gtwister09

I likewise don't use the system much. Like I said it is OK but I like using jigs/guides for repeatability....something that is drilled into you when you work in a manufacturing environment where tolerances are extremely tight. When I bought it at the Fort Worth show (not a couple of years ago but many years earlier than that) , the guy was sharpening everyone's knives including Peter Main's and many others. In fact he didn't have any hair left on his arms from showing people how sharp their knives were after he sharpened their knives. A little trivia.....My son was very young at the time and was awed by him because he looked like Santa with his beard. Regards, Ben

Thank you for the response Jim. However the absence of information or absence of free patterns without any direction after a major overhaul coupled with a statement of they are getting rid of free patterns allows for the jumping of conclusions. Just a friendly best practices web site suggestion would be to add "an Under Construction or In Progress" link when things are being modified or updated. Most web sites and builders do this as a placeholder to make it known that things are in progress or that they adding something to the site especially previously available information. Here's some ideas for under construction. Free Under Construction Web Ideas Regards, Ben

I must have misunderstood Denise's original request. Not the first time or most likely won't be the last. I thought that she was asking to add your country if it wasn't already mentioned. I would imagine that we already have the "whereabouts" of members already databased because it is part of our profile informaiton (at least if it is filled out). Regards, Ben

I have had one for over 14 years. They work OK. You have to exercise quite a bit of caution with them but they will give you some sharp knives. Mine is turned backwards so that it rotates away from you. I know one guy who has a rather large gash in his chin from a round knife getting away from him. He now wears a full facemask as he sharpens with the wheels and also wears a welders jacket when sharpening. Regards, Ben

Justin, Tell Lora that the collage is GREAT!!! The white background with the saddle work is really nice. Good work. The one thing that I saw was the change in basketweave directions. Overall it looks nice. Regards, Ben

I have pulled the patterns down over time. It wasn't my point to have Johanna and this site maintain free patterns, ask permission, maintain those permissions and all the copyright rig-a-ma-roll that goes along with it. Well I am going to step off into it at this time....... My point is that The Leather Factory/Tandy should see the maintenance of the "free" patterns as another marketing and selling point to customers. Over the years we as the leather customer have been neglected by many companies (not just The Leather Factory/Tandy - There's plenty of others that likewise follow the same ideas). Many of them think that we should be happy to get what we are getting. Many of us have heard many "excuses" as to why some of these companies can't/won't do something.... They range from : That's not our strategy. There's no money in it. The community is older and dying off. We can't produce new material, use new mediums to deliver information or update older material because it is not cost effective because there aren't enough users/customers to warrant that kind of expenditure. There's not enough people out there to support it. If we did that we would loose advertisers and the list goes on. Many of the comments/statements are centered around them making money and doing that cost effectively. I fully understand the need to make money and perform cost/benfit analysis. We don't need them as vendors to loose money. We expect them to make money and hope that they do because if they don't make money then they won't be around to provide us with materials and such. To continue with my thought this forum has a very large base that is continually growing. It is significantly different from the many smaller guilds and such because they are fairly small and viewed individually whereas this forum gathers all of us in one place (seat makers, mask makers, armor makers, saddlemakers, holster makers and a bunch of others). Many of us also belong to one or more of these guilds as well. We should use this to influence the market and guide and direct these companies. Rather than overlooking us as a dying market, they should view this forum as (1)a growing market and (2)defining a new market niche that needs to be serviced. We have new needs that are not being met by the methods of the 1960s-1970s. They also need to invest in their markets and not just sit back and rest on laurels that were created decades ago. Sorry for the rant ... I am off my soap-box. Regards, Ben

This forum is large enough and represents a LARGE number of leather craft users across a broad range of countries and disciplines that we should be able to apply some casual pressure to The Leather Factory/Tandy to maintain the free patterns. It can't be because the free patterns take up a lot of space. There are lots of potential customers here and the numbers keep growing. Just a thought....... Regards, Ben

Charlie, Be careful with conditioners... DON'T USE GREASY ONES. It will only serve to aggravate you later. I use a modified 14" mechanics drift bar. One end looks like a pry bar (rarely use that end) and the other end looks like a drift pin punch that transitions into an hexagon shape. It works quite well for that purpose. Just stick it in and rotate gently. Regards, Ben Added... I see Greg already warned you about conditioners. Regards, Ben

