russellcook

Simon, thanks for the advice and extra information. I have a very fine translucent Arkansas stone, was thinking of using that and then stropping on some plain leather. Paul, thanks for the suggestion, I've watched the Nigel Armitage awl sharpening video, but my diamond awl is ground quite differently to his one (perhaps because it's a Japanese manufacturer?) and so his method is unfortunately not applicable. As a general point, the Kyoshin Elle diamond awl came lovely and sharp and ready to use from the box.

Hi everyone, I have this diamond awl made by a Japanese company called "Elle". It worked well for making my turnshoes, and now I'm interested in finding out how I could hone it. I watched this video on youtube: but the shape of the blade seems different from my one. On my awl you can see that the blade tapers abruptly to a point at the tip. My idea is to try lightly "stabbing" the tip into a whetstone, alternating the 4 faces of the blade, trying to maintain the angle of the original grind. Then, stropping it on either plain leather, or leather with a honing compound. Any suggestions would be great :-)

Thanks for the replies. The idea about waxing from the inside is intriguing. I was thinking, I may not even need a hair-dryer, just rub on some wax to the inside of the sole, then wear the shoes around the house for a bit, and let the warmth of my feet and my body weight work the wax in. I'll let you guys know if I try it.

Hi all, For my next pair of turnshoes, I'd like to wax the soles with beeswax. Can anyone give me some tips on how to go about doing that? My impression is that this'd make them more abrasion- and water-resistant. Is that a reasonable expectation? Any help would be great :-)

Thanks David. I'd like to take your advice on the youtube tip, but I'm in Shanghai and it's blocked (yahoo doesn't seem to work anymore either...) Hopefully I'll be in Australia next year and will be able to get onto it then. I may have to put this project on the backburner till then.

Cheers, Dwight. That sounds like a good plan. I'm not too averse to lazy methods :-) Any thoughts on thread and needle size? I get the impression that my needle and 0.7mm thread may be a little big. Russell

Hi all, I'm hoping to make a pair of gloves for myself. During my searches on the web, I found this tutorial: http://www.renaissancetailor.com/demos_gloves.htm Using it, I have put together the pattern in the picture attached. Glove Pattern.htm My plan would be to use a saddle stitch to stitch it up. I was hoping to ask a few question from everyone here. 1) I used the needle (3 bevels leading to a not-very-sharp tip), the diamond shaped awl and 0.7mm linen thread in the second picture when I made turnshoes. Would they be usable for gloves? Leather Tools.htm 2) The tutorial doesn't talk about adding seam allowances to the pattern. Is this a problem? 3) How big should seam allowances? 3mm? For my turnshoes I used 5mm seam allowances, that'd surely be too big for gloves. Any other comments also welcome :-)