Sinabroks Chisels?

[MtlBiker]

I'm about to order some Sinabroks European style chisels from Korea and would love to hear the opinion of the members here about my choices.  I have Ritza Tiger thread in .6, .8 and 1.0mm sizes but I generally prefer the look of the thicker thread.  I'm hoping that the chisels I buy could be used with all those sizes.

I'm thinking of the 4mm chisels, in 1-, 2-, 4- and 8-prong.  Is that overkill?  Do you think I could manage without one of those?  But Sinabroks has a 10% sale on until tomorrow, and even with the discount, this order would still come to $315 US, qualifying for free shipping to Canada (orders over $300 get free shipping).  So if I drop one of those chisels from the order I would have to pay shipping, which sort of balances it out, especially with the sale.  It's only money, I guess.  SIGH

I'm hoping that such high quality stitching chisels will elevate my hand-stitching.  And I think these would be easier to punch through thicker assemblies and also easier to pull out of the leather than my Craftools chisels which make a pretty darn big hole if I punch through many layers.

Thanks for any help.

 

[TomE]

A sharp awl gets my vote.  Sewing with an awl is faster than pre-punching, and its more flexible wrt a wide range of thicknesses, odd shapes, and making adjustments on the fly.  For fine stitching (~9 spi) I use the Rocky Mountain European style pricking irons to mark the holes instead of an overstitch wheel.  I rarely use a 2-prong iron and instead tilt an 8-prong iron, tapping lightly to mark curved sections. I guess this wouldn't work well for driving a chisel home to punch holes. 

[NDphung]

Wow you went with pretty nice stuff. 

On 5/5/2022 at 10:33 AM, MtlBiker said:

I'm about to order some Sinabroks European style chisels from Korea and would love to hear the opinion of the members here about my choices.  I have Ritza Tiger thread in .6, .8 and 1.0mm sizes but I generally prefer the look of the thicker thread.  I'm hoping that the chisels I buy could be used with all those sizes.

I'm thinking of the 4mm chisels, in 1-, 2-, 4- and 8-prong.  Is that overkill?  Do you think I could manage without one of those?  But Sinabroks has a 10% sale on until tomorrow, and even with the discount, this order would still come to $315 US, qualifying for free shipping to Canada (orders over $300 get free shipping).  So if I drop one of those chisels from the order I would have to pay shipping, which sort of balances it out, especially with the sale.  It's only money, I guess.  SIGH

I'm hoping that such high quality stitching chisels will elevate my hand-stitching.  And I think these would be easier to punch through thicker assemblies and also easier to pull out of the leather than my Craftools chisels which make a pretty darn big hole if I punch through many layers.

Thanks for any help.

 

 Wow! those are nice irons. From what I read the 1-prong iron is not as useful as the rest. 2-prong is useful in curves.  I would go for a 10-prong instead of 8-prong to help in long stitch line. Have you look at Kevin Lee irons. I heard it is very good also and not too expensive. Lonsdale leather in Vancouver used to carry Sinabroks they have free shipping.  The diameter of the tooth is 2.2 mm vs KS Blade at 1.8 mm. Rocky Mountain has their own brand at 2 and 9 tooth combination for 99$ US dollar which I think is a great deal. They don't make 4.0mm,  3.85 is their lowest SPI. I have them and I am pretty happy with them. Their listed diameter is 1.7mm. There are so many out there now. Sinabroks, KS Blade, Doldokki,  Crimson Hides, Junlin, Kevin Lee, Beagle, Wuta. 

[DJole]

I don't have Sinabroks--  they're nice, but too expensive for my budget. 
I began with the Craftool chisels, like most of us -- what else was there, or what else did we know about? :-) Big holes, big spacing-- not much use for the majority of what I make.
I wonder what  you mean when you say you are punching through a "lot of layers"? The more layers you have, the more difficult it is to keep the lines on the back side of the piece from wandering if you try to do them all at once, no matter what irons you are using. It would be nice to get through 4-6 mm of leather with one whack of the tool, in a straight line on both sides of the leather, but there's a BIG learning curve to get there, and I don't think the irons are meant to do that.  

