amuckart

Awls aren't terribly difficult to make so long as you're willing to go through a few practice pieces. Start with some high carbon steel stock that's close to the size you want. For really small stuff 'music wire' from a model supplies shop is good. For bigger stuff I've used various things from spring steel offcuts and old allen keys to concrete nails from the hardware store. Grind off all the bits that don't look like the awl you want. Stare at the result, repeat until you've got something that works for you. The tip is the important bit, I've found that for really small stuff an oval blade works better than a diamond one, and is easier to make.

Aaaand that @#!@#$!@#! link has broken again. The file is there, honest, my website software is just being a pain. I'll try and fix it.

It's probably due to wear in the parts that move the foot. The various parts that move the foot to feed get worn and slop. They also feed a lot shorter the thicker the material you're sewing. The best explanation I've seen for how the feed works, is this one, by Ken Jerrems: http://alasdair.muckart.net/files/KenJerrems29k13/KenJerremsSinger29K13.pdf He shimmed his one up with brass, but brass wears real fast against steel, so if you want to do actual work with it, talk to Bob at Toledo Industrial, and get the relevant parts from him.

A wheel feed machine has a roller instead of a pressor foot. Modern ones have the wheel driven in time with the lower feed. Some also combine needle feed. The roller makes turning corners much easier, and because it is off to one side of the needle it's much easier to see what you're doing with decorative stitching. All the cowboy boot makers I've seen use roller foot machines for decorative work.

Don't worry, it's not just you. They are brief and vague. The only reason I got as far with my 7441 is because I went in with a lot of familiarity with different machines already. If that'd been my first machine and the instructions were all I had, I'd have been completely lost. There's definitely a market for a well-written 441 operators manual, that's for sure.

By my count you're up to three machines so far. For decorative stitching ou want a wheel-feed machine, for light to mid weight work the Cobra 3 is too big for you want something like a Seiko LSC8 and I'm not sure what you mean about "sideways stitching option". The thing about industrial machines is that they tend to be made to do one thing, quickly and well with a minimum of down time. That tends to limit their inherent flexibility.

Bob, Thank you! Information on Singer threads is incredibly difficult to find, the most usual response I've seen is "they're wierd and proprietary and there's no information about them". Do you sell the kits? Thanks again.

You could make a small version of the angled jig on Brent's Sharpening Pages. It'd work well for swivel knife blades and fit any blade type you wanted to.

The Cowboy should have this too. My Hightex 7441AE, which is the same machine from the same factory, has a part connected to the foot lift mechanism that spreads the top tension plates. Have a look at this post on my thread about the machine about midway through the post there are pictures of the mechanism. it doesn't disengage the lower 'wrap-around' tension mechanism though.

Briefly. Maybe.

Oil it lightly and leave it in the sun.

It's a Rafflenbeul outsoling machine. They seem to be more common in Europe than elsewhere. I desperately want one but I've never seen one in AU or NZ. As with most outsolers, they're good for boot and shoe soles, but basically useless for anything else because they have such a tiny throat depth. Googling for "Rafflenbeul doppelmaschine" will get you some info on them but the vast majority of it is in German.

You have the feed dog for crepe soles, it's a different unit to the channel knife. I have the same on my one. Somewhere that sells needles should also be able to sell you a channel knife. I believe the channel knife also acts somewhat like an awl, there is a protruding bit on the left of the knife that aligns with the needle during the feed stroke, which makes a lot of sense in the context of hard outsole leather. This post at the Crispin Colloquy shows pictures of the channel knife.

If you loctite the screw in, what do you do when you need to change feed dogs? Do you have to clean out the hole again?

It's an old Frobana/Gritzner. It looks filthy, but complete as far as I can tell from the pictures. I have a manual for it, PM me your email address and I'll send you a copy. It won't sew anything under about 1/4"/6mm thick. It's designed for outsoling shoes and boots, and that's all it's really good for. It's really good for that though, if you don't mind the two-cranks-per-stitch action of the machine, which gets real old real fast until you motorise it. Needles for it can be had, but they're about 8euro each. Google and you'll find the crowd in Europe that sells them. The needles are enormous and don't break easy and can be sharpened so you only need a handful. One down side of the needle size is that they cut a pretty big hole relative to the thread they'll pass, but in the aesthetic of their designed task (outsoling shoes) that isn't necessarily a problem the way it is for other leatherwork. It uses different needles to the Junker & Ruh SD.28. I have a slightly newer one that came to me filthy out the back of an orthotics shop. I degreased and cleaned it up well, and the foot lift release was still so siezed I didn't realise it moved until months later. I like them, they're built like swiss watches and work very nicely for their designed task in a package that's far more compact than a curved needle & awl machine.

IMO, you'll waste your time and destroy an otherwise great sewing machine. "Remarkably hefty" for a domestic machine is still puny and weak by the standards of an industrial machine designed to sew leather. You could do wallets and clothing weight leather on a 201 if you're willing to accept wearing it out faster, but 4.5mm is way out of its capabilities. Size 92 thread will look strangely thin on something that thick too. Have a read of Wiz's "The Type of Machine you Need to Sew Leather" thread, pinned at the top of the sewing machines forum.

