TomE

I would add moisture to the leather with a light coat of neatsfoot oil on the grain side. Leave it overnight then buff thoroughly with a soft cloth. Rub the stitching with a bone folder to smooth the wrinkles, and lighten up on your thread tension (pulling up stitches) next time you sew to avoid the wavey edge. I haven't used Fiebings Leather Balm but think it will allow the oil to penetrate. As always, oiling might darken the leather - give it several days to even out before judging the final color.

That is a show stopper! Looks like Buster Scruggs' Sunday best except that it's off the rack https://urbanjacket.com/products/pawn-stars-zz-top-jacket.

Thanks, @Rwest. That is a fun and informative film.

Handsome and well constructed. Good job!

Thanks, @chuck123wapati. I’m on the steep end of the learning curve and enjoy all the information I am able to soak up here. Thank you, Bruce. I will give it a read. Fun to learn this stuff.

Those are beautiful knives, the design looks like a great size/shape. I recently bought 2 used Dozier knives made out of D-2 steel. Can you educate me about the pros and cons of D-2 versus the AEB-L steel you used?

Vergez Blanchard is not the Blanchard of old. I purchased one of their pricking irons that looked like a high school shop project - very rough and unfinished. After hours of carefully smoothing and polishing the tines, it is useable. Similarly, I ended up reshaping their screw crease until I was happy with it but not as happy with it as with older Gomph and Osborne creases. Finally, I played around for 6 months with their plough gauge knife, changing the taper and adding a small bevel to the backside to prevent the plough gauge from pinching the strap so hard that it would hang up. Vergez Blanchard did not respond to my emails asking about the plough gauge knife. All of these tools were expensive and I am now satisfied with how they perform but it required some work. I do a lot of hand sewing of 9-20 oz leather - bridles, reins, halters - and I commend you for your plans to learn how to use a sewing awl. Using a correctly sized, sharp awl produces smaller holes that close around your thread and look neater IMO. An awl will produce a hole in thick leather that is about the same size on the front and the back. Using a sewing awl is also more versatile than pre-punching holes in dealing with unusual shapes, tight spaces, multiple layers, angling holes when stitching under a loop, etc. I greatly prefer the Rocky Mountain European pricking irons over the Blanchard iron I purchased. I mainly use the 2.7 mm spacing (9 SPI) and I rarely use the 2 prong iron - I just tip the wider iron on edge and lighten up on my maul when turning a corner. You could consider a pricking iron for your common hole spacing and an inexpensive set of overstitch wheels to cover other hole spacings. My awls are all Osborne awls. I bought one expensive awl that was a piece of junk. No reason to spend a lot on a fancy awl haft. Find one that fits your hand and focus on learning to sharpen the awl. Al Stohlman's book and Nigel Armitage's videos will show the method. As you sharpen an awl repeatedly it gets smaller and more suited for fine stitching. So having several inexpensive, sharp awls that are in various stages of wear will give you a range of sizes. I would buy a quality stitching horse or clam. I modified a Weaver stitching horse with notched out aluminum plates, based on a plywood version shown in a Stohlman book, and this is handy for working with straps and buckles.

I bought the Springfield beveler did some smoothing to make it work better. This video shows the original nylon (?) push beveler at about 5:00 min on the timeline. You can see its shape but he doesn't say who manufactured it. He can be contacted as the Admin of the "Facebook Leathercrafters" group.

I've had good luck with Blackrock Leather N' Rich, Fiebings Aussie, and Effax Lederbalsam conditioning balms. I see that Lederbalsam does contain petroleum jelly along with lanolin. Another conditioner I've been meaning to try is Ray Hole's Saddle Butter. Don Gonzales seems to recommend Tan Kote, which is a satin finish in comparison to shiny Resolene. I thought the idea with Tan Kote is that it wears off faster than resolene to allow oils and conditioners to penetrate. I have used Tan Kote mixed 50:50 with Pro Dye to dye and burnish edges. Martin's Edge Solution mixed with Pro Dye gives me a slightly slicker/harder edge for the bridle leather I'm typically using, but I continue to experiment.

I notice that petroleum jelly has lots of stearic acid derivatives (a fatty acid prone to oxidation) not unlike the fats and oils found in neatsfoot oil and other waxes and oils in commercial leather products. https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/lookup.cfm?setid=08685fc3-33fb-446a-bd2b-210bf90a4c49 Neatsfoot oil has been used for many years to maintain horse tack to good effect. Tack that is hard leather typically results from a failure to oil and condition. Conversely, over-oiling will create spongy leather that is weakened. I don't apply a finish to tack, just clean and condition and occasionally oil it. Tan Kote can lift pigment from freshly dyed leather and discolor the thread.

