DavidL

Thanks.

Could also be that iron is catching on the calf interior maybe because the chisel is not sharp enough or glue doesnt hold the leathers together. An option is to use a rounded bone fold or wooden slicker and gently even out the marks. Your fingers will do if neither are available. Too much pressure could mark the leather.

Thanks

The grading the tannery uses is confusing, probably on purpose. For clarification. Standard is tannery run, belt grade = A grade, Waterproof = standard + waterproofing? Waterproofing back and front? Wax or spray? When you ship out the leather how is it packed to prevent damage in shipment?

Making a leather leash for instance obviously requires the most strength. Which would be stronger (cut from strongest part of hide) 10 ounce leather two pieces of 5 ounce leather stitched and glued. Why I ask is because there is two grain sides versus with two 5 ounce pieces. This option does have a stitch and contact cement. It does seem that if one piece drys out the other is not affected.

Source is Francis from leatherconnection.com Tracing with an awl first is my go to. For grained leather it is very difficult to see the line. I simply press down with knife blade right at the corner and repeat at the end. This no seems to work best.

Heres a response I've gotten from a reputable source. The Clicking Knife was introduced by the shoe industry & curved & straight interchangeable blades are available. When cutting firm leather, (medium to thick) the blade point penetrates the leather & the cutting is done by the area of the blade just above the tip as you pull the knife towards you. As you can imagine only a small area of the knife is in contact with the leather, Now if you try to cut soft leather or linings with a hooked blade it results in a raged edge,but a flat blade will ensure that a long area of the blade is in contact with the materials being cut. ( That is providing you are not raising your hand to high & reducing the area of contact. As for cutting round corners, it is impossible to cut round small corners with any knife, & your best option is to cut past the corner then cut round the rest of the pattern. you will have square corners but keeping the pattern in place you can cut round the corners afterwards. you can also chip the corners away from the edge of the pattern with a straight blade. The Large straight knife is seldom used nowadays, The round knife is now mainly used for shaping strap points & cutting strap ends & it is used in a rocking motion on the surface of the strap & when it is used by a saddler to cut round curves free hand it is pushed & not pulled.

You could use 6 and 332 or 442 if you wanted and it would look okay. Generally on large items like a bag a larger stitch like 5,6,7 is okay, so is 8,9,10 just would take a longer time. Others will disagree and we could go back and forth on what would work "better". Personal preferrence.

In japanese leatherworking (probably in other parts too) its common to use gum trag, looking just at their leather books. I dont know too much in depth about this subject. What I have seen is tanners use a sanding machine to sand the flesh side for even strands and then paste it with some special mixture. The machine is an industrial type model. If you wanted to try to replicate this process a sander may work although you would need to tinker with it. Guessing the sanding is called refinishing and pasting is the wax/ special mixture to flatten the hairs. Horween has great flesh side. Another way that I dont know how they create is to finish it in a way that the backside is flat and smooth . I've seen this in bridle leather and wicket and craig samples where they use this type of finish. You wouldnt need to line this leather.

Interesting. I never considered the cutting surface to be a factor.

Do you mind elaborating on this? Im assuming the closer to the fold of the piping you stitch the more rounded it gets? What distance did you settle on to stitch the piping (4 oz leather piping?) When you stitch the piping and panel parts together how much leather is inside (that you dont see) if that makes sense?

Thanks for the help. I figured out the way to cut these corners by paying more detail by how i move my blade. First I took your advice art and took 5 mins to sharpen the blade to bleeding sharp. How it was before wasnt as sharp as I could of had it. When just reaching the edge I slowly tilt the blade against the template at the same time lower the blade (larger cutting surface) putting more pressure. The twist keeps the blade from moving off pattern. I have to test it more to find out if it is the proper way.

When cutting around a template or scribed line. How does each knife compare to prevent the corners from "flaring out". Which is more "suitable"? 1. Clicker knife (concave profile) 2. Round knife (convex profile) 3. utility knife (straight profile) My awl has a rounded convex point profile and can cut templates better than my sharpened utility (prevent the edges from creating that little nub).

