Groover tool choice, interchangable tips?

[Aventurine]

I'm disposed to buy this Owden as my first groover tool because it comes with three different tips and it's a brand that isn't bad. Two questions:
1) Would it be better to get something with the gourd-shaped handle rather than this pencil-shaped handle?
2) If I decide I don't like the handle, will I be able to use these tips in another manufacturer's handle (which ones?)? Or if  I don't like the quality of the tips, can I get replacement tips from another manufacturer to fit (which ones?)? 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081LZZYBH

[fredk]

I use something similar

1. Personal preference

2. No & no

[BlackDragon]

I have this tool and it works well.

As fredk said, it's personal preference. If the handle is to thin for your hand you can wrap it to make it thicker.

[Aventurine]

What brand groover tool will have decent quality and the most easily obtainable replacement tips?  (I can't imagine resharpening these little things without a microscope...)?  Is this a case where Tandy is our friend?

[Mablung]

Tandy is good for this. Resharpening is pretty easy. Strop over jeweler’s rouge to get the outside of the tip sharp. Then draw a piece of thread with jeweler’s rouge on it through the hole of the cutter in the opposite direction of cutting. 

[zuludog]

54 minutes ago, Aventurine said:

What brand groover tool will have decent quality and the most easily obtainable replacement tips?  (I can't imagine resharpening these little things without a microscope...)?  Is this a case where Tandy is our friend?

You can sharpen the tiny blade in a stitch groover by pulling through a length of preferably unwaxed linen thread coated with stropping compound, and sharpen from the outside like any other blade by pulling on a strop, but on a smaller scale.

there are YT Videos about this, including by JH Leather

But just to confuse things I started with a groover, but now I have changed to marking my stitch line with dividers, as recommended by Nigel Armitage. There are YT Videos about this; watch some of JH Leather's videos to see how it's done ..... or Search YT for 'leatherwork and wing dividers'.

Edited July 12 by zuludog

[TomE]

I agree with @zuludog.  I rarely use a stitch groover and usually mark my stitch lines with dividers or a crease, whether sewing by hand or machine.  I don't like the idea of cutting the grain of the leather.  Maybe for some projects (shoes?) it's important to recess the thread, but I rarely see the thread fail in horse tack.  It's usually the leather wrapping around hardware that breaks.  An exception is old linen thread that has rotted.  I'd be interested in learning from others why they groove their stitch lines.

[fredk]

I use mine for cutting the squares on game boards

[Aventurine]

Yes, the reason I'd get it would be to recess the stitches in shoe soles, no other use.   I wouldn't groove leather and weaken it just to mark it.  (People do that???)

[Mablung]

My personal opinion is that grooving the surface doesn’t generally weaken the leather to an appreciable degree. With leather that’s already thin, yeah, grooving weakens it. Leather that’s the thickness you’re talking about, not likely. I use a groover mostly on veg tan for things like knife sheaths and gun holsters (using leather anywhere from 6 to 10 oz) to recess the stitches. Lately I’ve used wing dividers to make a shallow crease/mark. Varies by item I’m making. 

[bruce johnson]

5 hours ago, Aventurine said:

Yes, the reason I'd get it would be to recess the stitches in shoe soles, no other use.   I wouldn't groove leather and weaken it just to mark it.  (People do that???)

You can groove really deep on shoe soles to recess that stitching. Many makers use a channeler though. 

[bruce johnson]

5 hours ago, TomE said:

I agree with @zuludog.  I rarely use a stitch groover and usually mark my stitch lines with dividers or a crease, whether sewing by hand or machine.  I don't like the idea of cutting the grain of the leather.  Maybe for some projects (shoes?) it's important to recess the thread, but I rarely see the thread fail in horse tack.  It's usually the leather wrapping around hardware that breaks.  An exception is old linen thread that has rotted.  I'd be interested in learning from others why they groove their stitch lines.

I grooved my stitchlines for several reasons. One is that I started off handsewing and grooving front and back gave me a target to keep my stitchlines straight. Good for practice and devloping the muscle memory and consistent angles for hand stitching. 

I groove to the depth of the thread. I don't need to dig a ditch to recess #92 and a dent in leather isn't going to recess #415. I hear the weakening argument a lot. OK, for most leather the rules say stitchlines parallel with lines of tension and not across. Take that little thread of leather you grooved off. Pull it apart between your fingers and see just how much tensile strength there is in it. 

On machine sewing. I sit right there and with a "soft-eye" watch the length of the needle line up with the groove line. It helps with that target line to keep stitching straight. . If the axis of the needle is lined up over the stitchline down the road, my needle is going in the right spot. I don't need to hard-eye look at the needle point everytime it punches in. Number one, that is fatiguing. Number two the stitchline wanders. Pick a point further down the road, lineup on it, and let that focal point float on ahead. Like driving a car down the highway.   

[MarshalWill]

I have the same groover you showed. It's easy to use and does the job well. My only objection is that the smallest groove is bigger than I sometimes want so I have to resort to an old one I have on hand that I don't like as much but does the job.

[Aventurine]

Thank you, MarshalWill.