Andrew Chee

I use 2oz for the insides like the card slots but it's too thin for the outside. Use about 4-5oz at least for the outside. Andrew

So the hydraulic presses are great mainly cause they're cheap. You can get one fully set up for maybe $200. That will let you clicking dies pretty quickly. There are a few problems with them. The first is that they don't have a stop. You keep applying pressure until the die cuts through whatever you're cutting. There always the danger of cutting too far and messing up your cutting board or ruining the die. Probably not going to happen but it could. Next is that when you crank on the press it is adding pressure to the hydraulic press. It's much slower to click a piece out because each stroke only advances the press a slight amount. This makes a hydraulic press much slower. Not a big deal if you only have small number of pieces to click. It's more cumbersome if you have more. The first two aren't really that big of a deal. The biggest problem is that the press goes up and down and does not swing away to the side. This makes it difficult for you to place your die right where you want it over your leather. So properly positioning a die is more difficult. Also, because the max width between the posts on the hydraulic press is usually something around 12" you can't click anything that's larger than that. With a hand press like the Lucris or the Weaver, you adjust the press to a certain clicking depth. So if you always use the same height die (say 1-1/4") the press will always click through the material with a single crank of the handle. Makes things faster. Since the pressing head swings away, it allows you to more easily place your dies on the leather. And because there's not post to fit between, you can actually click larger dies. It just takes a few more presses. You can click one side of the die, slide the die and leather over and click the other side of the die as well. The only issue I these presses is that they only handle 5 tons of pressure. So if you have complicated dies that have to cut through very thick leather, it might be a problem. So far I haven't had any problems though. All in all I think the hand presses are better than the hydraulic presses in every way except for one; the price. The Lucris goes for something like $1600 new. Not sure what the Weaver goes for. You can get the hydraulic presses fully set up for like $200. Anyways, hope this helps. Andrew

That's a cool looking antique. They have modern versions of those now. Weaver leather makes two different sized versions of that as well as the Lucris MA II press (http://lucris.com.au/au/pages/clicker-spec.php). I've used both the hydraulic ones as well as the manual ones and the manual ones are much better. I can explain why they're better if you like. They are also more expensive. Andrew

If you don't want to replace the needle bar ( had did when my thread guide broke and it took me a while to retime the thing) you could try wrapping a zip tie around the needle bar right there and using that as a thread guide. Might work ok... Andrew

Thanks folks! Andrew

There's a much easier and cleaner way to do this. Get something like a cutting board and drill a hole in it about the size of the rivet post head (and a tiny bit bigger). Place your piece on top of that so the washer side is up and the rivet post head is over the hole. Then take a drive punch about the size of the rivet post (a little smaller) and punch down on the post. Most of the time, the rivet will punch cleanly out and the leather will not be damaged. I've tried the drilling thing and it just ruins the leather with the heat. This way is much cleaner and easier. Andrew

That could be done with a stamp as well. If done by hand, it's very good work because it would be difficult to keep an even pressure as you're running a tool across the edge. If I had to guess I would say they probably used a stamp to apply the pressure since it's so even. Andrew

Hello all, I've been using the Tandy mini and maxi round hole punch sets for years and while they work just fine, I'm looking for a quality set of punches to replace them. I'm looking for sets of entire punches where I don't have to replace the tip every time I want to change hole sizes. I see a lot of them on eBay and such but just wanted to know who makes a quality set for these smaller sized holes? Thanks. Andrew

A bit of an aside but what's the deal with Waco Texas? It's a small town isn't it? But I always seem to hear about it connected to bad things. Branch Davidians, That biker shootout.... I don't know why but I always seem to hear about this town connected to some unfortunate things... Andrew

As JR mentioned, definitely give Steve a call. You can also call Artisan sewing machine. They're in San Francisco. I own two Artisan machines and I have dealt with both Jerry and Steve and I can say I much prefer dealing with Steve. If you don't know how to assess a machine yourself, buying from a reputable dealer is very important. The Weaver machine you mentioned is basically the same machine as an Artisan Toro 3000/4000 or a Cobra Class 3/4. They're pretty much all the same machine. Individual dealers may make minor modifications to them (like Cobra does not have a bobbin winder on the machine head) but they're pretty much all the same thing. I recently bought a used Artisan Toro 4000 from an individual for $1000. I saw that it sewed and was working. But when I got it home, I found that the timing was actually a bit off and when I brought it to Artisan, it turns out that someone had modified the hook and the shuttle race was worn etc.. Ended up costing me $700 to fix it up to spec. Still was a decent deal. But no longer a great deal. Anyways, if you aren't sure what you're doing, definitely give a reputable dealer a call. Andrew

