Ole South

Give me a sec... I'll see if I can post something in the Stitches thread.

You don't have to turn the work, Wraith. Use a jerk awl and lock stitch for those small, confined spaces. You could stick a sewing machine needle into a dowel rod handle (like a speed stitcher) for really fine work but it's a challenge to find the needle loop inside sometimes... the jerk awl pulls the back thread (i.e. bobbin thread on a sewing machine) through to the front making a loop. It's a lot easier to find a thread inside with the awl hook than thread a loop in a tight dark space. Btw.... that's a cute piece! Well done.

A 15w soldering iron is going to take a very long time to heat up that much metal. You might try a drop or two of brake fluid and come back the next day. Just remember, brake fluid will remove auto paint, watch for drips.

(Bump old post) Looks like they changed to Petrolatum back in the 70s or 80s. I picked up a ring at Homer's yesterday and the tack, smell and texture implied little or no bees wax present. MSDS's that I found gave no formulations or ingredients, but I did find this: "Petrolatum • Wax rings are made from a combination of petrolatum and proprietary ingredients that vary among manufacturers. The wax rings made by Hercules Chemical in New Jersey are typical of the way that the manufacturing process works. The petrolatum is shipped into the factory and stored in liquid form at 170 degrees Fahrenheit until it is needed. The petrolatum is then mixed with other chemicals that keep it solidified at room temperature and then poured into aluminum molds coated with a soap compound. Read more : http://www.ehow.com/info_12201913_wax-toilet-bowl-rings-made.html " There may be some old/new stock still out there with Bees wax in them but not the new rings. This is not to say you shouldn't use the stuff... just letting us know what we're playing with.

If lead is too soft to hold the blade (or you don't have any) try clamping it between two pennies. They always work for me. If they are too hard... split a piece of copper tubing and flatten it out for vice jaw guards.

Doesn't Lisa Sorrell offer ambidextrous skiving knives? http://sorrellnotionsandfindings.customboots.net/product/skiving-knives-2/

Singer 45K76 Industrial Machine (From Ismacs.net) Needle: 214x5, 214x7 and 214x13 Cylinder bed, NO FEEDING MECHANISM. Drop feed, needle bar link, lifting presser. Friction controlled balance wheel and work plate. For darning sacks. Post a picture perhaps?

I already had a circular-saw blade head knife roughed out when I first ran into this thread back in '13. I was just beginning my leatherwork adventure and thought $90-150.00 for a blade I'd seldom use was an unwise investment (silly me). So.... armed with pictures of round-knives and ancient brain surgery implements I went rooting around in my tool junk. I emerged with probably one of the first 5 1/4 carbide toothed skill saw blades (note the diamond arbor in the pics), my Grandfather gave me, ever sold (bear in mind I'm a grandpappy myself) more'n 25 years prior. Like Switz, never expecting this to be more than a utility knife, I carefully roughed out the blade profile (minding the temper) by-guess-and-by-golly with an edge grinder, a bench grinder and finished with a belt and disk sander. More by luck than good planning it turned out almost the same as our beloved Osbornes. Note: the Osborne has a more elliptical curvature whereas the diy has an almost perfect arc. Version 1.0 got equipped with an Oak handle from a salvaged 1" dowel rod. You'll note the wicked pointy tips. Thinking these would facilitate tight inside curve cuts I thought they would be a good idea. They are not. They stick you in the wrist at the most inopportune times. Version 2.0 corrected this and got a new handle (Rosewood). By this time I had procured and rescued a vintage Osborne and had a better idea of what fit my hand. The third picture shows the Osborne sbs with my diy saw-blade round knife. The other two.... ummm, edged implements(?!!?) were made with scraps left over from the saw blade. The little skiver is tang-less unfortunately, but it works very well. The weird pocketknife/straight razor looking thing was just for fun. It's dangerous but cuts well, I use it for trimming edges. I may one day re-profile it into a single bevel fold-up skiving knife, Okay... so how do they work??? Pretty well. The head knife when struck, rings like a chime. It sustains a ring longer than the Osborne ( if that matters). Holding an edge: The diy Round blade is a little more robust than the Osborne (both are mol .060" (+/- .001) at the handle but the Osborne tapers to about .046" (+/- .002) at the meat side of the bevel while my diy is .055". Both are convex beveled. The diy is better balanced. I find I don't sharpen the diy Round as much as the Osborne but do sharpen the little diy skiver (same metal) more than my right handed Al Stohlman English skiver (which has nearly 2.x the cutting edge). Usage: I use the diy Round for heavier weight / stiff leather and the Osborne for thinner 2-6oz veg tan and most all the chrome tanned stuff. The Osborne works best when guiding around a template but the diy rocks free-hand thick work. Net-net... they all hold an edge well and don't lose them when not in use. Considering there has been no heat-treatment applied... I'm very happy with the results. I've ended up with three knives from one worn out circular saw blade that I use as much as my store bought knives.

