Les No6

I meant treating the leather with the resin, its hard but brittle when cured so no use as a stamp its the glass fibre that gives its tensile strength in this case it will be the leather.

You could can get everything from eBay they have a very wide selection of bearings and round bar in brass, aluminium, stainless steel, but i would advise silver steel which is a tool steel that comes in precision ground round bar it's in it's annealed state so can be cut drilled taped filed then hardened and tempered its excellent for cutting tools even steel cutting so you can make the blades, it do's rust but but no ware near as readily as mild steel but you could hot blue the body.

Interesting cant see a use for myself but an idea on treating to make it last longer is two part resin like what is used in fiber glass this sets into a hard plastic I have some and will give it a try, always love a good experiment.

Don't know about tooling just try a test piece gluing is not a very good option but you could blind stitch where the stitches lie in a cut for painted stitches you could just paint the stitching gold, or for gold thread look at embroidery suppliers something appropriate may be available there in small amounts.

Don't come across many lamps and most of them have been heavily corroded the English climates not too kind on the old iron the electric heating elements are more common, its good to see that these are now being saved, haven't done much on the machine front for a couple of years now never seam to have much time these days, Ill run a batch of the springs not difficult and we can trade for some needles. I would like to see some photos of the French and German machines.

Hi Mike firstly the smallest needle that was available was 150 they are way too long to be useable in smaller sizes they would just brake it is a heavy machine designed for horse harness the finer work was done on other machines like the A1 and Pilot, the A1 (walking foot) was a Wm Pearson design and the Pilot (needle feed jump foot with auto reg tension like the No6) was developed by BUSM both would sew up to 7/16" the Pilot is a huge beast weighs more than the No6 and considerably more complicated like the No6 its all fixed no timing or tension adjustment needed and produces the same high quality stitch, A1 at the front Pilot behind; As far as Im aware the shuttle you are using isn't for the No6 but from another machine never come across one in a No6 they where many machine manufactures around in the early years using similar shuttles the spring on the outside isn't for the thread with the bullet shuttle the shuttle kicks as it picks up the thread the spring knocks it back into the race, the No6 uses bronze strips under the shuttle plate so the shuttle doesn't kick I would inspect these on your machine as the spring could damage these.

Hi Steve the middle two needle plates have been made up by someone they are holster or stirrup plates the plate on the left is genuine I haven't come across one or the need of something like it on English harness at a guess I would say its for sewing the forewale on a broller(French horse collar), as to the foot I haven't got a clue but its incomplete clearly there is something that fits on the right hand side. the foot pedal and clutch where originally for use with a line shaft once electric motor's came along the clutch was integrated into the main shaft on the machine head where the pulley is, the saddle and boot emblem was on the early castings and later castings where less embellished as on these two punch's the plain one is much later; How many spring are you after?

Just slick the back as you do with edges there's a tool for this called a glass slicker but you can use something similar made of bone hard wood or even plastic here's a video no need to use gum a little saddle soap or soap helps its also better if you soak the leather the leave in a plastic bag over night, which is better for tooling and molding also.

Hi this is an auto adjust foot lift ie say its set to lift 1/8" it will lift an 1/8" whether you are sewing 1/4" or 3/4" you adjust for the minimum clearance if you sew items of varying thickness you need a little higher lift so the foot will walk up hill, too much lift causes excessive noise stress and marking of the leather, thats if there is any adjustement it may well be fixed. This component MUST be oiled failure to do so will cause iratic performance, excessive wear and premature failure, there is an obvious problem with your machine the set screw in the collar is the wrong screw it should be a grub screw and fit wholly within the collar and not interfere with the spring on top which should push down on the block as with all auto adjust foot lifts (very simple mechanism been around since the middle of the eighteenth centruary) it is essential that it do's so, the purpose of the collar is to keep the foot clear of the throat plate and or feed dog to prevent damage to the components with no material under foot, take the screw out and if you don't have an appropriate grub screw just be carefull and sit the foot on a piece of leather when not in use and don't let the foot stamp down when removing you work piece until you aquire an appropriate grub screw. Try it you will see what I mean and beware most sewing machine machanics these days are clueless without a manual.

I totally agree with Tom and I’ve been making horse tack for well over 30 years, you certainly don’t need a sewing machine for bridle work all you need is a couple packs of harness point needles, pricker (awl) thread preferably linen, pricking or over stitch wheel and bees wax, and that’s exactly what high end $1000 plus bridles are sewn with, you can pick all that up for around $100 or less.

A 9inch arm is more than adequate for holsters and belts and most leather work you won't have a problem the only thing I've come across that can't be fully stitched on my machines (11-12inch arms) are splash boards, depends on what you intend to do if its a jack of all trades then a 16" arm may be handy but it also may not be enough, it is nice to have a little extra room while working though. The missed stitches on the corners are nothing to worry about he will not be turning the corners correctly before turning you need to ensure the shuttle has picked up the thread other wise when turning you move the thread out of the path of the shuttle and miss a stitch this is true for all machines.