USA Ben

Art, FYI! I got one for Christmas last year and so far 3 of the stool feet have busted loose and I had to reweld the nuts into the legs. The pneumatic cylinder broke after 1 month and we had to send just the cylinder back in for warranty. Regards, Ben

Suze, Pretty neat! Regards, Ben

Darc, That is a VERY nice old style stamping. Well done as always. Regards, Ben

Bob, Regards, Ben

Until they make changes to their site, you will be REQUIRED to view with Internet Explorer. It is your only choice. Regards, Ben

Frontpage regularly produces non-standard HTML and generally uses Microsoft specific extensions. Many people prefer other, more compliant editors or some just code by hand using a text editor. Instead of checking the browser type and rendering different code for each browser, standards compliant code should work in all compliant browsers, give or take a couple of browser quirks. From a code-maintenance perspective, FrontPage makes some really nasty and convoluted code. Code maintenance and browser viewing issues were the reason that Microsoft has scrapped it for a newer tool, Expression Web/Studio. I haven't used these newer Microsoft tools but you could most likely look up reviews of them on Google. One suggestion I would have is to have the code "validated" to ensure that it complies with HTML standards. Doing so means that it should look the same in any browser (IE, FireFox, Opera, Chrome, Safari,etc). If you do a search on the web, you should be able to find several sites that have online validation scripts. Here's one that is run by the Web Design Group. Web Design Group Validator Here's the information that it kicked out. Brewer_Saddle_errors.txt For more on why validation makes sense, check this out. It gives a few quick and dirty reasons. Why Validation Makes Sense Hope that helps. Regards, Ben Brewer_Saddle_errors.txt

JW, Sometimes pictures can be deceiving so that's why I asked.... Hopefully we will see the Wade next week. Enjoyed this one a lot. Keep up the great work. Regards, Ben

Bruce, I still have the original book as well. Thanks as always! Regards, Ben

JW, I really like the overall saddle a lot. I like roughouts for working saddles A LOT. The first thing that jumped out at me was the billets going outward. I never learned that as a marketing thing from a saddlemaker but definitely had it drilled into my head by a couple of western wear stores as best practices for selling/marketing saddles. Like Ryan I did notice the wool. The same western wear stores would also trim back the wool at a steep angle with the electric shears to give the saddles a little extra touch. The idea was that no extra fuzz appeared at the edge of the saddle. They would also card the wool as well to further remove any fuzz. One of the owners would even take a final step of using masking tape wrapped around their hand to make sure that all of it was removed. We jokingly called her excessive compulsive. They also took extra pains with beveled strings (they would even remove strings and redo them, polish, edges of all aspects of the saddle including breast collars and flank cinches. They felt that this additional attention to details set apart their saddles just enough to differentiate them foorm others in the same town/county. They also did this for headstalls, spur straps and all other gear as well. It is ironic that most people thought that the leather goods were definitively a step above the other shops even when they were purchased from the same place initially. Ryan certainly hit the nail on the head with the one first impression. That was what those western wear stores preached over and over again... Now this may just be the picture but the seat insert appears to be slightly asymmetrical and the cantle binding appears to be cut at the bottom. Might just be the pictures. I tried to zoom a bunch but it started loosing detail. I REALLY like the stamped borders on the rough out. For some reason I have a soft spot for stamping on rough outs even though many will tell you that it is wasted time.... I still like it. It is one of those "little touches" that sets it apart. Nice saddle definitely. Regards, Ben