I keep a tightly closed jar of mineral spirits on my wood bench for quick cleanups, after a while a white waxy residue settles/forms at the bottom. I usually scrape it into a container and recycle with other volatiles but I was wondering if it has any uses? I've done a web search but don't find references. It forms regardless of "Odorless" or non-Odorless type spirits. I haven't done any experimenting with it yet but was wondering if anyone had any ideas or knowledge of this stuff. Thanks

I'm glad it helped Dan! I was hoping someone would add the baseball stitch this thread, Tinker. Care to do a quick tutorial??(please, please, huh huh?)

Wet/dry paper (NOT sandpaper) when soaked will adhere to almost any stiffener without bunching if you don't use excessive pressure or over use it. The binder adhesive used keeps the paper backing pretty stiff, surface tension does the rest. You CAN glue strips to a feeler gauge or wooden if you want keep it from moving but I've found just folding a wetted strip and laying thin fairly rigid backer won't cause any problems. You'll probably be working up and down the length of the tooth (rather than the width) anyway to reduce friction once the tool is polished. Thus you'll not encounter any bunching.

Soak a piece of wet/dry abrasive paper and lay it on your granite block for the large flat sides. I start with 500 grit and progress to 1000 then lap on an Arkansas stone or go straight to white rouge on a thin leather strop flat on my bench. Between the teeth you can wrap a piece of plastic or a wooden tongue depressor with soaked wet/dry paper and (painstakingly) polish between each tooth. Clamping the iron in a small vice helps to reduce rounding the edges and maintaining the teeth angle Follow up with a rouge loaded strip of leather. Stroke in one direction (l/r or up/down only, you choose) after you've removed any major imperfections to reduce the amount of polishing you have to do if you want a mirror-like finish.

Needles and thread all sorted out. With Greg's help over at Keystone I've replaced the ancient clutch motor with a new servo and the Adler runs great. The bobbin case/thread issue was caused by a "slipped" gear. The bevel gear on the vertical bobbin shaft was a mm or so low allowing the bobbin mechanism to rise as it was driven by the main shaft gear. Moved it up removing the vertical slop and all is well.

I've searched these forums and lots of other web resources for hand-sewing techniques to little avail... so I'm starting thread in the hopes others here will contribute their expertise and experience. Sometimes you want or need to handsew something and a saddle or whip stitch just isn't what you want. I looked for a long time without much success which leads me to believe this is either: 1) So simple caveman did it. Or 2) We think everyone just knows this stuff!!! Forgive me if this falls into either of the above two categories but when I started I didn't know how to do this. (Disclaimer: I lay no claim to the following's invention or development other than to offer it up here as a useful technique and hope that others will add more.) Bar X Stitch As always, begin at the beginning: Layout Wing divider 1/4" (Over)Stitch Wheel 5 spi Punch (make some holes) Hand Punch Awl Needle and thread #4 harness needles. How much thread? I use the “8x2” method. 8 wraps around front and back of the sewing line (front AND back being the “2”) rather than 16 times the stitch line it’s quicker for me. Use whatever works for you though. First Stitch Both needles through from the back; in this case the flesh side and pull even the thread length. Next we take the right needle (it doesn’t matter which needle you choose but be consistent! Do each complete stitch exactly as each previous stitch.) You can begin with a tie by taking each needle into the opposite threaded hole and back out its original hole from the fleshside if you like but I haven’t here (see last images). Step 1 of Stitch Okay… NOW we take the right needle into the 2nd left diagonal hole and back out its opposite (straight across) right hole. Step 2 of Stitch Next we take the left needle (the needle being used is always the one in the frame) into the diagonal right hole and back out its opposite left hole. This makes the “X” (remember the needle in the frame is the needle we just used) (Backside view) This is the “Bar”. Notice the two threads overlap on this side. Pull thread snug to tight on the flesh side. Next Stitch Repeat steps 1 and 2. What it looks like front and back. I’ve transitioned to simple X stitch to show the differences. “Bars” on one side, “X”s on the other gives us Bar-X. It’s extremely strong especially for curve binding. The key to making this stitch is “don’t let go of that needle once you begin a stitch until the needle is back topside” and always begin your next stitch with the same needle left or right. If you are working around a form or a long run curved needles do help. This example has a “tie” at the top and bottom. To finish and to paraphrase Socrates: “I myself know nothing, just a little, enough to extract discussion from another, who is wise and will receive it fairly.” Please add a stitch to complete this thread… (yeah, I know…. that's punny )

Thanks Eric.

