no i'm a very very green leather worker.... so i've never used one of these before but i've seen it used on some of the leather working video's i've seen... and thank you for the tip about the bolt.... i'm gonna try to find something to cover it up as well.... yea i did my very first stitching job a couple of days ago (without stitching pony) and yea i remember the thread getting caught on everything, scissors, awl handle, my shirt button, edges of the piece i was working on, it was a mess... lol