SmokeyPoint

+1 on RML they do a quick turnaround on their orders in my experience. They are limited in their sizes/colors compared to AE, but you don't have to hassle with import tariffs either. I got a bill from DHL after my last order for another $50 for tariff fees. With my second order, I figured out the error condition on the Abbey England site. If your CC supports it, online ordering works just fine. However, since they had to actually run my CC after the order so they can add on shipping costs, my Amex declined the transaction. Once it's in that state, you should be able to go to your account, click on statements, and pay for the order afterwards with the shipping in place. However, THAT is where it's broken. It swaps your USA address for Great Briton and you can never get it to go through. My quick fix was to create a new order completely from scratch and use a Visa card.

I have one of these: https://www.etsy.com/listing/98894284/custom-leather-stamp-with-heat-embosser?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=leather%20embossing&ref=sc_gallery_2&plkey=4c344643a56c8b4d59b6750738dd6b2ce4129524:98894284 I think they're a sponsor. It has variable heat, so you can "brand" if you want to or just emboss. I can't say it's perfect, and it takes some work to get the right feel, but once you have a couple jigs made up and get the right heat/pressure/time down, it's permanent. The only issue is that you need an AI file of your logo.

What is the thread size and what are the stitches per inch? What size needle? It almost looks to me like you're using too small of a stitch length for the thread size.

I could be wrong about this, but I believe flesh to flesh will always be stronger unless you get specific (read expensive) adhesives. When I glue flesh to flesh, I end up tearing the leather when I try to separate after a couple hours. I get very different results gluing flesh to grain. I can pull those apart easily unless I sand through the grain, and then what's the point if you're gluing the whole surface? Bag stiffener - probably not necessary. Using a good leather or suede glued and sewn to the exterior leather, you should be ok. If you're starting with 3oz already, you don't need much more to make a good, rigid bag. Do what I call a "taster." (From the culinary world) Hack off a piece of both leathers you're thinking about using, glue and sew it like the end result would be, and you'll know what you'll be dealing with, how the glue holds, how it will look, how it sews, etc. Always better than getting to final assembly and realizing your glue is insufficient to hold during the sewing, or whatever.

Kaye, you've just asked the question "Which (Car, truck, shotgun, movie, restaurant, etc.) is the best?" You'll end up with a gazillion different answers, many strong opinions, and few actual concrete directions on how to make decent hand stitches on the cheap. I would contend that a talented leather craftsman, or craftswoman, can make (and are making) beautiful products using the crudest of materials and tools. You don't need the finest stitching chisels money can buy, tiger thread, genuine English bridle leather, or John James needles. They will help, for sure, but there are many, many people using hand ground, back yard mechanic tools doing it better than a whole lot of us. My uncle made a living making leather goods for his little boutique shop in Spain in the 60's with crude tools he bought from street vendors in Morocco for pennies. What you need is consistency, and a repeatable pattern that produces the results you are after. Unfortunately that means practice, practice, practice. Maybe the better question would be "How do I avoid sloppy stitching?" There are very specific answers to that question, here are a few: Test the stitch you are considering on a scrap piece (the same piece of leather as your project) first. Try different combinations of stitch length/thread size/pull tension/knot or no knot/etc. until you get the look you're after. When pulling on your thread to set the stitch, always pull with the same tension for every stitch. This takes practice, but shows up as bigger/smaller stitches when you don't. If you start out with the left needle going through the hole first, then the right needle going over the left needle, ALWAYS use that pattern on the same stitch line. If you forget, even once, and put the right needle in first, you'll see it as a change in your stitch pattern. Learn to handle your awl properly. Just a little change in the angle of an awl shows bigger and bigger inconsistencies on the back side the thicker your leather gets. In other words, thin leather can hide bad awl work, thick leather shines a beacon on it. There are sooo many more. Unfortunately my train is arriving...

