RawhideLeather

Thanks Wiz, I would have never thought to do that with the thread, just might work till I can get some more in. I also appreciate the link for the thread and needles. I hate having to order one thing here and another there if I can avoid it. I hope their thread is good quality, I do like the straw color. Will order some tomorrow along with the larger needles, this leather is fairly dense. Thanks again. Kevin, I agree, when working with leather this thick and dense things can happen that don't normally happen. I appreciate your input. Defenestrator, thanks for the suggestions. All sound advice. Heat isn't a factor in my case though as it even happens with a cold needle ran through slowly by the handwheel on the first or second stitch. Question, how do you manage to lube the needle? Do you just spray some on by hand as it is stitching? I also think I will fabricate a box with a small light bulb to put my work in after gluing so that the glue will dry faster in my cold shop. Should help some I would think. Richard

Hi Wizcrafts, Like I mentioned, the leather goes up without any thread in the needle so needle size shouldn't be the main issue I wouldn't think but I will give that a try if I still have problems later on. Pressure is cranked down to the limit and I even added a thick washer under the spring to gain more pressure. I'm using a wide foot. Good idea about using the spray temporarily. Don't think I want to try and sew damp leather as it would leave to many unwanted marks that I couldn't get rid of. I was thinking that maybe the thread is old enough to have lost some of it's bonding and maybe that could also be one of the problems. The spool is probably several years old by now even though I tried to keep it sprayed down with liquid glycerin leather soap. Think I'll buy some new thread which leads me to another question. Where can I find Schmetz needles and nylon thread from the same place (besides Artisan - they don't seem to have my size)? Thanks for your help. If anyone has any other insights please let me know.

Thanks for the reply dirtclod. Workable idea but the leather sticks to the needle even without thread. I use the hair dryer trick myself to speed up drying before assembly. I need to figure this out because this is my living and the only type of stitching that I do so I can't be stitching first without thread all the time. It used to work for me, it should now if I can figure out the problem. I do use thread lube but haven't tried the silicone yet. Any other ideas?

Hey Art! I was hoping you would chime in. I have an older DVD that has Cobra Steve in it when he worked for Artisan but it doesn't have anything concerning timing on it to my knowledge. The sound on it doesn't work either on my Mac computer (sounds like chipmunks on helium). Is there a newer one out now or something? Thanks for the timing explanation. That is just what I did but the part about putting the feed lever in the middle throws me. Assuming you are talking about what I call the stitch length lever, I tried moving that around and it has no effect on the needle moving up or down so I don't understand that part of it. What am I getting wrong here?

Howdy all, this post relates to the other post I just made to this forum concerning timing my machine. I have been doing things pretty much the same way for years but now I'm having constant trouble with the leather I'm sewing rising up with the needle and causing skipped stitches and other problems. The fact that the needles have been getting dried glue on them would indicate that the glue hasn't completely dried yet so I'm guessing that maybe my shop is too cold and that I need to give the glue longer drying time (I have been waiting a couple of days before stitching after gluing which would seem long enough to me even in cold weather). I didn't have that problem last winter and it was colder if anything. I have increased the foot pressure to the maximum to no avail. Tried new needles. I also tried lubing the thread which is getting kind of old now with liquid glycerine leather soap but it didn't help much. Tried resetting the timing even but I'm not certain that it is correct because the instructions in the manual they sent with the machine doesn't make any sense to me. Here is some more info: Machine - Artisan Toro 3000 Leather being stitched - 3 glued layers of W&C 12 oz. skirting that has been holstered (factory compressed) and is about 9/16" thickness Thread - Linhanyll nylon 346/277 Glue - Duall #88 all purpose cement Needle system - Schmetz 794D NM:200 Size: 25 I have been using all of the above successfully for some time except for the holstered leather part which is more recent. I tried stitching with no thread and it does the same thing. I tried stitching on a piece of same leather and thickness with no glue and it did the same thing! Just not as often which makes me wonder about the problem being the glue. Thinner 3/8" unglued pieces stitch with no problems except the stitching gets slightly smaller the longer the stitch line is. Not much of this makes any logical sense to me. Any ideas anyone?

