Trox

Hi Frank, yes a old thread but never out of date. So he used pure wool felt, I will try that too. Thank you for the information. Then he used wax I guess. I use two kinds of wood wheels on my burnishing motor. One is made out of cocobolo, I use this with water only. The other wheel creates more heat and I use this for wax. It is good to have different wheels because leather react different to burnishing. With a wool felt wheel in addition to the two I have, I will cover more types of leather. I think some of the for sale buffing wheels are made of pure wool felt, I will check it out. About wax; what kind of wax are you using, do you use paraffin wax? I see many use paraffin wax together with bees wax. The paraffin wax is not available from my Norwegian suppliers, do you know where I can buy some to try it out. In advance thanks. Tor

Hi Frank, you know this is a old tread from 2010? Like everybody else I been fooling around with all kinds of burnishing material too and been wondering about the (fantastic) wheel; Is it any good or not. Is any of those Bianchi videos on Youtube or somewhere else? I just want to see the wheel making part and I do not want to buy a DVD to do so. In advance thanks Tor

Thank you Martin, I look forward to his answer. Your left plough looks like it is of a French pattern, same as Blanchard and Mayer Flamery (and more). The other one is unusual, I have never seen this style before. The knife style is French. However, the handle style is more German. I guess it is French or German. I have seen that German tool makers have made leather tools of French pattern before. I have also seen the horseshoe with star mark on a other French plough gauge, who was for sale on French EBay. On some other saddler tools too. They both are metric so that leaves out the UK, the UK plough`s are of a different pattern anyway. Do the attachment have any maker stamp on it? Where did you buy these tools? Thanks Tor

Hi Blake, the way I see this. A bell knife skiver is a must when you work with upholstery type of leather, when it comes to heavy leather you can always use a knife. Of course you can do this on the soft leather too. However, its a lot of work and not easy to get a nice results. I have a Italian bottom feed with a three motor setup, a full speed knife and small servo for the speed roll. The third motor is for the exhaust fan. If I use my steel roller on it I can skive heavy weg tan leather with good result, 4 to 5 mm thick (12 oz) is no problem. Like I mention above, I use mine mostly for soft leather. A bottom feed will skive that stuff just fine. It has to be a big skiving job before I change to a steel roller and adjust it for heavy leather. Most of the time it easier to just skive it by hand. However,If you are going to use it for mostly heavy leather, a top and bottom feed is your best choice. I see both the choices have a one motor setup, thats means the knife and roller speed is controlled by the same pedal. It must be possible to attach two motors on these skivers too, it is a advantage to have the knife turning at full speed and use a small servo for the feed roller alone. I think it should be possible to do so with any Fortuna style skiving machine, it only a matter of setting it up with the right type of V belts. To propel the feed roll a small inexpensive home sewing machine servo at 55 to 85 W will do the trick. Then you can use a normal industrial AC motor for the bell knife, let it run on full speed all the time. I do not know if this is possible with this kind of skiving machine, I have seen the Fortuna bottom feed skiver (same as Cobra NP4) set up like this. (My machine is different, it has a inbuilt small servo for the roller, see pic.) If anybody has this style of machine with a two motor setup, please let us know. About where to buy it. It was a huge price difference, normally the Consew DCS-S3 costs more than the Cobra NP4. They are sold to $ 1345,- other places. Remember what you pay for, If you buy from Steve at Cobra you will get support. If you are new to skiving machines you will for sure need it. Good luck. Tor

Thanks Wiz, you see what I mean. Tor

Thank you Martin, Of course thats the purpose. Who makes your ploughs, strap cutters? I do not recognize any of the makers stamps. In advance thanks Tor

OK, even 0.9 mm is a very thick thread. Thread sizes are confusing enough as it is, please read the size of the ones you got. If you found some old thread without any label, just trow it away it is no good. You need fresh left twisted sewing machine thread of the right size to right size needle. If you do not know the size of it, how do you size your needles. If you are not following any of these steps the result is what you have. There are ways to do it without knowing. However, I do not think you know how. Metric sizes is TKT and imperial is TEX. In the machine manual it says max TKT 40/3 (three ply) TEX 69, if I am not wrong. It also state the needle size. Your machine is not built for more (you cannot move the hook further away from the needle). I keep my threads packed in plastic, if it gets old and dry it is no good. (You may use some Fibings liquid glycerin saddle soap on it to lube it again. Nevertheless, its fresh-ware keep it in plastic). Your Juki is a good machine, it is not for heavy threads. About sewing machine prices; Heavy thread triple feeds machines is expensive all over the world. When regular machines prices and lighter duty rating triple feeds will have different prices, the first mention heavy machines are always expensive. Tor

