Should a new Osborne head knife look like this?

[wyldflower]

I just received a brand new Osborne 71 head knife that I ordered... and was rather disappointed when I opened the box. The blade is not centered (tang offset to one side), there's a small crack in the handle where the nail head is, and the bolster is grubby with some small denting and scratches. This one looks shoddier than the head knives I've seen on display at the local leather store (they were Tandy or Osborne) ... but that's all I have to compare to.

Is this typical quality for a brand new Osborne knife, or should I expect better? I ordered it from a relatively well known leather tool supplier.

Attached are pictures of the knife ... (dark color of blade in one pic is a shadow from the flash)

Any advice or suggestions on what I should do with this knife (keep, exchange, refund?) are very appreciated.

Wyldflower

[celticleather]

Looks like a pretty scruffy Osborne knife . . . their finish is usually much better than this. Why not email your pics to Osborne (cso@csosborne.com), and ask if this an acceptable standard?

Edited September 9, 2009 by celticleather

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Wyldflower,

of the few modern Osborne knives I have seen, this appears to be their typical quality. Worse yet is the sharpness of the blade. It will take considerable work to bring that blade up to par for doing any real work. I noticed in your profile that you are interested in horse gear and saddlery work... I would suggest you return that knife and get a refund for the forty or fifty dollars you spent and bite the bullet and buy a well made knife... not from Tandy or The Leather Factory, but a good handmade one that will cost you in the area of $100.00 - $150.00. If you are cutting heavy skirting leather, harness leather, latigo, etc... for saddlery work, you will need the sharpest knife possible otherwise you increase the risk of personal injury from a knife that won't glide through leather. You will also find it extremely difficult to cut graceful curves for seats, skirts, fenders, etc...unless you have a knife that is razor sharp. A head knife is the tool that you will probably use more than anything else on your bench, I would not settle for second best with this particular tool. My first knife about 8 years ago was an Osborne similar to what you have and I can tell you from personal experience that you will never get that knife as sharp as it needs to be.

To suggest some alternatives, you could watch Ebay for some of the older Osborne or W.Rose knives which can be recognized by the oval shaped butt of the handle compared with the sawed off handle on your knife. If you find one in good condition you can expect to pay anywhere from $30.00 and up for it. It may require sharpening but that old steel seems to take an edge better than the new blades. Another option is some of the modern knives available. If you do a search on Leathernet for Head Knives or Round Knives, there have been some threads in the past where people expressed their likes and dislikes about some of the modern knives. My personal favorite came from Ellis Barnes company, Gomph-Hackbarth (Rest in peace Ellis)... A fellow named Lonnie has taken over the company after working for Ellis for a number of years before he passed away. I recently received a brochure from Lonnie and it states the price for these knives is $95.00 which is a bargain in my opinion. They are delivered razor sharp and no work is needed to go to work with these knives. Many of the members of this forum have favorite knives as well, so a simple search would be worth the time. If you are interested in the Gomph knives, Lonnies phone number is (520)642-3891

hope that helps,

Darc

ps here's the link to the favorite knife thread.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1256&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

Edited September 9, 2009 by D.A. Kabatoff

[wyldflower]

Darc -

I heeded your advice and managed to win an old Newark Osborne on ebay which is on it's way. I'm a little nervous about sharpening it, which part of the reason I did buy the new one -- I'm a little afraid I'm going to mess up a good knife in the learning curve, and wasn't so worried about the newer one. I hadn't considered the difficulty of getting a sharp enough edge, though, for safe and sane cutting through heavy leather, so am glad you pointed that out. I really need all my fingers.

Thank you for the information about the Gomph knives, as I didn't know that they were still available since Ellis Barnes passed away. The idea of a premium quality, new knife that is razor sharp out of the box is enough to beef up the budget, so I'll be calling Lonnie. Thank you for his number. It seems like there are very few of the top knife/toolmakers still taking any new customers so I better get one while I can!

Thanks again Darc!

Dixie

Wyldflower,

of the few modern Osborne knives I have seen, this appears to be their typical quality. Worse yet is the sharpness of the blade. It will take considerable work to bring that blade up to par for doing any real work. I noticed in your profile that you are interested in horse gear and saddlery work... I would suggest you return that knife and get a refund for the forty or fifty dollars you spent and bite the bullet and buy a well made knife... not from Tandy or The Leather Factory, but a good handmade one that will cost you in the area of $100.00 - $150.00. If you are cutting heavy skirting leather, harness leather, latigo, etc... for saddlery work, you will need the sharpest knife possible otherwise you increase the risk of personal injury from a knife that won't glide through leather. You will also find it extremely difficult to cut graceful curves for seats, skirts, fenders, etc...unless you have a knife that is razor sharp. A head knife is the tool that you will probably use more than anything else on your bench, I would not settle for second best with this particular tool. My first knife about 8 years ago was an Osborne similar to what you have and I can tell you from personal experience that you will never get that knife as sharp as it needs to be.

