thread question

[mhein68]

Hey all, There is a church thrift store in my town (every wed) that has a “craft” room. They have literally boxes, boxes , more boxes and shelves of thread… I have been away from leather work for almost 23 yrs (I’ve forgotten more then I learned!). Can any of the hundreds of spools be used for leather? No waxed thread.. What size and material should I look for? (I’d probably spend a whole day l looking through it all!) I am restarting with a limited budget so anything would help.. Thanks

[Dwight]

Look for the spools that kind of stand upright . . . maybe 5 or 6 inches tall . . . on a black (all I ever used were black) plastic spools designed only to sit on one end.

Tip them over and look for a size number . . . sometimes it will say "Size XXX" and sometimes it will be just XXX.  The ones you are looking for are "138, 207, 277, 346, 415"

For most holster, belt, knife sheath work. . . 138 is too small . . . 415 is a bit large.   Most use 207, 277, and 346.  I almost use 346 exclusively.

Hope this helps

May God bless,

Dwight

[Wizcrafts]

In leatherwork, we machine sew with either bonded nylon or bonded polyester thread. As Dwight mentioned, these threads are wound on plastic spools. They are usually sold in 4 ounce through 16 ounce put-ups. The thread must be on a thread stand and must feed straight up to an overhead thread eye that it goes through before going to the sewing machine. Spooled industrial thread is not meant to be fed sideways, like home/domestic thread is. Also, there must be enough distance between the top of the thread spool and the overhead eyelets to keep it from twisting over the top structure, or wire eyelet. I try for about 5 or 6 inches spacing when possible.

If none of the spools you find are bonded thread, don't waste your money.

[mhein68]

I did forget to mention this will be for hand sewing...

[mhein68]

Thanks for your reply!