HENDREFORGAN

You've got a point . . are people actually paying for something that nature provided us? Very probably. Suede to me was always cheap hides tarted up to look more expensive. Nor should one forget that back in the days of shoe making when the lasts were not handed shoes and boots made for a working environment were made grain side inner so that the naturally sueded fibres could be kept heavily waxed to keep water out. You know . . it still works to keep an old pair of Hush Puppies fresh?

That is a point of view towards hand stitching with two needles I took myself for over 25 years . . until my age meant my thumbs could no longer act as "G clamps". So I began to use sewing machines to take over and, today, I'll put work I've done on my Durkopp Adler 205-370 against examples of my hand saddle stitching and I'll be very happy with the result. You know sewing machines use TWO threads too? As for the work shown in the question I even wonder if it could be a single thread using a blunt needle through pricked out holes, unfortunately the Etsy pix do not show the stitching in enough detail for us Nerd's to fully figure it out. One photo, https://img0.etsystatic.com/128/1/7763764/il_fullxfull.857546534_r8qj.jpg , might bear out my thoughts? Top stitch shows the slant but bottom stitch the thread is running in a line. I agree with Tugadud, it's that sellers signature and each of us must find our own, to simply copy others is no credit at all.

All good technical stuff and don't doubt a word of it . . but . . I'll take a more down to earth and practical point of view. Yes - technically - punching holes in hide leaves an Achilles Heel but then again the thread you stitch the pieces with will be waxed and a hell of a lot of that gets pumped into the holes which, with the frictional heat of the process, will be absorbed by the hide. That will prevent more ingress of water than into the hide itself. Yes, old harness straps are often dry and the stitching and their holes broken but that isn't a fault of the system, it's a lack of maintenance instead. Glue? Sorry but I, possibly many others, used this when we were bumbling amateurs simply because we knew nothing else. Industry stills uses the method today but, you pays you're money and make your chioce, how many cheaply made items have we all seen fall to pieces due to glue failing? Give me a good quality thread, fresh needles and a block of beeswax and my stitching will be capable of outlasting any owner of my work. So correctly stitched a laminate of two pieces will be stronger than one thick one . . but will it look right? Will it convey the image of quality? Not on some products. . . and sorry but it's sueded and not suede. Yes, there are leathers with particular textured nature with open pores chosen to be sueded but suede is typically a definition of finish and not the hide itself.

That would appear to be a whole size increment dropped . . and Metropolitan wouldn't do that . . they wouldn't. How did you measure your hide? If you do wish to be accurate buy a digital vernier gauge but never try to use a ruler or tape measure. Chinese made units are barely a few pounds on eBay yet I've tested the ones I bought against British made and found virtually no issues. Phone them Sonja . . they are well respected for their customer relationships.

It would be VERY sad if the proposed changes are carried through . . much more so for those yet to learn as an amazing centre for learning would be lost. Pass the word to as many as you can in order that the Council are aware of the national importance of the treasure they hold.

I suspect one is not meant to cross-post but this is an important issue that needs to be brought to members attention as much as possible . . so I ask the Moderators help in this matter. Please follow the link below to my detailed post?

This is important to those of us here in the UK or that can visit or travel through the UK but even within North American forum threads I do believe I have seen past reference to information that can be sourced from this totally unparalleled venue. The "heads up" came from an email from Abbey England and the fact that it has concerned them shows this is a matter to be taken seriously. http://abbeyengland.com/Blog/plans-issued-to-relocate-walsall-leather-museum If you have never been there than DO go before it is too late but equally use the petition link provided to try to get the local Council aware that this collection is to the history of leather what the British Museum is to ancient history in general . . and imagine the response if anyone wanted to close the BM and relegate less than 10% of it's artefacts to a side-show? Whoever you are wherever you are if you care about the history of leather being kept public then PLEASE support Abbey and their petition? Thank you.