Bruce, To add some to your information on stitching horses. There actually was a reason for the functional designs of what initially started out as two different strains of stitching horses. This information has been derived from hundreds of discussions with harness makers and saddlemakers as well as researching a lot of older harness books, patents, tool history and such on various types of stitching horses.. I started this research in order to determine the best design for saddlemaker stitching horses after talking with a stitching horse maker in New Mexico who made only harness maker stitching horses. He provided me with the initial information about the difference between the two My discussions were limited to mostly older leather workers that understood why the horse was created for a certain function. Almost all of them knew the difference in the strains and why. I usually discussed other areas of interest when they didn't know the difference between the two horses or the reason for the design differences. Several different Amish leather workers and harness makers were a wealth of information as well as a bunch of saddlemakers across the United States. Almost 100% of them agreed upon the unique functions and designs on each type of stitching horse. Saddlemaker Horses Deeper jaws (usually full length of the jaws) Initially locked from below. Full length jaws and locking from below gave you maximum throat capacity. Usually required mechanism that raised the price of the stitching horse. Cant (angle) on the jaws was slight to zero. Saddlemaker horses were mostly right handed but I have seen two pair that were left handed. *** *** However we must remember that throughout history the tool world has predominately created right handed tools rather than catering to left handed users. Harness Maker Horses Reduced throat capacity of jaws. Initially strapped in the jaws. Reduced cost. More cant angle than the saddlemaker horses. The strap in the middle to close the harness maker jaws was OK because they usually repaired or made straps, tugs, billets, etc and didn't need the increased capacity. In fact the angled iron swivel jaws of Randall's were patterned after the harness makers. Some of the additional notes that weren't included in the Randall patent for the iron jaws was that the harness maker jaws were more conducive to this pattern than the deeper saddlemaker's jaws. Now we have all sorts of derivatives of harness and saddlemaker horses. The lines between them have been greyed or blurred and most people have lost the history of the difference between the two. We have some that swivel, some saddlemaker horses that are slotted on the front to allow even longer projects to be held and derivatives that have no cant but have strapped jaws and other derivatives that have a swivel canted jaw that locks from below. A couple of things need to be remembered about leatherworking tools of old (as in the case of the horses) (1) Modifications (sharpening, shaping, etc) were generally performed on every piece of tooling as part of the apprenticeship program. This would have included the modifying of the horse jaws to accomodate the normal closed gap position (the one for the most widely used thickness of leather) as well as thinning the upper and outer edges of the jaws for finer detailed work. This process made sure that the apprentice knew the reason for the modiifcation (unfortunately in talking with many of them it was after they had spent some time doing it less than perfect - the idea was that hard learned or hard earned lessons were not fogotten that easily). (2) Quality of tooling. In the case of the older stitching horses many of them were created with the thought that they were equivalent to a piece of fine furniture. Regards, Ben

It is funny and sad what people read into a post but that's the nature of the beast when we can't see the person we are talking to. After several comments (some rather heated and some nice asking for clarification) sent via emails and personal messages I would like to clarify that my "ALL" statements is that all utility blades will and can break even the high dollar Titanium blades. I know that I have personally broke the tips on about 10 or so out of about 700 - 800 of them. Looking back on the ones that snapped only one of them was from a higher quality manufacturer and it failed on the first cut due to metal fatigue. ...no user error on thta one either. It failed in the first 1/2 cut on a piece of sheetrock...not exactly the hardest material to cut. I still use these things as well for all sorts of uses. It was not meant to say THAT EVERY UTILITY BLADE BREAKS. Maybe that is a subtle difference to some and I would have thought that reading the 2nd post with clarifications about the new blade snapping and further explanations of the position would have cleared that up. Sorry that I didn't communicate that completely. I agree that the warnings are for litigation especially when you read warnings for hemorrhoid creams that say that they are not to be take orally. However the warnings are also there because someone has had that problem. As to fitness for use, my Dad started doing leatherwork at 70. A utility knife is what he uses. For him that is the best choice that he could make because he is sharpening challenged. He uses the Titanium blades from Lenox and they last a lot longer. Since he doesn't like to sharpen he can get a new sharp blade by switching blades either end for end or a new one when both are used up. Sorry that I didn't answer some of the emails but here's my response. Regards, Ben

Nice. Jeff always does nice work. Regards, Ben

Karl, Nice rig! I really liked Firefly and Serenity. I have both sets of DVDs. Too bad it only lasted one season. Regards, Ben

