Matt S

I have little further to add to this topic other than what others have said quite clearly: there is no single or even a narrow range of leathers that is suitable for any particular job. Beginners guides are deliberately vague because they have to be -- their purpose is to give a basic starting point, and they cannot spoon-feed the exact answers because the answer varies in the circumstances. I have seen the same phenomenon with beginners asking the same questions, usually ones that are already answered or can only be answered by themselves because of their individual circumstances, on forums, social groups and mailing lists on all sorts of topics, not just leatherwork. To date I can think of examples in the fields of blacksmithing, woodwork, bushcraft/camping, shooting, welding and canoeing where, as alluded to up the page, the beginners asking questions that only they can answer (beyond broad guidance and individual example) are generally the ones who want to walk before they can run.

The Pearson/BUSMC #6 is a great machine, especially considering it was designed when Queen Victoria was busy being all queenlike. The Juki 441 and its various clones are also great machines (or so I hear, never seen one in the flesh). There is stuff a 441 can do that a 6 can't -- like reverse and sew bag gussets. Equally there's stuff that a #6 can do that a 441 can't -- like Big Sioux says with the right attachment you can channel as you go, you can sew rounds, there's pricking/set-up feet for neat work. One of the things I like best that's missing from a lot of modern machines is that it has a rectangular needle feed motion, which keeps the stitch length the same no matter how thick the material -- climb from a single thickness to 4x thicknesses of 4mm leather and back down again and your stitches will be exactly the same length all the way along. The length adjustment wheel is actually marked in stitches per inch, it's very finely adjustable (great for repairs or the aforementioned pricking feet) and it's accurate. It has a semi-self-adjusting tension mechanism too which is completely different to 99% of the machines I see, so again the same tension setting will pretty much work with any thickness of leather. Spare parts are tricky with the #6, considering it's been out of manufacture for over half a century. Needles are also a problem, Schmetz Nm230 are relatively common though that limits you to 18/5 thread. I'm lucky enough to have a fair stock of NOS needles and some spare parts which came with my machine, plus the later style of treadle stand. This really helps with sewing longer lengths but if I didn't have it I'd happily motorise it. Even with a motor it's not a fast machine -- the manual suggests no faster than 300SPM, which I think is about right -- above this speed it jumps about like a washing machine with a breeze block in it. I like my #6 but I think the 441 is a more general-purpose machine.

Thanks Harry, I appreciate it. I actually have a 45K58 on a proper industrial treadle base that I keep meaning to sell. It's not getting enough use to justify the houseroom it takes up and I'm sure somebody will make better use of it than me.

@hwinbermuda Harry, that's a great looking machine. Ready for another 104 years' use now! Do you know what servo you have on it? I'm shopping for one for my Adler 5, which is essentially a 45K21. 45Ks are great machines. Bombproof, capable, and easy to adjust. Not fashionable these days, which means that those of us who appreciate them can pick them up for relatively little money. @chrisash There's plenty of 1980s machines still going strong, they just don't look pretty so people don't tend to show them off so much as their more experienced machines. Look at Jukis, Adlers and Seikos from that era and the quality was no less than that of the old Singers, and in some ways were better. In fact by the 80s Singer had closed its factories and was selling rebadged Seikos. However by that point the market for heavy leather goods (industrial parts, luggage, horse harness etc.) had dropped and where it still existed a higher finish was demanded so features like compound-feed and reverse feed were required by the factories.

There's a lot of this information already out there. YouTube videos, books, magazine articles, forum posts, blog posts, talking with leatherworkers from all corners of the craft, greybeards at the (decent) leather shop... more knowledge than you can shake a loop stick at. Most of it for very little or no money.

Doesn't look like any hoofpick I've ever used.

Hey Peg, congratulations on the No 6! I, and I'm sure lots of others, would enjoy seeing pictures of the old gal. What thread are you using, and how is the nose of the shuttle? On a boat/bullet shuttle machine like the No 6 the nose should be sharp, polished and without burrs. This is the functional equivalent to the shuttle hook on a more modern machine so has to pass very close to the needle scarf in order to prevent the stitches skipping.

Fair enough. I've considered trying out some Kevlar or Nomex threads but I haven't seen any real-world advantages outside of a few niches like welders' gear. The limited colour and size ranges readily available in the UK, along with the technical issues associated with them (see above posts from more experienced leatherworkers than I) have made me realise that these threads are exotic for a reason. I use v138 (TKT20) bonded nylon in my wallets wherever I can. I use a lot of this -- for dress belts, dog collars and leads/leashes, smaller bags, all the usual stuff. Usually Coats Nylbond as it's good stuff, readily available in about 20 colours, at a reasonable cost. Like Constabulary I've used Serafil in the past, and been impressed. It's a very easy to use thread, partly because it's polyester and partly because it's not bonded. Only minor snag (literally) is that it's unbonded, which slightly increases the chance of it catching on something. However the advantage is that it opens up slightly once sewn, which makes it look a little bigger than it is -- a bit like the yellow thread they use for topsewing on jeans. I don't use it much because it's 3 or more times more expensive than Nylbond and not so easily available.

