Avgvstvs

Waterhouse leather offers a free skiving/splitting service too.

Nice job! Clean construction and nice stitching indeed!

I guess you're right... There might not be any way to control the heat... The description on proleptic's site is quite lacking - I just sent them a few questions. Will post the answers when they get back to me.

Hi all, I recall reading that some people were looking for an alternative to the 'fileteuse manuelle' tool. I recently stumbled upon proleptic's website and came across this: Complete kit: https://proleptic.net/shop/pro-thermal-tools/complete-pro-thermal-tool-kit/ All pro-termal items: https://proleptic.net/product-category/tools/pro-thermal-tools/?orderby=price-desc The complete kit is retailed at $170. The tool is sold by itself for $35 and the tips range from $18 to $30. Information on the site (and anywhere else) is quite limited but it looks to me like it might be more adapted to leatherworking than soldering irons or pyrography tools. Has anyone used these pro-thermal tools? It would be great to hear what people have to say about them...

Your bag is amazing! That's a nice design - sophisticated, elegant and truly imaginative. You work really stands out. Like DavidL, I think designs like this one and that of the satchel you posted a while back have a high-end luxury leather good type of look. I rarely see original designs that have that refined and classy look. Usually it's just too much to my eye. And, like many have stated before, I don't think your design is rugged or rough, I find it's quite the opposite!

Hi nuttish, I can't speak based on long-term experience as I'm just a beginner at leatherwork. The edges seem to hold on the (crude) item I made for myself. I made several items for family and friends using the sole and edge dressing to finish the edges but more time will be needed before I can be absolutely positive about the durability of those edges. The edges of the scrap piece with finished edges I posted earlier have been rubbed vigorously against jeans for about a minute (I did that to test the result before using the product on a finished item). The finish created on the edges is not as close to burnishing edges as it is to painting them (but it's more like a stain+varnish type of thing rather than paint). The product soaks in the leather and hardens it. This allows you to have more control over the sanding you do and when you put on the final coat(s) it bonds with the hardened edge. I suspect that the fact that the liquid hardens in the leather helps those edges to be more durable than regular painted edges (I own several articles with painted edges and the finish cracked and rubbed off them all quite fast after normal use). As for the leather I got, I'm pretty sure it's chromexcel; it's what I paid for (from Maverick) and it smells, feels and looks like chromexcel. I have never played with either essex or dublin but from what I gather, it shouldn't be so easy to confuse chromexcel for dublin or essex as I have read in a post from Nick Horween that essex is essentially cowhide tanned with the same extracts as shell cordovan and dublin is basically a waxed essex.

Hi Nuttish. I bevel the edges with a craptool edge beveler I got in a beginner's kit from Tandy. The thing isn't sharp - I never sharpened it and you know 'sharp' is hardly a word one could use to describe those tools. To minimize the drag when beveling chromexcel, put as little pressure as possible on the tool, it should make a significant difference. Also, I noticed that the angle at which you hold the beveler has a great impact on the level of drag you get while beveling. Another thing to note is, if your chromexcel is of 'second' quality, the 'loose grained' parts will tend to drag significantly more as the grain is detached from the flesh part in some areas. I hope this helps. Word to the wise: as I stated earlier, this method is atrociously tedious; it takes me about 2-3x more time to finish edges that way vs finishing straight veg tanned leather edges. PS: Widget (or anyone else) If you decide to try this method, I would greatly appreciate to get feedback from you as I probably haven't nailed the most efficient way to go about it and I suppose I could learn a great deal from other's experiences with the techique/ product.

In all honesty, I'm really not all that knowledgeable on the subject. My suggestion would be more adapted to a situation where you mold one piece in order to sew it on another one. You would have the backside free and could stitch without any problems. Now if your item is made of a single molded piece or it's made out of two pieces already sewn, it's another story completely. On the matter of shortening the needles, I suppose you could trim them down a little and then file and polish the tip so it's blunt and won't catch the leather or thread when in use. Sounds like a lot of work for needles...

It might not be such a great idea but I figured I should post it if it can have a slight chance to help... How about integrating the tooling to the wet formed item as an appliqué, i.e. tooling another piece and then glue and stitch it to the item?

