DavidL

What I find by stitching with different thickness, soft leather, stiff leather is the type of leather changes the appearance of stitching. For me I prefer to have stiffer leather for stitching and any leather with stretch I won't stitch. If you are dedicated, try to stitch 100+ stitches each on veg tan, chrome tan and chrome/veg tan (horween or other brand). I used all the leather scraps I had around and the different leathers helped me improve. The front side looks roughly the same on every type of leather, with the softer leathers having a more inconsistent stitch both front and back because the leather stretches too much under pressure. Backside only looks good on stiffer veg tanned leather. To sew wallets I believe you have to use white glue or fiebings cement glue (its says cement but its white glue) and glue past where you want to stitch by a half centimetre. In theory the reason the stitches will look uneven is because you have to stitch on one solid piece of leather and when you glue 3mm around the stitch in every direction it should be solid. You can then use a bone folder to take off the excess glue. Haven't tried it yet, it does make sense why my recent wallet the backstitches look uneven.

thank you for the kind words. Lots of hours got me these results so it wasn't like I was gifted with skill. Im also happy with the results (wanted a longer stitch), took me forever to realize that the type of leather I was stitching with before couldn't be stitched properly no matter what (tumbled vegtan and chrome tan). Other members have gotten good results on those types of leathers somehow. Il try sizing up an spi.

I hand skived before for turned edges andf it came out bunched at the edges. May have been too thin or i didn't cut enough stress relief points. Do you thin it to half thickness or feather thin? The only way to burnish chrome or horween leather is from heat tools. An attachment on a soldering iron can get it done. The real tool if your interested is available on mando.fr for 500+. https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150131553076948 He's using the tools from mando.fr on chrome goat skin.

watch straps are very difficult to make especially as a beginner. Try to make the simplest thing you can so at least you can get practice on the fundamentals (wallets, keychains)

would any one whose used 2/3 or 3/4 ounces for the inner card slots comment on the flimsiness of the pockets. I have 2 separate 2/3 leathers from different tanneries and one is .8mm (I think this is average size for 2/3) and the other leather is 1.3mm. I've found one leather thats in the middle of the two which is 1.1mm pull up upholstery that works well (sample piece) very solid and thin. -Would you say anything from .8mm to 1.3mm works well for inside pockets in your opinion? -can splitters skive the leather to exactly 1.1mm for the bend and give or take a fraction of a mm for the belly and shoulder?(too expensive for me to buy to find that it doesn't work) -Does any one make their pockets pieces 1mm to 3mm longer the size that would make it fit exactly to allow for more room or would that make the pieces slouch.

create a spreadsheet on excel with the prices and more members will be willing to buy.

you could cut off the shoulder and belly and sell those for a price. Maybe wholesale bracelets or something that can be made several times easily with a die on the belly or shoulders.

It is done flesh to flesh and it looks the same with horween and every veg tanned leather I tried (slightly slanted- mostly straight backstitches). Briefly while stitching forwards the 10 stitches all came out slanted on the backside.

I believe there was a video of a man on youtube under Arthur porter or something similar that had an industrial machine and he did a quick modification to get it to stitch slow. That might be something you want to look into.

Very helpful thank you tree reaper.

il play around with the height of the tight thread tomorrow. Il write if I find any changes.

I don't have anything for sale yet so take my words with a grain of salt. My opinion is I would calculate average amount of product X that can be cut from a 20 foot hide ($90). Take the total and divide by Quantity of product X. Do the same for thread and dye the same way as it is done for leather and you can find out how much it truly cost for each product. Take into account the percentage paypal takes and the websites slice of your sales. Then include the mark up which should be at minimum 100 percent to recover costs of leather thread and supplies you had to bulk up on to get discounts. After you break even its up to you to decided if you want to go higher volume at 75 percent mark up and so on. 90 dollars divided by 20 wallets= $4.5 wallet cost 15 dollar thread divided by 250 completed wallets = 7.5 cents 28 dollar dye divided by 100 = 28 cents Shipping packages, bubble wrap also should be calculated = 4.85 total cost plus mark up 4.85 = $10.7 selling price can be tweaked to 15, 20, 25 depending on how good the end product will be If your start up is $2000. Divided 2000 by 10.7 to find your break even point - 197 wallets to break even. Whole sides are always good or single bends(only the back, not the shoulder or belly) Your tools and machinery(if any) and maybe your supplies can be put on your business tax return if you are registered as a business owner. If you already know this then I suppose its good review. Good luck.

okay. Il try it out. Thank you for your help couldn't have done it otherwise.

that makes sense to me. Flesh side to flesh side also works for me at 4 oz a piece. I have seen nigels videos a few times and don't use an overhand since the front stitches don't separate as much. Il continue to do it away from my body and try the other and see if it works.