Thank you leatherkind, I have been following your post regarding the 441 stirrup plate and its limitations. And of course, I agree with you, the plate is useless the way it is. I was planning to modify my plate the same way you did your. However, the narrow left side made me realize it can never be any good. I make me wonder if the constructor even cared to try it out, before mass-producing it. The 441 with its long needle system need a lower needle guide. If not a feed dog, a modified feed dog or a real Ferdco pat. lower needle guide. Your ABS plate looks exactly as the stirrup/bag plate should look like. Have you considered letting somebody make it in steel. I may know a company who is interested in making it, a company who makes sewing attachments. Even if the ABC plastic would hold up well, it looks like the ruff surface of it will slow down the leather feeding. Or is the surface smooth enough? To get my purchased stirrup plate to look like that, it has to be shopped and built up with weld (on the left side). (And grinded and polished of course) I do not know if it will be any good after welding, it a risky business. Maybe brass welding would do the trick, I do not know for sure. I have also considered that steel weld (even after been polished) might color wet leather black. All available 441 stirrup and holster plates have this stupid narrow left side. They all have to be from the same factory. It is important that this factory get some constructing feedback. The same line of attachments also produce feet’s of different height, which means you have to adjust the machines alternating height when you want to combine any of these feet’s. There is only one corrects height on these feet’s all others are errors. We can keep on spending our time modifying all what we buy or ask more from our dealers. I think we must ask for more quality to get it, let’s put some pressure on the Chinese makers. If they do not want to make proper stuff, there is other who will. Thanks Tor

Hi Dave, Did we not speak of this before? I told you your machine could not handle more than tkt 40 (tex 69). It might sometimes be possible to adjust machines to use a number heavier thread that the producers state as max. However, 0.9 mm thick thread, that must be tex 415 or more??. Its a bit optimistic to be mild, and of course not possible. Something good came out of it if you found some thread wrapped around the hook. Otherwise you would waste your time trying to find any spacers or get it to take any heavier threads. Producers have to be on their safe side when they state the machines limitations. Nevertheless, you need some place for all that heavy threads too. I am sorry, you do not only need more space; you need a different kind of machine construction to handle that thread size too. Tor

Hei Simon, FAV makes very good Fortuna style skiving machines and other leather machines too. Its a old well known and reliable Italian company who makes the top of the line leather machines. Ask Dan Naegle in Campbell-Randall http://www.campbell-randall.com/machines/leather-goods-machines/skiving-machines/fav-av2-skiving-machine-2/. he sells them, (LW member name is CampbellRandall in one word). This model is the FAV second machine type, first made in 1948. I must be a well proved machine, much alike its original Fortuna model. Spare-parts should not be a problem, thats the main part of the FAV business today. I have a Italian skiving machine myself, the Italians knows how to make good machines. Look at their cars, you cannot find nicer cars anywhere else. However, when it comes to leather machines, Italy is the place. (Read mainland China) Tor

Thanks Simon, I am not sure about the circumstances, I have not been able to get in touch with the seller yet. Tor

Hi all, I found a couple of knifes on French EBay who looks pretty old. They might both have new handles. The first one looks like it is from the 18 century French saddlery. The second might be a later Hungarian style of knife, or a 18 century French knife too. In the Encyclopedia of Diderot and D` Alembert, Paris c. 1760 you can see the first style of knife. It is one knife for sale on French EBay right now http://www.ebay.ca/itm/251226490712?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648 who looks like a 18. c style. Older knifes are hard to find, you might be able to find some in museums. You can see some drawings of early round knifes in the book of R. A. Salaman: Dictionary of leather-working tools, c. 1700-1950. He dates the one with a pointed (awl) end to be from AD 1400 to 1500.

Hi Wally, It is a Adler 167- 273 or similar. Could be a 67 too it is the same machine but a bit older. Although It is a good machine, this one looks like it is in a bad condition. A lot of rust and some missing parts, seems like it has been used as a one needle. Thats also possible to do. It needs some work and parts, half the price would be enough.

I bought a new one two days ago to use for white glue. It is not necessary to use this type of container for white glue, but I think it is more practical. It has no maker name on the box or the instruction, its for sale in a couple of places here in Oslo. It looks (or feels) like it is made in Italy, because they normally do not brand their stuff that often (and Italian is the first language in the instruction). It warrants the sealing for five years. I often buy my glue in one liter boxes, even when this are meant as temporary containers they keep the glue better than the original box do with ten pairs of rubber gloves over the lid. I have had a container half full of 30 seconds fast contact cement untouched for several month and the glue is still as new. A small one on 0,4 liter will do just fine if you buy one liter boxes of glue or less. The container works best when it contains more glue than air of course.

Hi Steve, There is not that many heavy machines for sale here, it is some 45K and Adler 105. Not many triple feeds, those are expensive anywhere. Machines of the upholstery class are very cheap here, because there are no marked for them (no sewing industry anymore). The heavy machines are wanted by people who want to repair their horse tack and such. I do have three heavy machines for sale myself ( I do have a customer or two too) Adler`s 5-27, 105-25 and 204-64. Heavy machines like the 45K flatbed and Singer 7 do not sell much here, Adler are more wanted. The prices depends of the feed type, here like in the rest of the world. Generally Norway have some of the worlds lowest used industrial sewing machines prices. Regards Tor

Thank you Johanna, you are doing a great job. Have a nice Sunday.

