Nuttish

That's Gutterman upholstery thread. It's ~0.01"/.25mm off the spool.

Be prepared to wait months. Every single chip in the tannery is spoken for the moment it gets graded.

Ya, that's what I meant when I said put an overhand knot on the back, but it didn't occur to me to cast it an additional time to make a half surgeons knot. Thanks for the good suggestion!

Oh duh. You're talking about tooling. I should read more closely. I'm sorry about that.

Campbell Randall sells the Italian felt and felt/leather disc burnishers in many styles. They'll mount directly to your arbor just like a grinding wheel. You may need a reducing bushing.

Laser cut acrylic

Looks good. Did you come up with a solution you like more?

There have been many discussions of the many many available strategies for putting grinders, drill presses, lathes, motors/arbors, etc. to use to sand and burnish edges. The search box is your friend.

1. Pro option = colored foil and a hot stamping machine. 2. Possibly workable though tedious and difficult option = use your stamps and hand paint the deboss with a fine brush and acrylic paint.

Yes. I purchased that exact machine for $209 delivered on eBay. It's unsafe garbage. I just uploaded pics to my post about the machine here — http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=63096&p=416089

Pics of this garbage machine before I sent it back. Wiring loom and heating element started burning and oozing discolored grease on first use. Castings are crummy and the general fit and finish is poor. Poor quality welds that were rusty out of the box. Working parts poorly aligned (!!) Heating surfaces looked used upon first inspection.

Look for yourself. I put up a pic comparing them. It doesn't remotely lay flat compared to twisted linen of approximately the same diameter.

Sorry, but I still don't understand what you want.

A. You gotta finish it with a knot. B. When you cross stitch with two needles, you get a free overhand knot behind every cross and if you double up as you are, you can pass your bottom thread under the other cinched bottom thread. C. What's wrong with a couple surgeons knots on top of each other? They're good enough for fishing. You can even pass the tag ends through each side of the entire loop behind your cross. Nothing's going anywhere anytime soon. That's 2 overhand knots cinching two threads finished by a double surgeon's knot, all more or less indistinguishable from the back of any cross made with overhand knots. Crude demo: Front Back

Sajou cable linen and Ritza tiger are completely different concepts suitable for different projects. Ritza is braided — it will never lay as flat as an appropriately sized twisted thread. Sajou is twisted burnished yarns. Irish linen is twisted waxed yarns. If you're looking for an excellent and more accessible alternative to Sajou, check out Crawford's Irish linen. Royalwood has it in a variety of colors and, most importantly, small sizes comparable to those offered by Sajou. I'm not sure for the length you get per $15 spool that it's actually much more cost-effective. For comparison — a crude sampler 1st row — Ritza nominal .6mm — actual .020"/.5mm 2nd row — Crawford 3 ply — ~.020"/.5mm 3rd row — Sajou 432 — ~.020"/.5mm 4th row — Sajou 532 — ~.017"/.43mm 5th row — Crawford 2 ply — ~.016"/.4mm 6th row — Barbour 4 ply Keep in mind that these were measured unburnished with a thickness gage. That is not the proper way to measure most thread, but you get the idea. You could use finer thread and you're not charging enough.