Yes, you did say to try this and it does work out well, should have looked more into it. I didn't think it was possible to get it done this nicely until I saw the pictures.

I regularly saddle stitch towards me. Left needle from backside. right needle underneath and then on top of the hole and pull straight out. The stitch on the front is angled the stitching on the back is slightly angled. Now heres the confusing part I switch to sewing away from my body. And follow the exact same steps. Only difference now the back also has that angle the front side has. Exactly what I'm looking for. When I try to replicate the same stitch I got stitching away from my body- now towards my self, I can't get the same type of stitch (w/ the back stitches angled). I also take into account the way the needle are positioned because it is flipped. Il continue to sew away from my body because it does work. Im confused why the stitch looks different sewing towards me.

came up with a 211 singer or 111 singer around 350 in okay condition and 450 for good condition on ebay.

If I ever get hold of a copy in Chinese I could get a relative to translate it into english. I may have to give them some cash because I don't think they want to translate a book all day.

Thank you tree reaper that in the ballpark of how I want it to look like. I have no knowledge of wood tools. My family lived in a Country where very few people have garages, so home improvement isn't embraced and passed down (wished it was). The forester bit can it be used in a hand drill? Is a pilot the smaller hole show in the first picture to guide the forester bit? The caps how are they made? Pre purchased? or did you use a plug cutter then sanded to get that smooth edge. was all this held down in the jig you made? Last question how long did it take for a single cap at normal pace.

Please read till the end. You are doing it as we speak dismissing me again. You are tempting me to get mad and then when I get upset and try to defend myself you dismiss me again. This happened to me when I was a young child when another student would put her hands on my desk purposefully after pickering her nose because she knew I would get upset and did it every day and got a kick out of it. After a few days I couldn't take it and swore and got in trouble and guess what I was the bad guy. Being passive aggressive is the same as being straight out aggressive except it makes me seem like the bad person even though you are verbally abusing me. I can read between the lines don't try to take a stab at me and think I won't defend myself. Integrity is not letting people stomp on you because they think they can get away with it. Its happened to me before and I've lost sleep at times because I knew I should of defended myself instead of letting people get away with it. Thats integrity of my morals. I know now to not fight passive aggression with full out aggression its what the other person wants. I quote you said: You are crazy as well as having no clue as to what you are talking about - thats the same as giving me go away sign with the back of your hand except in verbal form. (what were my options - I had to defend myself or it would be another sleepless night) - That statement is leaning towards full on aggressive. I had a neutral stance saying that there is a conspiracy theory that police do not want to hire people with a masters. I think that people with masters should be hired and have nothing against college educated police. My best friend is in police academy in a college course. If you would have just said well thats interesting but I don't agree with you. I wouldn't have said anything and said ok thats fine. But if someone on the street just says to you "your crazy you don't know what your talking about" after I make a point. Thats dismissive in MY opinion. Whether you believe it or not it only pisses people of if you dismiss them like a child. Just for sake of discussion so this won't happen in the future what would you like me to apologize for? All I said was my opinion. Am I not entitled to have freedom of speech. I never personally said anything bad about cops w/ college degrees or to you , but just have MY opinion that people should have a University degree in sociology so that less problems would occur. Nobody is perfect. I don't want to take this further, and wish to not to fight and leave it at this. To be introspective and understand why I felt disrespected go back w/ neutral eyes and take your self out of the situation and read back the comments.

Il check out the american straight needle they are in the tippman boss price range which was what I was going to buy. A cheaper alternative would be better because it wouldn't be price conscious to buy a tippman if I won't be sewing on it. Hopefully someone will have an american straight needle used and in my price range.

What tool should I look out for to drill out the base?

definitely already exploded. I have seen a only a few that are done traditionally saddle stitched most are made overseas in china boo! Austyn get a pricking iron and your stitches will look a lot cleaner.

some bridges have to be burned. Its a sake of integrity. I find it disrespectful for people to imply that I'm dumb and dismiss me like I'm a child. If I didn't say anything I don't think id be able to sleep at night. You are right I will write no more and just call it a difference of opinion as I don't hate people personally for things they say, rather the words themselves.

It was one of those conspiracy theories that my dad friend believed in. I also think that could be the case. Criminal justice courses are for forensics, crime scene.. ect. College degrees for police academy is how its done in Canada to become a cop. For those kinds of jobs they don't want people that will speak up and are harder to control (especially if you have a MBA or masters of a degree). Or I could just be crazy .