TwinOaks

Nice find! I'm not too keen on the newer Tandy tools, but the old ones are worth having.

Lots of things can influence it, so a specific time will be hard to say. Just from my own experience, you should use it all up before it goes 'bad'. It may settle a bit, but stirring or shaking will remix it.

The reason I use the regular needles and blunt the tip is that the eye is smaller than the egg eye needles. I've broken lots of the egg eye needles because I sew with very small holes - need pliers to get the threaded needle through.

If I recall correctly, L6 can be hardened with water, but i've found that it oxidizes quickly. My very first attempt at making a blade was with (I think L6) a circle saw blade, and though it hardened and tempered well, it requires a coat of oil on it to prevent rapid rusting....and neither rust nor an oily blade is acceptable for leather work.

No, it is NOT normal. I just had a look at mine, and if there's ANY tension on the thread (you are holding the threads for a few stitches when you get started, right?), the thread should glide right off the bobbin. Look for a small burr in the area it's hanging up. It you find one, you should be able to either file it out ( then re-polish) or contact tippmann for a replacement.

Or you could make a little tab that's attached to the outer piece of leather - sewn, riveted, etc. Set it back from the edge just a little bit and you'll have room to lace the edge. An alternate to the tab is to forego the use of D rings at all, and use a small slot in the outer piece. You simply feed the strap end through the slot and rivet/stitch in place with the end of the strap between the cover and the liner. Again, do this so that the edge is still available for lacing.

I buy my needles at walmart (multi needle pack for about $2) and use either the smallest pair or the next smallest pair. I get my waxed linen from Hobby Lobby, "On a string" brand...white, black, or brown. The dull needles are for sewing...they're dull so that when you go through a stitch hole, the blunt needle won't pierce an existing thread, it will go around it. I just buy sharp needles and file the tip down a little, or be careful when sewing.

The only thing I can think of, specifically for gel, is that you might have to layout the stitch line more carefully. You certainly don't want to sew through it.

Welcome to Leatherworker.net!

Only veg tan can be tooled.

Regardless of the length to be sewn, you shouldn't sew with more than about 3 feet at a time....just like with lace. The needle end of the thread passes through every single hole, and doing some simple math, there's 72 hoes per foot. Dragging the leading thread through that many holes can make it start looking a bit ratty. As you go, you might notice that thread isn't as tight, may not lay right, may look worn, etc. It's easy to overlap and start a new piece, so there's no reason to have ratty thread at the end of your stitch lines. If you don't know how to splice in a new piece, here's how: Sew until you have about 4 inches of thread left, and leave the ends hanging out in limbo. Now, take your new piece of thread, back up 3 holes from the last stitch, and put one end pf the thread through. Pull it through until it is centered, and resume sewing...right over the loose ends of the previous thread. After you've gone past the loose ends, pull them tight, and cut close. When you run over the stitches with the over stitch wheel, the loose ends will disappear.

....or quite a bit more!

Well how bout that....somebody is making one piece versions of what several of are making on our own! I like to use a line 24 snap, a 6/32 t-nut, and a 6/32 machine screw. The 8/32 screws work too, but it's sometimes difficult to find a screw with the head small enough to fit inside the snap base (which requires modifying the screw head). The 6/32 machine screw heads fit just fine inside the line 24 snaps. I never thought about marine supply places....and being here on the coast, I have several to pick from. i might just go shopping today!

It looks like a presser foot with a built in edge guide...nifty! I don't see it on the tippmann page, though. Hmmmm, did you get this from an individual?

Depending on a couple of things, I think most can be opened to about an inch.

Ask the questions you need to ask before you need to know the answer, or, as my sig line says "Don't learn the tricks of the trade, learn the trade." We have a 'Critique my work' section here in the forums, and many times the critiques have been gentle and somewhat "beating around the bush". If anyone wants an absolutely no holds barred critique, y'all are welcome to contact the moderators and we can post your images without your name attached to it with instructions to be brutally honest. I did this a good while ago and the critique of my work was ...sobering. But that type of critique is sometimes exactly what we, as artisans, need to improve.

whichever suits you best... primarily how you'll be seated, or whichever position you prefer, and the height you want to work. The jaws will function much the same way, and you will just need to decide on a saddler's vs. harness maker's design. The saddler's design has deeper jaws, allowing larger pieces.

A good sharp knife CAN be joy to use, but if you're dancing around because of it....slowly put down the blade, you need to get outside more.

In a pinch, if all that is stopping you is an underlug, you can tape a dowel to to blue gun to fill out the extra space needed. You should already be doing that for the site channel, too.

Here's a quick tip for you head knife use....when it feels like it is dragging, lighten the pressure you're applying. I thought there was something wrong with my blade when i was actually through the leather and starting to cut into the cutting board.

Sure thing...although I think I may be remembering parts of several threads. This one has most of the information: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=43296&hl=stropping#entry269804 And just to clarify, this was talking mostly about ceramic blades and the reasons to strop them...which also apply to steel. The comparison between the ceramic and steel is also talking about standard blades, not the blades from the SK3.

The main reason head knives get dull is not because of planned obsolescence. It's because it's cutting through a chemically corrosive material - leather. That's also why most knives only need a good stropping. Take the time to read the thread on the swivel knife blades - steel vs. ceramic. Shtoink did a very good job explaining his findings. If you think that the commercial blades are expensive, please consider the time and money that went into R&D for the final product.

You did actually read the last post by NYIS, right?

This very interesting thread has been reawkened, and now I'm curious...I checked out the Tandy app, and it apparently no longer exists...at least, the app store doesn't find it. Any app writers wanna volunteer to jump on this?

Welcome to leatherworker.net! I'm just a few hours east of you over in Mobile, so we're practically neighbors. If you hven't been by there, stop in at the Tandy on airline hwy, they're pretty nice folks and could most likely help.