Artisan look spot on but you might have to pay for that extra quality? LePrevo offer a stamp making service through an associated company and the cost is minimal for the total area of stamp/s you get. They are only suitable to press-work though being that they are constructed by the acid etched alloy format used for many printing stamps. Easy to cut with a good junior hacksaw and then bond to a steel backing plate.

. . . or even buy an old and badly maintained sewing machine such as say a Singer 29K that you should be able to buy very cheap and simply use it without thread and bobbin simply to punch holes neatly?

Humidity is an issue with any tanned hide but there are ways to counter it and the above answers are spot on . . but don't think anybody has mentioned the other main issue yet? Sunlight or rather UV. I have seen at craft fairs various hides that have obviously been left out on a bench partially covered and are then being sold "two tone" as well as small shops where some of the leather goods are displayed in a window. This effect is most damaging to natural, or nude, leather. Now . . if you want your finished leather-goods to achieve the "patina of age" look then UV will be your friend . . but if only for consistency store your hides and goods in the dark with only artificial lighting available?

There is a wonderful machine to watch in operation at one of my suppliers, Metropolitan leather, that is Victorian in it's design/construction yet still used given it can be depended upon to give an EXACT square footage of any hide of any shape put through it. There are modern equivalents and it's likely one of these that has determined the size of your purchased hide . . though a sales man with integrity would only price on "quarters" and never "round up" to an even figure. Basically the hide is passed through soft rollers and then as it does so little spring loaded pins are raised when hide is detected but not when the edge has passed or even a hole in the hide. The machine counts the number of pins so raised and, voilà, a dial reads out the EXACT area. This method is unparalleled in calculating the true size of any leather hide. However, as the crafts-person who will then turn this hide into work pieces, I suspect most like me take a visual measurement of the roughly rectangular central section and go from there . . and most of the time that curly edge reduces the area we use yet, when the above machine is used, you paid for it!

That is a truly excellent clamp, not only have you engineered it to do the work you want to but you've created a thing on beauty.

Abbey are one of the best for highest quality leather products but I hear what you say and wouldn't deny it either. The ONLY other supplier I would recommend to fully answer your needs is Metropolitan Leather and they aren't too far away from you either. Give them a call and ask if you can visit? You'll be blown away by the hides you'll see!

In the UK the technique is known as "whipping" and is usually restricted to rope-work, yours is the first example I've seen done with leather cord, I would have thought that using that would have proven to be too "grippy" in passing the thonging beneath to finish off . . you have me thinking now as to where I can use this idea. Thank you. Yes, nice bespoke design and the use of a bow shackle makes this very suitable for Steam Punk too!

Out of curiosity and believing - I think - that Tandy still uses or sell Craftaid templates . . have you checked to see if these particular examples are "out of print"?

