Kevin

The Engraver in West Chester, PA (770) 430-0123 has all kinds of brass plates and does... engraving. The oval plates I get from them are for tack boxes and probably too big for bags, but they may have them in a smaller size. We get about 30 different styles and sizes and sell them like hotcakes. We don't even sell anything to put them on. They come with brass nails, but I usually use copper rivets. Hope this may help, Kevin

We have reps park in our lot all the time for the Dr. next door, I think it's time to start charging. Thank you, I'll have to give it a try, Kevin

If it's on the grain side, you can probably just rub it off with a piece of crepe rubber or even an eraser if you don't happen to have any crepe around. Suede? dunno, sorry. Kevin

I've only been burning my thread instead of cutting it for maybe three or so years. I had been using cheap soldering irons, but after going through maybe four or five, I decided to try the thread burner Weaver's sells. It does a fantastic job burning thread. The only problem is,it is so light weight and small, I have a lot of trouble controlling it. I never burned myself with the soldering irons, but I burn myself with this all the time. I covered the handle with leather like a maul handle, thinking that would add some weight and thickness, but it doesn't help much. I even had a Homer Simpson moment when I burnt a finger, recovered, and started to change needle size and grabbed a hot needle the burner had been up against. Kevin

I'm mainly sewing halters and girths, using 230 needles and 277 thread on top. Every piece has different stitch lengths and thickness. I know the machine can't do anything I don't make it do. I've never had any problems with the machine, I just break a lot of needles due to their length and deflection. I would never actually compare a needle and awl machine to a threaded needle machine. When I'm sewing, I'm generally doing twenty to thirty halters at a time and since there is no positive reference for stitch length on the machine it is all guess work and sometimes I miss. After 4 or 5 halters, I'll get a feeling for the stitch length and then I'll have to wait on some customers and it's all out the door and I'm starting over again. Kevin

If I were buying another machine, I would check out the length of the needles. I have an Adler and mainly do repairs. The needles are so long, if you're off just a little bit, the needle gets bent or broken. A shorter needle could force its way through, but the long needle has so much leverage against it, it just can't take it. When I had a Campbell, I would use the same needle and awl for a month, a lot of times, with the Adler, I'm lucky to get through half an hour. They could give you the machine and sell you the needles and still make a nice profit. Other than that, it is a pretty reliable machine. Good Luck, Kevin

I sometimes don't know if I'm left handed or right until I actually do something. It's perfectly natural for me to use the awl right handed, but I stitch left handed (right needle first, then left needle). But my stitches look ok. I use a swivel knife left handed, but stamp right handed. Round knife, I cut right handed, but skive left handed. Straight knife, cut and skive right handed. Now I know why I can't type. Confused constantly, Kevin

In my experience, if you want to use linen thread in a machine, you have to run it through liquid wax. Do you have a waxpot on your machine? When I got my Adler from Weaver's, the nylon thread I got from them was like yarn and looked like crap, so I ran it through wax and it worked beautifully, I could even use a smaller size needle, it lubed the thread so well. Now I would say it's been at least 5 years since I used wax and I still haven't gotten all the wax off my machine. I would not recommend linen in a modern design machine. Perhaps though, there is some other method I don't know of, I do live in an insulated small little world of my own. Kevin

Now, I'm not an engineer, or a machinist, or a metalurgist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. When I sharpen my splitter blades, I just take it off the splitter. Lay it flat on the stone, lift it up 'til you feel the angle that's already there and sharpen it. Then I turn it over and lay it flat and draw it across the stone ONCE on the flat side and follow with a little buffing and that's it. If your not in control of the blade you WILL get cut. But it's not that difficult. My go to splitter is a Leather Factory copy of the 84 that is about 16 or 17 years old, I took a day to work it over when I got it and I've replaced the handle a couple times, but it's been a great splitter and when anyone in the shop has some thing precise to split, they come use mine, even from another shop we have across the street, and there's a nice old Randall over there. I do have an Osborne 84, the 6" Osborne, 2, ok 3 Chase patterns, the High Tech, which was $40 new and my first splitter and two Landis sole splitters and maybe parts enough for an 8" Osborne, but I wouldn't take them to work, "They're mine all mine, do you hear?" No problems here. Kevin

