Pricking Iron Or Saddle Stitch?

[billybopp]

Awl blades very in width, length, and profile, and can affect stitching.

Awl handle sizes can vary significantly, which is mostly important for how it fits your hand.

Awl blade length, width and profile also vary greatly. The left is a Tandy 4 in 1, the right a Tandy 1 1/4" awl, and the middle three are three sizes of Seiwa awl.

You can clearly see that the left awl .. sometimes referred to a saddler's awl or a wing awl has a significant taper to the blade and will make a larger hole on the entry side of the leather than on the exit side. It also requires precise depth control to maintain the same hole size on the entry side. The right awl is also tapered, but not nearly so much as the first. The middle three are straight sided and will make the same size hole through both sides of the leather, and are the ones I prefer to use. Also of note, the Seiwa awls arrived in a nearly usable state and required very little work to make very sharp. The other two required quite a lot of work to make usable.

Hope that helps

Bill

Edited August 18, 2014 by billybopp

[DavidL]

The three japanese awls are made of low quality steel, when put on a stone the metal gets rough. This is my experience with I believe a siewa awl or craft Sha awl that isn't the one in billy's picture but should be similar quality. Vergez blanchard awl works great and can be bought for 6 dollars for each blade and installed into an adjustable osborne awl handle and swapped out with a different size.

japanese awls come sharp out the box but has a short shelf life, compared to the vergez I have now for over a year and hardly needs retouching once it was honed.

[Tannin]

Thanks for the responses I just made a test stamp with my Dixon pricking iron and the slots cut measure closer to 3mm than 3.5mm/1.2mm. I used a thick piece of quite hard leather, perhaps that helped prevent the iron penetrating fully. It actually looked better than I recall - perhaps it works better in thicker/harder leathers than softer/thinner leather?

I've been using mainly (USA made?*) C. S. Osbourne awl blades (spear/leaf-shaped saddlers awl blades), which I sharpen & strop. I haven't seen them mentioned very much on this forum so far, which surprised me given the number of US & Canadian members. Are there better options? Vergez Blanchard for $6 (I see US & Canadian dollars are about the same value these days) sounds very interesting - I paid significantly more than that for the Osbourne blades here (oddly, an Osbourne blade here costs the same as a complete Osbourne awl with handle!); I would expect French-made blades (if that's what they are) to be cheaper here than in N. America. BTW I recently received 2 new, longer, diamond-section, saddler's blades from LePrevo @ half the price of the Osbourne blades, haven't tried them out yet but they look pretty good.

*I was surprised to find that my saddler's needles from old English company John James are made in China, while I noticed (in a picture in a leather book) a packet of needles from USA company C. S. Osbourne labelled "made in England"!

Edited August 18, 2014 by Tannin

[DavidL]

Vergez is french made as far as I know. Once I find something that works perfect I won't try anything else unless quality starts to dip. I will be using vergez for pricking irons and awls as the only brand. Fil au chinois as my thread, john james for my needles, and horween, WC for my leathers. Its hard to find good reliable tools, so once you find them I keep using them. I tried other brands and they work so/so.

Companies I avoid are dixon/ japanese irons and japanese made awls. Im unsure about dixon's die cutters they are definitely economically priced.

Makers I go for are mostly european or custom tool makers.

With the pricking iron you can penetrate fully on leathers up to 4mm and rub your fingers on the marks to close up a bit.

[Tannin]

... I mean, if I do not put the knot in, the angle of stitches on the front does get quite steep, while the stitches on the back straighten-up. But as soon as I throw the thread over the right-hand needle, the angle gets shallower (although visible on both sides) and the thread gets pushed to the upper side of the holes.

Tried to follow Nigel's videos word by word, but never managed to get steep angles of stitches on both sides, no matter what thickness of the thread I used (This is something I will ask in the forum thread about his videos)

...

I wondered if the direction of the slots might be key (e.g. top of the slot towards you or away from you) & which direction you sew (towards you/away)? Macca's sample stitching is what I am aiming for. Sometimes times I get closer than others, which made me wonder if it might be a 50:50 thing, depending on which way direction I stitch relative to the direction of slant.

Camano ridge is right about the slots "healing up": I got my needle wallet out tonight and the long slots on the centre seam have "healed over" and are no longer visible. Leather has some interesting properties.

... here is a link to Niegels video

Nigel has 2 saddle stitch videos, although the one above is billed as "in detail", I still sometimes find it useful to refer to the shorter original one:

Edited August 18, 2014 by Tannin

[mlapaglia]

Thanks Macca,

Thanks Camano ridge, I found that link a while back, but it doesn't say what length (or rather, width) each tooth is. The article also mentions the pricking iron can be used to punch all the way through, if the awl is not used.

From the same article it states: "Sometimes, depending on the thickness of the leather, you will find that the Pricking Iron has cut all of the way through the leather, however this is not always the case, and it is not, as already stated, really what a Pricking Iron is intended for." (Bold added)

[Tannin]

... It sounds like 3.5mm is Dixon's standard size (but why so big?) - perhaps, the thinner 1.2mm requires custom grinding and is only done upon special request? However, when I ordered my pricking iron from Joseph Dixon Ltd., I was very careful to specify "slim" at several points (including in email & on the phone) but the one they sent produces holes which seem way too long (yes, I would estimate 3.5mm - but I will check) and they said it had to be made to order. If you mark your stitching line ~6mm from the edge (per several of Nigel's excellent videos), the pricking iron cuts scarily close to the edge. Thinking of contacting them, rather than continuing to grumble.

...

Well, I contacted Joseph Dixons and...

... I would give Dixons a call & see if they will make things right for you, as I said earlier in this post it's been a good few years since I dealt with them & things may have changed. I never saw how the tools were modified, they used to just take a stock item off into the workshop, a few minutes later they would return with a hot, modified tool which was then wrapped carefully in oiled brown paper, the guys there in those days were lovely.

I really hope they make things right for you.

...they said just send it back. They re-ground it slim and returned it straight back to me. Quick & painless. The slots cut now are perhaps 2-3mm* (but it's really hard to measure accurately, esp. with my eyesight now, but almost twice the length produced by the Estone irons) but they now look right for the sort of work I do now. Happy

*Ah - I just noticed that I specified "1.8mm(-2mm)" for the re-grind, rather than the 1.2mm suggested by Nigel Armitage above, so my mistake this time. Apparently Dixons grind to order! Actually I am happy with it at 2mm, I was inclined not to cut it too fine anyway (so that it can be re-ground or sharpened in the future), which is why I added the "(-2mm)". I already expected to use the smaller Estone #8 irons (which probably are close to 1.2mm) for smaller, more delicate work & the Dixons #7 for larger pieces & thicker threads.

Lesson: Learn from my mistakes, order carefully, "Slim line, 1.2mm"

Edited September 2, 2014 by Tannin

[Jax]

Tannin, I as so pleased that Dixons put your pricking iron right for you, I may just go & see them & get a couple more now