I want a pirate flag, ha ha. Flags are nice but remember to put the countries name under it, I doubt that everybody knows what my Norwegian flag looks like. Remember cyberspace has no flag, a .net or .com can be anywhere. It has no government, laws or borders; thats what I love about it. Especially the the "borders" part of it. Still there are a lot of people who wants to create borders here too, let us just step on them. Lets us step on anti Semitic and racism too. Tor

Thank you Johanna, leatherworker net has become a important part of my live. I will echo what Kevin suggest, we need a forum for leather working machines. The "leather sewing machines" forum is already one of our largest. I do need to post several topics about skiving, splitting and clicking machines. I feel of topic if i post them in the "Leather tools" or the "leather sewing machines" forum. I know you have your hands full with the forums we already have. Nevertheless, we need a "leather working machines" forum, who will cover all other leather machines. Or maybe a new name on one of the existing forums. However, there is a possibility it will grow too big and untidy that way. I know there is a lot of members who wish there was such forum here. Please consider to make one. In advance thanks. Tor

Hi, nice stitches. I classify this work as heavy, remember very few machines of the upholstery class can sew with more than tex 207/138. I use my 441 with threads like that too. I use my upholstery class machines with threads from tkt 40 to 15 (tex 69 to 207), any thicker I use my 441 or heavy Adler's. I think we agree on this anyway. Thanks Tor Rubederubes, You are right, the 867 is the latest flatbed triple feed of the upholstery class. Arm machines ends on 69, the 69 is a horizontal hook small arm that will not take heavy threads, the 269 has a vertical hook with more capacity. New machines today is 669 horizontal hook and 869 vertical hook. I do not know what you budget is, these machines are pretty expensive new. All is of the upholstery class, the 869 will sew with threads up to tkt 10/3 (tex 270). The 669 will sew with threads up too tkt 15/3 (tex 207). Both machines has feed dog that can be deactivated with a few steps and can be used for binding operations, this is a new feature you do not see on many other machines. Thanks Tor

I agree with Les No6 on this matter. I have both big Adler's 105, Adler 204 and the 441 clone along with machines of lighter duty rating. Despise what the dealers will tell you; the heavy stitcher's are no good on light stuff. Machine of the upholstery class will work much better on what you want to sew, from fabric up to 11 to 12 mm leather. However, not with very thick thread. Most stops at tex 207/138 in bobbin, a few does tex 270. Look for a Adler 269 or similar it has a bit thicker arm than the 335 or the 69. It also have a larger vertical hook that can hold more/thicker thread. It is a preferred machine among European bag makers. I use a similar Pfaff 345 for those same jobs, I use it with threads from tex 69 to 180. With any thicker threads I use my 441 or heavy Adler's. Tor

I echo what Billymac says. I use the same one and I use it for fast contact cement. I cannot do without it.. Before I spent a fortune in glue and twice as much in thinner. It is constructed in a smart way, when you do not use it you lay it on the side like on Billymacks pic and the glues vapors keep the brush soft. It also makes the glue thinner again, I wonder how I did manage without it before. It is a must and no other compares to it. Tor

Thank you Bruce, I think it no point in playing the lottery this week, I got my share. Ha ha. Have a nice evening, I hope you still have some aquavit left. Tor

Thanks, it has a cool retro look. The advantages with this old model is that it goes in true every door, new ones are pretty big. I guess it is pretty old, it no auto adjustment of clicking height and so on. Tor

Lucky again. Three years ago, I came over an old German clicker press for sale here in my hometown. Used clicker presses are seldom for sale here. It was an old Sandt 8 ton press and the seller wanted 1100 $ for it. I wanted it badly, but my budget said no. I just had to forget all about it. Here the other day when I was cleaning up my email inbox, I found the emails about the clicker. I wondered if the seller had sold it or if it still was available. I sent him an email, and the seller answered “call my”. I called him and he told me he still had it. Since I had spoken to him three years ago he had to close down his leather business and get an other job, he could not survive economically. The clicker still was in his old workshop and it had to be moved out yesterday. He said; “I got to move it. So if you still want it, just pick it up and it is yours“. The answer was of course “yes, thank you very much Sir” I am grateful for the machine. However, I feel a bit sorry for the guy who had to close down his shop. I know he had trained six years in UK schools to become a saddler and now he have to work with something completely different. He still has a small workshop in his basement and is in need of a heavy stitcher. I do have three for sale and I will provide him with one at a very reasonable price, which is the least I can do. I still have not been able to get it in to my shop, because of the amount of snow here for the moment. Its no rush, I still do not have any tools for it either. Therefore, all tips about clicking dies and embossing plates are highly welcome. I have won some polyethylene stamps from duck traders on EBay, I do not know if they are any good. I have a maker stamp in the same material and that is very durable. Time will show. I will also need a poly clicking board on top of the wooden blocks; the wood is not hard enough. I have three wooden blocks for it and they all need to be leveled again. (The picture of the press is of low quality). Thanks Tor

Yes Knut, the prices are criminally high. I cannot afford to stay in hotels here, I use my lavvo tent or rent a cabin. I mostly go on fishing trips anyway and in the summer time. If I go anywhere in the winter time my bearing is south to south east, ha ha.