reddevil76

I have the Heritage 6 inch. First, you need to hold the handle down while splitting. That leaves you with one hand to pull the leather. Second, after splitting five 3" X 40" pieces, the blade already needs to be stropped. If I wasn't broke, I would have thrown it into the river.

I thought Springfield Leather sells Chaylor Fenelli wallet inners made with calf leather?

I'll be first in line for that Boss.

The HO I had, not only had blemishes, but large areas of loose flesh. And this was on the back. It was on the belly, I could have accepted it. Hopefully the A grade not only does away with the blemishes, but also the loose flesh problem. Thanks Chris for the update. I have just ordered a Sheridan carving book and a Leather Wranglers blade. Once I start carving seriously, those properties you mentioned would be important for consideration.

Chris, I think if you paid for A grade, you should expect A grade. I have tried HO from Springfield, these are so called Craftsman grade, and it was rather bad. About 50% waste. Springfield don't offer a higher grade. Then I tried the imported Top Grade Tooling Sides. The 3-4 oz is ermm... well, if I was making 3" X 3" coasters, I'd probably have 40% waste. But seeing that I need 8" X 8" pieces for my biker wallets, it seems like its going to be 100% waste. I have yet to even take it out from the stack. One day I might just make a door rug from it. The 2-3 oz was a funny thing. The drop down menu had 1) 2-3oz, and 2) 2-3oz Soft. I chose number 1, and it came soft like cloth. I wonder what number 2 is like. Nevertheless, the friendliness and customer service of Springfield was great. And since I figured it was not worth the shipping cost to ship the 3-4 oz back, I didn't make an issue of it. Like I said, one day I might use it as a door rug or cut strip out of it and make floor mops with it. Then I tried the Royal Meadow, and it came super clean. Until I oiled a pouch I made recently. I realised that there are indeed scars and tick bites on it. Not alot though. Just that the hide colour is so light that you don't see them till you oil or case it. Thinking of trying the WC standard grade once I finish working through my current inventory. It's hard lessons for me. The so call top grade tooling side, at $3.99/sq ft, by the time it reaches me, will have become $8/sq ft. The Royal Meadow was $6.80/sq ft elite price, after shipping, $12/sq ft. I have to go through so much anguish just to find out how each type are, since I don't have the luxury to pick out hides myself too. But one thing i did figure out is that since shipping is so expensive and it is by weight (the shipper doesn't care if its low or top grade), you might as well just buy the best and make the most of the shipping cost.

I've also had problems burnishing edges that have dried contact cement seepage from between the layers. I was looking at the glue in this video and went and bought 5-6 varieties from the local hardware store. After nearly $40, I still haven't found this clear glue they are using.

My friend tells me heavy duty machine will chew up soft leather. So if I wish to sew both soft thin leather as well as thick veg tan, I would need to get separate machines for each purpose. Isnt there a machine that can do it all?

Thank you. Kickboxer - Its a geometric stamp from Tandy.

No, there is a stop screw on the handle side. That screw sets the depth of splitting. Pushing the handle forward simply raises the roller bar, which then stops at the stop screw. For level skive, put your leather halfway between the blade and roller, push handle forward, pull your piece through. Then turn it around to skive the other half. For belt ends, I assume you want a tapering off skive. You do the same as above, except that you start with a light pressure on the handle and increase it as you pull through.

I have the same crappy splitter. The handle doesn't lock. You have to hold it down forward with one hand and leaves you only one hand to pull your leather through. Sometimes for wider pieces, to get a even pull, I use my foot to hold the lever down in order to free up both hands.

thanks all.. the number of machines that comes up when i do a search for "leather sewing machine" on ebay is simply mind boggling for a newbie to machine.

I was browsing for a patcher (most of them are too heavy to ship) when I came across this. http://www.ebay.com/itm/INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH-Sewing-Machine-LEATHER-UPHOLSTERY-/360392961067?pt=BI_Sewing_Machines&hash=item53e9182c2b I usually sew through 2 to 3 layers of 3-4 oz veg tan.

Thank you, Bobby and Mike.

Just found this old thread. I'm curious, there are some very broad cuts in finger carving, after trying out straight hollow ground, angled, angled hollow ground, straight blades, I still could not get the cuts like what i see?? Also, the lines I cut does not have the deep brown colour like those in the pictures. I assume after finger cutting, the masters doesn't use hi-lites to darken the cuts?

I've bought the Royal Meadow only twice. Once was a 26 sq ft hide. Totally blemish free except for a scar the size of a bean. The 2nd was a 29 sq ft piece, it did have an area about 1 sq ft worth which is darker than the rest, I assume from exposure to sunlight. I was just informed by them that my elite membership expired on 1st Sep. If the utitlity is as good as the Royal Meadow, I might just buy W&C instead of renewing my membership.

Hi Spinner, which Tandy's top grade are you referring to? If it is the royal meadow (which is really blemish free), I would try buying W&C next time.

Personally, i use the 5mm, it doesn't really make a 5mm hole. The hole is about 2.5mm wide. Not sure how they derived 5mm, but i find it just nice for saddle stitching where i need 2 needles going through. My friend uses the 3mm, but he can only thrust one needle through at a time, so it slows down the stitching.

I have a 6 prong, 2 prong, and 1 prong. One straights, I use the 6 prong. Around the corners, I use the 2 prong to mark the leather and space out the marks evenly, and the 1 prong to punch at the marks. You can use a 2 prong to go around the corners, but I am pretty anal about the orientation of the stitching hole, I like it just nice. So that's why I needed a 1 prong.

Check out the pricking irons in www.goodsjapan.jp. They are essentially diamond awls in a row, made for used as a chisel. These are my stitching results.

After removing the blade to strop it, I can't for the life of me position the blade back to work as it should. I tried 2 positions: - One parallel to the roller, slightly behind the top line (imaginary line) of the roller - There is a bar in front of the blade, it is slanted instead of parallel to the roller. I tried aligning the blade to this bar, also no go.

Hi, it's from Tandy Leather Factory, look it up under "tooling sides"

Thanks Spinner, I used 3-4 oz throughout. And I attached the python skin to 2 oz calf.

thank you all for your suggestion.