I'm not that familiar with the Ferdco 6/6 but I am with the Pearson No6 the feed problem you are experiencing I suspect is due to the bottom needle guide not being adjusted correctly I've included pictures of the component on the Pearson it's located just under the the slot plate as yours will be I don't know where the adjustment is on your machine so you'll have to locate it. Best remove the slot plate to give you a better idea of what's going on turn the machine until the needle is fully down and adjust the neadle guide until it's in just contact with the front of the neadle as the machine is feeding back not too much so it deflects the needle, the needle is now fixed top and bottom in the direction of feed, guide needs readjusting when changing needle size. Also check that the needle is coming fully forward for each stitch you can see at the back of the stitch length adjustment third pic on the Pearson these should be in full contact when the needle is fully forward if not the problem will be a weak return spring or incorrect tension. Your machine has the correct feed mechanism for leather unlike the 441s unison feed intended for webbing and such they just grind the teeth off the feed mechanism and pass it off as a leather machine.

A saddle stitch is a slanted ////// two dimensional (sits flat on top of the leather in corect form) decorative stitch its use became more predominant with the advent of sewing machines which could initially only sew straight ------ some used the saddle stitch to give a visual indication that the item was hand stitched, hence the popular myth that hand stitching is slanted, I'm unsure what Country or what trade it originated but I suspect it's French it's certainly not traditional English. The traditional English stitch is straight pricked up stitching also in popular western saddlery to this day, pricking up is rounding the stitches to give a three a dimensional pees in the pod look by the correct use of an over stitch wheel or with a pricker by placing the pricker in the stitch hole and rounding the stitches individually hence the term pricking up.

The clicker knife is for cutting around patterns and sharp turns the Japanese one is for skiving and cutting straight or gentle curves but as mentioned above the round knife as I'm sure most would agree is better, Ideally you would have both a clicker and round knife they do different jobs.

As well as Wiz mentioned why are you stitching forward back then forward again? The machine seems and sounds to be working just start by reversing then go forward and at the end reverse to lock your stitches, if your machine can do this as it seems it can in the video then it's working, you are sewing leather not webbing or cloth.

I had that very same issue on a 205 some years ago the feed dog was damaged around the slot where the fixing screw is and the screw wasn't able to secure the dog take it out and check you'll probably find it the same issue I replaced both dog and screw.

Don't bother with Abbey try F Martins these are manufacturers and quality English made, Abbey ones are cheap Chinese crap at twice the price, Martins do have a minimum order of £40 and ship world wide. http://fmartinandson.co.uk/buy-circle-chains-from-f-martin-and-son-ltd.html

Firstly Segdwicks tan their hide in Walsall and last time I looked Walsall was still in the UK, secondly the majority of the company's you list are leather merchants so their leather could be from anywhere, thirdly and most importantly you fail to mention application, the best leather to sole a shoe would be completely useless for lining a saddle. Tooling leather is a russet veg tan suitable for tooling, unbraned is probably cheaply sourced and quality leather can not be produced cheaply.

331 is the needle system (needle size) LR denotes the needle point (LR, 45degree spear point) Schmetz only make 331's with LR points, also you don't want to be using nylon thread it's garbage not at all suitable for the No6 or for leather, linen is the thread to use in the No6 and the best available thread for leather.

I had the same problem once different machine a small metal chip had jammed in a roller cam and the machine was locked up solid the American straight neadle has roller cams behind the fly wheel it would be worth while to inspect these I suspect there will be plenty little metal chips knocking around a knife makers workshop.

Hi nice work, for the seams use a hammer to knock them flat there are special hammers for this but you can use a cheap rubber mallet pull the seam flat the way you want it to lay and gently hammer along the seam, heavily skiving the leather would make it much weaker.

Thanks for the offer but its not a colour I use, I don't make many threads only when I want one that I don't have prespun, I get the No12 hemp from Abbey the thrum is basically the same just un dyed don't know what weight the Abbey thrum is. There's quite a few old myths surrounding hand stitching hemp is linen you spin your self thrum is un dyed linen you spin your self. If you like the old leather working books I have some old harness making books in PDF form if you are interested?

Hi mike I use Pearsons as did my Dad and Grandad it's a very popular machine with harness makers like myself Ill do a full write up on the machine and post later, meanwhile here's a link to the manual courtesy of A muckart who's done an absolute Stirling job of remastering the manual including the diagrams (much much nicer than my copy) also a link to Aaron martins where parts and neadles are available. http://alasdair.muckart.net/files/2012/12/BUSM-HM6-Manual.pdf http://www.aaronmartin.com/product.php?catview=137

Not familiar with Ron Edwards book but if he was including harness then yes we use very heavy threads on collars, never come across no2 though and where did you get the no8 hemp from?

A pricker is another name for a stitching awl this needs to be sharp and well polished, the edges at least some of the way up wants to be sharp as well as the point, that's when you are using the pricker to make the holes if you are prepunching the hole with say a pricking iron the awl is just used to open the holes the pricker doesn't need to be sharp but still well polished for ease of use. When hand stitching using an awl to make the holes as you go you want to make the holes large enough to so you can push and pull the neadles through with ease by hand. I've always used John James neadles I also use their awl blades but Osborn also do proper harness neadles and awls stear clear of Tandy neadles those things are for darning socks. Here is a video of how to use a sail makers palm and a video of a master saddler sewing a saddle stitch. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=gzKhbhdEfC8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgzKhbhdEfC8