Mablung

I am making a cover for my church sermon notebook, with a few different motifs on the cover. The tooling needs work simply because I need more practice (and some parts look atrocious). But, I’m kinda proud of it, so here it goes in the Show Off section. Even so, critiques and suggestions are always welcome, as I’m not very good with my hands and looking to improve this skill.

Good point. I think one of the planes is off on mine--but I also know technique played a huge role in the janky-looking stitching. It is all over the place.

That does make sense. I thought about doing that but had not gotten my welt properly proportioned, so I knew I would need to do a fair amount of trimming after I stitched everything together. I also had to eyeball my chisel placement when doing the initial holes, so I knew it just wouldn't line up properly. I'm not very good at spatial reasoning and my depth perception isn't very good (partly due to an ocular issue with one of my eyes), so I took my chances with the awl--and while it looks bad, it was probably easier to do it that way, lol.

Just looked those up, and the tines look very similar to those on the Craftool Pro stitching chisels. The holes in the example picture look awfully nice. I might experiment doing more with my chisels and using them like pricking irons. Speaking of which, I did a knife sheath last night with a very thick welt at the top that I had to skive to a taper. The only way to push through from the starter holes I had started in one side of the sheath was to use my awl, as my chisels would never get all the way through. I polished my awl well and used it to stitch the whole sheath, for good measure. Holy crap does the backside stitching ever look terrible--maintaining a proper angle with the awl is hard!

Related to that, do pricking irons generally make narrower holes than stitching chisels? I have some of the regular Craftool black-coated stitching chisels, and the holes end up fairly fat in veg tan leather. I have some of the Craftool Pro ones with thinner tines but in too-narrow a stitch length for most of my stuff. Been thinking about getting pricking irons in order to make less obtrusive holes for firmer stitching.

I have trouble with my Ritza knotting at the base of my needle if I pierce it only once and bring the tail all the way to the needle eye. Otherwise, it’s fine. I generally pierce it twice in the “S” pattern. Occasionally I have to flatten out the pierced portions slightly, but usually it does what I want without whining. ETA: In reading responses that hadn’t loaded when I came to the page to make my comment, I realized my remark may not actually relate to what you guys mentioned about knotting. (Weird delta between when I originally loaded the page and the data that hadn’t gotten loaded on my end before I posted my comment.) Ignore me if that wasn’t helpful.

I haven’t experimented with many threads, but the Ritza is the best stuff I can get at my local Tandy store, and it’s pretty strong and consistent. Personally, I don’t have quite the issues some do with it twisting as one goes along, but when it does happen, it’s not a big deal. Looks a lot better and provides a much stronger thread than the twisted stuff I had been using. My halfpenny-worth thought.

I think those who have pointed out the necessary angle of the bevel Erynn relation to the leather have got it right. Another way of describing it that I personally found a little more helpful when trying to understand how to orient the tool is to say that the blade edge needs to be held perpendicular to, the corner of the leather. So if you are looking at the corner of the leather, not straight down on top, as though you were looking at the surface of the leather, but as though you are trying to look at a cross-section of the leather, then the corner point should go straight through the middle groove of the bevel. That may make it more complicated for you than what the others have said, but I figured I would throw that in there in case it was helpful. and definitely smooth out the edge. It may be a bit dolled from attempts at use and from working it over too course a grit of sandpaper, but with a little work with some finer grits, that can be fixed. Then strop it on a small strip of leather, or on some thread, and that should help. This reminds me that I need to spend a little more time with my own devil edge, as I haven’t sharpened it quite well enough.

Can you post some pics of the issues? That might help. Also, when you strop on the abrasive that came with the beveler, are you making sure to strop both sides of the edge, so that any burr gets polished off properly? You may also be putting some tooth back into the edge that is making it cut inconsistently, by stropping on some kind of abrasive rather than a corner of leather with polishing compound rubbed into it. I’ve also used scrap thread with jeweler’s rouge rubbed on it liberally, for both my stitch grooves and my beveler.

I still use my utility knife for some things, mainly trimming but I resharpen the blade and strop it, too. I’ve got a scalpel-style craft knife that also gets stropped that I use for some small, fine trim work and very tight spaces. Other than that, my round knife is my constant companion. Thought of something else to add. When I was looking on eBay for my large Osborne round knife, I ran across a linoleum knife C.S. Osborne makes that looks remarkably like a French head knife with a draw cut feature. It was tempting to get one to experiment with.

