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Hello all, Did C.S. Osbourne make a head/round knife with a silver colored ferrule? It has the shape of the #70, but is only 4.5 inches like the #71. Most of the knives I've seen, new and vintage, have a brass ferrule. Please share your expertise and knowledge about this questionable anomaly. Thank you, Maurice

Hey, Long time listener, first time poster. I am currently agonising over which pricking irons to invest in. Having used cheap chinese irons for years, I'm ready to invest in the perfect set. Problem is, where to start. I know I don't want to go old school so i'll dismiss brands like Blanchard and Osbourne for starters. I favour penetrating at least 3mm worth of leather over only using awl (I know I know, its just my way. I do like to work with an awl but I like having the option for certain projects). I'm looking at 2+8 teeth at 3.38 and/or 3.85 So far, my opinions are thus: Crimson Hides: Great for consistent penetration but makes large holes and are neither diamond nor euro style Amy Roke: Great irons, well made and ideal for those wanting to do the awl work but punching through opens up hole too much which significant differences between entering/exit holes. Wuta: Same as Amy Roke, just cheaper and smaller. Other than that, little difference. KS Blade: Ideal for marking holes and punching through. Just unbelievably expensive. Even the new 'Black' range isn't that much cheaper! cmdachong: Great for both marking and punching through reasonably thick leathers without huge difference in enter/exit holes. Good price... But he has decided to stop making irons! These are just the opinions/descriptions I have formed to date based on research and discussion. If you can shed any extra light, opinion or introduce other suggestions, feel free. What are you using, and why do you like them etc (and if you're selling any irons, do get in touch!). I'm favouring the Roke at the moment and will just have to suck up the awl work and forgo the punching through unless you guys can help!

So before I purchased my stitching irons and hand stitching thread, I searched around for comparisons of the different threads and irons and how they looked side by side. I watched all the Armitage videos, but did not see all the different samples side by side to actually make a comparison. I have seen one or two comparisons of different brands of threads, but nothing that allowed apples to apples and apples to oranges looks. So, I made a card that compared 7 different stitching irons, all around 7 SPI, some 4MM, and using 3 different sizes of linen thread (Campbell's Satin Laid Linen Thread), and 1 Ritza Tiger thread 0.6mm for comparison. The 0.6mm Ritza and 7SPI seem to be a common combination, and linens are fairly common too, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If someone wants to see a particular combination, with a different type of thread or SPI, let me know and I'll see what I can do. It was interesting to me to see how different the marks were, yet how subtle the differences were in the actual pattern of the stitch. I am not a master stitcher yet, so some of the differences are no doubt due to my inconsistencies, but I think it is somewhat clear which irons do and don't work with which threads. The 132 thread is some pretty heavy stuff, but I enjoyed working with it and really liked how it came out on some of the rows. I still need some practice to get the back of my 532 stitching to be more even, but some of it is passable, I think. I hope this comparison is useful to someone out there. The various irons used on each row, top to bottom: Old Joseph Dixon 7SPI Abbey England EconoStitch 7SPI CS Osborne 609-7 7SPI European Style Stitching Iron from Ebay 4MM Kyoshin Elle 3.5MM Ebay stitching iron 3.85MM (about 7SPI) Ebay Stitching Punch 4MM Thread used from Left to right when viewed from the top of the stitch: Campbell's Satin Laid Linen Thread 532, beige Campbell's Satin Laid Linen Thread 332, beige Campbell's Satin Laid Linen Thread 132, beige Ritza Tiger 0.6MM braided polyester thread, Cream Front side and back side images before tapping down with a hammer, and after. Images of the marks made by the tools. Images of the tools. Gallery with higher resolution images here: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=gallery&album=2727 YinTx