canonitr

@Aven nope .. no music or tv ... not yet at least , as they can be distracted quite easily.. @battlemunky fairly ok .. my daughter seems to be able to get the front and back consistent.. my son on the other hand, is not consistent.. just yesterday, my son's stitches on the back was a bit off, with a few stitches out of alignment with the others.. might be because i gave them a new piece to practice on and the holes were tight and he was having to put down the needles a lot .. even broke a needle's eye with his hands .. once i saw that, i awled out the holes for my daughter's new piece @rodneywt1180b better then mine too , and i am trying to figure why ... they pull it quite tight as well, but dont seem to have the same issue as me..

same! if i could get that level of consistency... my kids sew better then me!

never thought about that!

something similar will probably work .. as long you dont have to hold it in your hand .. the bad thing with this small light is that when i hammer the chisel... it bounces ..

i use this .. https://www.banggood.com/Mini-Touch-Switch-Small-LG-LED-Light-Use-16340-CR123A-Batteries-p-929091.html?cur_warehouse=CN cause if shine from the top, you will obstruct the light with your hand holding the iron .. so i shine on the same plane as leather piece .. move it around till i get good lighting to confirm the position..

i had the same issue, that's why i try to get 9 or 10 tooth, in order to use more than 1 hole for over lapping .. i currently overlap 3 holes,which result in a straighter punched line for me .. i use a small light that i can position anywhere (but not above) to ensure my tooth is on the line i will be keeping my cheap 4mm diamonds though i dont use them now, so that i can let my son use then when he is learning ..

about MYR300~ the holes look good ... worth it!

@LetterT, well niakulah ordered it , so it can be shipped overseas.. but yes , not all shops are interested to ship outside of China.. with 1/7 the global population in the country, think they are quite satisfied.. @niakulah saya orang cina, but not able to make heads or tails of whats written .. anyway whats the damage on those?

at first glance, the teeth seem very similar to Crimsons.. .. can't tell whats the first character, but it's said to be handmade ,, Are you Chinese? Taobao took me some time to navigate, until i used Chrome with auto translate .. did quite abit shopping on Wuta for small items only .. and I received 3 of 4 packages from TB already .. those were mainly ordered on 12-14/11 .. the last item was ordered on 16/11 but is already en-route to SG...

i like my Crimsons! i have the unnamed diamond chisels (rhombus shape), which i find that it makes fairly large holes on the upper piece when you try to knock them thru 2 or more layers. I also have unnamed european/french style chisels which pretty much make slits.. for some of the sizes, i can go thru 2 layers or leather, for some, only one, after which I have to bring out the awl.. like mike said, if it sticks coming out, it tends to pull the leather.. i've managed to refine the prongs on my diamond chisels by honing them on the DMT Dia-Sharp 4" Fine and Extra Fine, before stropping them with Dialux Blanc. hard to use the Coarse on one of the prongs as 2/6 tips seemed to have flatten out.. much easier to pull out after the "refinement".. I have no experience with any other brands except the Crimsons, and I like it due to the shape of the hole it punches, the polished prongs, and the ease of tapping in/pulling out .. I currently have them in 3.25mm 1+2+5+9 prongs (SGD290) as well as the 3.25mm reverse 2+5 (SGD130). Come next month, i will probably lay down some more cash (SGD260) for the 4.0mm 2+5+9 set (since the 1 prong is the same for 3.0mm till 4.0mm)

I move along for long pieces, but just in the middle for smaller ones

i've seen the nash anonymous hafts with separate awl blade available locally to me, but its something i dont use often, so i dont want to put down serious cash on it .. yet...

might just need to strop/polish the awl when you receive it.. for JJ needles, i use #004 mainly, (48mm long x 0.86mm) and have gotten the #003 (55mm x 1.02mm) as well.. #001, #002 and #003 are supposed to be the same size anyway.. i have the #1/0 & #2/0 when i first started out, but rarely use them as they are quite thick.. i have the tandy needles as well as Wuta #1 needles, but havent tried them out per Ian Atkinson's site, this is just a guideline he put up .. 0.5-0.6mm thread - JJ #004 (10-12spi) 0.6-0.8mm thread - JJ #004 (8-9 spi) 0.8-1.0mm thread - JJ #002 (6-7 spi) http://www.ianatkinson.net/leather/leatherguide.htm He has a little chart on thread size between a few brands as well ..

but @GeneH want an inexpensive awl.... i have leathercrafttools 3 awl set, as well as Wuta awls... but, I don't use them much, except once in a while to widen holes..