Personally, I think the learning curve for using a head/round knife is a bit overstated. I’m glad I started with a 4.5” head knife before getting the 6.125” round knife I just purchased and sharpened, but it’s really not that bad. Just practice on scrap to get the feel of how the knife handles and its quirks, making basic cuts and skives. I fell in love with it pretty quickly.

A friend is a mechanic, and while he seems to think SnapOn is a bit overpriced, he is a firm believer in getting good tools, from the tools of his trade to guns to watches and other gear. The man can drop some money on a tool, but not until he's researched it to death and saved his money. DieselTech, I'm starting to think I need to upgrade my edgers. Those look awfully nice. I do some of my edging with my round knife, if I only want to take off a very small portion of the corner for a short line and for some curves, but that's not as easy to do consistently.

'Murican here, who drinks a decent volume of coffee each day. That's quite a testament to the British dedication to tea-drinking. It seems to rise to the level of ritual, in addition to enjoyment.

Nice to have some breathing room financially, so I'm glad to hear that. +1 to burnishing the sandal edges before gluing the sole, unless you're concerned you'll not get the sole quite true and need to do any last trimming. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

That's fair. The threads can be tough to find easily. I got a decent watch recently, want to make a black strap for it alongside the brown one I got with the watch, and am resisting the urge to allow my watches to be fruitful and multiply, lol.

There are also a good number of threads addressing watch straps, too. They seem to require some heightened precision, including some smaller-than-usual pricking irons or stitching chisels, as well as finer thread and needles. Additionally, they seem to require some skiving skill, for things like the strap end keepers (since most are very gradually lap-skived and then cemented and stitched). I haven't tried making any yet, although I intend to. First I need some different chisels or irons and a much sharper stitching awl.

I wonder if it had something to do with the razor having a guard that provided some additional resistance. A head knife has to rely solely on the edge being able to slide through, whereas a razor has an additional surface helping the blade out.

Huh. I had not thought of using a double-edge razor. I’ll remember that. Also interesting that head and round knives didn’t do the trick.

I’m coming to agree. I was elated last night, when I finished it and tested the edge. I think there’s a spot near one of the points that I need to smooth out, due to some skipping on one cut. I’ll look at it with my loupe to see. In any event, it’s got a wonderful edge on it now.

A resounding success. Two and a half hours on my stones, then stropping on jeweler's rouge, and it's got a mirror-polished edge and cuts 7 oz. shoulder like butter. Skive is smooth as glass. This was $59 well spent.

It’s also good for skiving. Gives a very hard, smooth surface for the leather to sit on and a knife to glide over (especially with a head or round knife: the point can glide along the slab).

Got the new-to-me Osborne. It’s large, but I think I’ll be able to maneuver it well (I have large-ish, “extra-medium” hands). Blade rings like a bell and has a decent bevel at places. Unsurprisingly, I need to reset the secondary bevel near the points, but otherwise it just needs some honing and plenty of polishing. It’ll take me a while to get it up to snuff, but I’m quite optimistic. I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s capable of.

How are these coming?

+1 to such a thread. Phrased appropriately, it will explain why you do what you do and how you learned to do it that way, and invite others with more years and (presumably) more skill to contribute. We all stand a chance to learn something that way.

Norton makes a good 8000-grit waterstone, which I use. You can also consider a hard Arkansas stone. I have a couple Arkansas stones as well, one of which is an Ultra-hard black stone I use for final polishing on blades I want exceptionally sharp. Those aren’t measured by grit but by specific gravity and separated into hardness grades that correspond to the specific gravity. A single bevel is helpful for something like skiving, where the back of the blade can lie more flat to the surface of the leather and slide along it while the cutting bevel pushes the cut leather up and away. A double bevel pushes the leather away in two directions, which is also workable for skiving. However, some people like a single bevel for skiving for the reasons I mentioned. A single bevel can also make it easier to cut along a straight edge, arguably; I do fine with a double bevel along a straight edge, but some people like having the flat blade back to place along the straight edge.