want to learn to handstitch "old school" style

[Timbo]

Okay, I have done a lot of hand stitching, but I have always done it the "Tandy" way. Meaning I've always used a diamond punch in a saddle groove, I've always used there "big eye" needles and for the most part used there waxed thread.

I want to start doing it the "old school" way. I already have a stitching horse and the groover, but I want to start using an awl and Osborne "eggeye" harness needles and wax my own thread, probably linen.

My question is that there are so many different sizes of awl blades and needles, I don't know what goes with what.

Do I want the awl blade the same size as the needle??

Do I want an Osborne saddlers awl or saddlers stitching awl??

I assume that the different size awls correspond to certain needle and thread sizes.

What do you guys use for awls, needles and thread??

Tim

[Kevin]

Hey Timbo, it all depends on what size stitch you want to do. Most of what I do is 9 or sometimes smaller. I generally use a 1 1/2" awl, no. 4 Osborne needles and no.3 linen thread. Lately I've been using nylon hand stitching thread I get from Ohio Travel Bag, because the Barbour's has been so uneven. Maybe it has changed now that Coats owns it. Windmill Saddlery in Ohio has some very nice English linen thread. I can't tell you what size thread to get 'cause them English speak a different doggone language i.e. 18/6 cord, 60/3 cord, I've had it explained to me and I still can't understand it in the slightest. Oh, and the Osborne no.4 needles I have gotten the last few times are thinner guage than they used to be. Sorry I ramble so, but my typing is so slow I lose my train of thought with each word. Kevin

[Timbo]

Thanks Kev. Any idea what size your awl is? I didn't realize they came not only in different lengths but different gauges too.

Tim

[Kevin]

They just come in different lengths as far as I have seen, but as they go down in length, they also get narrower. A friend of mine tried to make a small awl out of a big one but found that once he filed it so far there was no temper left and it just bent. I don't know if they still have it but Tandy used to have a small looking awl permanantly mounted in a haft that looked like a toy and I've always wondered if the awl itself might be perfect. Then you get to search out smaller pricking wheels, then pricking irons, I've put brass strips in my stitching horse jaws so I can lay the awl right down on the flat and keep everything CONSISTANT. It never stops, like a guitar player trying to find the perfect tone. You just keep digging and digging. I could go on all day but I have to go to work to chop and stitch, what do they say? Find a job you love and never work a day in your life. You just keep looking for that perfection that doesn't exist, no wonder lots of old timers were bitter or alkies but I love it. Kevin