You can call up Wickett & Craig. They will take any of their sides and split them to the desired thickness. You have to buy an entire side though. But many places will have what you're looking for. Sheridan leather has Hermann Oak down to that thickness. http://www.sheridanleather.com/category_s/1824.htm Lots of places have similar stuff. Just depends on what you want. Andrew

I've made conditioners for leather that uses tallow. I think the difficulty for home users of tallow is to get sufficient amounts of it into the leather itself. Oils are more liquid and probably absorb easier into the leather. Tanneries that stuff their leather with tallows and waxes do it in a hot drum where the stuffing is melted so therefore absorb easier. There seems to be two ways to get the fats absorbed, either by heating it up some so it is more liquid or mixing it with a solvent to get it into the leather. I tend not to use tallow as much because it is a bit more difficult to get a sufficient amount absorbed. If someone here has a good recipe/technique, I would love to hear it. Andrew

For holsters there's really only one choice out there. A Juki 441 clone. So a cobra class 3 or 4, cowboy 3500-4500, or Artisan Toro 3000-4000. All pretty much the same machine. Andrew

Where do you get the silver adornments for your bracelets? Andrew

I was just at the leather show in Hong Kong and I came across Montana tannery. I wasn't able to purchase from them cause they have minimum order quantities that I couldn't touch. I found a few tanneries in Italy that will deal without MOQ and they have some veg tan leathers that are very much like that leather in your picture. I'm going to be placing an order soon. PM me and I can give you the details. Andrew

Very nicely done. Clean stitching. Clean edges. Well done. Andrew

Where are you located? I'm going to be selling an artisan toro 3000 soon if you're in the San Francisco bay area. Andrew

What's ko cho Line? Andrew

On thing to try is to move the bell knife closer to the presser foot. When you are skiving thin leathers that helps. If there is too much of a gap between the blade and the roller the leather can press down and get eaten up. For thicker leathers, move the blade away so there's more room. See if that helps. Andrew

The singer 31 will handle two layers of six is leather with 69 thread no problem. I'm only looking for around $200 for mine with a clutch motor. They're not that expensive but shipping would be a pain to Portland unless you want to come to San Francisco area to pick it up. I'm willing to ship but it may cost the same for shipping as for the machine. Basically you have to ask yourself what you want to start with. A lighter machine or a heavier machine. Assuming both machines are in equally excellent worKing conditions I would say the Adler is better since they are old German machines but it's really a question of what you want to do with the machine. Andrew

The Adler is similar to the Singer 31-15 (I have one for sale btw) in terms of sewing capability. When you say light/medium weight leather, what do you mean? When I sew wallets I use a 69 thread and I consider that light/medium but I make my wallets probably thinner than most people here. The problem with one machine is that the light machine won't sew heavy stuff well and the heavy machine won't sew light stuff well. If you're talking about small leather goods though, you should probably stick with the Adler. You'll find that with the Cowboy you won't be able to sew lighter threads. I started with a Cowboy 3200 type machine and I still have it but now I have two - three other machines as well... Andrew

Offer to do it for him and charge him for it. He received what was agreed on and what he asked for. If now he either wants a change or even a new bag you should say fine as long as he pays for the changes or new bag. There's nothing implied in your work for him that you owe him changes to the design after the fact. You should always fix any problems or defects with your work but if he changes his mind afterwards you are under no obligation to change it for him for free. You should tell him what his options are for getting the bag the way he wants, what your recommendations are for him to do so (modify existing bag or make a new bag) and the costs involved with the work. Andrew

The machines in question are either a Pfaff 195 or a Pfaff 595. I'm having a very hard time finding a decent used single needle post bed walking foot machine with reverse in the US. I could buy a new Highlead but that will cost me around $2400-$2500 all said and done. The Pfaffs are a few hundred cheaper. Andrew

Nicely executed. I assume you machine sewed this. What weight of leather is it? Did you sew it inside out and then inverted it? That's one of the problems I find with working with this type of leather is if you need to invert it you tend to bend it a bit too much and it breaks up the grain (which isn't a problem after you use it for a while but doesn't look good when new). Andrew

Hi Folks, I know this is an old thread but I'm looking at buying a rebuilt Pfaff 195 from Germany. Can't find too much info on this particular model but looking at it, it looks like it can fill my needs. I currently own a Consew 206 and a Pfaff 335 so I think the 195 would use the same feet as I have for the 335. Is this machine in roughly the same class as the 335? Will it sew 3/8" with a 138 thread top and bottom? What to use it for bags and light/medium weight leather. If it can handle the same stuff that the 335 can handle then it would fill my needs. Thanks. Andrew