A Few Questions On Stitching With Linen Thread

[kwelna]

Seanafk, thanks I will give hamering a try as well. by the way, your card with the theads attached was of great help. As was your description of the amount of wax needed. I am getting closer and closer to understanding and possible competnecy.

Katsass thanks for a pix of your awl. Now I have a shape to work towards also lets me see just how sharp and "pointy" you guys are actually talking about. I have a lot of work ahead of me with my awl(s)....a lot of work. Looks like you moisten the leather after groving and before you run the overstitch wheel. Mostly I can see I need to make my awl blade(s) MUCH "pointier" and sharper!

[Les No6]

Two things - shouldn't that be Somac thread and not Sewmac? and I agree that in the finer sizes such as 18/3 it's more uniform but once you go 4 cord and above Barbour's is just as even at least in my experience. Plus Somac is much harder to find here in the USA.

With respect but hemp thread is not the same as linen - hemp thread is made from cannabis sativa (yep the same plant as marijuana) while linen is made from flax. Hemp thread is in fact the strongest plant based thread while silk is the strongest commonly available natural thread of all (spider silk is stronger but is not very common).

And I agree about the wax/rosin mix being better over all and not just for ending the stitches - once I starte using it I have never gone back to plain beeswax. Another plus is rosin adds anti-bacterial properties to the thread which helps prevent rot.

Yes Somac, I must admit I haven’t purchased Barbour thread for a considerable number of years, it was very inconsistent in thickness had a large number of knots and lumps of lint in the twist in all weights of thread. Somac also performs much better in the sewing machines. I do have some very old small bobbins of white and red Barbour thread which is excellent quality made at a time when they earned their reputation.

Hemp and linen are different but hemp sewing thread is no longer used (apart from some handmade shoe bottoms) Hemp is a name that stuck for thread that you spin yourself but its actually linen made from flax, at least on this side of the pond http://www.abbeyengland.com/Store/tabid/77/CategoryID/202/Category2ID/109/Level/2/ProductID/68760/Default.aspx . Hemp a course thread was predominantly used for work gear finer linen thread for higher quality items and silk for the highest quality products. Industrial strains of hemp are of no use as a drug unlike marijuana Mexican slang for strains that do.

Linen is very resistant to rot and can be considered rot proof considerably more than nylon thread that’s marketed as rot proof but degrades comparatively rapidly in sunlight and acidic environments i.e. veg tan leather. I mostly use harness makers black wax, a pitch and rosin mix.

[kwelna]

Well I did it. (Sort of) I sharpened and reshaped a tandy awl blade to the point that it slides through a single layer of 8/9 with almost no pressure.. unfortunately it is also so thin at the tip that the awl blade will bend after about 4-5 jabs. LOL, so it's back to Tandy for a couple more blades and try again. I will say that as I have been playing with reshaping and sharpening this frist awl blade, it is quite important to not only get the awl sharp but polished. I do beleive that I can tell "feel" when I hit a less polished portion of the blade. Ah the training and learning continues........

Edited November 5, 2012 by kwelna

[electrathon]

Well I did it. (Sort of) I sharpened and reshaped a tandy awl blade to the point that it slides through a single layer of 8/9 with almost no pressure.. unfortunately it is also so thin at the tip that the awl blade will bend after about 4-5 jabs. LOL, so it's back to Tandy for a couple more blades and try again. I will say that as I have been playing with reshaping and sharpening this frist awl blade, it is quite important to not only get the awl sharp but polished. I do beleive that I can tell "feel" when I hit a less polished portion of the blade. Ah the training and learning continues........

The steel that the Tandy blades is made out if is very soft. You will do far better to start with am allen wrench or a drill bit. Both a commonly available and are made from quality steel.

Aaron

[ramrod]

i was told that you could even fashion an awl out of masonry nails, somtimes calld "cut nails". i don't have any on hand or else i'd try it. but i'm going to use a hex wrench on my next go around.

[kwelna]

I will try allen wrenches as well. It can't be that much more grinding etc. I did order 1 lb of Barbour 5 cord and 10 size 1 or 0 needles from Cambell-Randell. Next is leather from Springfiled....Guess I am gearing up for the long winter. Lots of ideas and I need lots of practice. Thinking of modifying my messenger bag into a range bag with a built in holster and pocket for ammo boxes and shot timer. Maybe even a bit of tooling.....

[kwelna]

Received my 1lb spool of 5 cord Burbuar lined thread todyay. Tested the breaking strengh with my hands, This stuff is strong. It looks to be about half the diameter of the stuff I was using from tandy, although I have not waxed it yet. I do not see that doubling the threads diameter by waxing. Looks like I will be doing a bit of stitching this weekend. I have a couple of dog collars I started just for practicing tooling and stitching. If anything turns out , I will post it for a critique of al least the stitching.

[ramrod]

i ordered from them last saturday. i thought that the thread would be here by now.

how long did yours take to arrive?

[kwelna]

I ordered mine last Saturday as well, It came via UPS. if you give them a call, they will give you a UPS tracking number. They were very nice and helpful. Thinking I may need a spool of 3 cord for lighter items. But first I gotta learn to stich

[kwelna]

OK as I am gearing up to do my stitching, I have gotten the Barbour thread , the correct needles size 1, shaprened my awl and now, since I am using unwaxed hread, I decided to make some "coad" (sp?) I used a mix of 2 parts rosin, a few drops of neetsfoot oil and 20 parts beeswax. It melted down and mixed togeather just fine....as far as I can tell. I then poured it off into a bowl of water ], let it cool enough that I could hadle it and then needed it for a good 5 minutes and formed into balls about 2\3 the size of golf balls. It looks to be just fine and it sticks to the thread, but it strikes me as a bit "lumpy". does any one have a picture of their coad that I can look at to see if mine at least looks the same?

Edited November 11, 2012 by kwelna