MtlBiker

@RockyAussie - What a great and oh so helpful reply!! Thank you! I am off today (my weekend is always Sundays and Mondays) and I will readjust as per your instructions. You are really a prince for your kind and patient help!

Thanks very much! I didn't see any garbage can icon... are you talking about before I submit the message, or afterwards via edit? Before submitting it, I tried all kinds of things and must have missed the garbage can. And though edit, likewise, I didn't see that.

Thanks, but since I'm in Montreal and cannot visit one of their stores, I have to order what's on their website. And Tokonole isn't listed. I did get some though, by ordering through Amazon (much more expensive!). I've now got enough of the clear and black to last me a good long while.

I hadn't realized you were suggesting putting wax on the leather itself. I tried readjusting everything and making sure there was no debris caught anywhere. I want to scream! I skived one small piece and when I tried to skive the long edge of that piece, it got chewed up at the end. I don't pull the leather... just let the feed stone move the leather through. Then I thought the gap between the feed stone and the bell knife might have been a bit too large, so I re-adjusted that, using a piece of bond paper to get it tighter and even. I then skived successfully four more small test pieces and I was ready to skive a piece for production. Sure enough, even when I tried to skive the first short side, the leather got chewed up. SIGH Talk about frustration! I checked and there was no debris around the feed stone and I couldn't see anything wrong. I had to put that all aside for now, and will go out and do some yard work instead. Before I smash something. I don't know if it'll help, but here are some photos... 4A525439-AAEC-4D39-B7C5-A475C1B300F8.MOV IGNORE this last Sailrite photo... I inserted it by mistake and cannot find how to remove it. "Removed it for you"

Thanks Fred... I think I've got that sorted now. It's over 2 months since I posted that. Lots of hand stitching has been done since then. What I've learned to do is to pull the thread from the opposite side as I'm inserting a needle. Meaning if I start by putting the left needle through, when I insert my right needle in the hole, I pull the thread from that left needle with my left hand, so that as the right needle goes through the thread already in the hole is moving with it, so it doesn't get caught. I haven't tried having both left and right needles in the hole at the same time, as I don't want to unnecessarily enlarge the stitching hole. Maybe that's a worry for nothing. I'll give it a try.

@kgg - Gorgeous job! I love the purple! I really like the door at the left side of the machine to make oiling access super easy. I'm less a fan of the tool holder part of that door, as I really like less clutter around the machine. From the photos you posted, I'm not quite clear about how the binding stuff works. It looks like the end of the big spool of binding is just hanging over the front of the table. And the small black spool in front looks like it's feeding to the binder attachment by the presser foot. Could you clarify how all that works? Binding is something that I've had a lot of trouble with, and I'd love to have a good solution. You've obviously put a lot of thought and effort into all this. Wow! And kudos to you!

I'll try to resharpen then. But gee, the blade was doing fine and the whole thing was new and I'd only skived less than 20 pieces (no bigger than about 8 x 15 inches). And I'm pretty sure (novice that I am) that I did the sharpening correctly. I'll try again. Sorry for being dense, but on the top of what? You mean on the bottom of the presser foot, or something else? Unfortunately the feed and bell drive are not separate. And as far as the spring adjustment goes, one thing I noticed last night was that unless I used one of the tightest notches, there wasn't enough pressure to bring the adjusting screw to the stop, so the feed stone gap to bell knife was too large. I don't know what/why that is, because it wasn't like that earlier. It used to be fine even on the first (lightest) notch. I'll examine more closely tonight when I get home. I have no idea how wide the bevel is on my bell knife. I'll check that tonight. Not quite sure where on that photo that gap is. --------------------- Your help and patience is greatly appreciated! Thank you so much!

By "feed roller" you mean the football shaped feed stone, right? I ask because some people seem to be using a roller presser foot. There wasn't any leather stuck anywhere. As far as starting off slow and going faster, I'm not pulling the leather at all, just guiding it. It's the feed stone that's doing the pulling. Anybody want to buy a very little used bell skiver? (Just kidding of course!) Darn! So I'm too late then. SIGH