I dont know if this will help any one but I tried it recently and it has worked for me. Maybe this could help if your as crazy as me You can read the simplified version if it is too long. Recently I picked up billiards as a hobby, learning how to hold the pool cue correctly with the the pool cue in line with my elbow. When you hit the cue ball your essentially shooting from your shoulder and elbow perfectly straight. If your elbow and shoulder is following the same line as the cue then you can shoot straight granted this is your method of shooting. Whenever my elbow is off the line my odds of shooting straight lowers. How this relates to saddle stitching is that the awl is your pool cue in this case and it should also be in line with your elbow in this method. The awl should be an extension of your elbow. Place the awl in palm of your hand gripping with the pink and index, not loose and not too tight. When you grab the needles and pull the thread the awl handle can move slightly (from your middle finger gripping needles) but the pinky and index finger must always push the awl haft into your palm. Now when you stitch your forearm is what determines the straightness (vertical and horizontal 90 degrees) , granted the awl is in line with your elbow, thumb and pointer finger gently on the ferrule. The objective is to keep the awl in the same position in your hand without thinking plus pivoting your elbow parallel to floor (stitching pony 90 deg. straight) pushing from the elbow not the palm. Pushing off the palm may cause the awl to shift. IN SHORT: awl in palm of hand, pink and ring finger hold the awl. The awl should not move much when stitching or grabbing the needles so the pressure should be constant w/ the pink and ring finger. When you move the awl to the stitch mark adjust the awl slightly as it may have moved while you were pull the thread. Push from your elbow not your palm. Take up the game of pool and you will understand exactly what im talking about. Hope this helps some one out on their stitching.

To add: all my problems stopped when I thought for a minute why I was having consistent issues. The tweaks are always SO minor I glossed over them first time around, maybe even the first couple times. My own way, others wll differ.I sharpened my awl till it couldnt get any sharper, thinning out the point till it is rounded in profile (fit with the angle of the hole), sharpening the tip edge till the entire first 5 mm is sharp. The rest of the blade is dull. That is the most common way as far as I know. Leatherwrangler.com has an awl video that pierces through thick veg tan like it is butter, the entire blade edges down to the handle is sharp. Im curious to know if it weakens the stitch hole. Most improvement came when I place my awl in the hole I checked if it was right vertical, then horizontal on every stitch. Dont know if this is how everyone does it but I reckon its like billiards everyone shoots different.

Full sharpening (One example) DMT Extra course/ Course or Atoma 140 preferable 8 inch, 6 inch(flattening stone and rough grit) Shapton 1000 (medium grit) Optional: King 6000 (light stropping) Compound clicker knife sharpening (a guess) Diamond steel for clicker knife Optional: Round waterstone compound on rod w/ leather

I am assuming you pre punch the gusset while it is flat and then glue it? Perfecting your stitching technique will let you stitch straight. Check your awl as well. Just realized my blanchard was ever so slightly off center yet straight.

What weight of leather are you using?

The new converse looks amazing. Im going to pick one up when I get a chance. It would cost more to create the shoe by yourself as you need a last designed for your outsole.The last could be a generic one, customized by you with plaster or some other substance (there are videos on youtube). To make it entirely out of leather like a boat shoe with a leather sole to ME, that is easier than sewing padding and lining by machine. Vibram is a popular sole. Where to get it I dont know. I tackled making a converse shoe (not completed) with different leathers and I recommend buying brand new soles, silver pen, SHARP olfa knife, good quality leather. Good luck.

CITES

email marketing and adwords works very well. Email notifications are great for getting updates on stores that you are subscribed to and often lead to a purchase. I wouldnt count them out (Out of site out of mind) So whether that is word of mouth, getting a luxury store to sell your goods ect, expose your brand to your target customer as often and constantly as you can. Constantly put your brand out there through every way you can (stick fly paper everwhere), create a consistent product and always be vocal about the values of the company. People naturally gravitate towards values tied into brands. If you are making items that are stunning people will catch on as long as you have a channel where they can see it This is my opinion only YMMV.

Long story short, keep the divider leg against the side of the strap. This picture may help.

I love the lining choice. Very clean looking. May I ask how you shaped the gusset like that. It looks like you intentionally curved the gusset to form around the interior pocket. Was this deliberate or mearly a coincidence?

Something you could try is thinning the glue. There should still be a lot of strength to the piece.

Same technique as CWR instead use the dividers on the side of the strap. Paper template where you can mark with an awl where the end should lay comes to mind for a faster method.