DavidL

Its hard to snap a solid piece of metal or bend it. I may have slightly bent a blade while rigorously sharpening it on a stone, so i know what you're concerned about. If your careful it shouldn't be a problem. If you can make it fit to the handle after you cut it then I don't see why not. How many mm wide is your blade? and which type is it(slim or regular)? Im experimenting with different size blades and I have an awl thats 56mm and its too large for 7spi. Also can anyone shed light on why bob douglas awl blades cost 30 dollars to ship to canada for such a small item.

i've tried the way hermes workers stitch and its hard to stitch it properly with it sat on your lap. If you get it right that way its easier because you can easily see the front hole impressions.

I also find cutting out the pieces are the hardest parts especially if your ruler is not heavy or has no cork to it. Airbrush seems like a good step up from hand dying. When cutting out two pieces of leather The two pieces are almost never flush, does sanding the edges with a sanding block work on thin leather? or does leaving one edge longer and trimming a better way to get a flush fit.

What would you call the hardest area of construction? I been focusing on saddle stitching and neglected the other areas of leather working. Now Im looking to get better at the other areas. Dyeing leather - dilute dye and use sheepskin. Allow to dry for a few hours and add finish. edge finishing - edge, sand, dye, saddle soap and machine burnisher w/ paraffin hand cutting leather - scribe line with sharp awl and follow the line gluing - scratch compass to get a parallel line, sand grain side and apply glue. start to finish steps - hand cut, dyeing leather, gluing, edge finishing. Are the above steps fundamentally right? any tips you can share to get a better result will be helpful.

Springfield leather should get the first grade leathers they would profit at least 2-3 dollars a sq foot, which is twice what they get for other leathers. They should at least say they are tannery run leathers rather than trick people into thinking they are first grade. If they do sell first grades then thats fair. The thing is you can't tell if they sent you lower grade leather even if you bought first grade.

works well with tiger thread as it straighten the bends in the thread.

I finally found a way that I like that gets a good looking stitch. Left needle first from backside. Right needle in front of left needle - not on top but away from your body. Then the right needle goes in the hole above or below the hole but keep it the same the whole time. The left thread is 135 degrees and the right thread is -45 degrees. This is how i get my stitches to look good. I use 532 fil au chinois on 3 oz veg tan kangaroo - 7spi and 3mm awl. my tiger thread is going to be used a lot less. Im really liking the results. 632 is also going to be in my cart for 9 SPI.

abbey england sells even smaller tiger thread under the name ritza. irish linen thread is less than half the price of fil au chinois and a slight cheaper than tiger thread and is good quality. The way you described is the same way i stitch, on the top of the hole. Nigel armitage on youtube stitches towards himself and at the bottom of the hole and his stitches slant down rather than up. I've tried it myself with the needle at the bottom of the hole and it is still slanted upwards. Not sure how he does it that way. Other members will probably have some good responses.

Tochigi is one that is found on leathercrafttools.com. I know that siewa, craftsha and a few others have stores in japan if you ask around I'm sure they know some suppliers. If your really in need leathercraftool ship's out of japan but is expensive.

That would help me out a lot. The people on leatherworker.net are a different breed of humans I swear. A member was nice enough to send me some samples and everyone is willing to share their knowledge.

Tiger thread is easy to find out the measurements as they list them in mm. When you posted .008 I'm not sure in what measurement you ordered it in. If it is .8 then it is .8mm. 432 on fineleatherworking website is .62mm and 532 is .58mm. Tiger thread when stitched at .8 looks like a what 1mm linen thread would look. Tiger thread will always look bigger than Fil au chinois of the same size because it is a flat braid thread in my opinion. needles should be smaller than the hole and 227 is in metrics? It is machine thread. Casting the stitch is wrapping the backside thread around the front needle so that the backside sits at an angle. I still have trouble getting it right and prefer to not do it that way because the stitches look too angled to me. Doing it without the cast, the back for me has no angle..

I can't seem to get that hermes looking stitch when I hand stitch on vegtan. The problem before on other pieces was that the leather was too thin and the thread wasn't gripping in. Now I changed the leather and the stitch on the backside has no angle. Another thread on this forum I read was about hermes saddle stitching and a member wrote that the there was no casting of the stitches the hermes worker done. Is he casting the stitch? Im trying to achieve that type of stitch but the backside is very flat like in the video. Are hermes bags stitched differently than the saddles? 26 seconds you can see the back stitches and the separation of each stitch is roughly 2 mm. when i stitch the backside the leather will close up and the stitch will end up flat yet the front is still angled.

