Do Not Order From Springfield Leather

[Art]

If you want hand selected leather, you better go someplace where you can hand select it yourself. Nobody will be as picky as the end user. Even at that, you need to have places where you can use the "less than your desires and specifications" parts that come with even the highest grade hide. This gets to the point of buying leather by the piece. Where do you think those pieces come from? They are the parts that the seller didn't want to use in his own production, or for small pieces, they may be perfectly fine but not big enough to make something out of. So either you TALK to the owner and let him know you gotta have the good stuff and holes, tears, cuts, barb wire marks, and insect bites just won't do, or you buy whole hides and reject anything that doesn't meet your criteria. You have to trust your supplier to give you what you need (and cut him just the tiniest bit of slack), or you need to go to a show, and buy a whole years supply, that you select, and best of all, there are multiple dealers there who don't want to pack anything home. Many are the $20 full hides (chrome tan mostly and often 2 sides) that really are looking for a home. I know guys who buy a whole years worth this way because they live in the boonies, literally, and like to pick hides themselves.

As to sharpness of tools as provided by the factory; they do sharp to the level they think is sufficient for the job, or they don't put much other than a bevel on the tool, if at all. Of all the tools from C.S. Osborne I have either bought for myself or received to sharpen (most new in the box), nothing (including the knives for ghod sake) vaguely resembled sharp. My theory is that they were old school, and the apprentices at the end user's shop did all the sharpening, so why bother having a line worker do it. The tool and often the edge are designed to take abuse, and the lack of apprenticing and training raise the level of abuse.

On machinery, there is no excuse for a dull blade. Most of the time, the blade is away from the operator and is only presented to the work by the machine. Sometimes the selection of blade steel defines how sharp blades can get. Stainless will not attain, and hold an edge like O-1 or O-6 tool steel, which will rust while you are looking at it. Everything is a tradeoff, but sharpening is a skill AND an artform, you can't just pass an abrasive over it and declare it done, finished, put it in a box and sell it. In fact careful appraisal in every step of the sharpening process is required to attain and maintain a superior edge. Why go to all that trouble and COST when the customer is very likely to buy with a large emphasis on the price of the product.

Since I have retired, I have been doing a lot of scissors (barber, stylist, but I'll do anything) and the quality control and out of the box sharpness is the best I have seen in any industry. Sharpening these things is not for the uneducated or under equipped. The technology employed in the sharpening phase of manufacture is comparable or higher quality than the finest surgical instruments. Some companies actually vary the angle of a convex edge over the length of the blade, think about that. But their reputation depends on that technology much more than a head knife that the end user is going to put on a grinder before they do any serious cutting.

Art

[JerseyFirefighter]

Seriously... I asked for them to draw a cow on the box for my last delivery of sides and hardware AND THEY DIDNT!. I would have loved a nice moo cow on my box .. Love Springfield anyway.

[Art]

They didn't want anyone to mistake your box of leather and tools for a Gateway Computer. Gateway computers get very special treatment during delivery.

Art

[NVLeatherWorx]

Hey Art, is Gateway even still around? Haven't seen that cow box around here in a very long time.

[Art]

Richard,

I'm pretty sure Acer bought them in 2007 and AOL got the online part somewhere along the way. They tried a lot of innovative marketing stuff and blew a wad of cash and stock on eMachines (remember them?). Pioneers take a lot of arrows.

Art

[NVLeatherWorx]

All of those names have pretty much disappeared.

[TinkerTailor]

Since I have retired, I have been doing a lot of scissors (barber, stylist, but I'll do anything) and the quality control and out of the box sharpness is the best I have seen in any industry. Sharpening these things is not for the uneducated or under equipped. The technology employed in the sharpening phase of manufacture is comparable or higher quality than the finest surgical instruments. Some companies actually vary the angle of a convex edge over the length of the blade, think about that. But their reputation depends on that technology much more than a head knife that the end user is going to put on a grinder before they do any serious cutting.

Art

Did you know that it is a 5 year apprenticeship to become a Scissors Putter-togetherer

[LumpenDoodle2]

Scissor Putter-togetherer......What a wonderful job title. Also love the wear in that hammer handle.

[TinkerTailor]

Scissor Putter-togetherer......What a wonderful job title. Also love the wear in that hammer handle.

I know right? It sounds like a five year old made up the title, however there is no mistaking what the job entails from the title

........Like what the heck is a cordwainer.......

At first i thought the handle was twisted then i realized that was a worn thumb groove. Imagine what his palms look like. Probably have the same groove.

[Hockeymender]

Did you know that it is a 5 year apprenticeship to become a Scissors Putter-togetherer

I watched the video and ordered a pair of scissors from them. I have a weakness for good scissors, and I believe theirs will be some of the best I have ever had.....we shall see.