SUP

I spelt the name wrong. Sorry. It is Divelbiss.

I might be able to lay my hands on a Devilbiss swivel knife. It seems to be in good condition. Are they good? Are they worth buying?

If I find my chisels difficult to pull out of the leather, I use a pan of wax as my punching board. I melt any old candles that I have around the house (no fragrance - that will transfer to the leather) in a baking pan. Once cool, it becomes a great punching board. Each time the wax surface become rough due to punching, it is a simple matter to put the pan back into the oven at low temperature to melt the wax and smoothen the surface again. This way, the chisel tips get waxed at each turn and slip out easily. If I find that the wax is transferring to the leather, I use an old piece of thinner split in between my leather and the wax. I anyway use thick splits as punching boards. Kinder on the chisels.

CORRECTION: Leather pieces treated with Mink oil are not the stiffest. They are second to the pieces treated with Mineral oil.

Report for 22nd March, 2024. The leather pieces showed some differences from 3 months ago. Firstly, an explanation of what the descriptions mean. Smoothness indicates the surface feel – silky smooth or rough. Shape indicates how the pieces hold their shape – whether the corners curl or the edges curve or even curve in a wavy manner. Stiffness indicates how easy it is to bend or fold the leather. Color: Indicates the extent of darkening. Smoothness: The leather pieces treated with Mineral oil were all the smoothest, having a silky feel. The next were the leather pieces treated with Neatsfoot oil and Coconut oil, which were similar - relatively silky. The Mink oil treated leather pieces felt a little rough, even more so than the control pieces. Color: Coconut oil darkened all the pieces the most, although all the pieces in all the locations except directly outside, are lighter now, than 3 months ago. in fact, they are almost as light as the leathers treated with the other oils. The least darkened are the leathers treated with Mink oil. Pieces treated with Mineral oil all have remarkably similar color except for the one outside. They also have remarkably uniform color - actually beautiful. Shape: The most warping was seen in the control leather pieces at every location. The Mink oil treated leathers were also relatively warped, the Coconut oil treated ones, less so. The leather pieces treated with Mineral oil were the least warped and held their flat shapes very well. Stiffness: Here, the stiffness differed more according to location. The leathers kept outside were the stiffest in their treatment categories. The least stiff were the ones treated with Coconut oil and then the ones with Neatsfoot oil. Most stiff were the leathers treated with Mineral oil. The leathers treated with Coconut oil are actually very soft. All the pieces treated with Coconut oil are the softest and smoothness is second only to Mineral oil treated leathers. This is surprising as, initially they had appeared a bit dry in Dec., 2023. They darkened earlier but over time, all except the leather placed outside are close in color to the leather pieces treated with the other oils. The leather pieces treated with Mineral oil are the flattest with least warping, the smoothest and all darkened uniformly and to the same extent in all locations except outside where the piece darkened significantly more, as expected. The darkening is also remarkably uniform over each piece. They are all however, also the stiffest.in their location categories. The leather pieces treated with Neatsfoot oil are moderate in every way. Moderately smooth, moderately stiff, moderately dark and moderately but not too warped. Mink oil continues to surprise me. The leather pieces in all locations feel least smooth, in fact a little rough. In all the locations- they feel like the controls – untreated. They are the most stiff and dry across all locations, including inside. They are however, the least darkened. Smell: they all smell like leather to me. There is no mold on any of the pieces. Seeing the results at this 6 month point (more or less), I can see why more than one ingredient is used to condition leather. Depending on the use of the leather goods, specific ingredients that complement each other can be selected to get the best results. This is still premature and I have added tallow, cod liver oil and lanolin to the line-up. I just added them a couple of days ago, so have not included them here. I will list them separately next week and from next time, list them all together, along with any other ingredient that I might add. If colors in the photograph appear different from my description, it could be the play of light.

@toxo. I will.

@jcuk thank you for that detailed explanation. Being still new to leatherwork (since end of Jan 2023) there is so much I don't know. It seems to me that the more I learn the more I realize I don't know! I will watch those videos. I will not have to hunt for the good ones, since you have provided them. I stitch towards myself too. After watching very many videos las year, I did learn enough to stitch away from me but it was a bit uncomfortable so I stopped. Now I can't wait to see those videos and learn the prick-and-awl method. (and all projects under way get set aside! All for family, so they won't complain.) See but my question still is this: With pricking chisels and then use of an awl, the hole is not punched first. The holes are just positioned with pricks, so that awl punch is the first time the leather gets perforated for each hole. Therefore, it will be a small hole. If a stitching awl is used on a hole already punched, will it not widen that hole? Unless of course, smaller holes are punched deliberately and the awl used is sized accordingly.? Did I just answer my own question?

@jcuk instead of first punching round holes and then using an awl individually on each hole to shape it, isn't it easier to case the stitches? Same result 0f angled stitches...isn't it? Unless I am missing something..

@Shazbaz In Australia you get great Kangaroo leather, isn't it?. That should be strong and thin enough for wallets. It's beautiful too. There are plenty of free leather wallets patterns on the net. That is one of the first things people make when starting leatherwork apparently. Have you checked the leather stores online and their free sections? You might find exactly what you want in one of them. I know Springfield leather had some free wallet patterns. Otherwise, such patterns go for a song on Etsy. Some people on Etsy also design based on your specifications - that is another option.

If you are using bought patterns, often, the distance between the stitching holes in the pattern do not exactly match any set of chisels like the one you have mentioned above. This discrepancy occurs because the method of measuring the distances between prongs varies. Many sellers, e.g. Dieselpunk.ro, use expensive chisel sets like Sinebrok chisels. For his patterns I use ordinary but also good chisels off Amazon, where the 6 and 9 prong chisels don't work but the 2 prong ones do. The same set works perfectly for patterns bought from other sellers off Etsy and I can use the 6 and 9 prong chisels there. So for the times when your chisel sets don't work for a pattern, you need single hole punches. Another reason would be because many pattern sellers tell you the size of the holes needed, e.g. 1mm or 1.5mm. because they expect you to use punches. Once you know the diameter of your chisel-punched holes of course, you can use chisels. Now about using the diamond stitching chisels, the patterns are often not made with those in mind, so the directions of the angles might differ in different parts of your product unless you map them all correctly. Much easier to punch round holes and case the stitches to get the required angles. Easier and faster, at least for me. Now, while it is true that punching holes actually takes off a bit of the leather while chisels only make a slit through the leather, most of the patterns have holes far enough apart not to much weaken the leather. For smaller items like wallets and watch straps I do not know since I don't make them. I think they will need finer holes and smaller stitches closer together than, say, a backpack or handbag or saddle.

Would make the stitching holes larger, I think. Unless one deliberately punched smaller holes and then used such an awl. And one would need to be pretty exact to ensure the awl is pushed in at the same relative angle, isn't it? And... simply casing each stitch is faster too. At least for me.

Pliers and a good awl. I always have those with me when stitching by hand.

Check this. It give some idea about needles and threads. I do as @MarshalWill does too - keep a small pair of pliers handy.

You don't need to push 2 needles in at the same time, no matter what some of the teaching videos say. Check this video - it teaches yo how to stitch the angled stitches as well, pushing through one needle at a time.

@NatesLeatherGds .

Found it!I had it in my collection of videos. It is a video by Nigel Armitage - at around 8 1/2 minutes.

@Northmount Thank you. I'll try that.

@DieselTech Yes I remember that it is all about the casting and how to pull the thread. I am still searching. It should be somewhere.

@Northmount, thank you. I should have thought of that. I have but not found anything specifically for angled stitches with round stitching holes. Maybe my search terms need to be better.

Angled stitches with Diamond chisel or French chisel punched holes are something I can do relatively well now. However, some patterns that I buy have round holes which result in straight stitches. There is one pattern on which I want the stitches to be angled. I do have the correct sized diamond stitching chisels but the pattern is a little complicated and I am concerned that I will punch the pieces in the wrong direction and make a mess of it. I do not have spare leather of that specific type for corrections. So I'm wondering if there is a way to get some angle on the stitches when the punched holes are round? I have a vague recollection of a video somewhere that showed how to do it but I can't, for the life of me, find it. Anyone who knows how to do this, could yo please guide me?

@AndreaRotelathis is a tutorial about how to wet form a bag, not about laser engraving, and certainly not a place to advertise your product by suggesting a shortcoming in an excellent tutorial. @MagiKelly, your tutorial is excellent as people have said here over the years, nothing else needed. It is the go-to to learn how to wet form a bag for so many of us.

@toxo Aha. Got it. I just use a few each time, just sufficient for the current stitching session. These new pin-backs might hold for longer though. I will let you know when I use them. I use old U-clips which feel a bit rough and probably stay in place better than shiny, smooth new ones.

@toxo These things don't need to be fancy, do they? Whatever works.

Here you are. The pin-backs work perfectly with my stock of old U-clips.

@DavidR1990 That is a beautiful bag. It is a drawstring bag - you can see the tasseled drawstring on either side of the buckled strap - with a tooled panel stitched around the front and back. This panel seems to go around from the front, form a base to rest the bag on and up the back and more, to form the front closure flap. There is another piece connected to the back of this panel, which connects to the ring and the base of the panel connects to those straps. I have made a similar one although not so lovely. I am still only a year into leatherworking. While such bags look beautiful, they are rather impractical to use. Each time, to open the bag, one needs to open the buckle, then the drawstring, then loosen the opening before reaching in, then repeat the steps in reverse to close the bag. So as an example, this is great but usability? Not so much, at least for people like me. I've seen similar patterns for sale on Etsy. You could check there, at least for the attachment of the panel to the pouch and the general shape, then modify from there.