a pile of leather working tools from an estate sale right now.

I don't know the answer to that. It seems as though the old ones were listed as "high speed steel" as are the ones I have. I can say without a doubt they never reach the "High Speed" part with me powering the hacksaw. The new ones have all kinds of crazy names and that leads me to believe that most of it is word smith marketing type stuff to get you to buy their blade. I'm going to did around and find a modern one and test it out. Without making a handle or polishing out the blade I should be able to bang one out in twenty minutes. Here's a thought. Marking knives are sharpended on one bevel to keep the edge of the knife forced against the ruler or straight edge. I wonder if a single bevel hacknife will do the same thing when cutting leather. Kind of like a boat with only half a bow,

It looks awesome. You know your way around a camera too. Your worn out hacksaw blade looks like an old Japanese woodworking marking knife. I collect (horde) old tools, I've got some old 1 1/2" power hacksaw blades I'm going to try next. I'm also going to try an old handsaw blade. I know most new hand saws are just edge tempered for cost savings unless it's an expensive saw. The old ones are full plate tempered. I tried drilling one to no avail. There are a gazillions of them out there in second hand shops for next to nothing. Cutting it without losing the temper will take some thought. I'm betting those old two man saw blades are full plate tempered too.

Thank you!

Here is the one I just made. The blade is from a simonds hacksaw blade that is many years old. They came from an estate sale from a farrier. Red tang or some such name. Art, I was wondering about the new stuff. By the way I got the idea from the video. It was fun to do. And cuts really good.

I'm glad he shared it too. I watched the video you did on a hacksaw knife. Here is what I made in a few hours. I'm shocked at how well it cuts and holds an edge. It's a used 1/2" hacksaw blade, a scrap of wood from an old piano and three inches of 5/16" brass rod. All stuff laying around the shop so my cost was in the pennies. Epoxy was the adhesive.

Art, What I've found is that most folks are looking for the easy, fast, foolproof way to obtain that razor edge with no investment of their own time. I have not yet found the easy way to sharpen anything that works for everything. I own the jet version of a tormek and even that takes time to learn to be able sharpen something on. The tormek jigs are nice and they cut down on the time needed but you still have to learn how "that tool" needs to be sharpened. For my head or round knives I use a worksharp 3000, 1 X 30 belt sander, sandpaper on glass and or oil stones. It just depends on what I need to do. I just finished bringing a little W.M. Dodd 2 1/2" round knife back into shape all on oil stones. It was in rough shape and came from EBay. I'll never be able to remove the pits but they are not on the cutting edge so it's just cosmetics. I do the little ones this way so they don't heat up, there's not much steel to absorbe any heat. What in your opinion is the easiest system for someone just learning with a slant towards leatherwork to become proficient at? Some people won't ever want to learn how to sharpen anything and I completely understand that. As someone who did this for a living what would you charge for sharpening a round knife? No, nicks or anything required except sharpening from dull. I'm asking so there is a perspective for an investment in a system verses just sending the knife out to be done. I'm also talking about tools that the ordinary leatherworker would be using. Basic, ordinary tools not the harder specilty steels that are out there. If you were teaching sharpening leather tools as a class which tool would you teach first and why. I'm asking all of this because I think you are on to something here that everyone on this forum can benefit from. We all need sharp tools. I also believe that even if you send out your sharpening to be done you need an idea of what to expect and what you are asking for. Roy

https://www.olloclip.com/shop/lenses/macro-pro/ The macro lens set are the only ones I'd recommend, I own the others and they are pretty bad. Lots of distortions and photos that are hard to look at. I tie flys too so those macro lenses get a lot of use by me and they really work very well.

This is using my iPhone and a 21 X magnifier. It's the edge of a rose knife as I was restoring it to useful condition. This way I can upload to my iPad and really zoom in on the edge.