I just had to make this connection myself (as in I didn't know this) but are you aware that .6mm Riza (Tiger thread) is NOT the same as .6mm machine thread? When I looked at conversion charts, .6 is equal to like 277. Now, I use 277 on thicker holsters and sheaths, but that's not the point, this is thick stuff. Riza thread is FLAT and at its widest point, .6 thread is .6 wide. but Its height is like .1 or .2, which is why it's ok for thinner leathers. Other threads (especially machine threads) marked as .6 are diameter, so they're quite substantial.

l2bravo, Back to the original question... I've owned a 3200 for about a year now. I get great results from it and it chugs along nicely. There are only three issues I have with it: My wife asked me when we bought it "Are you ever going to need to stitch something thicker than 1/2 inch?" "No way" I replied. Hmmm. First stacked leather sheath I made was well over 1/2 inch thick. Ate those words. There are no options for a drop-down edge guide. I didn't even know I need this, but I do. Or rather I did, until I decided to go with more hand-sewing. Any time you sew a long strap to something, a drop-down guide would be nice. It can but up to the edge of the strap and not worry about where the leather underneath is. Without this, you have to scribe a line and try to follow it with the pressor foot. Now, I can sew a straight line, but just not as straight as I can get using a guide. There's no option for a flat table. Sometimes it would be nice to have a flat surface to lay my project on and pivot it around the needle as I sew. The 4500 kit they offered last time I checked out their site is what I would get now if I could do it all again. It addresses all three of these issues with a couple additional options thrown in. Although I think it's a standing machine only. The only other issue is that the only edge guide they offer for the 3200 covers an oil port, so you have to almost completely remove the guide to oil the machine properly. Other than that, I love the machine. I like that it's a sitting machine and it's on castors so I can wheel it place-to-place. The motor is plenty powerful and it adjusts for speed and stitch length easily. Tension can be a bit of a bugger. Bob ships it cranked all the way down, so you can see it sew the thickest, densest leather on the planet, then you have to crank it down to meet your needs. I had to spend some quality time with the manual to get it right and figure out how to quickly adjust for different projects. -Sean

Hopefully they got it fixed then. Yeah, my shipment got here FAST once we worked through the issues with payment.

So, this guy works part time at a bike repair shop while he learns the ropes of bike repair/building. Since he's not always engaged in a project, and being a newbie, he sometimes he gets stuck working the desk. Aside from the fact that he now has several people who want to know costs and timelines for custom seat covers, this happened... "I was working on the stitching while waiting on a customer at my bike shop yesterday and this lady who was picking up her ride told me that seeing a guy who knew how to sew was the hottest thing ever. Aaaaannd, that's how I put a needle through my finger."

Ok, now you lost me. The OP and I were specifically discussing Blanchards, which are European style pricking irons. I did achieve good results that way, but it took a lot of time and care. Not something for every project, but a great tool to have in the chest. Now that I realize you meant stitching chisels, I've been doing that for some time. Only way to avoid the splatter look on the back.

I own the Deluxe splitter, the one with the black handle. I only bought that one because I got it at wholesale price, otherwise I would have gone somewhere else. I found it sharp right out of the box. If you weren't careful, you could cut yourself easily. I have had a couple occasions where I wish it was just a bit wider, like 1/2" would have worked, so I can't imagine getting a narrower version as my only splitter.

Sorry, but the one thing people are missing here is the "you" factor. Clearly you are interested in the craft. The question here is: are you the type of person who can just pick up something like this and do it? I learned on my own, much in the way described above, put out some decent products (5.0 rating on my Etsy store) and never took a class. BUT, I have been working with my hands almost my entire life, and used to sell woodworking items in a craft shop that I owned in the early 90's. I did a 1:1 class for a retired school principal last year, and by the end wished he had spent a little more time in the woodshop during his tenure. So, can you afford to NOT take the class? Can you afford to burn a couple hundred dollars (or more, a lot more) buying leather and practicing on your own, buying tools that you may never use, etc. The principal took meticulous notes during the process of the tools needed to make the holster we built together. I told him when he could get away with a different/cheaper tool, and when he absolutely, positively needed THIS tool to do the work. Leatherworking kits often come with tools you may never need or use. Or worse, need to replace almost immediately. Like me, you may find that carving leather isn't your thing. I lack the artistic talent for it. But I spent money on that swivel knife and all of those shading tools in that mega-set I bought. Now what? Besides that, at least taking the class, you're making forward progress and actually getting hands-on time with the medium. For the price of a decent dinner for two, and a few hours' drive time, you may find that you need to keep looking for hobbies. Or you may find your life's passion.