I don't know which snap is which,(big snap, med. snap, garment snap, spring snap) but Ohio Travel Bag has mostly solid brass snaps, and some come in black, painted or anodized, your choice. Kevin

I've tried a few different things, but I am too impatient to wait for a reaction and nothing worked for me. If the main concern is that the pieces match, buff everything and they will dull together. Kevin

I don't think Rice exists anymore. Kevin

I paid $16 for a gasket punch set that runs from 1/4" through 1 1/2" from Harbor Freight. It was 10 years ago, but I doubt they have gone up very much. It will leave a dimple in the center, but you can find a way around that. Kevin

I'll probably be crucified for this, I've never tried a knife with bearings, I just pull the yoke off, buff that little point 'til it's shiny,rub a little parafin on the point,put the yoke back on and let 'er rip. I don't think the old boys had ball bearings in their swivel knives and look what they managed to do. I would be more worried about the blade. Like I said though, I've never tried a fancy swivel knife, and maybe I would think I had died and gone to heaven if I did. Also, none of my swivel knives are less than about twenty years old and maybe the quality has gone down so much, you can't get that point smooth anymore. Kevin

Funny you should ask, RDB posted about Craigspal, and one of the first things I found was a sale of a leather and nylon dog collar factory which included a Campbell Cyclone. I guess it's supposed to be a pretty rare machine. Search for Salvex, which is an auction co. and it is item 182936913. There will be a bunch of thumbnails and the Cyclone is fourth row from the bottom, first picture on the left and next to it is a close up of the label. The auction is already over, whoever bought it probably has no idea what they have. Dan Preston, Owner,editor ,publisher of Shop Talk was offering a reward just for a picture of a machine he doesn't believes exists and I think it was the Cyclone, but I'm not going through my back issues to find out. By the way, I have a t-shirt that says "Brother Reverend Kevin Johnson", just something a friend thought of one day, and she went right out and had it made. Kevin

RDB, you are a sick, sick, sick person. You know many people on this forum have GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). Within 15 minutes I found a dog collar and harness company for sale in Brooklyn. It even includes a Randall Cyclone which some don't believe to exist. I already have a Landis 3, a kickpress, draw down stand and table saw on my front porch. So far I have been able to pass it off as found art to the city. Oh wll, I guess they wouldn't let me bring much of it home on the bus. Maybe I can find my own short bus. Kevin

From your list I would say: bolts through table,rubber sleeves through motor mounts, motor on bolts, flat washer,lock washer,nut. I hope you already did this about 12 hours ago and I am just guessing sight unseen. Kevin

I just got some of the Bick 4 and am pretty impressed with it. For over 20 years we had been using and selling Vogel's Leather Conditioner, but whoever made it for them quit making it and won't sell them the formula. This is the closest thing I have found so far. Kevin

Some shoe repair shops have dye in spray cans for sale. We send our sole and heel work to Resole America, and they have redyed 2 pair of saddle shoes for us. They looked like new. How they kept the darker color out of the punchings and got the lighter color in is way beyond me. I didn't even ask. But a well stocked shoe repair shop should be able to handle it. Kevin

I don't know, but I've also been wondering what has happened to Scouter. Kevin

Believe it or not, here in Virginia, open carry is still legal, although I don't recall ever seeing any one take advantage of it. I have a nice 357mag, but I don't think it would be very comfortable to wear all day. I mainly got it for sentimental reasons, it is unregistered and bought through a strawman out of state. It is a Virginia Dragoon and made locally, but I bought it in Idaho. Kevin

