The Armour Archive

I found this while browsing on Ebay. I have one of these and they are fantastic! The best way to describe them is a beverly shear for leather. So I thought I would pass it on.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FLAT-BELT-OR-LEATHE ... dZViewItem

I like want it. Gotta have it.

Its a shoe maker's cutter. Cuts sole leather, heel lift rubber and heavy soling. Very handy tool.

Also very difficult to get cutter blades if they're as badly chipped as those look. Ask Pilgrim Sewing Machine if they have blades to fit a "Progressive". Otherwise you'll have to have some milled. Caveat emptor.

I have something like that made by Landis called a 5 in 1 (Although talking to people with 20 years shoe experience they can only find 3 uses) it has that cutter and other attachments to cut a bevel on a pieces of leather and to crimp a boot welt. If I have to cut a straight line I’ll use a steel yardstick and a razor knife but if I have to cut a curve out of something thick this is what I use. It is a lifesaver for doing stuff like roman sandals and I’m cutting the soles out of 1 inch cow butt. All 5N1 I have seen have a serrated blade on top and a toothed split cogwheel on the bottom (like a yo yo) for traction, I have never seen one with a cutting blade on top and bottom too like this. Due to the serrated edge and mine is old, when I cut a thick piece (1 inch) or scare tissue it is still connected by a thin layer of threads I have to cut with shears. I asked around town if they had new blades and they said to call Pilgrim who wanted $30+. Today I was looking in a drawer at the leather store for the last box of needles for my machine and behind some dusty boxes found two blades they had no idea they had or ware they came from but I have to ask there boss on Monday.

One of the best sources for this kind of stuff (no shipping and you can touch it before you buy it) is to stay in contact with your local shoe repair shops and I would assume the saddle shops but I started in a shoe shop. Whenever another shoe shop was going out of business, or the equipment is otherwise disposed of they send out a letter to all the other shoe shops for 3 states away. I have seen some good deals that way but never when I was looking or had the extra cash. The best example is when I got my sewing machine at a good deal for $1500 a few weeks later we got a letter from a shoe shop that was liquidating and sold off by some one not in the business so the same machine was going for $350.

The 5 in 1 I have has the two blade configuration. The top is serated and the bottom blade is smooth. This make a very smooth cut. I usually trace my pattern out on the back of the leather and then cut it up side down.

Thanks for the information about checking with shoe repair shops, I never thought of that. I bought a new harness sewing machine last year from Ferdco, and it works terrific.

I just bought a 4 ton Benchmaster punch press for stamping out the scales for my scale and lamellar armor. Found a used one very cheap. The dies are being made right now and I should have it punching in a few days, I hope.

I have something like that made by Landis called a 5 in 1

Can you get embossing wheels for it? I have seen cutters that could also take an embossing wheel, and be used like a slip roll.

Weaver's Leather (and saddlery supply) still sells these things new.. in both single and gang cutter types.

Maeryk

Does Weaver's have a website? I couldn't find one on a web search.

I don't think so. I got their catalog once..

http://www.weaverleather.com/

I thought it was from the website somewhere..

Maeryk

I've used a Beverly on heavy leather, it didn't care.

I have both, and believe me the 5 in 1 is ten times easier and better than the beverly shear for leather.

Torvaldr wrote:
Thanks for the information about checking with shoe repair shops, I never thought of that.

I just bought a 4 ton Benchmaster punch press for stamping out the scales for my scale and lamellar armor. Found a used one very cheap. The dies are being made right now and I should have it punching in a few days, I hope.

. Also check with who ever sells parts for such in your area. Like a guy at my local leather store who make delivers to shoe shops and other leather workers for hundreds of miles and has the know.

Ohh a supply house in CA called "O'Balter and Son" comes though my area 3 times a year he said they have a warehouse of leather working machinery they want to get ride of.

Edit I looked in my old invoices. They dont have a web site


O. Baltor & Sons
263 E. Harris Ave.
So. San Francisco, CA 94080
415-589-8759

Contact: Oscar Baltor

I had some one give me a 5-foot tall Rivet set that can be fit with a hydraulic pump or a Long fulcrum handle. I was going to make heads for punching holes in thick leather but now I read here that Harbor tools has a metal punch that will do the same thing for under $30.

I'm going to try and make a screw press and fool around with some dies I have or make my own. An upholstery shop around the corner has one and it works well at least on that weight of leather and the circle cutting dies are just the blades from a gasket cutting set that are meant to thread onto a handle. If I get into real production I may look for a real press or clicker on the cheap

I just tried to find that O'Balter and Son with a web search and nothing came up. I would love to find a place that specializes in used leatherworkers machinery.

Contact these guys. Buy a copy of The Big Book. Its an annual buyer's guide for the allied leather trades. Vondan, especially, should have a subscription to their monthly publication "Shoptalk". Cheap and useful for anyone in the trade.

http://www.proleptic.net/

There are lots of used shoe and harness machines out there. Lots of production has gone off-shore in the last decade. You just need to shop around beyond Ebay.

Actually I check out their classified on a regular basis. I already have a harness machine, 5 in 1 cutter (without the attachments, beverly shear, drill press, and recently aquired a punch press. But I like to be able to see what other machinery is out there, and how I can use it in my business. Finding a ware house of used leather equipment is just like a candy store. Even if I can't afford to buy at the moment.

I have an Adler Shoe patching machine (has a long 18 inch skinny shank to get up in a boot) the 5 In 1 and a leather splitter. I want to get another heavy shoe patching machine to take on the road and it don’t have to have a motor (Half my work is hand cranking) another shoe patcher in a lighter weight with a 12 inch shank to keep set up with a light needle for purse, wallets gloves etc (they are cheap under $300 as every one wants a long shank). A saddle stitcher (in talks now, some one owes a friend of mine and they have three of them two are new Vikings and one is an old singer sail maker from 1909 that will stitch 6 inches of leather) and if I don’t pick up a industrial weight machine for canvas I need to make a cut out on an old table to fit around the shank of the patcher to convert it to a table top so I can sew canvas and upholstery with out a lot of flapping around. If I become I vender I’m not going to pay $1000 for a tent when I could buy a canvas sewing machine for $300. A friend has offered to loan me his 20 by 40 Civil war hospital tent but that is just a little to large for me to start with

Vondan wrote:I have an Adler Shoe patching machine....

Is the Adler a model 30? Great patcher, very tough. As to taking a patcher on the road, I hear they are pretty finicky about being moved. The Singer K29 series is, at least. I've resold a lot of them and a frequent complaint is that they start dropping stitches whenever they get moved around. But guys build them into trailers to go to rodeos and flea markets, so it must be okay.

Suggestion? Take up your friend's offer. Borrow the giant tent, split part of it with another merchant so he doesn't have to drag a tent around. Set up displays or a "lawn chair lounge" to increase your booth's popularity. Just make sure the chairs aren't too comfortable. Good luck on the road....

I think, it is the model 30-10. I got it from the first owner but he forgot the model and the parts guy just knew what to bring

My road set up would be two different ways. One for going to equestrian events with modern tools and a spare patcher, I would set up in the parking lot or the vender area and just have an awning going off the van or pickup. If I’m a vender at period events (so far this year I'm planning on a Norse SCA, Pirate non SCA, Black Powder event (with a friend who does native work) an Anime Convention and a Ren Fair) it would all be hand tools and in period attire more selling than repairs. Would a Civil war tent pass muster for a SCA event, it comes with cots, a full medicine chest and a EMT/PA in union medical officer uniform, Ohh I could dress him as a knight from one of the hospital orders and charge people to look at the bottles of 100 year old Opium & Laudlum