Art

I generally skive and then roll the edge. You can also apply binding to the edge instead of rolling. You can also use hot irons, color and wax on the edges to finish them. Art

It depends on what you are doing. Most times the larger cylinder diameter is there to facilitate a larger bobbin. If you sew a lot of heavy thread, this can be a plus. Smaller diameters get into smaller places, but I've never needed that, a patcher can sometimes suffice. Art

If you see an Amish cart or buggy on the side of the road without one wheel.....well you get the picture. Art

No it is a stitch that looks like a saddler or harnessmaker did it. The 301 lock stitch locks in the needle hole, but the top thread stays on top and the bobbin thread stays on the bottom. The needle forms a loop that the hook or shuttle passes around the bobbin thread, when the machine pulls up the thread, the bobbin thread is pulled up into the leather. With the saddle stitch, the threads pass by each other in the leather and the top thread is alternatively on the top and then the bottom for every other stitch, ditto the bottom thread. The stitch is made with a saddler's awl for making the hole, and two harness needles (blunt) for each end of the thread. Art

You can get a good one made in the US for a grand or so, but a Chinese one from Bob will go $175 or so. Art

If you go hunting down a 110, make sure it is a 110w100, anything else will have various and sundry trimmers that you will have to disable. The stitch spacing is usually fixed (it varies with stitch gear sets) at 12-16 which may limit you to 33 or 46 thread, but it is the exact ticket for boot top decoration. Art

Raquel, Many who use them a lot consider the Peter Main tool to be the best. I like the Bob Beard tools, but I have a few of Barry King's that I use a lot. C.S. Osborne makes some excellent modellers that you can get from Springfield Leather for reasonable prices. Art

No, the 111 is a walking foot machine, Art

Tabitha, Since you do restorations, I won't write a book about this. There is no one stop product to solve your problem, your are going to have to do it from scratch. First I would clean the boots, tree them, and let them dry, at least a day or two in AZ. Second, I would oil them with something like Montana Pitchblend Oil, that will dry without any residue. If the oil is gone in an hour or two, oil them again lightly, if not ONE COAT ONLY. Let them dry another couple of days for the oil to distribute evenly throughout the leather. Now using an airbrush and Liquitex Soft Body Professional Artist Acrylic thinned with a little Liquitex Airbrush Medium, apply several light coats of color to the cracks, light coats, light coats and let them dry. Do just the cracks, not the whole boot, did I say light coats of acrylic. Use a good cream polish on the cracked area and blend over the whole boot, then build up a good wax based spit shine over the whole boot with Lincoln stain wax polish. You have a couple three hours work there. Art

We will call that the final note and consider this topic well and truly closed. Art Moderator

I have seen a 108, but don't remember the w number. The only reason I remember it is that it looked like a 153 variant, but threaded right to left. If I remember correctly, it was set up with a binder. All that being said, I would give it a pass. It would PROBABLY do light weight leather, 4 or 5 oz shoe leather with a 2 oz binding, so say 8 oz. Just speculating. Given the right to left threading, it would have a special hook, probably made of unobtanium. Art

Up to 1 Gallon can be shipped ORM-D without the $25 fee, more than 1 Gallon, the fee applies. Art

In my opinion, Master is a better product. Petronio is in NJ, give them a call and give Master a try. Don't even think of getting a gallon of any contact cement without getting a gallon of thinner. Info on Petronio: Petronio Shoe Products Corp. Manufacturers of Master and Petronio Brand® Adhesives and Shoe Care Products 305 Cortlandt Street,Belleville, New Jersey 07109 tel.973.751.7579 or 888.SHOE GLU•fax:973.759.7324 E-mail:info@petronioshoeproducts.com Art

Hi Mia, I think I'm in with Ferg on this. Personally, I generally do not send money unless I know exactly how it is spent. As Ferg said, we have never seen an outright solicitation for funds here on Leatherworker.net. We have been asked for personal support, and support for a business, but not funding. There are a few folks here who will support someone with tools or even cash at our own discretion, but that support is never solicited (some folks make it hard on us and won't even put their names and location in their profiles, but eventually they give us a clue). Everyone is hurting in this economy, but if you want to do serious leatherwork, it can be done. I would recommend you post your work here and accept help from the pros that hang around here in just about every discipline. Their advice and guidance are worth far more than $2000. We have folks on here that can do as much with 3 or 4 modelers as I can with a pretty fair complement of Bob Beard tools. Leatherworker.net is the most free flowing resource there is, drop by often and show us your work. Art

