Stamping Tool B S

[WyomingSlick]

I have read a lot on the internet, both here and on other sites, concerning tool quality. I have come across numerous referances to stamping tools bending and breaking. I have a very hard time understanding most of these stories. What the hell are these folks doing?

When I was first learning leatherwork in 4-H, my instructor (4-H project leader) prepared a learning demonstration for us. We each had 3 scraps of leather, a mallet, swivel knife, and a med-large pearshader. One piece of leather was dry, one was very wet, and one was cased properly. First he had us attempt carving on each piece of leather until we were clear on the differance between carving properly prepared leather and NOT! After this was clear to us we then moved on to stamping the three pieces of leather. He then demonstrated what the effect was that we were looking for on a properly cased piece of leather, pointing out to us the way the leather retained the tool impressions, and how much darker they were then the leather surface. We then tried stamping on each of our three pieces. I remember that one of the bigger guys was able to punch clear through the wet piece of saddle skirting that he had. Fortunately, this was done on a poundo board, so no harm done to the stamping tool.

In the class sessions to follow, many times our leader would reinforce this lesson by observing that the piece we were working on was too wet or too dry. I was extremely fortunate to have a very experianced teacher - most of the kids in our county were learning from much less knowledgable leaders. When fair time came around, it was rare for one of Mr. Hahn's student to win anything less than a blue ribbon, and we took home many championship purple ribbons.

Now to come to the point. How in hell are you folks destroying all these tools? Are you trying to tool dry rawhide or something like that? Is it that you don't understand the importance of preparing tooling leather by casing it to it's optimum working state, and then keeping it near there while you are working? Or is it that you are trying to achieve a higher burnish by working the leather on the dry side? I have never bent a Craftool in forty some years of leather poundin' although I have come across some in my eBay buys that were bent. I have also come across some that were mushroomed like an old cold chisel too. In either case, I figure the fault lies with the tool user, NOT the tool!

In summation, 99.99% of my tooling is done tap..tap..tap, not wham, wham, wham!

[Tkleather1]

Well I have bent a few crafttools but only the ones that are used at an angle. I have bent a few of the pear shaders over a peiod of time and a few of theborder tools where I only want a partial impression. Now keep in mind that these are all of the newer era of craftool. I have a few of the older same style tools that I have never had a problem with. Now that being said I do beleive alot of it was operator error but some of it was definetly the tool. I have since learned alot and now I do know the difference between proper leather staus and not. I am no expert but I do believe that there is a huge quality difference between craftool and some of the other custom tool makers. if there was no difference why would so many people go buy the "better" tools?

You get what you pay for!!!

Tim Worley

TK-Leather

Edited January 7, 2010 by Tkleather1

[bruce johnson]

The stamps usually referred to were mostly one line of stamps, and not craftools. I bought them because they had good impressions, some designs that were different, and seemed like a good value for the price. I bent and broke my fair share of them with cased leather and a 16 oz maul. Not everybody had problems with these stamps, but plenty of us did.

[Timd]

I've wondered that myself, Slick. I'm a 6'1" 295 lb carpenter, so I swing a mean hammer, but i've never felt the need to hit a stamp that hard. Now these explanations are putting it in perspective, thank you.

[WyomingSlick]

The stamps usually referred to were mostly one line of stamps, and not craftools. I bought them because they had good impressions, some designs that were different, and seemed like a good value for the price. I bent and broke my fair share of them with cased leather and a 16 oz maul. Not everybody had problems with these stamps, but plenty of us did.

I am wondering if the line of tools you are referring to here are HC's Pro Crafters. I too, bought around a dozen of them during one of their promotional sales. Upon examining them when they arrived I noted the casting lines that bisect the tools and from my knowledge of metalurgy, I concluded that they were most likely made by pressure casting of powdered steel. That should not be a problem if they were made right to start with, and so far I have had no problem with them.

Now I am curious; were you able to get them replaced or your money refunded by the outfit you bought them from? I haven't had any bad experiance with the ones I bought, but then I have only used a couple of them very much at all. LOL Maybe I should sell them on eBay and see if I can't get $78 for tools that only costs $12 on sale! I saw the posts that discussed that event.

[rickeyfro]

Ive had about 4 tools bend, all hidecrafters, all used on properly cased leather, none beaten on "wham, wham, wham" and all of them replaced by hidecrafter with no problem

[bruce johnson]

Slick,

Yes and yes.

[Kevinjohnson]

I bent an early Barry King veiner and pearshader. At that time, Barry was making the shank of the tool round instead of elongated where the impression tied into the shank. I do follow the Council mold of deep tooling but actually bent the tools stamping a pair of spur straps. The tools were brand new and bent immediately. Barry replaced them w/ no questions and I noticed latter that many of his tools were left beefier through the transition. Have bent some craptools by useing them for pry-bars, screw drivers, awls, nail sets, ect. Craptools actually work good for everything but their intended purpose.

[Jordan]

The only craftool I have bent when laid next to another looked like a different type of metal. Maybe a bad casting run, looked like pot metal and it did bend while using it at an angle.

[wildrose]

In my years of using CraFTtools, I've never bent a one. I did have the tail break off a little cat tool that kids mostly used (likely improperly) as I teach frequently. I've used pretty much exclusively CraFTools and have one several ribbons with the results. And I've never had a customer complain about the results either.

Are other tools higher quality? Sure! But for some of us, CraFTools are what we can afford.