Hand-stitching holes, the easy way.

[Rawhide]

another thought would be to chuck it in a leather sewing machine then just rotate the wheel by hand.

Marlon

[howardb]

Brent, the thread pulling thru has not been a problem with my hand-stitching. I wonder if you have a machine tension thingy issue?? I supposs I could use a #5 instead of a #6 wheel in those really thick 6 layer areas....

BTW, I mostly use artificial sinew with the sheaths I make.

Thanks for your kind, and understanding words.

R

P.S. I found my table top model drill press in Craig's List for $30.

OH I'm a dummy sometimes. No, I'm hand stitching too, and while typing somehow in my head made yours machine stitched. Hence my mistaken part of the question. After reviewing both the leather and some othe pieces I had done, I think the issue IS my leather. It's got a rot-spot on it or something because I can pull hard in some areas, but not in others.

Thanks for the suggestion on the drill press. For me it's more of a space issue than cost. My friend has all my woodworking tools, including two drill presses, in his garage about 40 miles away. I just don't feel like putting on pants, driving 40 miles, just to punch holes! I'll try to make this tandy arbor-like thing work. It may not be perfect, but it should be repeatable.

Brent

[Rayban]

OH I'm a dummy sometimes. No, I'm hand stitching too, and while typing somehow in my head made yours machine stitched. Hence my mistaken part of the question. After reviewing both the leather and some othe pieces I had done, I think the issue IS my leather. It's got a rot-spot on it or something because I can pull hard in some areas, but not in others.

Thanks for the suggestion on the drill press. For me it's more of a space issue than cost. My friend has all my woodworking tools, including two drill presses, in his garage about 40 miles away. I just don't feel like putting on pants, driving 40 miles, just to punch holes! I'll try to make this tandy arbor-like thing work. It may not be perfect, but it should be repeatable.

Brent

Let me get this straight...you mistook my hand-stitching for machine stitching??!! WOW....now THAT'S a complemrnt!!!

I know what you mean man, I don't like to put my pants on if I don't really have to, until the last possible moment.

R

[electrathon]

I don't like to put my pants on if I don't really have to, until the last possible moment.

R

There was a Sinefeld show about that a few years back...

[Rayban]

There was a Sinefeld show about that a few years back...

I remember that one..they were shooting pool and stuff?? Not the "shrinkage" one, right?

[electrathon]

I remember that one..they were shooting pool and stuff?? Not the "shrinkage" one, right?

Not the shrinkage one. It was about George finding out how easy it wsa to run around in sweat pants all the time. I remember them asking him if he gave up on life or something.

[tonyc1]

I had to deliver the sheath before I could take the picture of it's back-side. Guess, you'll have to take my word for it...it looked pretty much like the front.

Again, going through 6 layers of leather, the drill press beats the heck out of the awl, in my opinion.

AND....the customer loved it, and has ordered another one.

How come there are six layers of leather in your sheath?

[Rayban]

How come there are six layers of leather in your sheath?

It's hard to see by the picture, but at the opening from the front to back:

1. the chevron, the piece up front that the post is attached to.

2. the front panel, the stamped part.

3. the welt

4. spacer, to keep some of the guard of the back belt loop.

5. and 6. the back panel folded over to form the belt loop.

The spacer and belt loop are skived about 2" and 4" down from the top...the rest is 3 layers; front panel, welt, and back panel, all around the sheath.

Hope it's clear.....

R

[tonyc1]

It's hard to see by the picture, but at the opening from the front to back:

1. the chevron, the piece up front that the post is attached to.

2. the front panel, the stamped part.

3. the welt

4. spacer, to keep some of the guard of the back belt loop.

5. and 6. the back panel folded over to form the belt loop.

The spacer and belt loop are skived about 2" and 4" down from the top...the rest is 3 layers; front panel, welt, and back panel, all around the sheath.

Hope it's clear.....

R

Thanks Rayban!

[TraditionalTools]

There's nothing new here, but someone mentioned on another thread, how hard it is to hand stitch thru multiple layers of leather, and keep things straight.( I didn't want to hijack that thread so here I am)....here's something I just did for the first time...think Ak Stohlman may be frowning down on me???....anyway. I prepared the leather same way for hand-stitching, using a #6 wheel ( 6 threads per inch) then went to my drill press, inserted a 1/16" bit, and drilled all the holes. It helps to glue parts together if you can so they will all stay aligned while drilling. Then hand-stitched as I normally would.

Much easier, and faster...for hand-stitching.....

First, beautiful sheath and I don't think anyone can argue with great results, you got them with that sheath pictured, IMO.

I did try to drill mine out some, I was using 16oz leather for the saw sheath/case I was making recently, but found the way Stohlman explains it to work very well with a sharp awl. For me, there was a huge difference in using an Osborne vs. Craftool 4-in-1 awl, which had come in the kit I got with the stitching book, awl, overstitch wheel, groover, etc...the tip on the Osborne works much better for me.

Ultimately for me it seemed that if the leather is lined up, it is quicker and less steps to just punch them with an awl, since the awl actually only opens the hole slightly, it seemed to me that opening it as little as possible was advantageous.

Again, your results speak for themself, IMO, and drilling obviously works fine also.

The other thing is that I tested by drilling with a larger bit, and maybe using a smaller one would certainly matter. Just seems the awl is more versitile in the sense that you can reposition as you move through the leather so if you don't get the hole in the back lined up, one can move/wiggle/reposition the tip so that it will go through the mark.

The ergonomics of having the needles in each hand between the 1st/2nd fingers and the awl in my right hand just works best for overall duration, exactly like Stohlman outlines. I don't have a stitching horse yet, but use a pattern maker's vise that I installed to a new bench recentely. It works and allows me to kinda straddle the work in front, but I want to make a stitching/shaving horse of my own...see attached pic...