Howdy all, I am having some trouble with skipped stitches and tried resetting the timing but the manual that came with the machine is pretty much worthless IMO. Anyone know of a video or manual for accurately setting the timing on these Juki clones that is actually comprehensible? I know I could call Cobra Steve for help but would rather have something on hand to refer to occasionally if at all possible.

I'm surprised that this post didn't get more replies and I realize this is an older post but thought I would add my 2 cents anyhow. I called Fiebings some time back and asked them which product would work better than their pro oil dye for edges. The oil dye wasn't being absorbed very well for me and so the black edges especially wasn't even enough. I explained that I did'nt like or want something that coated the edge but something that would penetrate well and burnish too. They highly recommended the Dura Edge and so I bought some to try. I didn't like it and it was exactly what I told them I didn't want - namely a thick messy edge COATING. Go figure. I guess they just wanted to sell some of their new product. The applicator (read small mop) that comes in the bottle is way too big if you ask me and I was dyeing an edge that was 1/2" thick! About the only good thing I can personally say about the product is that it seemed to hold up pretty well to flexing on the test piece I did. If you simply don't have the time or the desire to finish a proper edge such as described in Hidepounder's tutorial then this could be a quick fix. Richard

Howdy folks, I thought I would pass on a source I found on Ebay for high quality wool felt products. He sells the wool felt in fairly small amounts and has all kinds of buffing wheels in different sizes and shapes for honing and buffing. He was nice enough to send small samples of different hardnesses of the felt so I could find which one worked best for edge dyeing. I finally ordered the F5 felt in 3/8" thickness and it works great for dyeing edges once cut up into small rectangular pieces. The F1 felt would also work but is a little harder and has less give to it. I use small binder clips to hold it in and use small plastic clamps to hold the binder clip in - works great for me. I used to use clothespins but found they didn't have enough clamping force for my taste and they also absorb dye unless the wood is sealed - can be messy. I tried the plastic ones but they didn't work to my liking either. I also ordered a 6" hard felt buffing wheel for maintaining an edge on knives, etc. and it works much better than the spiral sewn cloth wheel I was using before and should last a very long time. He sells high quality products that can't be found elsewhere that I know of and is a very nice guy with terrific customer service to boot! Hard to find exceptional customer service these days if you ask me. I'm happy I found him. Here is a link to one of his useful guides on Ebay and you can find his products from this page: http://reviews.ebay....000000009677304 His Ebay name is durof1 and his store name is The Felt Store. Highly recommended! Hope this helps someone. Richard

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any problem achieving a pretty consistent depth of cut on a straight gouge that's several inches long and pretty deep? Do you just freehand/eyeball it?

Hey Bob, I appreciate the reply. Would it be too much trouble to post a pic of the Bob Douglas gouge when you get some free time? I would prefer something with some depth control so that sounds like it might work best for me. How hard is it to maintain an edge - just occasional stropping? Is it easy to resharpen the entire blade if you have too? Last question, how much do they run? I agree, you usually get what you pay for so I don't mind paying top dollar for high quality tools. I would prefer a V-groove I think, if he makes them, but could make do with a wider U-groove as well. I'm constantly having to groove a straight line half the thickness of 12 oz. skirting that's been firmed up (holstered W&C) so that's about a 3/32" deep groove in some pretty tough leather. Didn't know you could get a custom made one from Bob Douglas that's adjustable. Sounds great. Bruce, thanks for your reply. Merry Christmas, Richard

Do any of you use a quality woodworkers gouge for a straight line gouge instead of the adjustable gouges commonly found for leatherworking? I have the Osborne adjustable V-gouge and U-gouge but the cheap steel used in these tools is very poor and they are almost impossible to sharpen correctly. Seems to be mostly junk to me. They also are not very sharp at all when new. I'd obviously have to be careful with the depth of the cut with a woodworker's gouge or maybe make a jig or something to control it. Which brand would you recommend? I was thinking of the Flexcut with the interchangeable blades??? Thanks, Richard

Just to add something about W&C leather, you can order your leather "holstered" from them which makes the leather much stiffer/firmer. I believe they run it through rollers which compresses it somewhat. You can still get the final thickness you need by having them split it ("leveled") from a thicker hide. Makes for a good choice for holsters and knife sheaths IMHO. Richard

