Macca

I already posted in your last post about this. It won't work, the tool is not designed for this You will damage the teeth

Your passion comes though in every piece I bet your customers are delighted when they see the end results ! I bought an old French book of art nouveau designs for leather work last year, not anywhere skilled enough to do it justice yet have you looked at that style ? Would be interesting to see what you could turn out ! (no skulls in that though !)

Being a Euro, the US western style isn't exactly my cuppa but, as always, I can't help but be impressed with the quality of your work !

These tools really are not designed for that, you will eventually damage them by doing this. Not to mention removing them from the leather afterwards will no doubt, distort it. They are really not meant to be used as punches, only for marking followed by an awl. Learn to use an awl properly & you will have no issues stitching almost anything ! As for the OP, heres a link showing how to mark curves with an iron http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?19961-Pricking-Irons-How-to-go-round-corners-not-cut-them!

Have a look at these Charlie does some beautiful work ! 532 & 632 Lin Cable http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=50768

nice find !

1 book for everything is a challenge Can definitely recommend the following though Leathercraft tools : Al Stohlman The art of hand sewing leather : Al Stohlman The Leatherworking handbook : Valerie Michael above 3 will cover most of what you could want for the basics carving, stamping etc, is a bit US for my tastes so I don't do any of it, so no recommendations there. Also, the Stohlman books, art of making leather cases are very good for techniques (but not patterns !) None of the above are much good for patterns though, all very dated. The Japanese books are pretty good for newer patterns/ ideas http://www.goodsjapan.jp/category/books/catId=4053927

Well, Ideally you want to straddle the line But if the alternative it to try & use 4 steps to mark a stitch line then go ahead & line it on the edge. You just need to put the practice in, it will come together..

don't try & get it centred on a scribe line Put a very fine line down & line up the teeth on the edge of the scribe line

Just noticed this part... errr.... NO !

Sorry, my reply was aimed at David The Osbornes don't come up too often, but good luck in your search ! @ David, seriously, just put the practice in ! No point trying to work around poor technique

Well, there are many ways around that None of which would cost you money on tools you don't need BTW, I take it you haven't tried a pricking wheel, they are not easy to use well, especially if you are looking for sub mm accuracy ! On thin leather, forget it, they are meant for thick, stuffed leather straps for harnesses etc On thin leather you will get a lot of distortion/stretching of the leather as you have to apply significant pressure to get a decent mark. With a little practice you should manage good straight lines with a pricking iron. Couple of tips to get you going. prick the layout on graph paper, get it perfect then use that as a template, this is also good for corners when moving the pricking iron along the leather, overlay the previous strike by 3 marks (most people use 1), 3 will keep the line straighter. Bit of practice is all you need, not more tools.

why not stick with pricking irons ? much easier to use, although, more expensive certainly

impressive !

China or Taiwan

ummm.. Good luck & all that but, well.. hmmm

If you can't use a head knife, what about a Euro tool ? one of these ? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Vergez-Blanchard-Angled-Skiving-Paring-Knife-leather-skiver-tool-/321384538871?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ad402e2f7 http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Vergez-Blanchard-Straight-Skiving-Paring-Knife-leather-cutting-tool-/321386642402?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ad422fbe2 Vintage one would be better steel, but difficult to find nowadays Probably find an Asian copy for much, much less if you want to just try one out first those small ones with the disposable blades that curve up are impossible for me to use, don't know how you guys manage !

you mention piece work, again, thats for volumes, significant volumes. What you want made is a one off (even if you order 100), no chance anyone will take that on for piece work rates Dont dismiss the skill required to produce something like this, its not a minimum wage skill ! You seem to be still aiming at low price, high volumes (which I think is nuts for hand made product). If that really is your target market, why are you considering hand made wooden components ?? No-one will give a damn at that price, just use normal ones, they won't care.

nicely done !

This all seems similar to other discussions you had on leather article pricing, you are applying the same flawed cost + method to this. You seriously need to think more of value pricing rather than mass production unit costs then applied to low volumes, it just doesn't work. This is not volume business for anyone & will require a great deal of skill/knowledge. Unless you have a friend who will turn these out as a favour, be prepared to pay a lot for the skill & knowledge of someone to take this on.

those are some lovely tools there Trox !

plough gauge

swiss one is on the right of this picture http://www.aeleder-hötta.li/_pics/285/_1024x768_0_2191780821917808_0_0x-44_ffffff/IMGP4181.jpg

The advantage to the angled clamp is speed, you don't have to keep moving your head about, the entry side is already in front of you. Having to check the backside stitching is just down to lack of practice, you are not going in at the same angle every time Downsides to the angled clamp are it can get tiring on large pieces (clamping force is your thigh ) & its not as stable as some others. The swiss one Walter uses overcomes these downsides while still having having the piece angled, but its extremely expensive new. BTW, dont chop up the angled clamp & try using is vertically, you would have to squeeze your legs together to use it, thats not going to work well

its going to be very, very costly, if its even possible. I don't think you will find many places willing to even try it, keeping those slits perfectly aligned over time would require a huge chunk of metal behind them tapering down (like pricking irons but all round the piece) Also, that would be a monster press required & good luck getting the cut leather piece off it afterwards ! I do understand why you would like to go this route, I think the stuff with round holes & large stitching are horrible But I don't see any shortcuts unfortunately he is already using pricking irons