It wraps around the underside and is pinned in place by about a hundred little rivets.

I've never posted anything of my own here - but I'll post this... A friend had an accident with his Harley, so he wanted to refinish the seat. The Vinyl got scuffed and gouged, and... he found out that it was vinyl. He wanted to incorporate Alligator but couldn't flip the cash for the real thing, so I picked up some faux gator from Tandy and he picked up some calfskin he liked. I walked him through the process, step-by-step, showed him how to do things, gave pointers here and there, and pointed out where his plan was going to go awry based on his lack of knowledge of leather. He mounted it on the seat frame himself and it looks like he used force rather than finesse to make it fit, as there are signs of strain at the stitching. Otherwise, it's a great job for a first leather project. I suspect he'll be on here sooner or later, as he was completely enamored with the process.

If you're not using a computer, the trick to a template is to make two holes, perfectly centered, perfectly the distance apart you want on a piece of leather as wide as the strap end you will be making. Once you have a template with two perfect holes, make a template of the strap end with one perfectly centered hole (use the first template) the exact distance you want it from the end. Then use a rivet, chicago screw, etc to pin your two-hole template to the top of the strap end template. Mark the second hole, remove template, punch hole, move top template to the hole you just punched, and repeat until you have the strap end template you want. When I am making templates, before I make the final punch on any given hole, I pull out the scale and check center and distance. Measure twice, punch once. As DR80 said, only use the template to mark the holes. I walked in on my wife punching holes THROUGH my template once. Once.

That sounds much more in line with what you describe. As an update, I stand corrected on the portmanteau irons. As 25b described, it is indeed possible to get consistent stitching on both sides of the leather by using the same iron on both sides. As an experiment, I scribed a line on one side of the leather, poked a hole with a round awl at each end, and scribed a line between them on the back side. I then used the pricking irons to lightly mark slits on both lines, starting from the same hole front and back. Since the Blanchard irons are precision made, the slits lined up perfectly. Using a round awl and sewing without a knot produced even, consistent stitches on both sides. They didn't have as much angle to the stitches as the traditional method, but consistent angles on both sides is what I have been trying to achieve. This falls under the "don't knock it until you try it" category.

I think I found the one you're referring to: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=59849&hl=%2Bpricking+%2Biron+%2Bboth+%2Bsides#entry385161 I'm all for trying unconventional methods if it gives me the results I am looking for. To the OP... One thing I did the other day was to take all of my new pricking irons (6-9 SPI/7-10 TPI) and all of my thread sizes (Tiger thread, .6, .8, 1.0, 1.2) and make a grid on a piece of leather. The different stitch lengths went left-to-right, and the thread sizes went top to bottom. This gave me a great visual indicator of how a stitch would look for a given thread at each stitch length. From there, I can take the item I am working on and, assuming an equal thickness of leather, find the look I am wanting. Leather thickness affects stitching results, so I intend on making more of these for different thicknesses of leather. I'll post a picture when I have time to take one. I bring this up because I suspect that if you have only 6 SPI/7 TPI, that you may find that it is too long of a stitch length for, as you put it, "very thin leather". Longer stitch lengths tend to want thicker thread. But then again, most things in life are subjective.

Great tip on waiting 24 hours. I have no idea what I have been letting it rest for, I just set things aside and get back to it when I can. Sometimes that happens to be the next day, sometimes it's not. I have a day job so things get done in short bursts. Interesting on using standard irons on both sides. As I said, I just recently switched. I'm trying to retool to focus more on hand-sewing. So I literally spent many hours over the past several days stitching in every possible way: left-hand, right-hand, knot, no knot etc., looking for the right combination to provide the look I want on the front and the back. Some things I make need to look good on both sides. Some stitching methods provide a great front, but a lousy back. But I never considered using the iron on both sides. So... if there's a technique, and others have written about it, how about a little help in finding those threads? Searching the forums makes the assumption that you know what keywords to search for, or you wind up wading through a mountain of un-helpful topics. I've already done several searches and came up empty for a walk-through on this. Thanks, -Sean