Technically you'll need a metal base (anvil) into which a cupped depression has been made, if a flat face is used then your domed top will end up with a small plateau. You're not needing anything capable of being hit excessively hard though so what I would use is a block of lead - freshly melted and poured to make a flat block - and then "waste" one of the rivets cleanly hammering it into the lead to create that cupped depression. If your lead former seems to small - others will know what I mean when I say it tends to "escape" the hammering during the setting of the rivet - then mount it into a larger block of wood to create a sort of dedicated work table? To me the worked burr on the copper hose rivet is part of it's visual appeal, it's that side I present to the face, with the flat side inside for both wear resistance and comfort. However, I do go a little beyond the default burring of the post and using first a cupped tool and then a flat metal-working hammer I will "peen" the "bur" to form a flattened, almost "pan head" end to the rivet. Looks neat and solid though takes a lot longer than simply setting the rivet. There has been a lot of good work shown above from those who I just know have spent ages perfecting their work so I'll not add anything different but agree with many of the views put forward. Tooling has to be done first and, in view of later shrinkage, may need to be deeper than you think. Keep to clear bold designs as subtle imprints will be ironed out by the forming process. What you will find you can do is slightly re-work your tooling later to clean up the impression. Creating "cuir bouilli" is guaranteed to be a subject that a hundred leather-workers who have managed it will likely come out with a hundred different ways of doing it, there are rules to follow and both on here and on the Web there is everything you need to inform you. It is then though that you add your particular "magic" and create your own path to a finished product. It's an awfully time consuming but rewarding process. In my own "path" I kept two requirements high on the list, leather for tooling and/or forming must have it's full thickness made plastic by liquid BUT not saturated and in using heat it must NOT be overly "boiled" or you risk the destruction of the very thing you create. So I sourced for my forming needs something a bit different. I use a commercial "steaming oven" to first soften the leather for tooling and then formers that I have made myself - sometimes both male and female moulds - to mould the final shape. Even then the final result from the "cooker" may then be mounted into another set of moulds using throw over clamps and then left to air dry. That's a huge commitment in money, materials and time but I'm fortunate to work from an industrial unit . . which is handy as the power side for the steaming oven is "3 phase" (415 volt) . . and no issues with water supply either as a large feeder tank needs to be kept full. It's also a very heavy unit requiring a concrete floor. Safer than it looks though as it's basically a scaled up domestic pressure cooker . . standing almost six feet high with a HUGE door on the front that looks as if it should be on a water tight compartment for a submarine. Oh, and good heat proof gloves too.

Quite by accident I found this supposedly "helpful video" on UTube . . I'm still laughing . . . during the course of her presentation the presenter proudly acclaims that anything with a GENUINE or REAL leather label has to be "real" leather as it needs to be at least 55% leather to be given that label. 55% Now, call me Old Fashioned but isn't 55% almost only HALF? Maybe she was referring to the leather content of the label? . . and the other tests? Smell overcome by a wax spray so that the whiff of beeswax makes you think it's genuine hide. Interior facing not being leather overcome by the tactic I mention above of a minute layer of leather stuck on to confuse you. Pleased to see her advice on using my technique of, as has been wonderfully stated above, "destroying inventory" to be same as mine . . walk away. I am looking forward to dusting off and refuelling my WW2 Ronson flame thrower and visiting our local nation wide dealership for leather furniture and applying the flame test . . .

. . so VERY true, indeed some of the suggestions above and elsewhere harp on about even higher shaft RPM's. Your mind starts to create a picture . . . Leather worker goes to his new DIY burnisher, switches it on and waits patiently for it to achieve terminal velocity . . then offers up his work. WHOOSH!!!! "jeez, where did my belt fly off to . . OH HELL . . where has the top of my finger gone to!!!" I'm sure you'll agree with me there isn't anything wrong with the reasoning our compatriot's use, they have simply fallen under the spell of the salesman attempting to sell his "bespoke leather burnisher". All they are doing is believing his blurb and trying to copy his machine . . which, if I may be unkind to say, is probably a cheap Chinese bench grinder with stickers attached. Sorry. The humble drill press, be it bench mounted or free standing, is a perfect machine for you to adapt . . and your work goes from side to side too which makes it easier to see the results . . and in between your use . . it drill's holes in wood and metal too! Remember peeps it's not about speed it's about friction as that creates heat which, with an application of wax to work edge and "slicking wheel", burns or cooks your leather edge in a VERY controlled manner. My own drill press being towards the top end of the sizing range also has a VERY powerful motor . . so I can set easy to handle lower speeds and simply push a bit more to control the friction . . the "slicking wheel" barely slows down. . . . and remember the original "bespoke leather burnisher" was a bone slicker . . . previously our caveman handy-man used the crack in his partners arse! . . . I must take some pix next time I'm using my "DIY Burnisher" . . NO! The drill press with slicker wheel and guides . . not my partners arse!

