billybopp

That thing is bigger than my whole workshop!

I suspect that was done with a roller embossing machine such as Tandy used to sell. Bill

Mitered corners are indeed a bit more complicated and less forgiving than straight up sewing two pieces together. I agree with the above observations, a round awl isn't ideal, the holes are a bit too close to the edge, and the thread is a bit too thick to work effectively, and possibly pulled too tight. - causing the leather to bulge. Amongst other things, on a corner like this, you can see both sides of the stitch line simultaneously so any errors are more visible. Because you are pulling the thread through at an angle, it's a little harder to be consistent with the angle of the awl - your eyes play tricks on you! It is more sensitive to how tight the thread is pulled since it's pulling on the hole at an angle rather than straight through - it bulges more easily. Things that can make the job easier include the proper awl, a box corner sewing jig/clam/horse/maybe-it-has-some-other-name and a smaller thread. While I also like the look of stitching without a groove, that groove can be quite helpful learning how to get your awl lined up just right giving you a clearly defined target for the exit hole. It also provides just a little forgiveness if it's not exactly right by somewhat pushing the thread into position. You may find this video by Nigel Armitage helpful! Hope that helps! Bill

The body of the bag is definitely piping where the two pieces come together with a contrasting piping/welt sewn between them. There is a pretty good video about piping on Youtube by Cechaflo - who has a bunch of excellent videos about upholstery. The flap can also be made with the same technique, but looking at the picture it doesn't quite look right to be plain piping - it's a little flatter, there is no edge showing from the flap body, and the stitching is VERY close to the edge. That leads me to suspect that it is a french rolled edge. Take a look at this wallet tutorial for some good photos of a French rolled edge. Bill

A couple of years ago, I came across a 29-4 at a good price($350 IIRC) and thought about buying it. In the end, after reading up on here, I decided against it mostly because I don't have much space. It seems that patchers are specialized machines - but for what they do they are THE tool for the job. If I had the space, I'd love to have one for those special jobs - but not as my primary sewing machine. There are a huge number of 29-4s out there, they had a fairly long production run and were an indispensable tool in ever cobblers shop. The disadvantage of the 29-4 compared to other later machines is that they are over 100 years old and most of them are pretty worn out at this point. They have difficult to replace parts, and as they wear stitch length gets shorter and shorter. Later versions were designed to be much more easily repairable, and would be a better choice for that reason. All that said, if I came across a -4 in really good shape and had the space I'd probably go for it! Bill

Welcome aboard from Philly.

Nigel Armitage on box stitching.

Springfield Leather has shearling on sale right now for black Friday / cyber Monday at &10 and up. Be sure to give LWN a little love and go there through one of the links at the top of the page! Bill

I used to maintain data processing equipment for a living - things like check reader/sorters that read the print on the bottom of a check at about 1600 items per minute, and sort them out into various pockets. One day, when I was still relatively new at it, my boss told me to bend a little lever arm a bit to correct a problem. I expressed my concern at bending such a finely engineered piece of gear, and will never forget his reply "We don't call that bending, son. We call it adjusting". Bill

I wonder if it would be a worthwhile and relatively cheap experiment to put in a Cowboy beehive spring and see what it does? Bill

Well done and it may be a good time to look that guilty one in the eye and tell him its time we made a doggy bag whilst stropping your knife of course ......... Reminds me of the other day at work, when a co-worker asked me if I could make a Boston Terrier bag. I said "sure!" and asked if she knew where I could get Boston Terrier leather. She was not amused. That bag looks amazing, Motocouture! Well done. Bill

There's an episode of Dirty Jobs where they go to a tannery, and show a mechanical measuring machine. They said they have a laser machine, but mostly used it to calibrate the mechanical one, if I remember right. Bill

While you would not want to cut through leather on a hard surface, skiving is not problem. The blade meets the surface at an extreme angle, pretty close to the angle on the blade - much like it would when sharpening. You may need to just stop and strop frequently if the blade is dulling quickly! Bill

You can't go wrong with Barry King mauls. Look for his ad at the top of the page here.

You can try wetting the leather then place something smooth and heavy on top.

Awesome to see this restoration in progress - It's a fascinating machine, but I have a favor to ask! As you put the shuttle and hook back together, take some pics. I'm having a hard time visualizing how the thread passes behind the shuttle! It seems like the shuttle would have to almost float free for the thread to pass, and just can't quite see it in my mind. Bill

While used footballs are probably somewhat plentiful for you, they're still a limited supply. Try tracing the shape of the leather on paper, or better cardboard and cut 'em out. Use those to experiment with your layout to find something that works and when you've figured it out use the real deal. Bill

It's not uncommon even for modern dyes to "take" differently from one piece of tooling veg tan leather to another - even on the same hide at times from one part to another. Most ancient dyes will not have the coloring power that modern ones do, so your results aren't all that surprising. You may find that some will need to really soak the leather - possibly even by submersion for a period of time. HO or W&C tooling leather are probably as close as you'll find to fully natural veg tan leather unless you tan it yourself. We know that they both use vegetable matter to tan - but not their exact formula - they're just not going to tell anybody exactly what they use. Bill

Pine would probably work OK, but it can be a bit resinous and as a soft wood, would likely wear down more with use. Oak will also likely work but it is porous and might be a bit more abrasive than you want. Maple is hard and tight grained, so that would be my choice in this case. Bill

Great looking work as always, Chief! I've gotta say, I especially like that last one - Great use of a veiner and swivel knife for a really different, simple, and good looking pattern! Who'da thunkit! The other designs look great too, but it's nice to see what can be done with minimal tools too. Bill

Three Days of the Condor, 1975, Robert Redford, Faye Runaway. I think they did a piece on ice and meat bullets on Mythbusters and they sadly didn't work so well in the real world.

If you think it's unfortunate for a sewing machine, they made airplanes at one time. Bill

Mattsbagger is right in my experience. But if there IS some over-riding reason to put paint atop resolene, it works fine. Bill

Lets see if we can figure this out. Given the makers identity it's some sort of shoe machine, so most likely is for some sort of leather work. Looking at the picture, it's motor driven - there's a drive belt and pulley at the right and no handcrank in sight. The center post part tells us that it's meant to either operate inside something or with some bulk on either side, and the top is a 90deg. angle. The drive pulley on the right looks like it's in line with the back roller arm, and probably designed to pull something through. Just in from the main drive pulley there looks to be a transfer pulley or gear to what looks like an upper shaft. On the left side there looks to be a gearbox, I'd guess to transfer drive down to the front roller arm. The levers on the front look to control pressure or thickness for the two roller arms. The profile of the cams/levers at the top probably release tension on the roller arms to allow insertion/removal of material. The front roller looks to conform to the post / anvil, so probably meant to bend something at 90 deg. The back roller looks to be ridged as though meant to pull material through. It looks like the upper part of the post / anvil might be replaceable, as does the front roller at least. Wonder if there are other profiles available? So, in short - it's a motorized shoe machine that pulls material through (probably leather but maybe not!) with two types of tension-able rollers which might be used together or individually (we don't know for sure). The post/anvil may be changeable. Given that, it may be a single purpose machine or possibly multi-purpose. What other clues are we missing?? Constabulary's first stab at a folder/bender seems right, but I don't know enough about shoe making to have any idea where that would be needed. It's obviously a pretty expensive piece of equipment, so it would be needed for something that is either difficult or time consuming by hand in order to justify the price of a machine.

Dang! Wish I could've been there, but I think you're on the other end o' the state. Bill