Nuttish

Also, some retanned leather simply won't burnish at all because it contains so much fat and wax and may even be stretchy. Basic question: what kind of leather are you using :-)

Misha01 is correct. This is a common problem in sewing scallops or convex curves in fabric. Unfortunately strategies for solving the problem in fabric don't apply to work using the weight of leather you are. I'll leave you to puzzle out the high school geometry problem of calculating the outside diameter of your inside circle given the outside diameter of the outer circle. You will have the exact same number of holes on the top and side pieces, but (assuming you want your top piece flush with the edges) for any arbitrary arc length, the stitches per inch on the inside piece minus your stitching allowance (in other words, it's a circle from which you start your stitch that's perhaps 4mm smaller diameter) must take into account its diameter including the thickness of the outer piece. You'll also have to ensure that your stitching allowance is close enough to the inside edge of the outer piece so that it doesn't pucker on the inside instead of the outside. Simply put, the inside circle of your truly creepy iron cross box is too large and the heavy tight lacing you're using is holding the piece down while it compresses and distorts it from the edge. Sorry for the length of this post or any clarity problems. I'm happy to explain further and draw the solution.

I love the early 20th century Osborne round knife I got from Bruce Johnson. I find it's far more accurate and easy to use than the clicker, utility, and homemade single edged paring and skiving knives I've used for cutting straight and curved edges. Mind you, the end of the knife is large, so you'll still need a pointed razor of some sort to cut small notches, etc. First, you can easy control the amount of blade you've got in your leather by simply tilting the knife forward or backward. Remember, you're cutting from the end of the curved blade, so the curved blade makes the knife easy to hold and accurately direct forward and downward force sufficient to cut your piece. Second, it's easy to maintain an accurate horizontal position of the top of the knife to ensure your piece is square. Third, for me at least, it's a lot easier to push a very straight line laid down with my long steel straight edge than to pull an accurate line with a knife or strap cutter. I don't have a nice draw knife; my Tandy strap cutter is absolute garbage and I regret wasting a nickel on it. No matter how diligent I am about keeping the cutter pulled toward my cut, there are bound to be minor deviations that I don't get with a round knife. It's also easy to go back and correct any sections that were less than perfect by paring off long enough tiny strips that are sufficient to make errors imperceptible. Fourth, you can carefully roll the beginnings and ends of your cut to avoid the typical distortion you get from pushing a blade through a section that's not well-supported by adjacent leather. Fifth, though cutting leather will rapidly dull any knife, round knives are easy to dress with a strop. Sixth, it's a very versatile knife — you can accurately skive edges as well as pare strap ends. I heartily recommend a small round knife as a general purpose knife for personal leather goods.

That's a two lace spiral braid lanyard stitch.

I'm looking for a reliable supplier of 332 - 632 Campbell's Satin Laid Linen Thread in the full range of colors. It's a venerable thread mill, yet its products are somehow difficult to find. Same with wholesale Caldwell. They make an unwaxed 18/3 that I can't find anywhere. US or EU is fine. Thanks much.

You can get started with a diamond awl from Osborne, a fork, a little bench vice, some waxed thread in a weight appropriate to your project, and, obviously, some leather. I'm not saying this to be a smartass, but as someone who has never been satisfied with budget tools. Ever. They're cheap for a reason. Good tools are made with materials appropriate to their use to ensure good results and long wear. I build toolkits based on what I need when I need it and I always buy decent quality. It costs twice as much or more, which ultimately is still a savings, both because I'm actually getting the right tool with no compromise, and because I won't have to replace some rubbish tool sooner than I anticipated. In the US that means getting vintage American non-Tandy tools like Osborne and Gomph. The Japanese stuff still looks skeezy compared to Osborne and Dixon. The Korean and Chinese stuff isn't worth bringing into your home.

Abbey of England has a huge selection of lovely buckles. I am going to try Zach White out of North Carolina to see if they stack up to Abbey.

Or get all colors and sizes from Alice in Stitches. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sajou-Cable-Linen-Thread-Size-432-CHOOSE-COLOR-200-Meter-Spool-/130803860598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item1e74848476 Or order off-brand cable linen thread in the same sizes, colors, and finish from French eBay.

This Hong Kong outfit appears to make nice products with lots of options. http://www.colorsnaps.com/ I'll get some samples and report back.

Thanks for the resource. I'm thinking one of the American raw denim jeans makers will have an idea. I'll report back.

I'm looking for some custom copper rivets with my brand on them, a la jeans. I'm also looking for some 1cm and similar size flat top snaps with my brand on them. Any ideas?

