DavidL

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

http://elfitakorea.blogspot.ca mallet punch. Should work on thin leathers with little pressure.

The backside of a sample piece of leather I got that I believe is full grain upholstery leather has a distinct grid pattern on the backside. Is this a sign that the leather is polyester blend? Is this some sort of process to make a uniform flesh side for full grain leather?

http://www.laederiet.dk/produkter/Visprodukter_engelsk.asp?intPage=2&id=25 - Leather hardener Found something interesting. Has anyone used this on upholstery leather to make it stiff enough for leather goods like wallets. Is there any natural way to stiffen upholstery/ chrome leather so they can be stiff.

Emailed fiebings and they replied saying that it is dye made for the Canadian market and is legitimate but is old stock. Im going to try sheepskin to dye my leather instead of a standard dauber. Thanks to everyone that replied.

I scratched a line into the metal end of my handle. After some practice you don't need to look at the line to get an angle. I have talked to you before about a question of beginner tools to start out with and recommended a pricking iron. If you went through with getting a pricking iron you sometimes don't have to use a awl on thinner leather, as the iron goes through all the way to the backside. If you do all the stabbing at the same time its easier to focus on one task than to stab a hole, stitch then repeat. It is not impossible to stab holes while stitching, but i find prepunching holes with only the pricking iron gives better results - you may have to use an awl if the leather is multi layered or 6 plus ounces. Other than that it comes down to practice on- Tension of pulling Consistency of awl stabbing Same technique on every stitch Physically- Thread/spi/awl size ratio

Thank you for the reply. I've decided to get a mallet hammer and manually hit the top of the die. Elifita.com is where you can find it. I passed on the arbor press because 1 ton pressure is too light for dies. A shop press will work better.

This is what it looks like - Picture is from ebay seller.

Alright good to hear that they are reputable - although its odd they use regular paper instead of gloss paper because the difference in cost is pennies. I'd like to hear why they would use regular printer paper since it looks like a fake fiebings bottle.

You should do a tutorial on one of your projects. It would be interesting to see the progress.

Zack White. The bottle is the quart version and the coloured bottles are paper labeled and the black and brown are with the glossy paper. They may have just took there store label dye, put it in a bottle and added the fiebings paper label. Il have to contact fiebings and ask them this if they actually did do this, that is some petty trick and I'll just stop spending my money there and tell people to not shop there. I find a few companies send over some products knowing before hand that the product wasn't sellable, if they sold it to you face to face they wouldn't even dare showing it to you.

Previously i used angelus dye and its worked well with no uneven colour. Im using the fiebings pro dye in blue and the colour is a solid blue, but there are darker spots and streaks. If i soak the leather in water for 10 minutes to take off the excessive dye a lot of dye soaks off and the colour turns to purple. The bottle was stirred and I can't get the colour to stay even - i also noticed the dye doesn't soak in fast like angelus. For the colour dyes i have - red and blue the labels are some sort of printer paper with adhesive at the back and the black and brown are a sort of glossy paper, is that normal for fiebings?

I believe there are a few japanese proxy sites that buy the product and ship it out to you for a small fee. It would be interesting to see if they can locate this book for you. In Japan they have a few leather craft stores that would stock these type of books (probably for 20 USD). Heck, maybe for 15 dollars they can translate it to english for you. If they are able to get you a copy leave a link here I'd also like to pick up these a copy.

I believe they did it purposely. They would undercut springfield leather if they want to compete with them, which is not necessary because they supply them with healthy margins for themselves. It would be cheaper to just allow springfield to handle small orders and tannery row take on larger orders. The 30 dollar handling fee make single hides more than springfield's price. If thats not planned out it sure looks like it was. Correct me if I'm wrong I'm curious about these type of things.

if its big enough you can make a dog collar. Buffalo is very strong, even chrome tanned and judging from your picture your puppy is small, so strength is less of an issue. I like your dog btw, what breed of dog is he/she?

still cheaper than retailer for large order, seems fair to me. Idk. If enough people complain they may take it off. hope you find a good source though.

its a marketing thing. They would rather have a person buy 200sq rather than buying 20sq ft then 180sq on the second shipment. Otherwise, people will skip retailers and buy straight from the tannery and they have to hire more workers. If you question them they will say they have to work extra hours and the fee is for the time spent (and extra worker), which they probably do. Buy from springfield leather they sell at 9.5 a sq ft. If you buy 500 sq feet 30 dollars is extra 5-7 cents a sq foot. Don't blame the tannery they aren't a retailer, they are a manufacturer.

emailed them and they are in the process of editing the video. They confirmed it should be able to cut 7 oz well.

The issue is partly because i haven't put my years in. It's not that the backside is sometimes angled and off, its always straight, even using .6mm at 7spi. There is no angle for some odd reason, is it because I'm pulling straight out? I've got no more leather pieces to practice on until my shipment arrives so I can't try it out. Blanchard or dixon iron for me gives the same issue regardless of thread thickness- tiger or fil au chinois.

I have been listening to him. I'm just trying to get more information thats all. I've tested all the possibilities over the 100 plus hours i've put in. The backside however only ever looked proper while using poly round thread 1mm. Whatever you see in nigels videos is the same technique I'm using, with the exception I'm right handed and the left needle goes in first. I also don't throw loop because I'm trying to get that hermes angled backstitch and after viewing footage they also don't throw the loop. It could be left to two variables my awl - need a wider flatter awl and the leather - need some sort of goat vegetable tanned . Another possibility is that hermes workers use an inverse pricking iron and hit it from the backside that they do not show in the videos. Any one have down the infamous hermes stitch (none of the thread touches the opposite thread) or do I have to spend the 12 grand to learn from a hermes worker do you think?

very nice watch straps! barenia leather looks amazing on those straps.

alright point taken. I just thought that as long as the core of your product is in tack, such as hand stitching, hand dying, and hand assembled that the few things are not on this list can be automated and still keep the integrity of the product as long as it doesn't hurt the end result. My point of view was that hermes, known as one of the best leather boutiques does some parts of there work by automation - like their watches are machine stitched, their saddles are mostly machine stitched and a part of their kelly bags are machine stitched and still when I look at the product It is still great at its core, since 80 percent is hand made and 20 percent is automated. But they have a huge following so they are allowed to do so. Also I'm entitled to my opinion and freedom of speech to give out any advice I see fit . Anyways, on a lighter note do you have a website cjmt I would love to see those watches . You could put it in your signature so people can see, if you have a website. Thanks again for everyone who posted!

i assumed eccentric of .5" was the length of the handle, i guess i was wrong. Didn't take any science courses in high school...