I have a set of 3 mm diamond irons from Japan Goods; the original set had 1, 2, 3 4 and 6 prongs. I later added a 10 prong.  I find that I use the 2 prong a lot for curved lines. The 10 is nice for making long straight lines, better than the 6. 
I hardly ever use the 1 (why use it? Just use an awl!) or the 4.
Like NDphung above, I have found the 2 prong and the 10 to be the go-to irons I use the most.
I also have a set of Kevin Lee diamond reverse irons in 3mm. They are excellent quality for the price-- well polished and finished, but they are SMALL and LIGHT. That could be a deal breaker, since they are so light and small, you have to place them carefully and strike them carefully. Like Kevin Lee states, these basic irons are helpful to get a feel for using irons without spending a lot of money.
I have a set of 4mm pricking irons, of Chinese manufacture. I bought them knowing I'd have to spend the time polishing the teeth, which is a pain, and I haven't got them as smooth as my other irons. But 15 prongs makes a nice line!

 

[battlemunky]

I have the Sinabroks and they are every bit as good as you think they are going to be. The brass handles will make your hands stink of brass though. That is the only down side IMO. I want 5 mm irons and Sinabroks doesn't make those so I'm going to grab the KS Blade punch set of 5 mm irons. IIRC, Sinabroks is a guy that either used to work at or co-created KS Blade punch. In any case, they are great irons IMO. I haven't used any of the other high end irons to compare but since I got them, I never felt the need.

I have the 5 tooth and a 2 tooth and it has been sufficient for everything from key fobs to bags to sheaths. The higher tooth count irons I consider a luxury. 

[toxo]

On 5/5/2022 at 3:33 PM, MtlBiker said:

I'm about to order some Sinabroks European style chisels from Korea and would love to hear the opinion of the members here about my choices.  I have Ritza Tiger thread in .6, .8 and 1.0mm sizes but I generally prefer the look of the thicker thread.  I'm hoping that the chisels I buy could be used with all those sizes.

I'm thinking of the 4mm chisels, in 1-, 2-, 4- and 8-prong.  Is that overkill?  Do you think I could manage without one of those?  But Sinabroks has a 10% sale on until tomorrow, and even with the discount, this order would still come to $315 US, qualifying for free shipping to Canada (orders over $300 get free shipping).  So if I drop one of those chisels from the order I would have to pay shipping, which sort of balances it out, especially with the sale.  It's only money, I guess.  SIGH

I'm hoping that such high quality stitching chisels will elevate my hand-stitching.  And I think these would be easier to punch through thicker assemblies and also easier to pull out of the leather than my Craftools chisels which make a pretty darn big hole if I punch through many layers.

Thanks for any help.

 

When you say European style, are you talking hole punches or slit chisels?

[MtlBiker]

36 minutes ago, toxo said:

When you say European style, are you talking hole punches or slit chisels?

I saw them called European style on one of the sites, but Sinabrooks themselves call them "Pricking Irons (French Style)".

I have to admit to quite a bit of confusion about these... and especially about the difference between what some people call "irons" and others call "chisels".  My understanding is that these particular ones are not just for marking where you will stitch, but also for punching through the leather and that they could easily punch through 2-3 layers of 6oz veg tan.

In any case, these are not hole punches but rather are slit chisels.

 

[MtlBiker]

11 hours ago, NDphung said:

Wow you went with pretty nice stuff. 