Grey Ghost Graphics laser cut acrylic templates http://greyghostgraphics.com/template.html

Bruce Johnson has a very large selection of reasonably priced vintage Osborne, Rose, and Gomph overstitch and pricking wheels. Bruce is a nice guy and will help you choose the right tool. http://brucejohnsonleather.com/content/index.php/leather_tools_for_sale/leather-stitch-markers-stitch-groovers-and-channelers/ You can get very inexpensive overstitch wheels in the sizes you need from Craft Sha and on Amazon and eBay. You can get some Vergez Blanchard pricking irons in those sizes on eBay. They're stupid expensive. You could have a machinist make you some for less. Abbey has Dixon pricking irons in those smaller sizes for £56. The only new pricking irons you can get in the US appear to be Osborne's in 7, 8, 9 or similar. I use those and will soon be using a vintage Osborne pricking wheel carriage with wheels in sizes you want that I got from Bruce Johnson for a good price.

What kind and size of thread are you using and what kind of work are you doing? Do you want a prominent contrast thread? Are you making heavy use items? I'm wondering if it's too big for your project. You don't necessarily need to groove your stitch line if you're saddle stitching a thinner thread. My work is more "European" style so I'm using 332, 432 and 532 Sajou Au Chinoise cable linen, as one of the first posters recommended. It's substantially narrower than the 4+ ply threads some people use. Using high quality thread suited to my projects has improved my stitching 1000%. There's no need to set Au Chinois in a groove because my focus is absolutely not to show a prominent contrasting thread. It's quite lovely and solves every single one of the problems you addressed. It's highly polished and slightly waxed. The slick finish makes it easy to sew with. It's not actually substantially more expensive that decent quality 100% Irish linen unless you know to buy unbranded Crawford's from Royalwood. :-) Tiger thread isn't for everyone. It's braided and sometimes difficult to stitch around, lending itself to picking off very small synthetic threads that are a pain to unstitch. Those can appear fuzzy even if you manage not to break them, though they seem easy enough to slick back down with some wax and a quick canvas burnish. You can even cheat by running a lighter under them very quickly to shrink up the synthetic fuzzies. I also don't like the sizes of Tiger that I've been able to get in the States in the last few months. The German company that makes Tiger is frankly offensive to me as a small outfit not buying commercial quantities for manufacturing — they don't respond to inquiries so it's hard to find suppliers or learn more about the product. Screw those guys. Shrug.

Does anyone have a line on custom copper rivets, steel snaps, or Chicago (sex) screws? I need some with my mark stamped in them. Thanks

Hi Keable - thanks for the link. This is helpful. It's always good to hear someone discuss needle priority and casting the thread. It seems to me that the author is probably using a pricking iron in his groove. Same as I'm attempting, but I take your point that grooving makes things a lot easier to line up. The 7-8 re-tanned pull up leather I'm using won't groove and it's very soft, so I might actually use a dull scratch awl and get a slightly deeper and wider mark to prick. In other words, your advice is helpful to show me that I'm making lining up and opening my holes way too hard on myself. My pricking iron and thread are too fine for some of my work and dividing my scribed line is my main challenge. When using it I also see that my stitching awl is a big wide so I'm occasionally exceeding the edges of my pricking iron impressions. I need to take a longer stitching awl to a stone to narrow it up so I can't open my pricked marks too wide. Nigel Armitage is just really really good at this. Thank you.

"Maker" in a black letter typeface. I like. Very nice maker's mark. What do you mean that's how you get them to look? Is that what it looks like when you use a stitching wheel? I've never used one. I can't draw a straight line on a piece of paper. I'm sure as shit not trying on a $20 piece of leather that I can't replace this month.

Chiming in late. I've been working with Chromexcel and found that inconsistencies in the several sides I've gotten are in the degree to which fat and wax permeates the flesh side. Where my construction is flesh to flesh and it's relatively wax free, it just rough it up a bit with 100 grit under my stitch away from the edge and use paper cement. Stay away from your edges because Chromexcel just absolutely can't help itself from getting all nappy anyway. Where the flesh is waxy, it's going to be inconsistent over even smallish pieces. For flesh to flesh, I'm sanding from 100, 220, 400 and 600. 400 and 600 really just comb and burnish a bit. You'll have to pull stray fibers over the edges and use a very very sharp knife to carefully trim in whatever profile you wish. Bevelers don't work very well on this leather in my limited experience. Grain to grain and flesh to grain rubber cement up just fine when you take some 100 grit and remove the tiniest bit of surface to reveal the white chrome layer under the grain. Don't go nuts. Regardless of what you're gluing to what, be very diligent about keeping your edges clean with Chromexcel. Cement won't sand off nicely because it soaks in so deeply. For temporarily fixing pieces for stitching, you can just press with your fingers or use a brayer. No big deal. Not sure if rubber cement is ever suitable for anything more than temporarily setting up constructions for stitching. That's all I use it for. If you're looking to more permanently fix this stuff, I've been experimenting with 3M Super 77 spray cement using the same prep. You've got to mask your piece up so well that it's a major drag, but it seems to work well. You didn't say for what purpose you want to fix your pieces so I hope this helps.