From what I've read the ensifer ones are made of hard rubber. They're just articulated with leather. I've got enough experience with WMA and leather to say I've never seen any leather, even hard rolled sole bend, that I would use for hand armour for bouting with steel swords that wouldn't end up as bulky as a lacrosse glove or worse. I'd use it for shinai, sure; rattan, maybe; steel no way, no how. The only things I've seen that will give you adequate protection and enough hand mobility to not stuff up the subtleties of technique are steel or equivalent metal, or kydex and the kydex is a bit dodgy IMO. By all means find a Milanese mitten gauntlet pattern and make it out of leather, but test it really really well before you trust it to protect you from someone else hitting you in the fingers.

How many have you done? It'll probably get easier after 20 or so.

Hands are just difficult to armour; "something that will take a hit from a longsword" and "not expensive/difficult to make" are pretty much mutually exclusive as far as I've seen. Lacrosse gloves are about as good as it gets. What you want are steel finger gauntlets with some decent low-profile modern padding inside the gloves, but finger gauntlets are expensive for good reason - ones that fit well take a lot of practice to make. Leather isn't really the right material for this job, it's strength/thickness ratio means it's very hard to get something that will provide reasonable protection without being even bulkier than lacrosse gloves. Not much help, I know, but there are reasons everything you've seen is either steel or costume accessory.

Nahh, I had a nasty bout of food poisoning a few years ago and it made me gluten intolerant. It really sucks, because I love beer and gluten-free beer costs more than cider and tastes like someone already drank it.

Yes, both in absolute quality (the sander leaves a fuzzy surface and edges) and in time. The sander might seem easy now, when skiving is a new skill you haven't mastered yet, but think about what you're doing when you do it with the sander, having to power it, presumably bracing the leather, and dealing with all the noise and dust, etc. compared to the few seconds lap skiving will take you with a sharp knife and a bit of practice. Now multiply that over your leatherworking lifetime... I taught myself to skive with a 'shoe knife', properly sharp, and a bunch of scrap, over the course of an evening. Half an hour of constant practice and I was getting pretty good, an hour after that I'd gone through a bunch of other types of knife and figured out which ones worked best, and then it was on to other sorts of leather. I've got a bunch of different knives now and every time I've gotten a new one I sit down and play with it in various scraps until I've got the hang of it. I still use the shoe knife a fair bit though. Now if I need to skive a strap end, or a fold over, or whatever, I just pick up a knife and do it. Of course, you also need to learn how to properly sharpen your knives, but in leatherwork that's already a non-optional skill.

If it were me I'd buy the thread and wax myself and get the client to buy the leather. It's best to get your own consumables since they'll last several pairs of shoes and give you materials to practice with. What you don't see much of on my blog is all the practice pieces I've burned through. I should probably put more of those up though. Whenever I've come across a new technique I've gone through piles of scrap working it out before trying it on a shoe. Fit is a bit harder, the two shoes I cut in half and put up pictures of ended up that way because the construction was fine but they just didn't fit the feet they were for. Beer in NZ has come a long way since you were here, you should come back and try the Mac's and Monteith's and the other specialist breweries around now. Sadly I can't drink beer any more, but fortunately NZ also does excellent wines.

Emailed. One of these days I'll get it online properly.

Hi Vince, Making wax isn't particularly difficult or messy provided you set yourself up right and use a disposable pot or a tin can to heat the mix in. I've got step-by-step instructions on my blog. The main thing is to avoid setting yourself on fire, so long as you avoid that you're fine. If you really want to make a mess, try rendering 2kg of tallow from suet sometime. I use shoemakers wax (code) for all my hand sewing these days, shoes or not. It's a bit of a pain at first but once you get used to it you won't want to go back. You can't build anything like as strong a seam without it. If you don't use it, get pre-waxed thread or use synthetic or the threads will rot out of your shoes in no time. The thread you want is 10/1, single strand linen shoe thread. I believe Campbell-Randall used to sell it but I'm not sure if they still do. I bought a lifetime supply off ebay a few years ago so I haven't paid attention to current sources since then. Leffler leather in Melbourne, Australia sell balls of Coats Barbour "Linen Single Shoe" thread in 12/1 if you can't find it anywhere else. Search their online store for THRSINLINSHO. It comes in 4-5oz balls which spool out from the middle. You taper the ends and ply it up yourself then add bristles (or a thin flexible needle). There are instructions for that on my blog too. If you can't find any of that you can use 3-strand dacron/teklon thread but I'm not sure if that can be had in small quantities or not. 12/3 is probably Ok. for closing seams, but you'll want something a bit heavier for the sole seam if you want the shoes to last well. I use 3 strands of #10 for my closing seams and 5-9 strands for the sole seam depending on the weight of the shoe. I wouldn't want anything less than 8/3 for linen in the sole seam. If you don't go the route of using single-strand thread you'll need to un-ply 8-12 inches and taper the ends then wax and re-ply it to allow you to put a needle or bristle on smoothly. It's well worth going through this process to save trying to haul a folded full thickness through awl holes. P.S: Purely for the sake of googling usefully, 'turnsole' is a flower. A turnshoe goes on your foot.