@medion, is there any particular reason that you're using v69 thread? Unless you have a very particular reason for using exotic thread you will probably find that using a thicker nylon, polyester or linen thread will give you more strength than you need. V69, for instance, is something I only use on light duty items like pocket notebooks and wallet internals. If you want the "strongest" machine sewable thread I'd say it depends on what you mean by strongest. If it's breaking strain it may well be the TKT3 (about v600) bonded nylon I've recently come across. It's about 1mm diameter.

I used one of the standard Ivan strap cutters from Le Prevo for several years, which was fine for stiffer leathers I was using almost exclusively at the time. Some point this year it broke (short grain under stress where the blade attaches) so I ordered a replacement, which kept cutting crooked or wobbly. Schick razor blades helped a little (sharper, thinner and more use per blade than the 'correct' blades). However it was still ruining more leather than it should, especially on softer leathers. After some research I noticed that the slot where the blade sits wasn't cut dead square so bought one of the original brand strap cutters for double the price. I've never had a problem caused by the tool since. In a low-quality photo on a website there appears little difference but in person the quality of the US-made once is vastly better. The proper one is, for instance, made from decent rock maple, whereas the Far Eastern one is made from something a bit like lime/bass wood, which I have seen called chu wood before. In addition the size markings on the American one are far more accurate. The only UK source I've found is Abbey.

What difficulties are you having with a hand-held ("drive" or "wad") punch? This will be vastly easier to use than any pliers style hole punch. What sort of leather are you using that it won't go through? Have you tried sharpening or lubricating your punch? What are you punching into/onto?

@GeneH the size of John James needles depends on what thread you're using. As Zuludog recommends above, size 002 is probably the general-purpose size, easy to use with 18/3 or 18/4 linen for instance. This size needle also works well with the 0.6mm and 0.8mm Ritza/Tiger thread. I keep sizes 004, 002 and 00 on hand for various sizes of thread. 004 is probably too small for any but the slimmest hand-sewing threads unless you roll your own linen threads, or scrape tapers into machine-rolled ones. Sizes 1 and 3 are exactly the same as 2 for... unclear reasons. 0, 00 and 000 are pretty hefty. I use 00 with 18/5 linen but find the eyes a little tight for 18/6 without tapering the ends -- 000 would probably be fine for such chunky threads.

@GeneH The Osborne 43 isn't too terrible for £10 (probably $10 Stateside). You might also want to invest in a packet of John James harness needles. They're probably the cheapest top-level professional tool you'll ever buy.

@CutThumb What particular tools and dyes are you after? For online orders I prefer Le Prevo (website circa 1995) and Abbey England (better website but you need to sign up for an account before seeing prices -- they primarily sell to trade but I initially got my account by describing myself as a student). For comparable items both these companies' prices are better than Tandy, even with the Elite membership which I get for free as a business customer. LP have a sometimes excellent clearance/bargain section and Abbey has a really wide range of hard-to-get items -- as ARZ says above their brass hardware is excellent (it should be, they own their own foundry in Walsall...)

@hwinbermuda Have you tried JT Bachelor in Dalston? Their website is positively... Spartan, no online sales, but they are happy to send orders from phone or emails. They have a pretty decent range of Chicago screws and SB studs. I'll be there in the morning actually -- if you want I can buy them for you and drop them in the post. I also rather rate Hebar/Green Grizzly. Excellent range of similar fittings, reasonable prices, they are very upfront about which items are brass/non-brass, and usually a very quick service.

This is something I'm quite interested in too. My primary interest would be in making cutting templates, jigs and fixtures from acrylic, hardboard or plywood plus marking/engraving leather as an alternative to embossing/debossing. This would be especially useful for those situations where buying an embossing plate wouldn't be economically viable, or too big for my little embossing presses to handle. Any device I've seen within my budget is too small to take a piece of leather that doesn't need a lot of cutting down so I might as well cut it with a manual knife or a press knife. I've looked at Razorlab, probably make an order in the new year for templates that I can't buy press knives for, as they would be too big to fit in my cutting press. Their materials charges are pretty reasonable but of course the cutting charge is added to this, which varies with the job. I'll report back with my experiences. In the mean time I've just bought a large-format printer and will soon be experimenting with how heavy a card it can print on. I think it'll be handy for prototyping designs before I have press knives or templates made. Even if it can only print on normal paper I will paste it onto foamboard, which I have found makes an adequate marking template but is too easily damaged to use as a cutting template.

Harness makers used to use a specific black sticky wax which was used only on the top few inches of thread, which would grab on very well, no piercing needed. This is in the context of hand rolled linen threads, which have beautiful long tapers on the ends. Once the needles were locked on the whole thread, including the bit with sticky wax, was rubbed heavily with a more slippery wax, like beeswax or coad. I tried this out a few times just for the experience but for the things I do (which don't include tugs or traces) it was overkill and far too laborious.

