AEBL

Yeah - and I called his shop, twice. First time I left a message, second time the call was declined.

@MarlinDave, like AlZilla said, for sure, do the math ... size your stitched area for ~ 50% more weight than you figure the maximum weight it should carry (a "safety factor"). @kgg, glad you had backup! I suppose another variable is "shock loading"

She'll be happy about her bag being safe-ish for lugging all of the stuff she lugs around, for sure. I'm seeing how much of an engineering problem this is ... and I'm liking it more. Makes me want to set up some stitch samples and a set of weights and take some failure data. I'm sure it also depends on tannage and thickness somewhat. Very neat.

I feel your pain man. Only online source of the book that I could find was priced ... well ... crazy high. I tried calling his place of business, and I'm not sure if he's still in business. https://www.americanbookwarehouse.com/4494339/

I would imagine that the grinding wheel would clog up with leather particles pretty quickly. You might also want to get a rubber cleaning block or something.

Thanks for the info! (and CowboyBob's chart is great)

Very true! But it doesn't seem like B69 was a poor choice, from what I gather? This is a prototype, I already warned the wife about it ...

I made a bag (sort of a tote bag), trying to learn how to use my new sewing machine (Consew 206RB-3). It came with lots of B69 thread. I'm used to hand sewing with 0.6 mm tiger thread and this stuff seems like spider silk by comparison. Is it thick enough for reliable handle attachment? The sewn tab is 2 inches long.

I think I saw the glue applied to both pieces that were to be adhered. It worked on rubber and leather ... makes me think it was a contact cement.

I had a shade tree mechanic friend who worked on all sorts of stuff. Wouldn't blink to yank out an engine and put a new one in, he was quite amazing. I was with him learning how to do some of the amazing car stuff one day and a guy drives up with a Volvo and the blower motor for the heater/AC was broken. He told the fella "buy a new car." I was shocked! I thought he could fix anything! We asked him why, and he said that you basically have to dismantle the entire inside of the car to get to it. He figures that when Volvo made cars, the first thing that parts started to get bolted on to was the blower motor.

So ... "S" is "expenSive"?

@Northmount, English is a great language ... sometimes.

Related, and irritated a foreign co-worker of mine: flammable and inflammable ... both mean "easily caught on fire."

Very nice! I like the thick steel and full tang.

thanks

After you pierce the thread, how much of a "tail" is left over? I'm using 0.6 mm linen thread and leave about an inch (2.5 cm) of "tail" to prevent it from completely unraveling.

@PastorBob, yes, that's what I'm referring to ... I was wondering if you fill in those gaps with a small tool or something

I have some really tightly wound linen thread. Threading it through the needle isn't super hard, but piercing the thread is a bit challenging. I use some jeweler magnifiers to help me see what I am doing, and I do slightly untwist the thread and then try to stab the blunt needle through the linen. It is challenging. For poly thread I use two piercings, but for linen, I just use one, because it is such a pain in the rear to accomplish it.

@jnovosel96706, I'm not sure I'd use clorox ... maybe white vinegar ... but if you get some leather conditioner, that would be my first step. You might also try saddle soap, then the conditioner. Clorox might also make your leather brittle. If you try it, try it on a small sample first.

I'd imagine that your leather would smell bad if it had potential mold issues. Mold would present as dark gray patches. There are other things that can cause dark gray patches in leather, but isolating the blotchy leather from the rest of your good leather is probably a good first step. If you do find any, all hope may not be lost. There are a few threads here that talk about how to clean up moldy leather ... but you may not always be able to save it. Also note that sunlight can change the color of leather - not all blotches are a bad thing. Blotches caused by sunlight will likely be wider, and more leather-colored. Mold blotches are small to medium sized patches - often pinpoints of dark gray.

@SUP, from what he told me, he uses his knife belt grinder (2x72) and works through the grit progression on the edges "up to like 1000 grit." Then he uses Tokenole, and then burnishes it. He may also use a buffer wheel on the grinder after burnishing. I had been using 60 grit paper on a wooden block (because it was handy) and then I tried 120 and then 220 after I heard what he had been doing. The edge did look nicer after I burnished it, so from my perspective, finer grit did indeed make the edge smoother, but it was far from what I would have liked to have seen. I was using Gum Tragacanth on veg tan, I don't see why that shouldn't have been similar to Tokenole on veg tan (but I'm new at all of this).

Is there some way to fill in gaps left by the "meander" stamp? I was worried if I started to stamp something with that pattern I'd leave gaps somewhere. Very nice work.

Neat two-tone effect. Airbrushed? Also, trivia: the "icthus" is an acrostic in koine Greek: Iesus (there is no "J" in Greek) Xristos Theos Uios Soter Jesus Christ, Son of God, savior and the fish symbol is because ixthus = fish in Greek

The "nice tool" factor I get. Some things I use just make me smile when I pick them up. I'm still learning the art of burnishing, so I imagine that today I could make just as bad-looking of an edge with an expensive tool as I could with a cheap one . I'm going to keep trying though, and there's a leatherworker near me who makes glass-like edges. I'm going to see if I can trade him a six-pack for some in-person training.

It looks like a very nice tool. Is there something special about what it is made of - or can I just use a chainsaw file and a block of scrap hardwood to make one?