Thanks very much NV. My lines have greatly improved in the last several weeks to the point that I'm actually confident showing pieces to people. I'm using a #8 pricking iron and Sajou Lin Cable 532 thread. It was a matter of making a proper template so I didn't have to worry about hand cutting my pattern, temporarily rubber cementing my construction up, and being diligent about my awl placement. I'm working with now - Horween Chromexcel - but I will take your advice and experiment with a groover for stiffer grain vegetable tanned pieces when I use a running stitch. I hadn't experimented with my groover much. Thanks for the input.

How flat should a butt stitch lay? What is the thinnest leather this stitch is suitable for? The style of butt stitch I'm using appears to slightly pucker in the middle where the threads are crossing through the middle of the piece.

Responding to Royal and Barney here. Royal: I used the same color thread. Nothing conceals a crummy meandering line. :-) But I'm getting better. I made a folded and box stitched sleeve for the iron out of my Record surface planer that I modified the edge on to be a paring knife similar to Dixon's "fancy leather workers paring knife." After an hour on my stones, it's a thing of beauty. It seems Dixon has the 6 tpi pricking iron I need. Tandy only has chisels and punches. Like I said, I can't justify spending 5 times as much on the French tools, which I do see being offered in the US. Barney: Thanks very much for sharing your card case. I hope you don't mind if I offer a few thoughts and ask some questions. It's a cool simple very useful design. I like it a lot. I'm drawing the pattern for something similar and experimenting with sanding the flesh side down as smooth as possible so it doesn't cheese the corners of my cotton cards. You will get better results with your marks if you slightly wet the leather before you stamp and make your marks before you finish. This is one of the few things I remember from growing up around dressage horses. It looks like you actually distorted the surface around your K, but who knows - I'm finding that Tandy econo leather is garbage that may not make practicing veg tan work any better. It's ridiculously inconsistent thickness and hardness from inch to inch makes it frustrating for me, at least. Did you make your marks after you finished the construction? They should be made before you assemble. I'm going to make another post about typesetting that will address your issues with "Alicia." You're having the same problem I am with neatsfoot oil penetrating the hide from the side and causing a dark "bleed" under the surface - anyone - what's the strategy for preventing this? Re: Hobby Lobby. I find the the open bigotry and religious views the owner of Hobby Lobby forces on employees and customers an unacceptable imposition and repugnant to me as a human being. I would sooner never make another leather item in my life than put a nickel in his pocket. Thanks for responding.

Hey y'all. First, I want to thank you for all the great info and discussions here. I've been reading for a few weeks and have learned quite a lot. I got my first tools and some crummy Tandy veg tan earlier this week and wanted to share my first piece and ask for critiques and input on some specific problems I'm having. I drew the pattern for this in Adobe Illustrator and printed out a paper template that I scribed onto my working leather. Tools used: Osborne stitching awl, sharpened on a stone John James 002 harness needles Tiger nylon thread Osborne 609-8 pricking iron. Osborne No. 2 edge beveler No slip steel straight edge Homemade German steel cutting knife. Here are some of my specific problems: I'm having a hard time cutting straight. It always seems to have this little curve where it slightly widens at the end. My knife is very very sharp. What gives. Things seem to go better when I make lots of passes with little pressure, just letting the knife do its thing. Is that usual? Hints? Strategies? I free handed the curves and was disappointed that there are all these little fly-away bits sticking out. I tried burnishing them with some spit but they don't want to go away. My beveler appears to be too big for 5 oz leather. It makes a groove about 2 mm into the edge but doesn't remove much material. What size is appropriate? It also doesn't go around tight curves like this. My 8 tpi pricking iron seems pretty darn tight now, but Osborne only makes 7, 8, and 9 tpi and the only other sources I see are Dixon, the expensive French brand, and Japanese stuff which is all very expensive. I want a 6 tpi. Where do I get one? I'm still learning how to switch hand priority and direction while saddle stitching so I completely screwed up the left hand side of the piece. The typical zig zag with one thread laying over the other is ... on the back. Speaking of backs, the thing I'm most disappointed about here is the crummy line. I glued the construction up with some Scotch Super 77, so everything was dead straight before I started. I had no problem when I was practicing with 2 thin pieces of leather. I'm straddling my scribed line with my pricking iron and then opening holes up with my awl horizontally from the center line. Any tips appreciated. I'm not even ready to start thinking about how to properly finish leather. I would like to stop stabbing my fingers with my awl. It goes through leather like butter and through skin even easier. Any critiques or thoughts appreciated.