Galloways

Very intuitive, alas it's very late here and I don't have time to explain fully I'll post again in a couple of days with a full explanation of traditional hand stitching with hand spun thrum in right single spun ply and left double spun cable with some pictures but you are on the right path hand stitching and every thing to do with it is ALL IN THE TWIST! while you wait spend your time with a back stitch single needle that's where you need to start and sew with the long back stitch in opposite slopes it'll show instantly that there is a right and wrong way it's nothing to do with being right or left handed, I'll leave you with a couple of pics of real traditional English saddle stitching on a harness pad sewn in hand spun thrum (un dyed linen yarn) at 16 spi, and still fit for purpose after over one hundred years of service.

http://fmartinandson.co.uk/buy-hooks-from-f-martin-and-son-ltd.html These have a minimum order of £40 for smaller volumes try Abbey saddlery or JT Bachelors.

If you are hand stitching tacks are the traditional method of securing, for natural glues, latex, hide glue, flour and water (with a little alum) and egg white.

Yes you can use linen in machines for all stitching applications it's the premium thread for leather use how ever linen has no elasticity or plasticity, it will not give, nylon on the other hand is at the other extreme high elasticity and plasticity which makes it virtually idiot proof it's also the lowest quality thread. Because of its complete lack of forgiveness accurate machine setting essential and quality components especially in the thread path also recommend and you don't need as much tension with linen as it holds a much tighter stitch than poly threads. Needle and awl machines are only of benefit on very hard leather otherwise Pearson's are much better and these useless for your application, thread treatment isn't needed for your application either, if you do use them regular cleaning is a must I do my machines once a week everywhere the treated thread runs must be cleaned the longer you leave it the harder it is to remove and a wax pot needs a good thread wiper and shuttle bobbins must be used the day they are wound. Barbour's and Somac I use both and are excellent machine thread polished linen can be problematic in some machines so best stick to satin finish, I usually buy my thread from Abbey Saddlery, you could get in touch Coats or Somac and ask for local suppliers, http://www.somac.co.uk/linen_thread.html http://www.coatsindustrial.com/en/products-applications/industrial-threads/barbours-linen Here's a video of Hermes watch bands, this process is what's called hand stitched ends and bends on a regular medium weight closed eye sewing machine (Pfaff 335)with dry Barbour's linen thread looks like 25/3 this outlasts hand stitch polyester seams by decades even in horse harness. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dw43Isosh_s If you can't run linen through a machine the machine isn't set correctly or there's something wrong with the machine it just requires a little know how and effort, also wetting linen makes it stronger.

POLYESTER! nylon depolymerises even in mild acid veg tannings are acid it disintegrates in contact with metal salts Chrome tan is tanned in metal salts as well as the already mentioned no UV resistance it's also abrasive and has high elasticity which is not good for your machine, it's just very cheap hence it's popularity on low end mass produced goods which fall apart in two minute. The Coats thread manufactures web site has the technical specs for different thread, they also have a thread cost calculator which is interesting shows how cheap the users of nylon are.

Firstly take the cheap useless crap nylon thread out of the machine and burn it, then apologise profusely to the beautiful impeccably engineered master lock stitcher, and get some quality thread which is LINEN!! and some liquid wax these are available from Campbell Boswell along with needles and awls and all the expert advice you will need.