amuckart

3M Make a product called Scotch Guard Protector that is advertised to be for suede. Anything that isn't waxy or oily and will dry and allow the suede to be slightly fuzzy should be fine. Suede is mostly chrome tanned these days, but the word only describes the surface treatment, not the tannage, so you can have veg tanned suede. Most of what we think of as suede is really skivers, the leftover stuff from splitting chrome leathers down to thickness. As far as I know, true suede is a brushed finish on full-grain leather. That was really an aside, the checkers board is almost certainly chrome tanned.

I've never heard of it but I use dry-spun 10/1 almost exclusively for hand sewing so I'll be really interested in what it's like to work with.

The pitch you're sewing at shouldn't make any difference to the technique you use, just the size of awl and thread. There's a few threads on the forum about keeping your stitches even front and back. If the forum search isn't working for you try using google and appending site:leatherworker.net to the end of the search which will restrict the search to just this site. Absolute consistency is the key, and ensuring your awl is perfectly perpendicular to the surface of the leather in both planes for each stitch. The Art of Hand Sewing Leather by Al Stohlman is the standard reference people refer to, if you don't already have a copy that'd be a good place to start.

That's very clever, thanks for the pointer.

Sharpening that shouldn't take too long, or more than six or seven dollars in abrasives if you don't already have any. It's an extremely worthwhile skill to learn because being able to sharpen tools is one of the most important skills a leatherworker can have IMO. I recently bought a box lot of leatherworking tools from an estate, which included a rather nice, but long neglected Dixon french edger that was blunt and somewhat rusted. I don't have a 'before' photo of it but I've got a picture of a hook knife that was in the same lot and is in much the same condition as the edger was. Hook knife before: Edger after, front & back The back was easy, I took the corrosion off with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper laid on a piece of glass then worked through 15, 5 and 0.5 micron microfinishing sheets, again on glass. You could just go with regular 1000 grit to 1200 grit wet/dry paper then hone on a leather strop, but the 3M sheets cut faster. Use a small drop of baby oil to float the swarf. I used maybe three square inches of each sheet to do this. To do the groove I whittled a flat into a dowel then whittled the sides into a trapezoid shape until it was the right width, wrapped the abrasives over that and used it like an extremely fine file. On a new blade this probably isn't necessary but there was pitting on this one I had to clean up. You don't have to use dowel, I just happened to have a snapped off chunk lying around. All in all it took me less than 10 minutes to take the tool from unusable to shaving edges just fine. The size makes my one a slightly easier job than your really narrow ones, but with those you can just whittle a bit of wood into a long thin triangle section and shave off enough of the sharp edge to give you the width you need, or just fold a piece of abrasive paper over a cord of the right size and use that. This is my only edger, but if I had more (which I will, one day), I'd take a block plane and shape hardwood slips for each one and just charge those directly with honing compound.

I have a belt with that acrylic finish on it. Looks great for the first little while but after a few years the finish starts flaking off and looks terrible.

Frobana/Gritzner are neat machines, built like clocks. Useless for anything other than outsoling shoes but quite good at that if you can get needles for them.

Here's a video from Campbell-Randall's youtube channel showing one being tested. You can reasonably clearly see the loops on the back

From a quick look at the specs of that Juki on the 'net I think it's going to be too light for what you want. Foot lift by knee is only 16mm, which is only 5'8", which means you'd be running the machine close to or at it's max capacity all the time, which you don't really want to do. TwinOaks has the right of it, call Bob and Steve, tell them what your budget is and what you're sewing and they'll see you right.

Neat, I hope they become available for other 441 clones too.

Do you have more photos of the roller guide on your machine? I like the style that swings down a whole lot more than the ones that bolt on next to the needle plate, but I've never seen one on a 441 before. Cheers.

Do you need a cylinder arm or a flat bed machine for the harnesses you're making? When you say "fairly thick" what do you mean, 1/2"? 3/4"? 1-1/2"? For *serious* heavy duty stuff, you want a 7-class machine using SM x1000 needles.

The key to storing almost any natural oil, neatsfoot, cod liver, or olive, is to store it sealed and in the dark. UV does more bad things to it than warmth.

Has anyone tried cod liver oil? It's a bit smellier than olive oil while it's oxidising but chemically it's supposed to be the best thing for veg tan.

Chris, Firstly let me say a public thank you for the great service I got on my recent order. They arrived today and they're both beautiful and fantastic to use. Secondly, sorry for adding to the backlog, but I couldn't read this without getting one an order in for the "holster maker's special". Enjoy your time with your daughter.

Thanks all, I appreciate the info.

I've read quite a few threads on Adler 205-370s and figure they're the ne plus ultra of machines in their class, but I'm curious about the clones. Most manufacturers seem to have gone with 441 clones except for Cowboy/Hightex who make both 441 and 205 clones. is there a particular reason for that? The only difference I can spot on spec is that the 441s will do a couple more mm than the 205s and the 205s are a bit more finnicky to time and set the hook than the 441s. Either will probably be an excellent machine for what I want to do but I'd be interested in whether there's much in the way of practical difference between a 441 clone and a 205 clone. For me, the extra couple of mm of capacity isn't a major thing since I have a No.6 for the really big stuff. Thanks.

This is an old thread, I'm mostly chucking this in here for the sake of the search function, the Seiko equivalent of this machine is the CH-8B. Campbell-Bosworth have feet and parts for them.

A question about converting between different thread size formats. What does a "V" in the front of the number signify? I rang a local supplier here about bonded polyester and the sizes they quoted me were V69 - V207. Thanks.

I saw Dan at Campbell-Randall mention that he had feet for this machine in another thread on the board so I rang him this morning during the brief window when I'm awake and he's at work. The Seiko-fitting feet and plates aren't significantly more expensive than the 441 ones, so there is a source for them. Of course, that done, I've eyeballed the machine and found it's not in very good nick, so it might be back to square one. We'll see.

For veg tan leather you can't go past cod liver oil and tallow, it's the traditional currier's formula.

The parts diagram [PDF] is linked off of Shoe Systems Plus' 5-in-1 parts page there's also a parts list. Hmm, I have a Dania clone of the 5-in-1 I really should finish putting back together again someday....

This is all down to the motor, which is really a separate part. The machine itself will operate at as low a speed as you want to drive it. Upholsterers set them up with fast motors to work fast for long runs, but they'll work well driven slowly by a servo and/or speed reducer too. What you do need to make sure of when driving them at low speed is that there is enough friction in the drive belt to transmit the torque to the motor. Without the inertia of the motor and machine operating at speed you can lose punching power if the belt slips.

I now see the misapprehension I was working under. I thought the CH-8 was a 441 clone with quirks, I hadn't realised that it was a completely different machine. Thank you all for your help, especially Bob & Wiz who've both spent a bit of time answering my queries on this machine. For the cost of the head (and the fact that I don't have to tack on 30% in duties like I would for an imported machine) it might well be worth my money to buy it and get custom feet made, but I'll see what that costs and go from there.

Thank you both.