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong or have wrongly adjusted... I'm new to using a bell skiver, and I practiced with scraps for awhile and after scrapping lots of those scraps I was finally ready to skive pieces for my bags. I did really well, and I was ready for the big time. I used some 4oz +/- chrome tan leather in red and in black. I had to readjust a little bit when I changed to the black from red. But everything worked. Then two things happened: First of all I sharpened the bell knife and I'm pretty sure I did that correctly, thanks to lots of videos. I did pretty much what @RockyAussie suggested in the video he just posted. In any case, I hadn't skived all that much leather and the knife probably was still pretty sharp. But I wanted to go through the process anyway. The second thing that changed was that I got a new batch of black leather which wasn't quite the same thickness (maybe 3.5oz instead of 4) as before and it felt, I guess I would describe, softer. In any case, I ran a few test strips and adjusted until I was getting about half the original thickness after skiving. Then I started skiving my cut pattern pieces. I started with what I thought was going to be easy... the rectangular pieces, saving the ovals for later. I first skived the two short ends. Then as per some videos I'd seen, and the way I successfully skived the first red and black pieces, I lifted the presser foot, placed the long side of the rectangles down and lowered the presser foot. And started skiving. Well, I ruined (chewed up) 4 of the first 8 pieces. I left it at that point because I was going to break something and I went for dinner and a martini. Today I cut new pattern pieces to replace what I'd destroyed yesterday. I re-checked adjustments and found the space between the feed stone and the bell knife was too large. (Don't know how that happened.) Then I found the spring holding that assembly (sorry, not sure what it's called) wasn't strong enough to let the feed stone all the way up to where it should have been. So I cranked that up a few notches. Re-adjusted (using a piece of bond paper) and then I skived the short edges of a piece. So far so good. Then I tried to skive the long edge and again destroyed the leather! I have no idea what I did wrong or what adjustment might be off. I don't know where to start in diagnosing this. All I can say is that the leather I bought is expensive and I'm ruining it. And what's left of those pieces after I ruin the edge isn't enough to use in any other part of these bags. Total waste, except that I can cut strips out of it in order to test the skiving. Frustrating, with a capital F. Are there any suggestions you folks might have as to what I might be doing wrong or what isn't adjusted correctly? Thanks!

@RockyAussie - What perfect timing!!! Your videos came just when I need them most. Thank you! Last night I ruined 5 nice pieces of leather for my bags, by the skiver chewing them up. SIGH I finally stopped, decided to have a drink and relax and to try again tonight (perhaps). I had been doing good with my skiver but last night I wanted to sharpen the bell knife for the first time and I also changed the leather I was using. I think the sharpening went fine but I must have misadjusted something for the new leather. I'm going to watch your videos today and hopefully will be able to get back to successful skiving tonight. Again, thanks so much for your always helpful advice and outstanding videos. Cheers!

Just FYI, after I punch the holes for the belt loop rivets, I skive around the inside of the hole. Then after putting the rivet in, I use an anvil and ball peen hammer to flatten out the inside and outside of the rivets. There's no way my blade will touch the rivets. The combination of skiving and hammering prevents any problem.

Way better than my first (or second or third) attempt! Good for you! Is the stitching around the top flap only for looks? (There's no lining, is there?) And I can't tell from the photo of the belt loop, is the loop just a flat piece that you've stitched down? What I did with my pouch belt loop is that I first placed the loop right sides together near the top and used rivets to secure it. Then folded it down to the bottom and again used rivets. The bottom ones are the only ones that show. And as you can see I didn't stitch around the top flap. (I'm really just a beginner myself with hand stitching leather.) Did you put any finish on the leather after dyeing it? And what was the order of operations? Wet mould, trim to size, dye, stitch? (I'm learning and am curious.) Where in Canada are you? We have a lot of Canadians here. I'm in Montreal. Cheers!

Do you have reason to think the $550 is Canadian dollars? He doesn't list his location in his profile. So it's either $430 US if his $550 is Canadian, or $700 Cdn othewise.

Thanks for the tip... I buy from Lee Valley regularly. But are you suggesting that Lee Valley scratch awl is somehow better than the one from Tandy Leather for over 3 times the price?

There are lots of threads here about sharpening round knives... and I think there's no substitute for lots and lots of careful attention. I don't believe 1500 grit is anywhere near fine enough. You'd probably need to first shape the edge and then refine refine and refine, working up to maybe 4000 grit or higher and only then finishing up with stropping on leather. I'm fairly a novice with this sharpening but I'm getting better and better. I haven't yet succeeded in getting my round knives (an Osborne and a George Barnsley) sharp enough to skive leather... only sharp enough to cut my fingers! But I have gotten my Japanese skiving knives much sharper and as I get time I'll work more on my round knives. You might also search YouTube for round knife sharpening videos... there are quite a few. But sharpening properly is a long process that's got to be done very carefully. Good luck!

@Tequila - Would be nice for us to know what machine it was, and especially what the fix was. But good that it's working again for you.

@tsunkasapa - Thanks for all that info. Maybe they should make it into a "stickie". I'd been happy with the contact cement I'd been using but based on the rave reviews about Weldwood from the members here, I was anxious to try it (or a comparable product). As I said, I did get something that's neoprene based (DuraPro Contact Cement) and my test with it today didn't show me that it was significantly different from the Lepages I'd been using. I'd been under the impression that with the Weldwood you could join the surfaces immediately after applying the cement, but that's not the case with the DuraPro, so unless Weldwood is different, I'll just stick with the Lepages. Works fine for me and easily available here in Canada.