Hand tools • $10 Osborne diamond awl https://www.osborneleathertools.com/product_details.php?pid=372 or spend $10 more and get the Cadillac from Barry King Tools http://www.barrykingtools.com/handtools.htm • $3 Osborne stabbing awl for corner holes and layout https://www.osborneleathertools.com/product_details.php?pid=361 • $20 Osborne haft with chuck https://www.osborneleathertools.com/product_details.php?pid=485 or spend $15 more and get a bitching cocobolo haft from Barry King with a pin vise chuck and changeable collets for different awl sizes. http://www.barrykingtools.com/handtools.htm • $8 John James No. 2 harness needles (~.040" equivalent of 18 AWG) — Osborne 18 gauge are the same diameter but longer and with a larger eye. Preference. Maybe get Osborne 20 gauge if you're working with fine thread like Crawford 2 or 3 ply (see below) • $5 Box of single edge razor blades • $45-60 Osborne belt punch set — this is a kick ass deal if it's for real http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/350502329005?lpid=82&chn=ps • $15 cheapo edge beveler set — these look perfectly adequate http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lemo-5Pcs-Working-Hand-leather-Edge-Skiving-DIY-tool-Keen-Edge-Beveler-Wholesal-/161717054264?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a7166b38. You'll eventually want some Barry Kings. • $45 Maybe a #3 or #4 Bissonette edger for the back of belts. https://www.osborneleathertools.com/product_details.php?pid=196 or spend $10 more and get Barry Kings. • $60 1/2" oblong or bag punch for belt buckle prongs — you can use it to punch longer holes if you line it up — you can clean your cuts up by folding your piece in half and carefully cutting the ragged bits away with a razor http://brucejohnsonleather.com/leather-tools-sale/leather-slot-punches-sale/ Bruce's prices are in line with new tools, but you're getting much higher quality vintage tools. You can totally get cheaper Chinese tools on eBay that are probably perfectly serviceable. • $0 wad of denim or canvas scraps for burnishing edges • $25 wood strap cutter like Tandy's or you can sometimes score a vintage Osborne pistol grip draw gauge for around the same amount on eBay. • You could spend $30-100 on a maul, or you could cut a handle into a 12" piece of 2x4 with a hacksaw. Or don't cut a handle into it. All you need is something to whack punches with. It doesn't have to be pretty. • Small crummy polyethylene cutting board to keep your punches from going hitting your work surface. • Thick piece of 12x12 or larger tempered glass, polished marble or granite countertop piece, or chunk of marble gravestone for skiving • $35 Lisa Sorrel skiving knife. I see no point in being frustrated with a crummy tool that costs only a little less. http://sorrellnotionsandfindings.customboots.net/product/skiving-knife/ Layout • ~$20 Find some cheap vintage Starrett or Brown & Sharpe pattern dividers on eBay. They're cheaper and better than Osborne, Tandy, Vergez Blanchard, whatever. Get the ones that are flat on the inside. http://www.ebay.com/itm/L-S-STARRETT-8-SQUARE-FRAME-DIVIDERS-/371340831999?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5675a36cff • ~$80 Don't bother with pricking irons yet — they're expensive and you need several. Instead, call Bruce Johnson up and get his recommendation on pricking wheel carriages with exchangeable wheels. He's got a few up now in ideal sizes for most work — 6-9 spi. Pricking wheels make a deeper diamond shaped impression than overstitch wheels. Exchangeable wheels are a terrific bargain. http://brucejohnsonleather.com/leather-tools-sale/stitch-markers-overstitchers-and-pricking-wheels/ • $25 cheap vintage 18 or 24 inch machinist ruler on eBay — they're heavier and flatter than art store alternatives. Or use the ruler from something like this and get a combination square and protractor as well. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Lufkin-Rule-Co-Bevel-Protractor-Head-W-12-Ruler-Machinist-Toolmaker-/141682428691?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20fcee4b13 • $5 el cheapo combination square if you didn't get a protractor head steel rule! • $20 heavy aluminum yardstick – heaviest you can find to make it easier to keep it straight for that first cut down the back of a new side of leather. • $0 you can make a cardboard template for tracing out English and round points for straps Thread • $16/spool — don't mess around with Tandy, poly, Ritza, Sajou, whatever. Royalwood sells all colors of Crawford's waxed Irish linen in a variety of sizes. It's just good. Probably 3 or 4 ply is good to start. http://www.royalwoodltd.com/cat14-17ar.htm

Or http://www.mcmaster.com/#o-rings/=xfsqy3

Duh. Forgot you have to anchor your lining. Pardon this rough and peanut shaped comp.

That clamping mechanism is kick ass. Please post pics of how adjustable it is. I was thinking of building something similar to a woodworking leg vise with the screw much further down since you don't need anywhere near the pressure you do with woodworking. This mechanism might be better.

What do you mean by 3D? A picture of a detail of the failed attempts would be helpful. Do you mean 3D in the sense that it's contoured or raised from the back vs. debossed into the material? That requires a top and bottom die and I don't think it's that commonly done except in industry. "Embossed" leather isn't really embossed like print. Owasso in Michigan can probably just make you the top die, but you need CAD files for the contours. You can fake emboss by debossing the negative space around your art vs. raising it from the back. This leaves the illusion of the positive space of your mark being raised above the surface when it's really just the surface itself.

The Osborne set of belt punches in the red vinyl wallet is just fine and reasonably priced. Individual punches may not be much more expensive. https://www.osborneleathertools.com/product_details.php?pid=262

You could also not use a grommet e.g.

+1 Campbell Randall. They're very very helpful on the phone. I Sachs in Chicago's store brand is Barbour. I think they've only got 4+ yarns. I think it's something like $35 a cone. Can't find their site and they just moved form Roosevelt. Their number is on Yelp.

In my experience, there's only so much you can do with "floppy" tempered leather. If you're working with really fibrous belly, you might want to modify your expectations. Here's some nearly exactly 2mm Chromexcel, which I consider to be very "floppy" and so difficult to burnish that I no longer even bother. I beveled the top and then sanded the edge with 320 and 400. Then I knocked the fuzzies off the bottom with a very very sharp 00 round bottom edger. It seems to me that only the sharpest tools do any good with very soft tempered leathers.

I no longer bother burnishing most Essex, Dublin, Chromexcel, and Legacy in anything below 8 or 9 oz. It's not worth the trouble. The material is too flexible in every dimension not to pull the nice surface you've created apart and make it appear cracked, hazy, rough, etc. Keep trying, and I hope you figure something out.