pros or cons of drawing your awl across wax

[Alan Bell]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before and I don't have any books on hand stitching but does any one know the pros or cons of drawing your awl across wax to ease in piercing the leather. On my Cheyenne rolls where there are so many layers to piers of fairly thick leather I started drawing my awl across the wax every other hole or so and it goes in a lot easier. I also will stab my punches and roll the sides on the wax when punching thick leather and it punches clean and comes right out! I doubt I'm the first to do this but I had never herd of anyone else doing it so I hope I'm not messing something up but it works great!

Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell

Oh why can't we roam this open country?

Bob Marley - 3 o'clock Road Block

[Luke Hatley]

ALAN. if you take a look at the wrestling belt i did

it is 8 ft 10 " around the outside.

the lacing holes are punched with a 4 prong punch.

if i did not LUBCRICATE THE PUNCH WITH A BLOCK

OF PARAFENE THE PUNCH IS VERY HARD TO GET OUT TO

START THE NEXT SET OF LACING SLOTS.

BEESWAX GIVES MORE GRIP --PARAFENE GIVES MORE

SLIDE ...

[David Genadek]

Yep I have always done that hand sewing I think I learned it at a Federation show. I used to work for a company that did wieght belts and we sewed them on Landis 16. We used a sole leather and the stuffing would build up on the needle and awl so I used my hand sewing experiance and started waxing those every belt and it really helped. Parrafin is less sticky than beeswax. Big help on punches too but best done in conjuncton with polishing both the inside and outside of the punches with a dremel.

David Genadek

[skip]

For Hand sewing I have found that putting my awl into some saddle soap helped a lot more that just using wax but I have tried both. and either is better than none at all.

[bcurrier]

Any difference among these (beeswax, paraffin, saddle soap) in terms of stitch retention if a stitch breaks? I'd think stickier is better. Probably doesn't matter after some aging anyway ...

[barra]

Here's a slight variation. My old Master who's family were saddlers going back to the early 1800's would drag the awl blade across his scalp. The natural oils in your head then lubricate the awl blade. I still do this from time to time.

Barra

[bruce johnson]

Barra,

One of my treasured times was when a retired Irish harness maker spent an afternoon with me several years ago. He took a rasp to my stitching horse to shape the jaws to his liking. He liked to oil awl blades by wiping them on his nose, although admitted you might run dry by the end of a session. I am sure he went to the forehead then. He found about 2 awls he liked and we used those. The rest were saved for later. He taught me to tie in buckles at the ends of straps like they do "ta home".

Later we took my rejected awls and he sharpened them into darts. I learned the pleasures of Bushmill's Black and "awl darts". Apparently an old Irish harness shop pastime. The evening ended with him buying my Ron's edgers for around $120 apiece to show the boys ta home what good stuff we have to work with.