Keeping Linen Thread Looking Slick And Tidy

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

Hey guys this is my first post here. I feel like I should have had this sorted ages ago before anything else..but I've finlly decided to try sort it.

I mainly make belts and wallets. One of the things that I'm disapointed with is that after a couple of days' use, the thread starts to get a little fuzzy, and takes on that real home-made kind of look. I want the thread to stay looking smooth and tight. All I do is give it a little waxing before I stitch with it. I don't hear about anyone mentioning other steps so I'm a little mystified about the state of my stitching!

I recently got some resolene and I was wondering if it would be a good idea (or a terrible idea) to run the thread through that before I use it so that it gets that nice gloss and doesn't fray. Yay or Nay?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. It's always really exciting to improve the process just a tiny bit more, going step-by-step until hopefully I'll be able to sell the items to people that aren't just humouring me! haha

Thanks guys.

[jimmy eng]

1/ Do you rub a calico cloth up and down the waxed thread? It should heat the wax enough to 'set' the coating so it covers the entire surface and doesn't raise the thread fibre.

2/ Do you use a stitch groover so the thread sits level with the leather surface and not on top where it rubs on surfaces?

Do both if you don't.

Those would be my first two thoughts to fix your issue.

[Macca]

change your thread

Only two I use & would recommend are Tiger thread, which is a waxed polyester braided thread or fil au chinois lin cable if you want a natural thread.

Both expensive, but theres a reason for that, I'm sure other people will have some more suggestions for you.

[walter roth]

Hello guys...

I just read that you have a problem with stitching.

Linen or even cotton thread should never used without them before with bad luck and wax to handle.

Untreated they hold and are sensitive to abrasion.

If I have understood it correctly with my poor English, the seams are after a short use already not more beautiful.

Forms as Macca said, if you use synthetic thread, you more easily can sew it only grow so, without he always knot it.

If you use linen thread, you must first treat him with bad luck. To do this, take a yellow (pine tar) or just black with black thread pitch, (beech wood tar) and pulling the thread through the tar.

It is well a tarred, twice taking the thread, wrapping him around 2 fingers and that depends on the thread loop in one end of hacking at the wall.

Take a piece of canvas of linen and fold it so that it fold 2 is.

In every fold, put a thread and rub it back and forth until the pitch of the thread is warm and indents in the thread.

The thread is thus quite wiry. To the sew well through yet pull the wax so that it no longer sticks to your fingers, ...wegen bad luck.

They call this kind of thread pitch wire. Previously used I still often with hemp thread, raised especially for heavy, and with linen for fine sewing.

Later, I switched to "Campbell" thread. So a thread with a synthetic core and overspin with cotton, which gives that beautiful seams.

Because I wachste only. Bad luck is not needed, unless you want to make him somewhat wiry.

By the way, ...reinen beeswax used the Sattler never used.

They melted the wax up and gave into some stearin or paraffin also.

With stearin or paraffin which not so hard wax after cooling, depending on the amount of fat given to, he will be softer or harder.

To the work it is more pleasant when the wax is slightly softer.

Formerly called this operation on German...(the wax leaving out) in English maybe "to render" called...(((-: hoffe ich hab das richtige wort erwischt...))((-:

Stearin is white in color usually a way to buy block, and melts at about 60-70°. It is made mostly from animal fat.

It is used to produce so-called "burnt leather" until today.

So leather which after the tanning room be heated in one at approximately 60 ° and be immersed for a few seconds in liquid stearin, that burn like leather tanners to says.

The leather is then completely greased through and can determine a stearin paraffin mixture which hardness of leather.

Paraffin is a petroleum product.

So guys...It tried.

Greeting

Walter

PS:

And KiwiLetherLearner, take not too thick thread and large stitches.

Maximum stitch for a belt size 8 use, better 10 he stitches per inch.

And of course this is sink the stitches "on the back" always a good Thing.

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

Thanks for the replies so far - awesome.

Jimmy - Is calico cloth just a canvas-y kind of material? I have hemp cloth, I feel like that'd cause the right friction? Yea I use a groover/gouger. Maybe I could gouge deeper...

Macca - Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check out the availability in New Zealand for the Tiger thread and the lin cable that you mentioned. Sorry I guess I should have mentioned what I'm using. I'm not used to how the numbering system works etc. I currently have Coats Barbour Flax 100% linen, Cord 3, No. 18. What do you make of that?? Also I often dye the thread with the Fiebing's oil dye that I use for the leather.

Walter - It looks like you are a wealth of knowledge. sehr kenntnisreich! Thanks for your effort with the English language. It's mainly the stitching on my wallets that I'm having problems with. I am using linen thread at the moment so I will try to get some tar/pitch. (Haha your translator often translated "pech" as [bad luck] instead of "pitch") I currently have both beeswax and paraffin wax. Vielleicht "to render" ist das richtige wort. Ich weiß nicht. Ich lerne immer noch alle Terminologien! =D

[Northmount]

Brown paper bag works well for burnishing the thread too.

Tom

[walter roth]

Hy guys.

New Zealand...Hmmmm, pretty far away.

Well, I would've taken probably normally even bitumen as a word for pitch.

But really, pitch would have been.

I use although a Trabnslater, but only to the control.

But it is, can be not well corrected what you write, as you can see over the mistakes often.

Well, learn again correct English would be just said...(((-:

But honestly, I would make fine seams for wallets and use synthetic thread. But twisted thread, not braided.