The above is copied and pasted from the abbey website's description of the threads. I think they just goofed up and didn't describe their products consistently. I don't think there's any difference. Then again, English is not my mother tongue so I might be missing something.

I don't know about the wax level. What I see at abbey is either Ritza 25 (the one I referred to earlier) and Ritza 44. On the julius Koch site, Ritza 44 is advertised as machine sewing thread and is silicone lubricated (ranges 0.6mm-0.8mm) whereas Ritza 25 is described as hand sewing thread (ranges 0.8mm-1.2mm). Abbey lists them slightly differently (and oddly enough stocks sizes outside of the range advertised on the Julius Koch website): -Ritza 25 this is (a) very strong braided polyester thread which is waxed for hand sewing -Ritza 44 this is (a) very strong braided polyester thread which is waxed for hand stitching leather Abbey might have their spools made on 'special specs' - there could be a difference in wax level applied on the thread. I don't know if they meant to phrase it another way. Never used ritza 44 but it seems to come in only 3 colors (mid-brown, brown and black). The upside of the 44 would be that it comes in 0.4mm for fine work - I didn't know that!

One thing people seem to like about tiger thread is that it comes in a lot of widths (0.6mm, 0.8mm, 1mm, 1.2mm, 1,4mm and 1,7mm) to accomodate different spi's and comes in a lot of colors (I've seen 16, there may be more idk). It has a refined and consistent look about it that many other threads don't have. It is 'flat' so it lays differently than 'round' threads. As others have stated, pleasant stuff to work with. If you plan on ordering some, you should consider getting small quantities of different sizes via resellers to put the finger on the thread that suits your type of work best. Buying spools is a lot cheaper but getting a spool in a size you don't need is a commitment you might not want to make. Not in my experience. Ordered three spools from abbey a while back. Cost me less than $ 40 a spool shipped. Even though the sipping costs are prohibitive, abbey sells the 500m spools for around 13ish pounds excluding VAT (which you don't pay if you're from outside the EU) - thats about $ 22. To give you an idea of shipping costs from abbey, I ordered three spools, an awl haft and a couple of blades and shipping costs via DHL were CAD $ 37ish . I assume shipping would have been quite cheaper for a single spool.

Hi there, I have played a bit with chromexcel and, like others, have found out that it's pretty hard to finish the edges as the leather is really soft and doesn't seem to compact properly in order to burnish. I couldn't find anyone vouching for any particular method except edge turning, which is not so easily done and cannot always be a solution depending of what you're making. I was at the point of leaving edges rough when I started playing around with the products I had laying around the house. Turns out the best results I had was with 'sole and heel edge dressing', a shoe care product - the one I used is made by Allen Edmonds and is clear ($5.50 for 4 oz bottle). It is a water based product and I suspect it is acrylic reinforced. It's fluid and it soaks right in the leather edge. It can be relatively easily removed from the grain side of the chromexcel. Once dry it hardens the edge slighlty, gives it a glow and it won't crack or peel however you might twist the edge. I bevel the edge, wet it and sand it, then I dampen it again and add spirit dye (if needed). I put two to three coats of edge dressing, sanding before and between coats(220 grit). It might not look like it but it is time consuming and tedious (sanding takes time) Doing this I manage to get more than decent edges. Plus they seem to last a lot more than regular painted edges (the product doen't stay 'on top' of the edge, it's sunken in, so it seems to be quite abrasion resistant. The first item I made with this was a simple moleskine pocket notebook cover - didn't dye the edges, didn't sand them either so they were rough - this thing has been in my jean front pocket everyday for nearly two months and the edges look the same as the day I finished them. I don't think it's the be-all-end-all finishig product/technique for chromexcel edges but it works for me and it sure helped me finish nice edges on multiple items so far. Here are pictures of the edge of the moleskine cover ; edges aren't nice but pictures show the edge dressing still shiny after two months of abuse ( i work in a lumber yard/ hardware store so my pockets see their load of cement, saw dust, soil and all the good stuff. Also added pictures of a piece of scrap that shows how nice this can look when edges are sanded and dyed (the pictures from my ipod don't do it justice). Hope this helps.