Ahh, I see. Upon closer inspection it appears that the other point wouldn't be useful for normal cutting due to the extreme angle anyway. I did a bit of research on the handle material and found out that Dymondwood is a laminate material. While I'm sure it is a strong material, I can't say it's very aesthetically appealing to me. I would prefer to have something like real cocobolo personally - I just like real solid wood for the same reason that I prefer leather to synthetics. Still an interesting design. I do like the offset handle as I have an offset head knife and it makes cutting a tighter radius easier but it appears to me that the blade may be a bit too deep to allow for the smaller radius cuts. Richard

Clay, I appreciate your input, thanks. I can see how the handle would be comfortable when used in the primary position it was designed for but can't really see how it would still be comfortable when inverted??? I would think a normal symmetrical handle would be better for a knife used in both positions but like I said I haven't tried that style handle. Your thoughts? Also, where did you find the pull-cut feature to be useful? Thanks everyone for the replies so far. Richard

Howdy all, Has anyone used this new style head / round knife or heard anything about it? Looks like an interesting design and it sells for $225. I know that most people prefer a plain old high carbon steel blade but this guy may just have something here. I understand it has only been on the market for a couple of months and is made of "Crucible S30-V, which is a high carbon stainless steel with vanadium added for extra edge retention". They offer a few different options on the knife style. One of my concerns would be if the handle would still be comfortable when used inverted or flipped over as when cutting with the more pointed end. It looks rather like a Chan Geer style handle to me but I have never held one like that. It can be ordered so that it can be used pull cut style as well as push cut which is pretty cool. A couple more concerns of course would be how sharp it really is, how long it holds an edge and how easy/difficult it is to maintain that edge. I spoke to Paul Zalesak who owns Leather Wranglers and who created the knife on the phone recently and he seemed like a real nice guy and it sounds like it should probably perform quite well. I don't have any affiliation at all to him or his company in case anyone was wondering. I just like well made tools and this looks like it might well be one. If anyone decides to buy one please post back and let everyone know about it. I'd buy one to try out myself if I hadn't just bought a couple of older head knives that I need to try out and see how I like 'em after sharpening them up. Richard Here is the link to their website: http://www.shop.leat...25&categoryId=7

Thanks for the info Luke. The right side of the blade is just showing a reflection of the venetian blinds behind my workbench. Sorry for the poor photo. I was thinking I would get someone to give it a convex grind. I heard that was the best edge for a head knife. Any input there? RDB was right about the maker being ringelcustomknives.com. I contacted Frank Ringel and he said he indeed made that knife and that the steel was L6 saw blade so it's probably my lack of sharpening skills and not the knife. Richard

Thanks Chris, I sent them an email myself and a photo of the knife as well. I asked them what kind of steel they might have used so hopefully they will be able to tell me that much at least. Richard

I appreciate the replies so far. rdb - I think I have to agree with you. That is probably the maker - good find. Judging from the responses it doesn't appear that they made very many head knives. Madmax22 - It very well could be that it's not sharpened as well as it could be. I try but I'm not an expert for sure. I may send it off to have it sharpened professionally by Duey Peters and see if it makes a difference. Thanks, Richard

I have a Ringel #3 head knife that I bought used off of Ebay some time ago. It looks like a well made high quality knife with decent steel but I've been unable to find any information on it. The only thing I don't particularly like about it is that it seems that the edge dulls a little too quickly, but to be fair I don't have any other high quality head knives to compare to. I somehow found what I thought was the maker's phone number a long while back and left him a couple of questions on his answering machine but never received a call back. Does anyone know if this is a high quality knife? Anyone ever heard of this guy Ringel? I need to decide whether or not I should keep using this one or invest in another knife with an established and well known very high quality. This one has a 4 1/2" wide blade and it seems to work pretty well for me but I'm open to size suggestions as well. Any suggestions in this area would be appreciated. If it helps, most everything I cut now is from 12 oz. W&C skirting (holstered). Thanks, Richard

