Holster And Sheath Sewing Thread

[NewYorkerInSydney]

Hi good folks,

Will one of you kind folks please tell me where I may be able to get some of the nice thick threads that I often see used on knife sheaths and holster sheaths. I'm not interested in looking through Tandys products. Any other places I should look into and could you tell me what kind of thread it is and what size thickness I should be looking for? I just like thick thread as long as it is under 1mm thick preferably in khaki, tan, natural or cardboard colored thread. I appreciate any leads as I would like to use these thick threads to make some big designs on my belts. Thank you very much!!

[Denster]

Are you machine sewing or hand sewing?

[NewYorkerInSydney]

Are you machine sewing or hand sewing?

Handsewing.

[ChuckBurrows]

http://campbell-bosworth.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=linen

They have the Barbour's Linen thread in thicker sizes: 6, 7, and 8 cord - I've never used thicker than 5 cord (which is fairly thick), bu one of those should be just the ticket. IMO there is no better natural thread available. For synthetics some one else will have to advise since I have any experience with them except in machines.

[MADMAX22]

Im with Chuck on this one. I went thru this a while back with a thread in the sewing section.

I ended up getting a spool of the barbours linen 6 cord thread. It is great stuff. I wont use anything else anymore for my hand sewing unless I absolutely have to. Once I get a couple of different size threads I wont use anything else period.

One thing that to add to this that put my sewing up a notch is to get the proper wax to put on the thread. After reading on this subject as well I ordered some Rosin and mixed that with bees wax, and a little oil and heated it until everything was all liquified together then poured it into smaller sized balls that I kneaded into shape before it totally cooled. Now I use this to wax the thread with and it gives it a somewhat tacky waxy feel that really grips the leather when you set the stitch and protects the thread. Gives your fingers that extra grip also lol.

Once the fine people on this forum got me setup with this method theres no other way I will do it.

Oh and depending on how much you sew a nice batch of the wax/rosin mix will last you a good long while.

Here is a link to one of the threads I was talking about. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=16552

Edited April 6, 2010 by MADMAX22

[Dwight]

Several years back, I was trying to decide what size thread to use for my work. I bought several smaller spools from www.stleather.com in St. Louis, . . . they were good people to deal with.

They also used to have a really neat on line catalog, . . . don't know if they still have that, . . . but their thread spools were smaller, hence cheaper.

I use size 346 on most all of my holsters and belts. I used some 270 for a while, and have a large spool of black that I'm probably going to give to some fisherman or something some day just to get rid of it. The next size bigger than 346, I believe is 400.

Oh, and yeah, . . . Tandy has the 270 and the 346 in white, . . . about $25.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited April 6, 2010 by Dwight