Matt S

My 12" Fortuna has 4 different motors: knife, feed (2-speed), blower, grinder. Various speeds and powers ratings. Total consumption around 1500W. I'd love to see how the different functions are powered in your buddy's new machine.

Yep, been there done that. But then I was trying to speed the drying process with a blowtorch...

How soft is soft? Medium soft stuff I cut with a wooden strap cutter but the difference between a cheap one and a decent one is enormous. Ignore the "correct" blades and get a pack of Schick injector blades -- same price, much better. I need 5ft straps to match back to back with no noticeable difference in width. Went from maybe 40% reject rate to about 5%.

In no particular order I've had more success than with gum tragacanth burnishing with: gum arabic, wallpaper paste, white PVA glue, spirit dye, spit/saliva, industrial alcohol, Sharpie, diluted clear acrylic, shellac/French polish, water based varnish, glycerine hand soap, plain tap water, paste saddle soap, those clear glue pens kids use... the effectiveness of any of them depends on technique and the individual piece (tannage, finish, each individual hide and sometimes even where in each hide it comes from). Can't say I've ever tried CMC and I don't know how cheap it is, but plenty of these options are free or nearly free.

Sounds like linseed with "dryers" to me, often sold as "boiled" linseed in North America though I think it's not permitted over here. I once read a recommendation to use linseed on dry linen thread in a BUSM/Pearson 6 (heavy harness stitcher). Similar purposes. I'd love to see some pics of your Singer No2s!

Old-school German precision engineered sewing machine. Good condition mechanically but a little cosmetically challenged. Has reverse. It's a needle-and-drop feed machine (not a walking foot). Feeds very positively, especially on flat pieces. There's a small broken off casting on the top, I think for an auxiliary presser spring, but I don't think its absence has ever been an issue. I'm reluctant to sell as it's so well made and reliable but it duplicates or triplicates capabilities I have with other, more modern machines and I need the space. Pictures show 2x4mm thicknesses of English bridle sewn with TKT20 nylon thread, which is about the maximum I'd want to put through it with any regularity. Needles and bobbins readily available (10ish bobbins and a few packets of GB needles included in sale). Feet are a little more challenging to find but they are available. 1x roller foot supplied with the machine. Also a couple of spring-guide feet that will work with some minor modification that I never got around to. This machine would be ideal for things like wallets, dress/smart belts, bags that can be made on the flat etc. Not for horse tack, duty/cowboy gear or anything of that sort. Also works well on heavy fabric -- denim, canvas etc. Selling head-only, but I have the original table top which I'll include. (Again sound but could do with a tart-up.) Also have somewhere the bobbin winder, thread stand, pedal, knee lifter etc. but they have definitely seen better days and you'd probably be better off buying new ones from College Sewing (about £50 the lot). Also got some similar-vintage K-legs I could be persuaded to part with, but they're currently earmarked for a project. I'm asking £300 or best offer. Collection from Harrow HA1 preferred. Far superior, in my opinion, to the medium-quality Chinese offerings you'll pay 4 figures for at a lot of dealers today. If you want I can set this up on the table, cleaned up, with thread stand, bobbin winder etc. and a new servo motor, ready to go, for £600 all-in. Cash or bank transfer preferred. descripts.txt

First, congrats on a very fine machine. 45s are built like tanks, and dead easy to service. True Singer 45s have been out of production for about 5 decades now, so many parts are hard to obtain. College don't have anything really, spoken with them in the past. Normally you have to wait for an old saddler to retire or have a clearout to find parts. Sometimes you get lucky with an old dealer, especially if they have parts machines -- try ringing Maury Sewing in Bethnal Green or Hartley Sewing in Walsall. 45Ks were designed for an on-head bobbin winder but, aesthetics aside, I prefer the table-mounted types. Some high-mortality parts are available from China, since they make various clones of the 45K. There is one foot commonly listed, it's a plain foot but I'm thinking of importing a handful to see if I can fit/mod to fit my 45K58 and Adler kl5 (German Singer 45K21 clone). What sort of foot/feet would you be after?