Hi Denise, Newer operating systems have indexes to just about everything that they maintain during idle time. Norton and McAfee are always doing idle time scans etc. Windows Update will download and sometimes install patches at startup, most times interfering with more desired processes like your browser that on startup is going to all the websites you have open. So, if it seems like your computer is doing a lot and you are doing nothing, it is and you are. Years ago, Mickey (Microsoft) provided it's own version of Antivirus and Anti spy/malware software with the Windows operating system. They got their asses sued off by Norton and McAfee and they could not provide the antivirus bundled with their systems, they could provide the anti spy/malware product called Windows Defender bundled in with Windows for free. They were forbidden bundling antivirus with Windows so they don't. What they were not forbidding from doing was providing the antivirus service (with updates online) for free. The product is Microsoft Security Essentials, which you can download and update for free. Security Essentials is a comprehensive package that does everything Defender does plus other things like antivirus. When you install Security Essentials, it turns off Defender as it is not necessary at that point, however do not uninstall Defender, just leave it turned off. Art

http://vanamburgleather.com/leathers/ Jerry is also a leather artist and can help you if you need to know how to accomplish something with a particular leather. Art

AK, Like the old 45, they are bottom feed only machines and require toothed feed dogs and relatively high presser foot pressure to move heavy stuff. The dogs will tend to mark the back of smooth leather and the feet can leave tracks, especially on smooth veg tan. Textured chrome tan is usually not a problem, top or bottom. Tracks on veg tan can be removed with a slicker. Marks from feed dogs may be kind of permanent. If you have the kind of work this machine will support then OK, but if you do general work with a lot of veg tan, go with a 441 clone with the triple or sometimes called unison feed where you have needle feed, sometimes bottom feed, and walking feet. Dogs can be smooth, feet can be smooth and the needle does most of the work. You can run lighter presser foot pressures for less marking. Art

Make in Spring or Fall for the 2:1 recipe and use water that is just cool. The 2:1:.33 Pitch/Rosin/Wax recipe works well too, but the Pitch is awful to boil down, that stuff gets on everything. Has anyone ever tried Black Bullriders Rosin, I have a few pounds of it, but never tried it in the 2:1 recipe. Art

Hi Syl, For THAT you will need a Campbell. Art

Hi Miett, A lot of folks like and use Organ Needles without reservation. Personally, I find them a little bendy, for lack of a better description. I prefer Groz Beckert and Schmetz needles. I think you have to be sewing a while to get that particular, but that particular I am. I have a friend in the production line of fabric sewing that gets better mileage fron the Organ needles with titanium coatings. I don't know if I sew enough to even worry. Art

They use a lot of finishes and oils on those. You can rubber cement them, but they need to be stitched to hold. Art

Jordan is sooo right here. I had a gummy mess for a while (black and rather gooey) until I figured out that spirit dye contains (what else) spirits, which are alcohol and eat up rubber "O" rings. I remembered back in the day when they first started with ethanol, the fuel lines would get pinholes in them because the alcohol (only 10%) would eat through them and get rubber all through the fuel system. Try to get a brush with teflon seals, usually a higher end brush but worth it. Art

Hi, It really depends on what you are blowing and the level of detail (fineness of line you are trying to draw). If you are spraying a dye overall or even paint, a badger 250 works fine. I use an Apollo 5 stage with a 7500 gun which gives me the ability to spray spirit dyes to mud, but is a little overkill for your situation. If just doing detail spirit and acrylic, a Badger 175, Paasche VL-100, or similar will work. Get a siphon or bottom feed to start, you can plug bottles of cleaner into the bottom and the little bottles are handy for mixing (thinning), and storing unused media. After some experience, a top feed can be easier to use, and more convienent to dropper feed and make quick changes. Most of the real fine detail units are top feed nowadays. We could help more if we knew more about his work. TCP Global is a good place to look for prices and more info; their prices are ok, there may be some cheaper but TCP has good service. Art

I have 8 Cobra machines in all sizes. The only thing I don't have is one of their patchers and the new splitter. They all run every time without problems. I can't say too much more than that, except the wife and the sewing club really like the Class 18 for quilting and other stuff. Good machines used by Top Saddlemakers (and Stolhman award winners) and top Holstermakers (John Bianchi to name just one). The other machines are also very good. Art

Note that the shank of the DB1 will fit in the thread groove of the 331. Art