If you're looking to order from Abbey England via their web site, there's currently an issue. They just updated their payment processor software to the 3.0 version, and we know how that stuff goes. Just ask anyone with an older computer upgrading to Windows 10.0. The issue I just ran into was that my account has the correct address info, but when you get to SagePay, the billing address country is silently changed to GB. I say silently because it's not until you get to the very last page after entering your CC# that two addresses show up at the bottom of the page, hidden behind collapsed +'s that need to be clicked to see the address in the first place. Poor design if you ask me. But needless to say, credit card companies don't like it much when you don't seem to know what country you live in. So.. after two days of back-and-forth, I just finally got off the phone with Abbey England. The only resolutions until they fix their site is a phone call from someone over there to take a CC number over the phone, or do a bank-to-bank transfer which can take up to three days. So here is the trick... If you use Visa, it won't let you finish the checkout process. It just fails. If you use AMEX, however, it will fail AFTER the site says the order went through, and they'll contact you when it finally does fail. Then they can call you and take payment over the phone. Or you can just call them and do the whole order and payment over the phone. On your dime. International rates apply. Ugh. Cheers, as they say over there. -Sean

Removed...

It also depends on the look you want. When I make my belts, collars, etc, with buff colored stitching on dyed leather, I have to stitch after dying or the thread will pick up the dye color. I've also done holsters where I wanted contrasting thread, but needed to mould the leather. The process was: stitch the bearing seams, mould, un-stitch, dye, stitch with the correct color thread.

JHW - I just switched from Tandy stitching irons to Blanchard pricking irons recently. It's a different process. From your original question, in order to mark the backside of the leather, you will need the reverse irons, or your marks will be going the wrong direction. (You'll end up with X's, not /'s) Using a single set (not using the reverse, or portmanteau, iron) of Blanchard irons is a three-step process: mark with iron, open with awl, sew. I just bought some tape from Tandy to try out, so I haven't tried it yet, but I've been using Barges cement for my stitching. Spread a very thin layer on both sides, allow to tack up, press together and stitch after a little rest period. Never had an issue with my awl, irons or needles getting gummed up unless I go too thick on the glue or don't let it tack up first. Make sure you have good ventilation. -Sean

Dustin, it's Ritza 25 specifically. Rocky Mountain Leather out of Utah sells it in 25m lengths (At a HUGE markup) and in 1.0 mm spools for a few colors, also at a rather large markup. I assume this is to cover the shipping, which he tends to do for free with larger orders. Otherwise it's Abbey England. And their web site is currently hosed so you can't pay unless you live in the UK. Go ahead, ask me how I know that... http://www.abbeyengland.com/Store/tabid/77/ProductID/68933/CategoryID/202/Category2ID/27/List/1/Level/2/language/en-GB/Default.aspx?addmessage=success_c_Tiger+Polyester+Braided+Thread+Waxed++++ I just ordered one spool of about half of their entire line. (It's nice to have a day job still) The $50 shipping is less than the markup on just a few rolls buying it domestically, and I can get it in ALL sizes/colors. The most common size used is quite likely 1mm. It offers the widest array of colors and seems to be the most popular size in videos I have watched. I suppose that's why RML stocks it as their only full spool size. However, I ordered .6, .8 and 1.0 from RML in the small spools so I can compare and 1.2 and 1.4 from Abbey. Having sewn with .8 and 1.0 already, I see uses for having all sizes in stock, especially if one also happens to have pricking irons in different stitch lengths. That being said, I suspect if you stocked whole spools of 1.0mm in cream, tan, havana, mid-brown, brown, and black - you would have a LOT of very happy customers. As long as you also stock John James needles to go with them.

Welcome Dustin. I very recently dealt with Sheryl and Dani setting up my wholesale account and getting an order put together for a rush project for a wedding. (Long story) They were a joy to work with and I have standardized most of my hardware on Weaver supplies since you have the quality and durability I am looking for. I'm just getting to know my new Little Wonder and got the snap setter figured out yesterday. What a pleasure to use. Now, if we could just convince you to stock Tiger Thread and European style pricking irons, I wouldn't have to go anywhere else... -Sean

That is indeed good news. I set up an account a while ago and never ordered due to reasons you are addressing. Looking forward to it.