Those of you who have used Weldwood Contact Cement, would you please clarify something for me? When you apply it to both surfaces to be joined, do you (should you) let it dry for 10-30 minutes before joining the two pieces? Or can they be joined immediately after applying the cement? I managed to find a product here in Canada which might be the same or at least very similar to Weldwood... it's DuraPro Contact Cement and like the Weldwood it is a neoprene based cement. (Almost impossible to find in Canada also, and the company told me on the phone that there are major production delays which is why just about everyone is out of stock.) I did manage to order a small tin of it though. Thinking that with the Weldwood you can join the pieces immediately, I was surprised that instructions on the DuraPro say to let the surfaces dry for 10-30 minutes before joining them. And that's no different than the Lepages Heavy Duty Contact Cement I've been using, which is not neoprene based. Thanks.

@Squid61 - Good info... So I won't rush out to buy a proper scratch awl but might pick one up next time I order some tools or I see a sale. @zuludog - You're right about that... I already found the awl I have isn't good for aligning and/or slightly enlarging stitch holes. But I'm doing a lot more machine sewing than hand-sewing as I probably started the opposite way of most folks here. I started off with a machine and only very recently did I venture into hand sewing. And I sure don't need a custom made expensive brand... I just need one that works well and is suitable.

@Garyak - Nice work! You've gotten real fancy with some of them.

Does anyone know if all contact cements are neoprene rubber based? Most of them don't say, but I just found on How Stuff Works a description that implies all contact cements are neoprene rubber based. I suspect that isn't correct because it also implies these cements are dry on application. I know that the Lepage's Heavy Duty Contact Cement I use goes on wet and needs to dry for a few minutes before joining the pieces. That appears to not be the case with neoprene based contact cements. What a pain... living in Canada and seemingly not being able to get neoprene based contact cements here. I did find a Durapro contact cement which is said to be rubber based (neoprene is rubber, right?) but doesn't say neoprene. It's only carried by one hardware chain up here and it's out of stock everywhere. But everyone has Lepage... sounds like a racket to me.

I've been using the hardware store awl just to mark cutting lines and only rarely to punch a hole (but I have hole punches for that). And I have diamond shaped stitching awls for making my stitching holes for hand stitching. So I guess my hardware store awl is just perfect for what I need. Thanks.

I've really been wanting to try this contact cement, but it seems to be unavailable in Canada. And Home Depot in the States won't ship the product, even within the US. Does anyone know of a source for this stuff in Canada? Amazon (Canada) lists it, but a 16oz (1 pint) can costs $72.01!!!!!! Meanwhile Home Depot US sells 32oz cans for $16.98!!! Crazy prices! If I check with Amazon US, because (probably) I'm accessing from Canada, it doesn't even list prices because they won't ship it to Canada. And even ignoring current challenges in driving across the border and returning, it would be almost 200 miles round trip for me to drive to the nearest place in the States (Plattsburgh NY) that has it. So that's not worthwhile either. In the meantime I've been using something called Lepage's Heavy Duty Contact Cement. It seems alright, but if I understand correctly, with the Weldwood you can apply it and immediately join your pieces together. And that would be cool. With the Lepage's, I've got to let it dry for about 10 minutes before joining and if I get distracted and forget, it's too dry to work later on and I've got to reapply.

Thank you very much (everyone!) for the kind words. I AM proud of this, my first nice leather bag. I've made this pattern before, with a zipper top closure, but only in fabric. This is my first leather one and there was a lot of learning to make it. I guess I'm more than proud... I'm thrilled with it. And there's only one small defect that will probably bother only me. I'll try to do better on my next one (which will be entirely in black).

Thanks to the terrific members here who give so freely (and patiently) their advice and suggestions, I've finally finished a bag I'm really happy with and proud of. It's based on the Swoon Bonnie Bucket Bag pattern, with the modification that it's leather and uses a drawstring (leather cord) closure sort of like a bolo. The outside is 4oz chrome tan and I (successfully!) used my bell skiver on all the edges. (Now, THAT was a learning curve!) Some inside leather trim was about 2oz. And the leather cord I made was 1.5-2oz chrome tan, starting off 1.5" wide, folded in to 3/4" and then folded again to 3/8" and stitched. The inner bag has one zipper pocket and two slip pockets. There's only one thing on the bag that isn't as perfect as I would have liked... On the inside top leather strip, I installed a magnetic snap closure. That had to be done before the inner bag was dropped into the outer and stitched. When I was stitching the inner and outer bags together around the top, my presser foot hit part of the magnetic closure and the stitch jumped a little bit out of the line I was following. Chances are nobody buying this bag would even notice, but it's not perfect. My next one will be better and I'll probably move the magnetic closure a little further down and away from the stitch line. I hope you all like it!