I'm pretty shocked that scissors could get that sharp and it's been pretty easy. Granted I just do it for my friends and family but I won't ever use dull ones again. I sharpen my utility blades before I use them so I'm a little on the odd side in that respect. I learned to sharpen because of handplanes and my enjoyment of woodworking. I just could not figure out how to make a handplanes work. There are so many of them out there so they must work or it was one huge scam pulled on everyone that bought the millions of them out there. When I learned I didn't know what sharp was, I started down the path of learning. Funny thing about learning how to sharpen is how much stuff everyone has for you to do. I've learned to say no, I don't want a second career. I just want sharp tools. Roy

Art, I hope this takes off I'd like to learn more. I sharpen a lot of stuff and scissors kicked my butt. Then one day at an auction I bought a wolf twice as sharp. I'm from farming country and little itty bitty tools like that don't sell well here. They just saw it as a little underpowered grinder. That's been a learning experience in angles and edge relationship. There are way more dull scissors in use than sharp ones.

What did you type in to find them?

Be careful, you will end up with a whole bunch of them.

Kash, Pm sent

Tannin, Went ahead and ordered a can of Ko-sho-line, it is red or dark pink colored. First is this how yours looks and second does it impart the red color to the leather. I'm asking before I use it because if it's not supposed to look that way I'm going to send it back unused. Thanks for pointing me in a new direction as far as this stuff, I had never heard of it and I like new things to add to my tool kit.

So here I am contemplating art. Is it art or is it just marketing? Is art defined by it's perceived value? The higher the price tag the more artistic the item is? Who sets that value or the price tag. Away from art but the point is here. Is it really just marketing? A nylon bag with plastic boxes for bass lures made by Plano $30-$70 or so. It's for bass fishing so it's not an elitist type sport. A nylon bag with plastic boxes for for fly fishing but we call it a boat bag. It's for fly fishing it sells for around $230 but does the same thing. It's made in China but the marketing campaign is very well done. They both do the same thing, the difference is in the marketing. Is the difference between a leather artist and a leather worker marketing?

The hardest ones I've dealt with steel wise are the Rose knives, tough to sharpen but the five I own all hold an edge well. They tend to sell pretty high for something to learn on. This is a Rose knife that required a lot of work to bring back around. You can see what pitting does to the cutting edge. It's magnified X 20 Rust is not a big deal, pitting is another matter and unless you really want to work a long time I would pass on pitting near the cutting edge.

Most of the knives out there will be better than a Tandy knife in my opinion. I'm not going to give you a definitive answer to your question and here is why. Knives from the same manufacturer vary so to say one is better than the other based on a name is not entirely correct. There is the age factor and how many hands it's passed through and what each set of hands has done to it. The best cutting, feeling and overall performer I own does not even bear a name. I've gone through twenty five or so knives, one of my hobbies is restoring old tools. This applies to all cutting edges from those old tools, a name does not guarantee the blade is good. My dad sharpened everything on a grinding wheel until the metal turned blue then quenched it for temper. When you buy used you may well be getting a tool my dad or someone like him owned. You won't know it until you know it and then it's to late. Here is what I would recommend. Buy an inexpensive one on eBay, don't get wrapped up in a name right off the bat. It's to learn on. Do not buy one that the blade is full of pits. You can't sharpen pits. It takes a while but they are out there and you can get one for $30 or so dollars. Use it to learn on. I don't know how else you would do it if learning is your goal. If you just want a good used knife I'd get in touch with Bruce Johnson on this forum he resells knives he's has gone through. I have not purchased from him but many here have. They cost more but he has to put a few hours of labor into each knife and from his reputation on here I'm betting you will be getting a good sound knife. You can't really tell until you learn and you learn through experience. Just looking at a knife only tells you what the surface looks like and no more. There is no one who can tell you if it will hold an edge just by eyeballing it. To me it's part of the hobby, I enjoy the challenge of doing it. I haven't gotten into reselling knives I've cleaned up because each one is different. If I ever do rest assured it will be at a loss compared to the hours I have into each one. I polish them out to a mirror finish it's just not nessasary to do that but l do because I like it. Get one and I'll offer up as much advice as I can on making it shine. Be warned its not a cheap way to get a knife unless you have all the tools to do the work already and your labor is valueless, in other words it's a hobby.

He can truly say I did that, most saying that really mean they wrote the check for it.