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You are forgetting breakage due to abrasion on the thread. In my history group I had experience of that. The chaps used to do several very active live steel fight displays during a day. I had shoes to resew/repair. The stitching holding the soles to the vamp often got abraded until they broke. On those made by one 'expert' and hand sewn using saddle stitch the sole came loose and I could quickly repair it on the spot and have the owner back into the fight. Those sewn by another 'expert' when the thread broke most of the sole came away from the vamp*. A repair was not possible as quickly. * on one occasion the sole came away, flapping loose during a fight causing the owner to miss his footing. Only the fighters' skills stopped there being a bad incident

A bit of a useless debate IMO and one that doesn't seem to be taking usage into account. I've never known a thread that simply holds two pieces of leather together to break no matter how it's sewn (bonded polyester/nylon). Can you snap a piece of V69 with your hands? If you can you have thick skin. Thread used under high stress conditions is different and is usually sewn inside a channel to avoid abrasion. As dikman said, I think a certain amount of ego comes from the S/S camp but you can say that about quite a lot of leathercraft and there's nothing wrong with it as long as it's not part of a strength debate.

Labeling a leather point of any shape with a garment point designation is misleading. Leather cutting points tend to slice the fibers in cloth, webbing and serged patch borders. However, if any leather point has a snowball's chance in Hell of sewing cloth without destroying it, it is a diamond point needle. The shape is closer to round than the usual sideways slicing edge we have in leather points. I haven't tried sewing patches on with a diamond point, and don't recommend it without testing it first on a disposable patch with the same type of edging. I do use diamond/tri point needles on occasions when I want to sew close stitches that lay on top of leather projects, from end to end, versus S points that give a submerged appearance on the ends.

Darren, Greg died in March of 2021. Here is the notice.

You may wish to kneel down to royalty 👑 Just kidding , lol. I've been asked to judge at our perth royal show in the leather section in September, can't say no can I? I do remember trying my hand on mums potters wheel eons ago, it didn't end well , it does take quite a bit of practice, and concentration and the skin around the fore fingers and thumbs wear thin. At this point in time, no more dressing changes for dad , just some moisturiser on the op sites. I hear you about your suburbans, I have 3 land rovers, 3 tractors and a 64 triumph herald coupe that I so love to play with. I am ' resource rich but time poor' atm . I tell my customers, " I can make almost everything, except time " Take care, HS

For concave blades/rounded bevelers I use a straight piece of MDF and use the beveler itself to round the corner of the MDF. I then have a stropping block that holds compound pretty well and is perfectly matched to my beveler. Granted, using a beveler to cut MDF is not good for the tool, but it's a one time thing so the dulling it causes is minimal. Not sure I would use this trick for expensive bevelers, but for the cheap ones (which is all I have) it works great. Thank you!

Working on a potter's wheel and a propane-fired Raku kiln. Basically a 50 gallon drum with 2" of ceramic wool inside, lol, and one of my burners. I have a lot to do before snow flies so all my projects get a few minutes here and there. My daughter has given me another suburban the same year and make as mine so I'll be swapping some parts around, then fixing both up before hunting season and winter it will be nice to have a backup the kids can drive. I'm starting to get back on my feet after my ailment last spring, It was darn hard to get my muscle strength back, I guess old age is the culprit, I feel great now again and am back up at 4am every day starting out the day watching the hummingbirds have breakfast at dawn lol. Take care, my friend, summer is on its way to you now lol.

If you can't find a local sharpening service, you might check with Leather Machine Co. They offer sharpening of the hollow ground blade for their Class 14 splitter. @bruce johnson sharpens blades for Osborne manual splitters and might be able to help you out.

I think I have the same Chinese skiving knife. It's a winner for the price. Another skiving tool I use often is this small round knife from Abbey England. The blade is 68mm = 2-5/8" wide. It holds an edge and is handy for skiving and for cutting egg points/English points on strap ends.

Innovative solution and good looking results. Thanks for posting this information.

I don't consider myself poor, but neither am I rich enough to be able to afford all the specialty sewing machines that are needed to stitch all possible seams. I have a basic, run-of-the-mill walking foot cylinder arm machine and that's it. I try to design things (or adjust patterns) in such a way that they can be machine stitched, but sooner or later I'll have to resort to manual sewing for 'difficult' seams. Not necessarily out of stitch strength or financial considerations, but for the esthetics. I think (maybe naively due to lack of experience) that most items can be created using the same machine stitch, but not all of those items will look pleasing to the eye (or be comfortable to wear) when there are thick seams (however thin one can skive them) and exposed edges (however fine one can finish them).