Ray, Glad that you liked the trick for stretchy leather and could possibly use the suggestion in the future. That's what the board/forum is for. I did read your round knife and welding fiasco. Sorry that occurred to you. My post was NOT to offend you or argue with you but to raise safety awareness with regard to these blades. As a point of reference to make your point and mine as well, I have a friend who had his eye cut (even with safety glasses on that met ANSI standards) because a new blade snapped so I am certainly careful about their use. Even in trained hands they can be an issue as experienced by my friend who had a freak accident (yes I stress a freak accident). Both of us still use these utility knives regularly. You have likewise made the point about all knives are sharp and could cause an accident. Agreed. Some points of clarification..... (1) I did not say that utility knives didn't have a place to be used. In fact I stated that I have used MANY types of utility knives with many different blades on a multitude of jobs and occupations. (2) I gave the actual Warnings from three different utility knives. It is their warnings NOT mine. (3) I likewise made no comment as to utility knives being a gun either. I didn't see any gun comments except for yours. (4) I didn't make a comment about it NOT being a valuable tool either. I am sorry that you were offended by Steve and Randy's comments. My guess is that was the reason for reading more into my post than was there. It is certainly their opinion and just like belly buttons we all have them. You likewise disagreed with them as well so you likewise had an opinion. Most saddlemakers would encourage you to step up to using a round knife. Since you raised the issue of round knives breaking, I would have to say that breaking a round knife certainly occurs a whole lot less than breaking a razor blade. In fact from an engineer's standpoint, you could state that statistically speaking round knife breakages would be insignificant when compared to the number of utility blades broken. I think that we can all agree that all types of knives are sharp and dangerous and should be handled with care. Accidents can and do occur even when we are careful but safety and awareness training is NEVER a bad suggestion. The manufacturer's warning labels show us that we have additional issues to be concerned with when we use utility knives in any type of work whether it is for leather work or any other trade or occupation. Regards, Ben

In reading this post, it appears that we are forgetting an important item....SAFETY. No matter if you use the utility knives or not... First thing is that "Safety" utility knife blades DO break no matter who makes them... I have used foldable, retractable and stationary knives from Sheffield, Irwin, various Stanley brands, Great Necks and Besseys to name a few. I have used blades from no name cheapos, Stanley, Irwin and even Lenox Titanium blades and the one thing that they ALL do at some time is to break or snap. I have used them for cutting gaskets, fiberglass mats and repair on boats, various cabinetry/construction/carpentry items, asphalt roofing, foam and manufacturing....even cutting thin wire mesh. Here's the safety warnings from 3 different "Safety" utility knives. Warning: Utility Knife is intended for cutting only and should be handled with extreme care. Bending the blade can cause it to break, possibly resulting in bodily damage. Wear safety glasses at all times. Warning: Always wear eye protection which complies with current ANSI Standard Z87.1. Always maintain firm footing and control of the tool. Always disconnect power source before using tool on electrical boxes, fittings or any work piece which could conduct electricity. Electric shock or electrocution could result. Do not twist tool when cutting. The blade could break throwing sharp pieces in all directions. Warning: Use eye protection at all times to prevent damage to your eyes. Do not use on material that is conducting electrical current. If so, disconnect electrical current to prevent electrocution. Use firm footing, correct posture and maintain proper control of the tool. Do not twist or bend the blade as this may cause bodily injury due to the possibility of blade breakage. Needless to say every one of them makes the point that the blades can break. Even the packs of blades have warnings about breakage as well. Trick for "Problem" Leather Material I was shown a trick for cutting VERY stretchy leather almost 30 yeas ago. The chap maker who used this technique said that he had only used 5 or 6 times but when it was needed he said it was a great asset. He normally only cut with a knife and an old layout ruler (see through ruler with a steel edge to cut against) to cut fringe even down to 1/8". However sometimes the material would stretch so badly that he had to use another method to cut the leather. He would take a piece of clear shelf liner and apply it to the back side of the chap leather to firm it up. After applying it he would take a glass slicker and make sure that the liner and material were without bubbles. Then he could cut the "problem" fringe with no poblem. On my first couple of fringe jobs he had me use this method as well. It was actually quite easy to cut this way but it adds to the production time to complete the job. Hopefully this could help someone with stretchy problem material. Regards, Ben

Google Books also has some great resources for old recipes, formulas, etc... Regards, Ben