 Wow! those are nice irons. From what I read the 1-prong iron is not as useful as the rest. 2-prong is useful in curves.  I would go for a 10-prong instead of 8-prong to help in long stitch line. Have you look at Kevin Lee irons. I heard it is very good also and not too expensive. Lonsdale leather in Vancouver used to carry Sinabroks they have free shipping.  The diameter of the tooth is 2.2 mm vs KS Blade at 1.8 mm. Rocky Mountain has their own brand at 2 and 9 tooth combination for 99$ US dollar which I think is a great deal. They don't make 4.0mm,  3.85 is their lowest SPI. I have them and I am pretty happy with them. Their listed diameter is 1.7mm. There are so many out there now. Sinabroks, KS Blade, Doldokki,  Crimson Hides, Junlin, Kevin Lee, Beagle, Wuta. 

Replies came in here too late... I already ordered so as not to miss out the 10% sale that finished Friday.  And I probably did order too much with 1, 2, 4, and 8 prong chisels.  But that also got me free shipping (from Japan to Canada) which if I had to pay for it would have been almost half the cost of a chisel.

Obviously I lack the experience of some of you guys but I would have thought the 1-prong would be useful in curves and unlike an awl (which is diamond shaped) this 1-prong would make an identical stitching hole to the others.

Lonsdale still carries Sinabroks but they are out of stock of the ones I wanted, and they don't offer free shipping either.  I haven't looked at Kevin Lee or KS Blade or the others you mentioned.

[dans79]

7 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

I saw them called European style on one of the sites, but Sinabrooks themselves call them "Pricking Irons (French Style)".

I have to admit to quite a bit of confusion about these... and especially about the difference between what some people call "irons" and others call "chisels".  My understanding is that these particular ones are not just for marking where you will stitch, but also for punching through the leather and that they could easily punch through 2-3 layers of 6oz veg tan.

In any case, these are not hole punches but rather are slit chisels.

 

Yea, manufacturers and retailers have made a real mess by using an inconsistent naming convention.

[MtlBiker]

7 hours ago, DJole said:

I don't have Sinabroks--  they're nice, but too expensive for my budget. 
I began with the Craftool chisels, like most of us -- what else was there, or what else did we know about? :-) Big holes, big spacing-- not much use for the majority of what I make.
I wonder what  you mean when you say you are punching through a "lot of layers"? The more layers you have, the more difficult it is to keep the lines on the back side of the piece from wandering if you try to do them all at once, no matter what irons you are using. It would be nice to get through 4-6 mm of leather with one whack of the tool, in a straight line on both sides of the leather, but there's a BIG learning curve to get there, and I don't think the irons are meant to do that.  

I have a set of 3 mm diamond irons from Japan Goods; the original set had 1, 2, 3 4 and 6 prongs. I later added a 10 prong.  I find that I use the 2 prong a lot for curved lines. The 10 is nice for making long straight lines, better than the 6. 
I hardly ever use the 1 (why use it? Just use an awl!) or the 4.
Like NDphung above, I have found the 2 prong and the 10 to be the go-to irons I use the most.
I also have a set of Kevin Lee diamond reverse irons in 3mm. They are excellent quality for the price-- well polished and finished, but they are SMALL and LIGHT. That could be a deal breaker, since they are so light and small, you have to place them carefully and strike them carefully. Like Kevin Lee states, these basic irons are helpful to get a feel for using irons without spending a lot of money.
I have a set of 4mm pricking irons, of Chinese manufacture. I bought them knowing I'd have to spend the time polishing the teeth, which is a pain, and I haven't got them as smooth as my other irons. But 15 prongs makes a nice line!

 

Most often I guess I'd be using two layers of 6oz veg tan, but I made an axe sheath with 3 layers of 8oz (because of the gusset to protect the stitching from the axe blade).  And even with only 2 layers of 6oz the Craftool chisels have a hard time and they make too big a hole.  What I've been trying to do is to use my current chisels only to mark the holes on one side and then using my awl to push through all the way.  That takes time and I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be.  So I'm hoping that the new Sinabroks will help me improve overall.

With the Craftools chisels, I have a 2-prong and 8-prong.  With those I do use a chisel if I just need one hole, but I thought (maybe wrongly) that with the shape of the slit of the Sinabroks, my awl would make a diamond shaped hole instead of a slit.  So I also ordered the 1-prong.