Spyros

Good thing is I had the time to quickly build a small shed in the back, to make some room for the machine in the workshop otherwise I had no idea where to put it. But now she's here and all set up. You guys were not kidding, she's a beast After a couple of youtubes this was my very first machine stitch with a 200/25 Shmetz needle and some 277 thread: So looking at this thing, the stitching is clearly slanted. I don't mind how it looks to be honest, after all this is exactly what my hand stitching looks like, but I couldn't figure out how the hell is that even possible to get a stitch looking like that from a machine. But then looking more carefully I realised the actual needle has a slanted point. It's kind of hard to photograph but you can probably see it here I didn't know they make needles like that... I wonder if all those people practicing for years to get their hand stitching to look slanted actually know that you can do this with a machine LOL Now, the back is a different story, it doesn't look as good: Those are some pretty big exit wounds hehe Anything I can do about the back or that's just how it is?

The combined TNT/FEDEX IQ hit an all time low. After 40 minutes on hold on the phone I found that they were told to ring me to collect, which obviously they didn't, and the tracking number still shows "IN TRANSIT" as we speak, so I had no way of knowing that the machine has been waiting for me at the depot for 10 days. It's now in the back of my van (took a bit of a forklift artist to squeeze it in there, God bless that kid)

So yeah, the courier picked up my cb4500 on the 7th from Brissie, 12 days later it's still on the road apparently... shame, I was hoping to have it for Xmas.

Well technically you need an adjustment for the thickness of the leather as well, otherwise a soft-ish or thin-ish leather might start bending on itself inside the cutter slot which would result in an uneven cut. But with the thick/firm leeather typically used for straps and belts it's really not an issue, so yeah no reason why not make a couple of those LePoisson cutters (TM) for your mostly used widths. Its a good idea

Podcasts for me, mostly Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

When you get to the stage where you're polishing the edges 4-5 belts at the time on the buffing wheel, instead of doing that try running a clean cloth with a touch of acetone along the edge. Depending on the chemical composition of your edge paint it might give you a mirror finish very easily (or it might not, so try it on a test piece). I think it was acetone anyway, it's been a while since someone told me and I tried it...

Trying to stand a liquid that is specifically designed to stain forever anything that it touches, on the edge of a thin material that likes to soak everything like a sponge, without ever making a mistake, that is basically masochism in my book. If I can just burnish the edges and not dye them, I do that. If I can roll the edges, I do that. If I can dye the flesh side with the same thing that I use to dye the edges, and is preferably the same colour as the skin side so any little mistake will not show, I do that. If I can dye the edge and then line the flesh side to cover any bleed through, I do that. Basically I'll do anything to avoid doing what you're trying to do. If none of the above is an option then I simply change the design until it is. If you absolutely must dye the edges, keep in mind that the "proper" way is to use edge paint, and you must-not bevel the edges at all, not before and not after painting. The sharp edge is your barrier and the edge paint is supposed to build up against it (without ever going over - good luck with that) and then you are supposed to build layers of paint with sanding in between, layer upon layer until the paint itself becomes the bevelled edge. And yeah, you have to let it dry properly between layers and sanding, and yeah it takes forever. That's proper edge painting. If you want to just change the colour of the edge with whatever dye you have in hand, then those refillable markers are probably the most error-proof method. But it still requires above average hand-eye coordination.

I haven't tried H/O bridle yet, I will in the future. But I absolutely loved W&C bridle. The sides I received had extremely high yield, even the belly was perfectly usable, they had next to no marks, and the flesh side was so nicely finished and smooth that it was literally reflecting light. Very nice stuff. Most of those things apply to Sedgwick bridle as well, but I found it to be quite fragile in some ways... I mean it's obviously very strong leather, but it seems to have something like a film on the surface, and if you're not careful with it and you buff it a bit too hard (say you got a drop of glue or edge paint on it and you're trying to get it off), you can break that film and then it's damaged beyond repair. I don't know, maybe it's something I haven't understood about working with it, but I think I'm sticking with W&C for now.

Not sure it is a problem as such, maybe that's what the leather is supposed to do when wet... Like I said it's perfectly fine once completely dry. Not sure. Maybe I'll just give it some conditioner and leave it as is, it is my everyday carry bag so I'll get to observe it long term.

What the? LOL Anyway I have a hand press for rivets and snaps, and about 50 different dies. And yeah that helps, the problem is that a lot of the time the snap is in such a location that it's impossible to fit the work under the press, and then you're at the mercy of those little anvils and hand held tools, and sometimes they work, sometimes you have to use a drill to remove a badly set snap...

I have a small piece of some flat stone that I bought from a garden supplies shop. It's about half the size of an A4 piece of paper and that's really all I need for the occasional stamp or skive. I find I have much more need for soft rather than hard surfaces so most of my bench is high density plastic.

