how to achieve round edges

[bruce johnson]

Ed,

I was there brother!! Tandy used to have a local store. A few years post closure, I could buy sets of tools at every 5th yard sale. The Saturday freebie classifieds usually had them too. I got some nice older tools, but a lot of duplicates. I tried to modify about everything they made. I tried to modify the edgers to look like the good tools I saw pictures of. Some worked sort of OK. I hit a goldmine at one yard sale. There was a set of tools. The usual 40 craftools, Maul Master (version #1), plastic mallets, v-gouge, Jerry's stripper, that one size of french edger everybody must have bought, a huge edger marked "Ron's" (horn edger) and 3 Ron's round bottom edgers. I couldn't get the $20 out fast enough - no dickering there.

Once I used the Ron's edgers, I realized a few things. When you start with cheap tools, realize they are made with cheap metal normally. They will not hold the edge. The temper may be gone from what you did, or it may never have been there. The shanks are too short and sometimes too narrow to make them the right size and angle to work right. I had a box of modified tools that probably cost me $40, and together they weren't worth one of the good tools. They were even too short to make into ProPetals at that point. I had several hours of time involved with modifying them. It is not like grinding off a little here and there to change a pear shader or making a meander stamp from a bolt.

I since sold the Ron's edgers to a guy who was going home and wanted them badly. I replaced them with Jeremiah's round bottoms after I went through the frustration of a few Osborne edgers for old time's sake. There was very little difference between Ron's and Jeremiah's in my hands. Bob's are good too. The thing with buying tools from these guys is that they are all users of these tools too. They know how the old good ones were made. They have either kept that, or modified them slightly to suit them. I let them be the toolmakers now, and I am the customer.

[Jordan]

It is amazing the difference between an adequate tool and one that is designed and made to a higher standard. Of course the price is reflective of this and as they say, buy the best you can afford. You may spend more for that quality tool but your work will refect it. A person would go through a bunch of lesser tools for the price of a great one that will last a long long time. When I got started I shopped ebay for a month or two until I got tired of being out bid at the last second for a price that was more than retail in many cases, I have bought everything through tandy for convienience mainly, but I made a promise to myself that as I get better I will buy better. Just a bit of rambling and about 0.000002 of my $0.02 Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and receives his blessings. Jordan

[troyn]

I know what you guys mean, I do have a few of the better tools and drool over tons I wish I could have.

An example would be these edgers, Yep I got the tandy one and I wanted a smaller one, so I have the osborne #1 I think, for lighter weight leathers, I found that 45 degree angle took alot of leather off on that tandy tool. So I've been cheating a bit to get rounded edges, until I can get the better tool. I'll edge with what I got now, then I'll sand and contour my edge using various grits of sandpaper..seems like a cheap work around for now.

Troy