I've had no luck finding a copy, including contacting the folks who bought Shop Talk magazine from Preston. Truely a limited edition.

Thanks for posting this, @DebHop, and to @toxo for bringing it to the top of the stack. I am now motivated to pick up my carving tools that have been stored in a box since the 1970s. I so admire Jean Luc Parisot's work in the same fashion https://www.instagram.com/parisot_sellier/.

Welcome. I don't have experience with Kevlar thread but learned a fair amount by searching the forums. From what I read, I'd be reluctant to run abrasive Kevlar thread through my machine and also deal with the tensioning issues unless it's absolutely needed. I imagine most of the stitching will be along edges and the back of the apron, so not directly in the line of fire.(?) Not sure what type of leather you're using but #92 thread seems a bit small to me. I recently repaired a farrier's apron (chaps) made of 5-6 oz chrome tanned leather and used #138 nylon thread that was a good match with existing. The thighs are covered with reinforcing patches of 6oz secured with 2 lines of stitching. Double stitched might be a useful failsafe for a welding apron.

I tack a strip of leather to the exposed filler of a rolled throatlatch when sewing to keep it flat on the needle plate. I trim the filler after sewing then shape the round. There are some pictures in the file I linked to this post. Thank you. Lots of buckles and loops to sew.

I was going to recommend the Class 26 for the projects you mentioned, which I would guess will be 12 oz or thinner leather. The Class 26 would allow you to use smaller needles, threads, and stitch lengths that might be a good match for your projects. A 441 type machine will punch through thick leather but it also creates bigger needle holes (which limit how fine you can sew) and the thicker thread makes it harder to hide the knots in thin leather. I use a Class 26 with #138 thread for a lot of medium to light weight projects. I keep my Class 4 loaded with 277/207 thread and sew projects that are mostly 2-3 layers of 8-10 oz leather. There's a lot of information on this forum for "dumbing down" the 441 machines with accessories and changed parameters in order to sew lighter projects, but the Class 26 is in its natural element for 5-20 oz leather. I just noticed you're interested in learning about knife sheaths, which might require the 441 machine particularly if your sheath has a welt.

Thanks, Bob. I traded a friend a mandolin strap for 3 photography light stands that help with photographing black leather. Too windy this week to hang the bridle outside in the sunshine - it would be a motion picture. Thank you, Ron. I use a pricking iron to mark holes and sew with an awl. I made a jig out of skirting leather to hold the swells tipped at an angle when marking holes so the iron doesn't slip off the curved edge of the swell. When awling the holes are made straight through, perpendicular to the back of the swell. I haven't figured out how to drive a sewing machine along that curved edge.

Thanks, Bruce. Staying focused to build my skills. Thank you, Klara. I guess a lot of the fancy tack is made in Pakistan or India. They are better at running their sewing machines on small straps than I am, so I am a bit slower in production.

Thank you! Thanks very much!

Padded bridle and reins for a special gelding from our breeding program. Hermann Oak bridle leather, stamped steel bridle buckles from Weaver, and lots of nylon thread. Hand sewn.

That's a long handle. I prefer that a round knife fits in the palm of my hand so I can push against the end of the handle. Also might be nice to taper the end attached to the blade for skiving.

Leather treatments with silicon oil are good waterproofing. Fiebings saddle oil is another option. For tack, I ask customers to maintain it by cleaning and conditioning, and oiling as needed.

Good thing when it bleeds to clean out the wound, but yes keeping up to date on your tetanus immunization is a very good idea. I bled less on projects as my awling improved. I have a collection of scars on both forearms from slipping with a hoof knife. Doctors seem to notice these things.

A Conway buckle would allow adjusting the length and detaching the strap.

Professional job. Like the crease. What is the leather?

I view “natural ingredients” as a marketing ploy. Nature is full of toxins, and most tanned leather has been exposed to unnatural chemical extremes to break down collagen and strip out other stuff. So I’m looking for quality ingredients, whether synthetic or natural. Fiebings Aussie conditioner seems waxy to me but doesn’t darken leather, similar to Bick 4, whereas Blackrock Leather N’ Rich is waxy and consistently darkens leather. I assumed it was an oil that darkened the leather. I wonder if the petroleum distillate you mentioned is the same one in neatsfoot compound. In the Encyclopedia of Saddle Making the Stohlmans note they used a lot of neatsfoot compound to good effect but recognize that pure neatsfoot oil is a superior product.