you might want to try banggood then.. they have a US warehouse, tho i am not sure if they stock the item. Thing with banggood's "Wuta Awl", is that it has a non tapered brass ring, whereas the Taobao/Aliexpress one shows a tapered brass ring .. i got me quite a bit of stuff during Taobao's (China's Amazon) 11.11 sales period ( 4 orders between 12/11 - 16/11) and 3 of them are already in my country within 10 days.. previous 11.11 shipping was hell, where items could take up to 2 months before being delivered.. not sure how it would be for wherever you are tho .. while Aliexpress is in english and sells the same items from the same vendor, I find that the prices on Taobao is cheaper.. only problem is that the Taobao site is entirely in Chinese... google chrome with auto translate helps a bit, but sometimes, you get funny translations..

have you considered the awl from wuta? they are fairly cheap.. regarding awl size, they would classify small as 3mm, medium 3-4mm and large as 5mm

i have a non slip ruler (saintograph) which is lined with something to prevent slipping .. unsure if it's true, but i've read that the reason why the leather splays out when cutting with a blade, is that the point of contact between the leather and blade requires a pull/push motion (depending on how u cut) to cut into the material, and that motion is the reason for the slight pulling of leather when cutting .. the rotary cutter is supposed to be rolling, hence supposedly no pulling on the leather.. however, which ever the method i used, i just can't seem to get it to cut cleanly.. might be i put too much pressure on the ruler when holding it down .. have yet to try it with my razor (ie shaving razor) blade yet. maybe with the thin and sharp blade, it requires less force to start the cutting motion...

i only tried it on 1 piece over the weekend, but don't know if it affects the ability to glue, tho to me the glue is in a way, temporary, to allow stitching to be done... i only tried it because i didn't want to be stuck only working with buffalo due to its stiffness..

not sure if this is correct or whether it can help anyone .. so far i've only been working on buffalo (~4oz) as it is fairly stiff and easier to cut.. i've previously tried ~3 oz cow, but kind of hated it as whenever i put some pressure on the ruler to make a straight line to cut, it causes the leather the splay out ever so little, even when using a rotary cutter. i've recently gotten some cheap chromed goat which is quite thin, probably ~2oz and it stretches quite a bit.. however, applying burnishing gum on the flesh side, and letting it dry, seemed to allow me to have a proper cut without much issues..

eh? problem is i still cant get my stitching tension consistent... while i showed my son how to stitch, i guess the real master is Nigel.. I watched and re-watch his video until i figured how he did it .. but like what i told my son, it's easier to learn it when it is demonstrated live, rather than a video..... think both my kids took less than 10 mins to get the rhythm of the sewing done ... other than punching the holes or threading the needle, they start the sewing themselves.. (i've yet to show them how to end the stitch by overstitching or back stitching, as i have varied results, plus it can be quite tight with more then 2 threads in the hole, which they might not have the strength to pull thru) i need to watch how to end the stitch .. if i am not wrong Ian Atkinson has a video on that part..

@fredk i would have thought that it would be my boy rushing .. he does that with rollerblading and cycling .. zooming all over the place.. @immiketoo that's what someone else told me ... i'll be running a sweat shop with child labour .. no pay .. just food and shelter and lots of parental love.. @ScoobyNewbie thanks! it seems their stitching is better than mine .. 2 months vs 3/4 days ..

k . maybe i need to give a bit of details before the opinions will be forthcoming.. the upper piece is saddle stitched by my soon to be 10 year old boy (his 4th try at stitching) , and the lower piece was done by my 7.5 year old girl (her 3rd try at stitching) . i find my boy's stitching has been rather consistent over the last 4 times, whereas my girl was okay on the first day, she decided to speed up stitching on the 2nd day, which resulted in uneven stitching, and after telling her to slow down and be consistent, this is the output of her 3rd day... funny thing is, their stitching seems far better then mine.. i showed my son how to saddle stitch, and he in turn, taught his sister.. was trying to teach my kids about consistency, perseverance and patience ... both of them didn't have the ability to cut the leather cleanly, so i decided to just let them sew it.. if their stitching is considered ok, i might cut out some simple items for them to sew and let them call it their own.. right now, they are having 7 weeks of school holidays, and I hope the smaller Wuta ponies i order, come in time for them to use it

Need comments on what can be improved, with regard to the stitching ...

in the meantime, i will try out using the stamps on stazon inkpads to make it easier for my kids to personalise their items..

i used gold/silver pigment inks by uni ball pens (UM100) ..about 0.8mm tips it's hard to clean off with DNA or IPA .. but it seems that Columbus Get cleaner (leather cleaner) can remove the pigment inks .. you could try the other models that uses pigment inks, since you probably need it in other colors.. they probably come in finer tips too