To suggest some alternatives, you could watch Ebay for some of the older Osborne or W.Rose knives which can be recognized by the oval shaped butt of the handle compared with the sawed off handle on your knife. If you find one in good condition you can expect to pay anywhere from $30.00 and up for it. It may require sharpening but that old steel seems to take an edge better than the new blades. Another option is some of the modern knives available. If you do a search on Leathernet for Head Knives or Round Knives, there have been some threads in the past where people expressed their likes and dislikes about some of the modern knives. My personal favorite came from Ellis Barnes company, Gomph-Hackbarth (Rest in peace Ellis)... A fellow named Lonnie has taken over the company after working for Ellis for a number of years before he passed away. I recently received a brochure from Lonnie and it states the price for these knives is $95.00 which is a bargain in my opinion. They are delivered razor sharp and no work is needed to go to work with these knives. Many of the members of this forum have favorite knives as well, so a simple search would be worth the time. If you are interested in the Gomph knives, Lonnies phone number is (520)642-3891

hope that helps,

Darc

ps here's the link to the favorite knife thread.

http://leatherworker...l=&fromsearch=1

[wyldflower]

That is a great idea! I'm very curious to see what they say... the new Osborne skiving knife I have is much much nice than this thing.

Looks like a pretty scruffy Osborne knife . . . their finish is usually much better than this. Why not email your pics to Osborne (cso@csosborne.com), and ask if this an acceptable standard?

[whinewine]

That is a great idea! I'm very curious to see what they say... the new Osborne skiving knife I have is much much nice than this thing.

I likewise have a nicer osborne head knife than what you got, & I only got it about a year or so ago- yes, I had to send it away to get professionally sharpened, but that comes with all the osbornes.

To put the 'burr under the saddle', so to speak, I would email everyone you can find at osborne, from sales to the ceo to customer service- I mean EVERYONE you can find on their website. & if you can't find enough there, google 'C.S. Osborne- you'll very probably find a different site from the company management perspective telling the world just how great they are. Very often, they'll have different divisions listed, like 'investor relations','jobs', etc. An email that brings it to the attention of and points out shoddy workmanship to the higher levels of management is very often an excellent teaching method of correcting poor production/poor workmanship problems.

[bruce johnson]

Wyldflower,

I'd second what Darcy posted. Another oldie to look for is Clyde or Shapleigh. I have had one Shapleigh and a few Clydes and they were all good if the blades hadn't pitted. They don't have quite the rep of Rose or some of the oldies and usually don't have the collectible value, so they sell at working tool prices.

I've bought a new one from Bob Dozier a year or two ago, and it is a good knife for sure. Pricey, but good. I'll be the first to admit I am not a metal expert, but really like my Dozier (D2 steel). At the Elko show I looked at the knives Lonnie had on his display. I asked about them, and he pulled a box out with a bunch in it. Different handles and blade sizes. When he said Ellis made them from D2, Rundi got excited and I bought a 4" general cutter and 6" to cut long straight runs and skive with. The Gomph stamp on them sure doesn't hurt the value. At $90, they are really worth the dough for me. I figure I am set for life with my knives now.

[CampbellRandall]

Now and then we get a bad one. The crack in the handle, or ferrule, should be covered under warranty. You can send it back to the distributor you got it from and they should replace it.

The blade edge is about as sharp as any other store bought knife. Unless you get a knife from a custom maker, you'll need to sharpen the blade before use.

[e green]

3 or 4 years ago I bought one from weaver,and it came extremly sharp,Edward

[wyldflower]

Bruce -

Clyde and Shapeleigh - got it. I haven't managed to get my call in to Lonnie yet -that darn day job gettin in my way lol - maybe today I can get that done. I've noticed that most of the folks here who work in heavy leathers have more than one head knife, so I'm following that lead. An example of what kind of influence you all have had on my leatherworking bug -- not only did I not wince at doubling my knife purchase budget, but I'm told my eyes actually lit up at the prospect of buying more knives!

WhineWhine and egreen - glad to hear that the knives you have are nicer.

CampbellRandall - sure appreciate you responding directly here. I didn't realize there would by any kind of warranty so that is especially good to know. I don't anticipate any difficulty with the distributor with the return.