Excellent eBay seller! (what type of thread is this?)

[SUP]

I have had an excellent experience with an eBay seller in the last couple of days and thought I should put it up here since these days, more and more of us have reasons to mistrust eBay sellers.

I bid on a set of about 40 pre-1963 Craftool stamps. The lot included a rawhide mallet in good condition and thread (I have put up the pic here..what type is it?) I won the auction and paid a total of $68 including taxes and shipping, which I thought was fair.

The seller, however, did not expect the lot to go for so much and was delighted. As a thank you, he included 2 pieces of leather with the lot. 

I received the lot last evening and on cleaning, realized that the stamps are all in excellent condition - only light surface rust that disappeared with Evaporust. The mallet is also in good condition, needing only a light cleaning. The leather included seems to be deerskin. 

A good experience, which put me in a good mood for the weekend and completely wiped away the bad taste left by a crooked seller from France from whom I luckily did not purchase anything.

 I would love to know what this thread is - it was part of the lot that I received. 

 

Edited April 13, 2024 by SUP

[Dwight]

Can you take a micrometer and gently check the diameter of the thread ??

Looks awful big to me . . . but that may be a perception problem as I have nothing to measure it against.

May God bless,

Dwight

[SUP]

It is about 1.2 - 1.3mm thick. I did take the photograph from up close so that it is clearly seen. Incidentally, the seller did not know what this thread is either.

Edited April 13, 2024 by SUP

[DJole]

Does the thread melt or burn when  you apply a lighter to an end?

[SUP]

It burns when I put a lighter to it. Burns down the length of the piece that I cut.

No. That is wrong. I think it melts and leaves a small amount of firm black residue which would not happen with natural fibre. Natural fibre would leave ash. This thread burns up so fast, initially I thought it burnt up but now when I look, it has left a firm black residue. So synthetic fibre.

Edited April 13, 2024 by SUP

[Aven]

It looks like it is linen.  Is it in about 6 foot lengths?

 

[SUP]

@Aven, Yes, I believe so. 

[Aven]

They look like what shoemakers used to attach the uppers to the sole.  They didn't use needles.  The end is tapered so a boar's bristle could be wound on to it and used as the needle.

[SUP]

@Aven Is that used these days? Boar's bristles as needles?

[Aven]

They are still used, but not like they once were.  Now monofilament or split steel is the use for the needles.  I had a bookmark of someone going through the whole process of waxing the individual linen threads together, tapering the bundle, which is what you have there, and then winding a bundle onto a needle, but I can't find it.

If you go to about 29:45 you can see him using the inseaming awl and then the needles with the thread attached.  Looks like monofilament to me.  At 29:50 he using the awl again and you can see the tail of the thread on the right side of the screen. That's the "needle".  Because the needle is the same thickness as the thread, it doesn't require a large hole to get the works through.

 

  Loafers Made by a traditional method