Though aimed at upholstery products this is a VERY clear presentation of how to understand the various grades of hides, their full production and, dare I say, how to check that hide is as good as the salesman says it is. We use slightly different terms here in the UK but every part of the process is exactly the same . . this guy is to be congratulated for the work he put into this excellent lesson. Ace! Thanks for sharing Meggan . . . . . can I say it's a bit strange to my UK "tastes" but the Chesterfield sofa in the background shows a high degree of hand-finishing . . not sure I could live with it though.

I agree with JLSleather though, in my case, I simply adapt my full height free standing drill press to do this work. The machine is part of my wood-working workshop and, other than it being high enough that I don't need to alter my stance to use the chuck comfortably, it also has a large rotating table. With a wide range of speeds so that I can fine tune the "friction" that rotating table can easily have guides and/or formers bolted to it. You then wind up the table so that your work lines up with your "slicking wheel". That means full control over the leather your burnishing. I make my own "slicking wheels", some are wood - cedar and pitch pine are great due to their natural oiliness - but others are plastic such as glass filled nylon or PTFE. With each I use the drill press as well as other machines to make the exact burnishing profile I want, I never try to make a universal or "one size fits all" type. If one ever gets a bit too worn then I make another. Due to the generous size of the rotating table many are fairly large in diameter and do seem to work better that way. Larger size = faster tool speed = slower machine speed. Set up with that sort of gear on the free standing drill press is very quick and the resultant finish defies anyone to say how it was done. The heavier the leather the easier the job . . the total opposite of doing it by hand.

To return to the original subject . . hic! . . sorry but yesterday evening I was "appreciating" my large collection of awesome English ales . . . has anybody with one of these machines both taken a look inside to see if they are infested with fluffy brightly coloured worms and, more importantly, what does their owners/service manuals say? Take note that our research above shows that rather a few of the "205-370" manufacturing variants show clear evidence of this "system" being used? Global, Cowboy, Sieck . . can anyopne add any more? Given the universal reaction on here from sewing machine users it's fairly evident that this was a change nobody was aware of . . though we will assume the manufacturer had their reasons they rather sneaked it by most.

Oh that's the way it's sold but there is a logic to their sizing madness. Timber (lumber) is "rough cut" first to exact sizes and this is where you can buy a nicely accurate "two by four" . . but if you want smooth timber (lumber) then it needs to be planned. Here in the UK it's then called "planned all round" or "PAR". They don't take much off, the original cutting is often very accurate, but you will lose between 2mm to 3mm per side . . hence you end up with that smaller size. Thing is not only is PAR priced to reflect both the cost of the original sized timber and the planning process but most lumber yards will extract the sawdust and then sell that to other customers bagged up . . . that's not nice! Theft!

. . . just be careful to ensure the market trader is looking the other way though? When you've done it once you'll find you've developed a certain . . compulsion . . to do it again?

The extent to which you drive the burr or washer down the post is also something that requires knowledge of where to stop. There is a temptation with several pieces of thicker hide to truly hammer this home . . often you do yourself no favours. For the burr or washer to work efficiently it must retain it's cup shape to be able to "bite" into the copper post. Hammer it fully down and likely you'll flatten out that washer . . then it will probably slide up as you're trying to cut the post. The true beauty of this rivet system is it's ability for the metal to deform and thus make ANY removal extremely difficult . . unlike say tubular rivets it doesn't need to grasp the hide truly tight to 100% perform.

Undoubtedly it is and more people are prone to it than they know. A barrier of nail varnish will only work until it's eroded and never rule out that perspiration may leach the nickel contaminant out from within the leather itself? It is possible to find much larger stainless steel eyelets, etc. within fittings for maritime use but, on a smaller scale, I don't think you'll find them. The base metal is much more brittle than the mild steel beneath the electro-plating for the norm, tends to prevent the metal from "flowing" as it's condensed. One option, though a more expensive one, is solid copper rivets often refered to as "copper hose rivets" or "conveyor belt rivets". Guaranteed to give a very hand-made finish?