I stitch 7 spi using tiger thread and it looks different then hermes hand stitching when they use 532 or 432 on 9spi. 7 Spi 432/532 looks good and .8mm tiger also will look good if done properly. Its a matter of preference. For hermes I can't find a picture of the backside of stitching so i can't tell if they cast the stitch or not - I don't think they do. The 45 degree angle stitch can only happen if you use a pricking iron and make an impression in the leather. Thick vegtan should be used for stitching 4 oz or higher.

I would love to try one of your blades out but i won't be attending the show unfortunately. Id like to see if it is on par with bob douglas blades. That would be better for me since sheridanleather is charging 30 dollars to ship to Canada even though it cost only 3 dollars to ship anything under 3 oz.

Is this able to be replicated by hand do you think?

Any one know about the v stitch for the second picture

You could lace it for sure and add metal eyelets or you could try saddle stitching with overstitch wheel and a stitching awl. An overstitch wheel will work on soft leather if it is rolled over a few time. Lacing will be easier and look better unless you are really really good at hand stitching.

Id like to hear how the quality is at Mavericks. The only 3 leather suppliers I know that have consistent quality are horween, wicket and craig, and Hermann oak.

Each individual hole will cost a few dollars each and 9 SPI has 100-200 holes for a wallet. Use a scratch compass and a pricking iron make the stitching holes.

I would try some sort of binder clips and attaching a tag. Another way to go about this is a label maker and sticking a small adhesive label like the ones you see on bread.

Where was this from?

What would you say is the best type of leather grade? Not full grain, top grain ect. I received from SLC what is suppose to be top grade leather and found out that the tannery that sells it has exceptionally low standards to call this leather top quality. The sample piece looks nice and the full hide has insect bites and tears. Which Countries should I look for that sell leather that are -Good quality (U.S? Italy?France?) -bad quality(brazil, india? mexico- unsure of this) How the best leather is made? Are there cows that are raised specifically for leather and others that are scraps from the food industry? Which leathers can I look for that has no blemishes other than their word?

The awl blade only tapers at the tip, the rest of the blade is the same diameter. So you only need to stab the first 3/4th to one inch to get the proper sized hole. As you sharpen the awl over time the blade will be an inch long.

Im not certain how good the dixon is but the vergez compass is good but an average japanese compass can probably beat out vergez. Dixon or vintage tool will most likely be better as they are pre sharpened. Groovers can be used on the backside. I use the cork board and lay it on the table. Both ways can work. Most people use a round awl for corners or they use the regular diamond awl. Tandy diamond awl is useless even as a scratch awl. Search nigel armitage on youtube a lot of questions will be answered.

it makes just a scratch on the leather surface, it never cuts the surface. I never tried the osborne scratch compass, but the seems to be the same but 25 dollars cheaper. I did have to sharpen the vergez compass to get it properly sharp. How is the bob douglas awl, I passed on it because the shipping is 30 plus dollars to get it to canada because they are saying they can't ship sharp objects to Canada by USPS but people routinely ship knifes to Canada from USA by USPS(seems kinda fishy to me) Couple things to try out -Put the clam vertical in-between your legs -Prepunch holes - the holes close up a bit but still workable - I use a cork board and lay the leather piece down and stab it 90 degrees and follow the angle. I started out with overstitch as well and it works o.k but won't look as neat as with a pricking iron unless you have been stitching for years. Regular way the holes should be //// and stitches go \\\\. Hermes stitches luggage cases the opposite (the holes go \\\) which makes the corners more aesthetically appealing because the two end stitches for a corner will touch. I normally use a diamond awl and rotate it in the hole to get it round - A round awl will work too. Another thing is a lot of the time the stitching line will need a small stitch to fit the last stitch for the corner. You have to decided if you want the stitch at the end or in the middle. If you want it in the middle use the overstitch on the edges and make them meet in the middle. If you want to make the small stitch at the corner the last stitches have to be estimated. For backstitch I wouldn't look at the backside to see if its neat. As i got better I would assume the backstitches are neat and not bother looking at it. I would consider stitching a long line while concentrate and then when you are done critique the line of stitching. Practice on the fundamentals before messing with more complex things it will save you the headache. Good luck