I have in the last month just come to realize, if you're not getting leather direct from the tannery, you are getting someone else's rejects, at least when it comes to lighter weight chrome tan. In '93 we were making 1300 pr. of chaps a year, we had 75 dealers in addition to what we sold ourselves. Everything has to be consistent so when the dealers order a color they know what they are going to get. In order to get that consistency we had to buy a whole run at a time. For 15 years we got our leather from Irving Tanning. Now Prime has bought Irving and after 15 yrs. the salesman who sold us the leather all that time won't even return our calls. So now we buy like 5 sides from somebody to sample it, call and say give me twenty more and either they don't have it or send something totally different that is not even acceptable. It has just about ruined our chap business. Unfortunately, that was where our profit was. The Chinese tanneries are somewhat subsidised, so they get all the raw hides and our finished leather goes there also for purses, cars and shoes. It used to go to South America when the shoe trade was there, but at least some was left here. I don't know where I was going with this, But it is hard for everyone out there. We've gone from having about the best custom English chaps around to where I don't really want to help the customer make their choices. One time I went to one of our dealers and measured and made choices with 75 women in 2 days, now I can't even sell enough to make it worth the trip. We went to the Washington International Horse Show 18 years in a row, this year, I really didn't have anything to take and knew business wouldn't be good so we didn't do it. I really would liked to have done it because it was the fiftieth anniversary of the show. Oh well, as an old cowboy told me once in New Mexico about a drought, it'll rain, it always has. Kevin

This has nothing to do with sewing machines, but left hand not knowing what the right is doing. Somebody sent this to me today. Sit down, pick up your right foot slightly and move it around in a clockwise motion. Now with your right hand Draw a figure six in the air. Your foot automatically switches to counter clockwise motion.(anti clockwise) Kevin

After Thanksgiving I take about 50 Christmas CDs to work and really drive 'em crazy. Christmas at K Mart, the mood ring counter was all aglow,Christmas in hell is at the 7/11 Kevin

Are you just adding stuffing or doing a total reflock? Steubbens are stuffed with ground up trash and tend to get lumpy with age. If you can get hold of some nice long staple wool roving, that's the thing to use. I used to get wool straight from being clipped and I spent more time cleaning and fluffing the wool than stuffing the saddle. Taking the panels off is the first thing and it is the right way to do the job. A lot of "saddle fitters" think they can stuff a saddle without taking it apart, but I've never seen one done that way, that was done right, there's no way to distrbute the wool evenly, that I know of. Why is the saddle being stuffed? Does it need it? Is the tree broken? Is the tree spread? Is it soreing the horse in front? Maybe they've got some super duper stirrup leathers that are telegraphing a nice fat lump through the panels. Probably they tighten up that front billet too much, when they should be using the rear two billets. The reason there are three billets is so you can change rigging position, not so you have a spare like they teach in pony club. Check out the rigging on a McLellan, you can move it where it needs to be. If you do a total reflock, keep it a little fluffy, then they can ride it a while and it will bed to the horse's back and then you add more stuffing. Don't forget to make sure the panels are straight when you put it back together. If it needs billets, take care of that while you have the panels off. We charge $122 to stuff and $210 to remove everything and totally reflock. When you put it back together, the back will probably be very hard to pull back in tight. I used either an arm length and a half or two and a half of doubled Nyltex, prestretched and a curved needle and lace it together loosely. Then go back and pull it tight. Wrap your thread around something like an awl haft to get a good grip and pull straight or you will tear that old dry leather on top of the panel. I don't actually use an awl, because you are pulling hard and it would be very easy to damage something (yourself). This is just a brief beginning and I am not going to proofread it. Hopefully Jimsaddler or Barra Or someone else will add more. Good Luck, Kevin I personally don't trust myself to do this job anymore because I have histoplasmosis in one eye and am not confident enough in my depth perception, its gotta be right or YOU will damage someone else's horse. Whew