Well, I got tired of constantly having to chuck up my burnisher in my drill press which I use for other things so I decided to try and make an fairly inexpensive burnishing/buffing station. Ideally I think it should have been mounted so that the burnisher sticks out past the end of the workbench for better access but I have extremely limited space unfortunately right now. I also think that the side pressure on the drill press bearings weren't doing them much good. I make thick stuff (knife sheaths) so I had to use a good bit of pressure when burnishing. Anyway, here is the ugly but serviceable result. This is a temporary set-up and I intend to do a better job of mounting when I get moved into another place. I got the DC motor, controller board and all of the wiring and controls from a free Treadmill from Craigslist. The treadmill no longer worked but the motor and controller was still fine which they usually are I read somewhere. I purchased the bench mandrel, motor pulley and buffing wheel from Grizzly Tools and got the drill chuck and V-belt from a hardware store. It works well enough for my needs and I like the variable speed although unfortunately there's no way of knowing the actual speed really, I just played around with it till I found the speed I wanted. I do get a small amount of wobble at the end of the burnisher but not enough to affect what I do with it. This was done on a budget and I'm sure I spent less than $100 for everything. It was a pretty formidable project for me but I eventually "got er' done". Of course you could put anything you want on either end of one of these. I was thinking I might put another chuck on the buffer side (keeping the buffer on it) and use it to wind bobbins with. Now for the scary stuff: USE EXTREME CAUTION IF YOU PLAN ON BUILDING ONE OF THESE. DC VOLTAGE IS VERY DANGEROUS AND CAN KILL YOU!!! Ok, having said that, I know practically nothing about electrical things and got the instructions on how to hook things up from an instructables.com posting here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-a-Treadmill-DC-Drive-Motor-and-PWM-Speed-Contr/ Lots of photos and info there. I also made sure that the dang thing was unplugged when fooling around with any of the wiring or controller board. Common sense should prevail here. The only chuck I could find locally with 1/2"-20 threads was a Craftsman pro model made for a hand drill for $20. It was a bit sloppy on the fit so I used a lot of Teflon tape on the threads which helped. I had ordered a cheap one from Grizzly but it is a piece of Chinese junk with a whole lot of run-out or wobble. Also I had to send the first mandrel back because it had noticeable wobble in the shaft. I requested a straight one be sent and the 2nd one they sent was much better. I haven't used this tool much yet as I just got it going but I have noticed that the mandrel shaft gets pretty warm after a few minutes. Not sure if that is normal or not as I never used a bench mandrel before. I purchased the mandrel with the ball bearings BTW. Here was the hardest part - once I got all of the parts rounded up. The shaft on the motor was several thousandths of an inch over 5/8" as it was metric. I hooked everything up temporarily so I could use the motors power to turn the shaft as I sanded it down enough to accept a standard 5/8" pulley as I couldn't find a metric one - yeah... it took about an hour I believe to get it to size. I'm not really advocating anyone building one of these as you may be disappointed in the end result depending on a lot of factors. It seems to work quite well for me and what I do but it was a bit of a challenge at times to be honest. Hopefully it will last me a while. I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this but just thought it might help someone out a bit to post it. There's a lot of different ways to skin a cat - this is just one way. Oh yeah... other scavenged parts from the treadmill include lots of nice black metric nuts, bolts, washers, etc. 2 nice bearing rollers which could be used for sliding supports for woodworking and the rubberized tread material would make a nice liner material for toolboxes, etc. The bench mandrel I purchased has a 1/2" shaft. There is a bit of flex when pushing hard. Might should have gone with the 5/8" shaft size. Controller board, etc. from the treadmill. Installed upside down underneath the workbench in a Tupperware container (like I said - cheap). Took lid off for photo. Left - 10k pot (potentiometer) bought at Radio Shack for about $5. This is the speed control. Middle - Fuse Right - On/Off switch of course. Came with the treadmill wiring harness as did the fuse. Motor Specs.

Another couple of jaw droppers Chuck! I've tried my hand at bead work in the past and I admire anyone who has the patience for it!

Sorry but all T-nuts and screws have been sold and there won't be anymore.

Thanks for the tip. The information you give just before the chart looks correct but the chart is incorrect and should be deleted or corrected to avoid confusion.

All gone and I won't be getting any more. Richard

Howdy! I'm sure you'll find this forum filled with very nice and helpful people like I have. If you need help just ask! If you find you have something to contribute then that would be great too! If you've gotten good at woodworking you could probably think of a few nice things to make and sell to us! Hint, hint.... Richard