sewing different types of leather

[Regis]

I've been learning to carve so I have mostly vegetable tanned leather around. But, I also have some fairly large peices of latigo, goat, and pigskin. Should I sew these all as if they were veg tanned? For example for the same thicknesses of latigo and veg tanned, would I use the same needle and thread in the machine? Or, are there important differences for the integrety of the seam?

Thanks of any help.

Regis

[bruce johnson]

Regis,

I sew my chrome tans with the same setup I would use if they were vegtan. Because the leather is softer, the needle holes close up faster and the stitches tend to pull in tighter than if I was sewing vegtan. That said, on some harder vegtan work, like repairs on some older and harder leather I go up one needle size more than I normally would. How to judge when depends on experience and knowing how my machines sew.

Bruce Johnson

[Art]

Hi Regis,

Integrity of the seam means strength? In that case more stitches per inch up to the failure point of the leather between holes the stronger the seam. Kind of an experience thing but for 346 thread and a 230 needle, about 6 per inch is optimum. With chrome tan and leathers with less body, there can be and usually is a "pucker factor" along the sean when stressed. You can control this some by lengthening your stitch some at a loss of some strength of the seam. If you back with veg tan, it will impart some stability to the piece and make it easier to sew. Nevertheless, if you attempt to sew 3oz chrome tan on a machine that is setup to sew 14oz skirts all day, you will have big thread and big bobbin tension overcoming any body the thin leather has and you might have to back down the thread size and tension. You just have to see how your machine handles it. When I sew thin soft leather, my seams are usually on the inside of the work and won't be seen, if I want seams for decoration, I will use veg tan backing. Latigo never seems to be a problem for me, however I don't think I have any around under 6/7oz.

With us, owning a machine means you are the maintenance and setup guy in addition to the machine operator, if it takes 15 minutes or so to set-up a machine for a job, just remember how long it takes to hand stitch the same job. If you are doing altogeather too much setup, you need another machine.

Art

I've been learning to carve so I have mostly vegetable tanned leather around. But, I also have some fairly large peices of latigo, goat, and pigskin. Should I sew these all as if they were veg tanned? For example for the same thicknesses of latigo and veg tanned, would I use the same needle and thread in the machine? Or, are there important differences for the integrety of the seam?

Thanks of any help.

Regis