$40 of glue? Blimey I get a litre of mind-bendingly good leather-specific contact cement for £8.40 including 20% tax. Not often that stuff's cheaper here on the right-hand-side of the pond! I have no direct experience of that style of glue pot. I use the TS Boy glue pots, which are pretty widely available. Smallest size is about £10 over here and holds enough glue for at least 3 SQFT of coverage, which is plenty enough for me to do a batch of a dozen dog leads or belts. They're not completely gas-proof so glue does eventually dry out in the pot but they seal well and it does take quite some time (days to weeks) for it to set solid (faster in the hot weather). Even if it does go thick I follow advice I was given an oldboy and set the pot turned on its back when it's not in use, so there's plenty of space inside to pour solvent if/when it dries out. Give it a few swirls round and leave it a few hours and it's back to normal. Brushes live in a mayonnaise jar full of solvent when not in use.

Colt 1911 only has 7 round per magazine. 3x7=21, which isn't many of you're counting on it saving your life one day. For comparison a Glock 17, standard for those bobbies who carry a pistol, has 17 rounds per magazine and they carry at least one spare. They're not going to war either and usually only fire a few rounds in the very rare event that they fire their pistol at somebody.

No, the maximum height it reaches above the needle plate -- like your photo but upwards rather than sidewards. It's tricky to get a steel rule or depth mic in there, so I do something like this: However I use a piece of steel that's the right thickness -- a piece of shimstock, a stanley knife blade, a cheap steel rule, etc. -- laid flat on the needle plate next to the feed dog. Doesn't need to be accurate to a thou, just feel flush with the steel shim to the fingertips. It is my experience that if the dog rises much more than 0.5mm above the needle plate there is a reducing effect on stitch length. On my machine it's a simple adjustment of 2 screws (once the cylinder bed end cap and cover is removed). Yours is likely to be similar.

@seikostewHow high is your feed-dog? I've found that if the feed-dog is much more than 0.5mm proud of the needle-plate at its zenith (just before needle BDC) it tends to shorten the stitch length... somehow... I know it's not the issue here but be aware that with eliptical-motion needle like this that stitch length reduces with increasing material thickness. For this reason I always check stitch length (forward and back) with a piece of paper or card. For your application I think that this won't be a major problem, as most of the sewing you will do is flat.

Beautiful bag, @scrapyarddog. If I may ask, how heavy is it?

I've got a slack handful of old creasers. Mostly intended for saddlery and harness work I think, though I don't do that sort of thing. (Well, not for horses...) Some are fixed and others screw creasers. About half are shoulder creasers, and they get used more than twice as much as the hand creasers. They can be used cold but the effect isn't very pronounced unless you case the leather, and then it only works on veg tanned leather. I prefer to use them hot, as this produces a deeper, crisper, more permanent impression and is much faster than doing it cold. Normally I do each crease line twice -- once lightly and a little slow, in order to establish the line accurately. Then I rewarm the creaser a couple seconds and do the line again, deeper and with more downwards force. Takes under a minute to crease a belt made of bridle leather this way, and it's permanent.

Hi David, Have you tried reducing your bobbin tension? This would be my next course of action if adjusting the top tension didn't get what I wanted. Just a quarter or eighth of a turn anticlockwise at first. Then sew a few inches of scrap leather similar to what you'll be sewing "for real" and take a look. You may have to tweak your top tension a little again at this point to get it right. If that doesn't work, back the bottom tension off a little more and try again. You may be able to find a "happy medium" which tensions TKT20 and TKT40 thread are tensioned properly but there's an equal chance that you'll have to tweak the bottom tension a little each time you change thread size. Next action, if that doesn't solve it, would be to go up one needle size, as JLS says. Yes some brands of thread behave differently, and even some colours within the same brand. Black is notorious for being awkward as it is sometimes made by redyeing brighter colours, which can leave it... crunchier? Harder? Stiffer? Don't know what the right word is but essentially it is more reluctant to bend, which means it can cause problems in some machines, especially when forming a loop. I've got a few king spools of black nylon that's been sitting at the back of my thread shelf now, while I have never had a problem with Coats Nylbond in any colour. (It might help that I only buy it from sources that I know have a fast turnover -- nylon thread is apparently freshware. Saving a few quid buying "bargain" old stock or random-brand thread is often a false economy.) Somac makes good thread and it looks like they only started making Somabond 2 years ago so I wouldn't think it's a thread problem per se in your case.

Thanks for the info. I was excited about the idea of a swing-arm press for under 1k. I should have known better than a useful tool at a decent price from Tandy. I've not had much luck getting a price, or any response, from Noya. Nor have I found any resellers. There is one recently come up second-hand on eBay UK but the seller wants £1400, which is almost the full price of a Lucris and a little more than a Cowboy. I've seen full sized, good condition "real" clicker presses go for far less money. One day I'll have enough space and access to get one of those. In the mean time I'll continue with my £60 bearing press.