Contact Cowboy Bob as there are two grades of Chinese 29k machines and one makes a great doorstop. Buy from Bob Kovar or Greg at Keystone and you will get one guaranteed to work

Gearheart Electric Branding Iron ($229.00 new) Temperature Control 600W. ($115.00 new) 2 cords connect to the Controller, each about 6 feet long. No branding head of course (that would be your logo) the best in the world, made in the U.S.A. Custom electric branding iron provides the precision and consistency you need to personalize goods or souvenirs with your own design. Go to Gearheart to get your CUSTOM removable branding head from a solid bar of aircraft-grade 6061-T6 aluminum alloy or ultra-tough brass alloy. custom electric branding irons for wood, plastic, cork, leather, paper and food, including ice, buns, meats, drink garnishes and more Used about one hour and we decided not to brand our gear. $225.00 $10.00 shipp USPS Ground from Western North Carolina. payPall venmo

I agree. Personally I don't saddle stitch or otherwise hand stitch not because of funds but I just don't have the temperament. That for me was a major factor for not purchasing a one armed bandit (Tippmann Boss or Cowboy Outlaw). I just couldn't see myself pulling a lever for ever stitch let alone saddle stitching. kgg

True. I checked and searched the Organ website and couldn't find any info on the DP x 17D. I would drop them an email and ask for info. kgg

Yeah that's kinda odd way to mark the packs. Organ says when you take a 135x17 needle and make it a TRI it becomes a 135x16TRI. I've seen that in their marketing material in the past. I guess they just want to put it all out there for those that might be a bit confused in what to purchase? !

Let's not forget the ego element, I find it very satisfying knowing that I know how to saddle-stitch something.

That line made me laugh! Good idea, some of those putty knives/scrapers are thinner than I could make a blade, I'll have to look into it.

@Coloradoguy I think you need to find a sharpening service that does carpentry machines. Maybe your local cabinetmaker has got a grinding machine for sharpening blades for a jointer/planer. (I do but Denmark is a bit far away from you) I tried googling sharpening services in Omaha Nebraska, and a company called Loveless Sharpening looks like the place that could do the job for you. http://lovelessmachine.com/Pages/home.aspx please note that I am in no way affiliated with them, I don't know them or the quality of their work, but a shop that can sharpen a paper knife for the book cutting industry would also know (and have the machinery) for sharpening a skiver blade. Good luck Brgds Jonas

TomE, Yes, my roller is centered on the blade edge. Putting pressure on the hold-down bar and blank behind the roller with a 2x4 was recommended by another member on this site to solve my initial problem of skiving/splitting completely through the ends of my belts. I sharpened my blade more and tested this again, I had better success without the 2x4. Thanks for the tip about pulling the strap through at a consistent angle, slightly lower than horizontal. DieselTech, I think I may have been stretching the blank, I was pulling pretty hard to get the blank through. I think my blade could still be sharper, but the blade has a compound angle and it is difficult for me to keep the angle of the narrow edge consistent on my sharpening stone. Anyone know what type of sharpening company would be able to sharpen this blade for me? The local knife sharpeners have not been responding when I send them photos of the blade.

I found the set of doming tools on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6724Z62 $30 is worth my time to just buy them.

When I was in there, I found three hall sensors in position to read the permanent magnets of the rotor as they go by. I should have worn gloves when I put it back together...those magnets are vicious, and I got pinched.

Excellent you found a solition for your needs For a doming tool; before you cut one, there are doming setters meant for ready-rivets which have a domed head already. I have the domed setters in sizes from 4mm to 12mm in 1mm steps

I mostly make leather knife sheaths and I was trying to find a compact rivet to end the stitch lines. I like copper burr rivets, but the smallest available are still way too large. I have found a solution that works for me. Amazon sells assortments of metric copper rivets in flat-head and round-head versions. The range is 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm shaft sizes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNCSHG3T https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNCT42XG I found the washers on McMaster Carr. They are sold as #1, #2, and #3 copper flat washers https://www.mcmaster.com/97565A111/ https://www.mcmaster.com/97565A112/ https://www.mcmaster.com/93661A112/ I made my own rivet sets by just end drilling some pieces of 1/4" round steel rod. You will need a #44, a #40 and a #31 drill bits. I think mild steel is fine as these will only get light use. I will probably make some matching doming tools by using a diamond ball bit in a dremel to carve little domes in some harder steel rod.

Mine has that too--- paddles running next to the aluminum case, shrouded under some plastic. I think simply removing the plastic cover would be a boon...