I made some laptop bags recently, some are made with American-English bridle (Wicket & Craig) and the others with English-English bridle (Sedgwick). Everything I read about those leathers seems to indicate that they're full of waxes and everything they need, so no finishing is necessary. However, I've kept one of the Sedgwick bags for myself, and I noticed that when it gets even the slightest rain droplets on it, it kind of bubbles where the water touched it. I always make sure to wipe it with a clean cloth, and the bubbling eventually goes away on its own, but I can't help thinking that this can't be good for the leather long term and maybe I should be putting something on for protection. The W&C ones I also haven't not put anything on so far, just a light coat of leather conditioner (mix of beeswax/lanolin/oil) on the flesh side just to feed the leather a little bit because when I received it it felt dry like cardboard. I did however notice that my glue doesn't adhere almost at all on this leather, which means it must be full of waxes/oils already. Anything I should be putting on, just for some extra protection? I tried some carnauba cream on an W&C offcut, it darkened it a little which I don't mind, but I'm hesitant to put it on the actual bag because W&C specifically says don't apply finishing, surely they must have a reason for saying it.

What tool from Hobby Lobby? It's getting ridiculous here, I have like 5 drawers full of hardware to the brim, and still I always seem to miss something...

In my experience that's the problem 99% of the time. Unfortunately you just have to stock different snaps with different length posts and choose the correct length for every different thickness of leather. It just adds to my hardware anxiety LOL

I thought "top grain" means that a very thin layer from the top has been removed, just to get rid of some surface scratches. I also find that a lot of those standard terms vary a little from tannery to tannery and merchant to merchant. I've had a lot of confusion in the past trying to distinguish between a "bend", "back", "culatta", "double back", "double bend" etc, different merchants seem to mean different things with those terms. Just have to ask them specifically. I mean the retailer has to make a margin to stay in business. How much is the significant mark up, and is buying directly from HO even an option for small quantities?

I have nothing to add, just posting here to say great work on this bag on the photo!

tan kote for me.

I went to great lengths to achieve the slanted look in the front and back of my stitches... I made 4 different stitching ponies and clams for myself because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, I watched every video, got a collection of different chisels, I even made a jig with ratchet straps that I use to stretch my bags between the ceiling and the bench clam, so I can stitch pro-per-ly in every single awkward spot. Anyway, I eventually got to a point that I can get my stitches to look any way I like, if I want to. And then one day I was reading a comment by a guy who bought an industrial sewing machine, and the machine had some weird deflection in the needle, which caused his stitches to look slanted, pretty much like hand stitched. And he was furious, complaining everywhere that this is unacceptable, his machine is faulty etc. And then someone told him, look, slanted stitching is actually considered a desirable feature in stitching. And the guy was like "Whaaaaat? Bullshit slanted! I want my stitches straight!". And I got this nervous laughter, and I couldn't stop laughing, because I realised at that moment that I actually agree with the guy, deep down I also always thought that straight stitches look better LOL And now I'm laughing even more because none of us have understood what is the actual question is that we're trying to answer, because the OP asked something about some photos, the photos are nowhere, the OP disappeared, and we're all taking turns saying our thing anyway

Look, at the end of the day all I can tell you is that I've bought a couple of mid-price strap cutters, and you put the leather in one end, you pull, and a perfectly strait strap comes out of the other end. I am unsure what else the original strap cutters does on top of that, you'll have to ask Nigel.

Wtf man, where did you buy them from, some school woodworking project? These are C&C cut, it really does take some doing to cut the slot off-square, or to not even look at the photos to use the same kind of screwy thingies that everyone else uses so things don't slide. I mean these guys copy phones and things like that... Maybe get the next one from someone who has a "No working while drunk" rule :D

yeah looks like someone made a serious effort to screw yours up LOL

It's a couple of sticks with a blade... it really takes some effort to get it wrong. We said in the other thread a couple of things to look for, other than that they're all pretty much the same.

Canvas always gives me the best results, and now I'm wondering how come no one has made a rotating wheel out of canvas for burnishing... maybe because it will probably wear too quickly. Maybe I should make one and try

Gold is surprisingly versatile and usable in leather, because it actually doesn't look all that gold when stitched, more like an off-yellow, and it looks good with black and all shades of brown and tan, which are the most commonly used leather colours. Not to mention Luis Vuitton made it famous (ok more yellow than gold)

Welcome to the world of leatherworking, where finetuning the order of doing things will give you many sleepless nights I'd rather not dye at all if I can avoid it, but if I must, it's always the first thing I do. I just find dying large surfaces much faster, and because I always mix the dye with something (usually neatsfoot oil or carnauba creme), and because I usually dye the flash side as well, it penetrates from both sides deeper and usually I don't have to worry about undyed leather showing in stitcholes and things like that. And then I only dye edges and holes selectively in the end after I see which edge is actually visible and looks bad. And yes, the way I do it has got me in trouble some times, and yes the way you describe it is probably safer and better practice. But yeah don't expect to find too many commonly accepted rules about the order of doing things, it's something you'll always have to think about and often rearrange depending on specific projects as well.