Lacing Help For Carved Hotdog Roasting Stick Covers

[AdamTill]

Hi folks,

Was hoping for a little advice about how to go about lacing some leather covers onto dowels that will be the core for some fancy hotdog roasting sticks. These are a Christmas present that my girlfriend with be giving to her dad, so I'd like to get them looking nice!

Any suggestions on patterns, or even how to go about this? I was originally going to lace them on like the back jockeys of a saddle, but the dowel makes that difficult.

I have sides of latigo and chap leather, and was hoping to use either of those to make the lace. I tried splitting down some chap leather to use with lacing needles, but I can't get them to stay stuck to the needles, so I'm missing something there.

Sorry for the overexposed photo, but the camera batteries were about to die. The carving came out decently, but I was disappointed to lose most of the burnishing when I needed to form the leather over the dowel immediately after the tool work. I didn't want to have to tool them in place over the dowel, since the radius is so tight. Still, they don't look too bad, and she's thrilled so far (which is the most important part!)

Any help gratefully appreciated!

Cheers,

Adam

[Bard Skye]

Hi folks,

Was hoping for a little advice about how to go about lacing some leather covers onto dowels that will be the core for some fancy hotdog roasting sticks. These are a Christmas present that my girlfriend with be giving to her dad, so I'd like to get them looking nice!

Any suggestions on patterns, or even how to go about this? I was originally going to lace them on like the back jockeys of a saddle, but the dowel makes that difficult.

I have sides of latigo and chap leather, and was hoping to use either of those to make the lace. I tried splitting down some chap leather to use with lacing needles, but I can't get them to stay stuck to the needles, so I'm missing something there.

Sorry for the overexposed photo, but the camera batteries were about to die. The carving came out decently, but I was disappointed to lose most of the burnishing when I needed to form the leather over the dowel immediately after the tool work. I didn't want to have to tool them in place over the dowel, since the radius is so tight. Still, they don't look too bad, and she's thrilled so far (which is the most important part!)

Any help gratefully appreciated!

Cheers,

Adam

Hopefully, I can be of help.

What kind of needles are you using?

I use the spring steel needles that I get from Tandy. You taper cut the end of the lace, put it through the eye, then open the halves of the needle and sandwich the lace between them. There's a small tooth that locks the lace in place. Works quite well.

I gave up on trying to make my own lace. I always had problems with the tensile strength of my lace being vastly infereior to the commercial lace I can buy.

I'm including an attachment that shows the Double Loop Stitch. It actually pretty easy, and looks really good. I aplogize in advance for the quality of the jpg. The word doc that I took it from was a bit blurry to start with, and printing it then re-scanning didn't help any. But it's still legible.

It's shown being applied to an edge, but it works quite well on butt joints, too. If it turns out that your holes are too widely spaced for the stitch, you can simply do a double-pass through each hole the way it shows to do on corners. Just be sure not to let any twists make their way in. It'll look like..... well, gents aren't supposed to use that kind of language.....

Hope this helps.

Good luck. I think it'll look awsome.

Besides, if the girlfriend's happy, that's the main thing, right?

Skye

[AdamTill]

What kind of needles are you using?

They're the Tandy ones, and thanks for the pointers. I think I probably should have no issues now.

I gave up on trying to make my own lace. I always had problems with the tensile strength of my lace being vastly infereior to the commercial lace I can buy.

I may do the same, but I thought it'd be worth trying to make use of what I have at first.

I'm including an attachment that shows the Double Loop Stitch. It actually pretty easy, and looks really good. I aplogize in advance for the quality of the jpg. The word doc that I took it from was a bit blurry to start with, and printing it then re-scanning didn't help any. But it's still legible.

Super, thanks! I googled the title, and found that Tandy actually has that on their website:

http://www.tandyleat...ft-ABC-pg3.aspx

It's shown being applied to an edge, but it works quite well on butt joints, too. If it turns out that your holes are too widely spaced for the stitch, you can simply do a double-pass through each hole the way it shows to do on corners. Just be sure not to let any twists make their way in. It'll look like..... well, gents aren't supposed to use that kind of language.....

Yeah, I don't need to practice that language if I can avoid it It's bad enough that working with folks in the oil patch corrupts my language as it is!

Hope this helps.

Good luck. I think it'll look awsome.

Immensely, thanks a ton!

Besides, if the girlfriend's happy, that's the main thing, right?

You bet. She's the kind of lady you keep happy because you want to, not because you have to.

Thanks again!

Adam

[Bard Skye]

Glad I could help.

Skye

[trailfndr]

They're the Tandy ones, and thanks for the pointers. I think I probably should have no issues now.

I may do the same, but I thought it'd be worth trying to make use of what I have at first.

Super, thanks! I googled the title, and found that Tandy actually has that on their website:

http://www.tandyleat...ft-ABC-pg3.aspx

Yeah, I don't need to practice that language if I can avoid it It's bad enough that working with folks in the oil patch corrupts my language as it is!

Immensely, thanks a ton!

You bet. She's the kind of lady you keep happy because you want to, not because you have to.

Thanks again!

Adam

I am not sure I would use the Double Loop stich on those. You will leave a stich line sticking up, making it somewhat uncomfortable as a handle. I think I would lace it the same as I would a pair of shoes, using latigo lace, pulling tightly as I go, so that the two edges butt up against each other. If you also use a little water to keep things damp as you go, it will dry even more tightly as it drys and shrinks. If you don't like the latigo....maybe your best bet would be hand stiching with thread.

Double Loop is best for items "Stacked" together like a wallet edge.

[Bard Skye]

I am not sure I would use the Double Loop stich on those. You will leave a stich line sticking up, making it somewhat uncomfortable as a handle. I think I would lace it the same as I would a pair of shoes, using latigo lace, pulling tightly as I go, so that the two edges butt up against each other. If you also use a little water to keep things damp as you go, it will dry even more tightly as it drys and shrinks. If you don't like the latigo....maybe your best bet would be hand stiching with thread.

Double Loop is best for items "Stacked" together like a wallet edge.

Yes, it leaves a raised stitch line, but I don't think that these would be grabbed hard enough to make them uncomfortable. Not like the handle on a 100# suitcase. <g>

Using relatively thin lace, it will lie fairly flat, hide the seam, and definately add some "zing" to the look. Check out this scroll case that Tina made: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=47924

She does *incredible* work. I can only *hope* to be as good as her one day.

She used something more complicated than the double loop, but the effect is the same.

Just my $.02.

Skye

[reddevil76]

Just an additional pointer from me, after pinching the lace in the lacing needle, give it a light tap or two with a mallet so the teeth on the needle can sink itself into the tapered end.

[ramrod]

just a thought......would it make sense to loosely lace them first (somewhat like the shoe lacing that trailfndr spoke about) so the dowel wouldn't interfere, and then slip it on the already glued dowel, and then tighten the lacing with a hook?