Leather Guru

Don't wanna make anyone jealous . Took me 40 years to put all that together . Yah Tinkerton you can come over and play . Plenty of machines for everone

My atelier.

Home made strap cutter in palissandre and brass with tungsten carbide cuter blade.

Hello brothers, Here is a bag sewn by machine and finished by hand. Take care, R. Baggaley.

Hello everybody , It's not posing AAron . I wiggle the awl a little bit & when i start to feel the point I move out of the way so to speake . I've been doing it that way for 40 years & yes I've been bit a few times !

Hello everybody, some handsewing. RB.

anyone who wants to make bags should start with an arm type sewing machine , such as an Adler 269-373 or clone thereof . You are limitrd as to what you can do with a flat machine

Most high qualy sacs use chaine from YKK . You must order the type with polished teeth . Also , YKK makes double chaine with polished teeth . Be prepared to pay the price

Hello Tom , I'm just down the road from you in Rhode St. Genese . I'd like to hear about your class . U can check out my website ralphbaggaley.com

Hey pappy, some dog collars using the machine to stitch the front part and finishing everything by hand, hiding the threads too. Ralph.

Hi Pappy , I'm 66 & I've been sewing proffesionly for 30 Years . Yah I got plenty of machines & I use them a lot . I never use reverse ! even if I can't spell proffeshionally

Back stiching on any machine is always gonna be ugly . You can always back stitch with your machine using the hand wheel & your foot lift moving the piece backwards by hand . But of course , the best is to bite the bullet and finish by hand . At least your clients will have a strong product . But that's only my opinion

Hello Walter, some more tools. Those knives are made by me from saw blades. Please send me your address. See you soon, Ralph.

Hi Walter , I thought you would like the quarter moon knife I bought it 35 years ago from a shop in Bruxelles .I've been making my own knives for the past 20 years from high speed steel saw blades & they are the best but they are made to do bags & wallets . Fredrich Herder (solingen) also still make some beautiful knives . The Don Carlos collection . Thanks for the link from the bone tools , but I make my own tools in bone or animal horns . I maybe have 20 or so ! Actually the tool you liked with bone I made myself many years ago . I'll send some more pics later today.

Hello Walter & Tor A few pics of the old tools I rarely if ever I use any more . While you guys have been collecting sattler's tools most of mine were for maroquinerie ( leatherwork )

"Hello Walter , We have a lot to talk about ! They have been making saw blades from "tungsten carbide " and tools for lathes from the same material & they come sharpend ! You can buy knife blades sharpened so why not leather tools ????

Hello Walter & Tor & all you other tool freaks ! I was in Paris about 30 years ago to visit the shop of Blanchard & I saw those tools made for the Paris exhibition in a glass case . I couldn't sleep for weeks after seeing those tools . All the knife blades were polished like mirrors and the metal ferrules were engraved silver . Alas the tools made now by Blanchard are nothing like the the ones of earlier times . I have a good collection myself of all those old round knives with ebony handles & some you don't have I'll try to get the courage to post some pics . Walter , I see you are not too far from Geneva . I have to install some beds I covered with leather in a hotel there & wondered if I could pass by your place in St . Gallen to say hello & touch some of your tools ! It would be at the end of August ? I wouldn't stay long to bother you . What do you think ? I also speake pretty good French as I suppose you do ? The best edge tools I ever had I made myself from stubbs steel 7% carbon and hardened in light oil . You just can't buy edge tools that cut from the factory . WHY ? ? ? I think I've spent more time sharpening edge tools than actually doing the edges . Hope to hear from you about the visit . Best Regards , Leather Guru

Now U just drink at home ! . Can't even smoke in a bar anymore

Hello Trox One of the first machines i ever had was a 345 . I don't remember the exact model but the food dog did have a cycle where it lifted up & came back , down etc. When i bought it ,the colour was black & it came as a binder with a special needle plate & that food dog & binding attachment , that i sent to you . Adler 69s & pfaff 335s do not have a food dog that lifts & the way to adjust them is to have those dogs a tiny bit lower than the needle plate . There is no way to adjust the height other than putting a shim under the needle plate or grind off either the needle plate or food dog . My 269 - 373 has an adjustment to raise or lower the food dog . Other than that the only thing i didn't like was the small cannette . After all it's just a machine that makes spirals . Hope this helps ? ?By the way Trox . Little Roxy is doing fine & growing liker a weed . I had to make him another collar already . & now it's time to feed dog !

the stuff by Vuitton is not leather . It's in fact plastic. Only leather is used to make straps & so forth & it's veg leather & it's coated these days with polyurethane so it wont turn color

morning Tor ! How does that beveler on Ebay work ? Does it use knives & you change them ? It wont do anything but straight straps i think

Hello you guys & hippy new year ! The problem I see with fixed blade splitting machines is how or who is gonna sharpen the blade in a correct way ? ? ? If the blades were hollow ground you would have a better chance to sharpen them . Those machines date from a period in history when there were pro knife sharpeners . I got a blanchard fixed blade splitting machine & I think I spent more time sharpening the blade than splitting ! I actually have 2 splitting machines in my work place & they don't ever give the same result from one kind of leather to another Find right away some one who can sharpen your blades & maybe order a reserve blade & always keep one in reserve

​The apparatus that you see is a filet electric . They can be obtained at Ets. Regad . fr . They are used as heated edge creasers to be used on chrome tanned leather ! they do not work well on veg tanned leather as they heat up too much & burn the leather . I have four of those devices in my atelier which I made the power supplies myself .

Hi Trox & Ron , I got 335s &69s here in my atelier & I also have a 269-373 where the feed dog lifts up . Almost every thing I could do on the smaller arm machines I could do just as well on the 269 . The 269 has the big cannettes & can handle more heavy work as well as medium & light . I've seen some nice clones of these machines & they are good . If I could, I'd trade for another 269

U got some old beer ?