Each time you sew for the first time that day, this should be your checklist: Oil all the oil points, wipe clean your needle, needle bar, presser foot/feet, feed dogs and needle plate. Replace the needle with a good quality one of the correct class and size if it's the one the machine came with or it has any bend or burr. Turn over a few times before putting power to it to ensure everything fits fine. Then thread up and start sewing. Don't worry about the oil, all sewing machines leak oil at some point. I don't you've damaged it any way.

I used to have a J&R SD28, an old sole stitcher. Th manual recommended gum trag in the thread bath (for linen thread). It made a mess, and other than lubricating the thread a little I'm not sure it had any positive effect. Perhaps my bottle of gum trag was the problem. I've never had a good effect using it for burnishing, there are plenty of better, cheaper, faster options out there -- many of which are available in your local hardware store.

I have one of those 45ks on a proper industrial treadle stand (not a poor overloaded domestic or 29k stand). It works fine because it has a massive flywheel. I also have a BUSM6 with the stairmaster treadle stand. Also a massive flywheel. Plenty of torque at low speed. I think the table flywheel really is key to to a workable treadle... If you really want to treadle. I like servo motors. Far simpler manual of arms, more concentration on the work, faster acceleration, faster braking, less chance of wobbling a stitch line, needle positioning available.

I too tend to default to 1/8" or 3mm, though I can go as little as 2mm or as much as 1/2" depending on the job. I find that if I go much more than twice the thickness of the leather the edge is more likely to separate. On jobs with a rivet terminating the threads I tend to align the stitch line with the middle of the rivets. When I hand stitch I lay out with a normal pair of dividers. Just a scratch is needed for aligning the pricking iron. Creasers tend to harden the leather as you compress it -- great for stiffness and look, not so good for sticking an awl through.

Most shoe soles are indeed stitched with a very heavy thread, far heavier than you could use in your 267. What's the material being sewn, and the thickness? It may be that the current manufacturer is using a very heavy duty machine like a sole stitcher or harness stitcher because the material requires a very heavy "punch" to penetrate, and/or a thick, strong needle to avoid deflection.

Is the knife for work or hobby? How often will the spike be used, will both hands be available and what are the consequences of losing the contents? Those welt-mounted loops for firesteels are neat but I have always though they look better than they work, IYKWIM. (My firesteel lives in a pocket when I'm carrying one -- how often is it used compared with, say, a knife, hatchet, pistol, phone, podger, spike/fid, GPS, Leatherman, baton, cuffs, gloves, resus shield... you know, things that might actually belong on the belt...) If you really want to put a loop where it is in that photo, I've done them before. Typically the leather you use for the loop is half that which you use for the welt. Either the folded "double" edge acts as part of the welt (the welt proper starting at the bottom of the loop) or the edges of the loop site "behind" the welt strip. (Note the double line of stitching where the loop sits.) Attached is a photo I cheekily took from one of Ron Edwards' excellent books. The depth of both pouches allows instant single-handed access and return of either tool while keeping both the knife and the steel very secure. Get the sizing right and I'd bet you'd have a very difficult job making them fall out. I'd probably extend the mouth of the sheath over some of the handle so I could eliminate the snap strap, but that's just my preference.)

I find the split useful occasionally. Mostly for prototyping and such. However the major benefit of a splitter is that many leathers are only available in a certain few thicknesses. Being able to make all your leather pieces a consistent, specific thickness will improve the quality of your products. What sort of splitter is it? A band-knife splitter is the most useful sort and if it's functional, affordable and you have the space it's a very handy piece of kit. I wouldn't be without mine, though I would be very jealous of the width if yours is a 470! They are a bit fiddly though.

Hi Mike, it's an interesting machine and a good price but a long way for me to come for a quick look. Any chance you can provide more details? What does the machine come with, what's its condition etc. What sort of needles does it take -- are they readily available? Ditto bobbins. Matt

Brian, those are some excellent jigs and a great, clear tutorial. Thank you for being so generous with your time and experience.

College are, simply, an excellent company to deal with. A great range of parts and needles and very honest advice. I've bothered them when phone calls many times and always got friendly and honest help, even if it loses them a sale. As a result they're always my first port of call when after some part.

Those grub screws control not only the hook timing but also its spacing from the needle. First check your hook timing, and adjust as necessary. Upholstery-weight machines like yours I tend to time so the point of the hook passes the needle scarf at or just after the centre of the scarf. The easiest way to adjust, in my experience, is to tighten the grub screws just enough that it won't move without deliberate effort. Then, holding onto the hook with one hand and the balance wheel with the other, you can make some surprisingly fast an accurate adjustments. Then adjust the hook spacing. With the largest needle I'm likely to use I like to tweak it so that the hook just kisses the inside face of the scarf, then back it off enough to just not touch, if you see what I mean. I believe the technical term for this amount of clearance is a BCH. If everything else (needle bar height, foot timing etc.) is good that should get you pretty near bang on. With a horizontal-hook machine like yours, this can be a very frustrating 5-handed job until you've done it a few times.

I tried it a few times, years ago. Being excessively thick, ugly, difficult to terminate securely and stetchy, I found no reason to continue with the practice. I believe that Nigel Armitage twists paracord innards together to make cores for rolled handles etc.

I reckon so, as do enough people to keep them at full production capacity.

Only if you're making an exact copy of that worn part. Extrapolating the original dimensions, using a combination of all available evidence, experience, and some trial and error, is up to the individual. Being able to rapidly and cheaply produce iterative changes to that part design is a huge advantage and could make the difference between "viable" and "nonviable". Once you have a working prototype a bunch of them can be sent out for trials in other machines if you're wanting to produce in quantity (for different usage parameters and in a wider tolerance range). Once confirmed as final the drawing files can then easily be sent to a company with facilities for more appropriate materials (metal sintering 3D printer, or a CNC machining centre), modified to produce dies for metal injection moulding, or to a more traditional machinist who will turn the blank and mill the teeth. I acknowledge that it would be better to start from a NOS or at least functional original part though!

Yes but there are a lot of factors in the longevity of any mechanical part, such as gears. The material is but one. If I had a machine that I could not run without a certain part I would far rather have a short-life copy of a part I could afford to replace every so often than a part I could not afford to buy, or that was simply not available. For a hobbyist or collector simply being able to run that machine would be worth the price of entry. For a professional that part would help in producing enough product to replace the part with a "proper" part or upgrade to a better machine. Further, for many machines technical drawings for replacement parts are not freely available. Being able to rapidly and inexpensively prototype replacement parts in order to test design and function prior to investing the time and money in producing that part in proper material would be an enormous advantage.

I just about spat my coffee. Known a few of those sorts -- "farmers/tradies/manual workers do it, how hard could it be?" The sort of people who you hear circus music in the background whenever they're talking. You could always apply a touch of marketing wank to avoid all that "eeew horse leather" stuff and call it brumby leather... something tells me the sorts who get uppity about using a slightly different type of hooven beast's hide aren't going to know much about cattle stations.

I don't have a 29k but great idea! I'll keep you in mind for a few projects that I've got on the back burner, if you're amenable.

Pit tanning (agitated by water wheel), hides manipulated by hand, and almost entirely hand finishing. They keep a good stock of crust so even if what you want isn't "off the peg" they can finish a hide for you pretty quickly. But if you want something special that doesn't match their part-finished hides they start your order by putting a wet blue in the liming pit, and it takes as long as it takes. They also brew/ferment their own tanliquor from oak bark. Most of the tanners have forearms bigger than my thighs. And that's just for equestrian/SLG type leather. Soling is about 24 months.