This is absolutely false (I can't, for the life of me, find a way to edit my original post...): Thought about it, made no sense, checked it out. Here's something that makes more sense: "Commercial sizes for heavy-duty thread used in upholstery and webbing (e.g., safety rigging and vehicle tow straps) are 33, 46, 69, 92, 138, 207, 277, 346, 415 and 554. These sizes are the denier measurement divided by 10. (A size 554 thread is about 1/32" or 0.8mm in diameter" source: http://designer-entrepreneurs.com/blog/illustrations/Thread_Sizes.htm

Thanks Electrathon. I realised while reading your reply that lasy must have been a typo for last. Why did the coffee have to take that long to kick in !?!? As for Tiger thread vs linen, I can't contribute much as I haven't had the chance to fool around with linen thread yet. I've only dabbled with synthetics, namely waxed polyesters from Tandy, Seiwa (from goodsjapan) and Tiger thread. What I can say in my limited experience is that Tiger thread is by far the most pleasant to use: the other too had way too much wax on and the extra wax would smudge when tightening the thread. Had to wipe-off excess wax from the thread to prevent this. Tiger thread doesn't have this problem as it is very slightly waxed. Cheers

I don't get the last part. If you could clarify, it would be much appreciated. Thanks! (edit: dyslexic me...)

Good people of the forum, I beseech thy wisdom! I have been looking for some kind of guideline concerning thread size to stitches per inch ratio for hand stitching. I rummaged around the forums trying to find the info but this thread seems to be as close as it gets: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=53981&hl=%2Bthread+%2Bsize Now, this is on machine thread. I tried to find equivalents in mm sizes and my understanding is that machine thread sizes are actually mm decimals (207 thread being 0.207mm...?...)* and are quite smaller than those of hand sewing thread. If this is correct, it might be difficult - or impossible (?) - to extrapolate on the above thread's info to make an equivalent for hand sewing... What thread size/ stitches per inch ratio do you seasoned (and not-so-seasoned) leatherworkers use when it comes to hand stitching? *I found a chart while googling on the subject but I can't find it anymore. This is from what I remember (poorly) so please don't go too hard on me if I'm wrong.

I too have opened an account with Abbey. Bought three spools and a bunch of bits and pieces for an order total for $97. Shipping to eastern Canada was $37 with DHL, which is quite expensive. I wonder if royal mail would have been cheaper. Still, even with this hefty shipping cost, each spool comes to $42 shipped which is cheaper than any other price I've seen. I have yet to recieve the order so I can't really comment on shipping times.

That's for sure electrathon. I have no problem paying a 'premium' for smaller lenghts. I would, however, have a problem paying such a 'premium' for a full spool. The guy offering me full spools would make about 10-12 bucks margin wich I think is quite fair, since he would order specifically for me and would take the risk of being stuck with it if I weren't able to pay or whatever other reason (which is not going to happen but still, I guess it has to be taken into account). All in all I think it's quite fair - if it's not, please do chime in Avgvstvs (Edit: misspelled electrathon...)

Thanks silverback, much appreciated!

Hi all! Like many here before me, long time lurker coming out the shadows. Great community/ forum here! Lots of great info and advice! Now to the matter at hand: I recently bought small quantities of Ritza 25 (wich I haven't recieved yet) at what I think is a fair price (compared to other offerings out there). Small quantities seem to suit my needs better for now since I'm just starting out but in the long run, having to pay extra for smaller bits AND pay for shipping for every single transaction might end up costing me an arm and leg. So, this got me thinking of full spools. Harder to find but got a hold of someone selling some at what I once again think is a fair price. Thing is, I have absolutely no idea what those go for - I can't seem to find the 'retail price' anywhere -, so my idea of what's fair and what's not might be pretty far from reality. Any of you ritza 25 users care to give me a idea of what it could be worth?

I think a lot of Art Deco designs could be of interest for someone who doesn't want to go the floral or western way. Many of them are composed of abstract geometrical patterns and are really appealing and elegant. (edited a missing word...)