I like the clutch.... Best thread for guiding you to the in's and out's of machines: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=25239

It appears he has that 111W in the video set up with a round leather belt running it (around 6:40 or so you can see it in the background). Can we still buy leather belting larger than what's used on home treadle machines? This looks to be bigger than 3/16ths.

Are you referring to the Indian made Singers? That's a statement of economics... from a repair/service company's perspective; he's right. They generally only see machines with problems. Additionally most repair shops have, or have had old Singer's stacked like cordwood. A minimum service charge is on the average runs $60-110.00... he's already got $10-35.00 in it as trade-in, so the first part he has to replace makes the unit unattractive to a prospective buyer who is most probably looking for a fabric machine with a few or a lot of "bells and whistles" or at least a ZigZag stitch. But for us... we can cherry-pick lightly used units from home users, spend some sweat-equity in a machine, learn something along the way and still have a good machine to sew denim and canvas after we've upgraded to a "real leather machine". An inexpensive straight stitch is where we live... or at least where we begin.

The -91 and your 29 (or a 17) could buttress a shop. Why not clean the cobwebs out of the 29, get a can of WD40 or PB Blaster and without a major disassembly clean up the gunk and surface rust, get it turning and see if it'll sew. I think the 17 comes closer to what you want to do than the 29 but people still want the old patchers. Turn it for seed money. You can get a -91 to "learn & earn" on for now. Check out this post: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=21807 . It gives you an idea what you have and you're up against with the 29. Be ready to change the motor brushes out if you get a -91. Both the -91's appear to be circa 1950's (striped chrome plates). You may not need any immediate rewiring of electrical to use. Dartmouth has all her decals, could indicate light use over her lifetime. Actually they both look in good to great condition. You should be able to pick either of them up for $100-135. Luck

I've used cloth needles in veg tan before when I wanted nice pretty holes. A cheap experiment in cosmetics for a limited run.

Are you looking at the one in Dartmouth or East Hampton? Don't see any 201-2's for sale in your area but there is a 17-23 you might talk the price down on. And I see what may be a 16-88/188 in Woburn. Both appear to have tables and motors.

Same needle system as 16-188,yes? http://m.ebay.com/itm/Organ-Sewing-Needle-16x63-2077-16x113-TFx63-for-Singer-Model-16-188-Rex-26-188-/251230872942

Side by side, I've found the 201-2 much pickier about thread and less able to handle as wide a variety of heavier material. The 201-2 has hands-down the best stitch of the old Singers. Same motor different power trains. It was the "Tailor's Standard" of home machines. The 15-91 was known as the "Farmer's Wife" of home machines due to its versatility and ruggedness. I've had both, sold the 201,still own and use the 15-91 for those reasons. But to speak to the question: $150 for either machine in working order with a case or in a console is reasonable. You are more likely to find a good 15-91 at that price (or cheaper) for the very reason Al has mentioned. You don't NEED a console or case for either of these machines to sew on them (tho on certain few 15-91's you may need to shim the back of the casting's "feet" with a piece of leather or thick rubber on a benchtop) but getting one helps. A lot of tailors and seamstress' built their businesses on the 201. I've had both in my shop at the same time, were I sewing fabric, I chose the 201; leather or suede the 15-91 gave me better and more consistent results. These are "low shank" presser foot machines. A Teflon or roller foot might help in a marginal case but neither will make either into a walking foot machine. Nor will the Singer "Walking foot/Pattern Matcher" accessory you can still find.

Old Singers are very photogenic.... you can't trust a photo of an old Singer to determine condition . These are great starter machines... for fabric! They ARE pretty unbreakable tho. There are tons of 99k's out there. The Spartan (as I understand) was an entry level machine that sold for slightly less than a 99 (which is the 3/4 sized cousin of the venerable Model 66) and without the name. Most of the parts are interchangeable.

Yeah, what The Wiz said! But don't stop looking for one. It's one of the most robust and versatile of the home straight stitchers. You'll max out at about 6 1/2 sti and anything heavier than 4oz is gonna lift the pressure foot unless you use a huge diameter needle (book says it'll take up to a 21 needle but 18 is the largest I've found) and forget anything heavier than 69 thread but all that said, it's one of the cheapest ways to get started sewing suede and light upholstery leathers. If you get one that runs well(most do with very little work) keep it!!! It's a great "goto" for any heavy fabric work you might need. Parts are cheap and easy to come by for now. You can learn a lot on one of these machines even with its limitations. Singer commercial machines are done for and I hear the home machines are next but these have survived 50+ years and will serve you well for a long time to come (unlike the home machines they've sold for the last 20).