The braided thread is no beautiful seam.

Such work would be very suitable a Campbell thread, because the seam looks best. In Campbell, the number 12 in something would be the right thing for you.

Campbell is synthetic in the core but without cotton.

But take wax with stearin, which is better than with Prafin.

Greeting

Walter

Oh yes, anything else because of the polishing of the edges.

Qwe sattler used a cloth 40 x 40 cm.

Should be as thick and made of linen.

I wet the at the beginning of something with edges gloss and then he is it longer in the use is ...umso better. With time, the cloth is quite smooth and the edge polishing is always better.

I mostly use my polishing cloth so 5-7 years, no longer usable until they are all frayed points, then I take a new cloth.

Greetings

Walter

Edited November 4, 2013 by walter roth

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

Northmount - Thanks, quick and easy!

Walter - Thanks again for the detail of your advice. Yea I'm starting to think I might go to a finer thread for this wallet in particular that I'll be stitching. It's the biggest one I've done. It has card pockets, a coin pouch and paper money pocket. My ones before have all been simple card wallets and so the thicker thread gave a bit more substance to the items. But this one is big so maybe I can go finer now =] Yea I like to use the same polishing cloth over and over. You're right, it gets better and better for polishing =D

[jimmy eng]

I use the same thread (cord 3 = literally three cords of thread wrapped around each other) and beeswax to coat it. It doesn't take much, I put the thread around a post, pull it taut and give a few light rubs of a block of beeswax then get a piece of calico (or anything else you want to use) and rub it up and down the thread until it feels smooth and slightly stiffer.

After sewing I use a flat head hammer to flatten the stitching on both sides and run the stitching wheel over the work to straighten up the stitches.

Calico is a cheap unbleached loose weave cotton fabric, smells like musty dampened cloth and looks like it too. I use it a lot as I'm a dress maker by trade and use it to make clothing samples, you can find it in every fabric store. Any natural fibre I imagine would give the best results as synthetics aren't great with high heat.

[walter roth]

Hello

If you the thread with wax treated, ......considering the only over the wax, ready.

Only when the pitch you runs the thread through a cloth to make the pitch warm and he penetrates in the thread.

So with the cloth you can save that you grow.

Greeting

Walter

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

Jimmy - Ah yep sweet thanks. I always waxed it but I never burnished it with a cloth. I'll try that out. Also I always want to hammer it out after but i don't have a mallet =/ Thanks though. It's sorta re-prompting me to get on and get one.

Walter - Thanks again for your input

[Matt S]

You got a knife and a piece of wood? Then you have a mallet.

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

haha brilliant matt. I'll look out for a good block. I had previously tried a weight (from a set of gym weights) but I think your idea sounds more like an actual mallet =D thanks

[blue duck]

I use the same thread (cord 3 = literally three cords of thread wrapped around each other) and beeswax to coat it. It doesn't take much, I put the thread around a post, pull it taut and give a few light rubs of a block of beeswax then get a piece of calico (or anything else you want to use) and rub it up and down the thread until it feels smooth and slightly stiffer.

After sewing I use a flat head hammer to flatten the stitching on both sides and run the stitching wheel over the work to straighten up the stitches.

Calico is a cheap unbleached loose weave cotton fabric, smells like musty dampened cloth and looks like it too. I use it a lot as I'm a dress maker by trade and use it to make clothing samples, you can find it in every fabric store. Any natural fibre I imagine would give the best results as synthetics aren't great with high heat.

I believe here in the US the material Jimmy Eng refers to as calico, is called muslin. In case it happens to be something you are looking for. Calico here is usually a small flowed print fabric. Just as a gee whiz.

[jimmy eng]

Cheers for the local term update bluey, muslin in Australia is cheese cloth!

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

Thanks guys. Yea I know muslin a soft somewhat stretchy fabric

[jimmy eng]

Muslin isn't stretchy, it's a thin loose weave cotton fabric (the fibres are not woven tight together so they let through a lot of air) so it could seem to be stretchy.

[Nuttish]

What kind and size of thread are you using and what kind of work are you doing? Do you want a prominent contrast thread? Are you making heavy use items?

I'm wondering if it's too big for your project. You don't necessarily need to groove your stitch line if you're saddle stitching a thinner thread. My work is more "European" style so I'm using 332, 432 and 532 Sajou Au Chinoise cable linen, as one of the first posters recommended. It's substantially narrower than the 4+ ply threads some people use. Using high quality thread suited to my projects has improved my stitching 1000%. There's no need to set Au Chinois in a groove because my focus is absolutely not to show a prominent contrasting thread. It's quite lovely and solves every single one of the problems you addressed. It's highly polished and slightly waxed. The slick finish makes it easy to sew with. It's not actually substantially more expensive that decent quality 100% Irish linen unless you know to buy unbranded Crawford's from Royalwood. :-)

Tiger thread isn't for everyone. It's braided and sometimes difficult to stitch around, lending itself to picking off very small synthetic threads that are a pain to unstitch. Those can appear fuzzy even if you manage not to break them, though they seem easy enough to slick back down with some wax and a quick canvas burnish. You can even cheat by running a lighter under them very quickly to shrink up the synthetic fuzzies. I also don't like the sizes of Tiger that I've been able to get in the States in the last few months. The German company that makes Tiger is frankly offensive to me as a small outfit not buying commercial quantities for manufacturing — they don't respond to inquiries so it's hard to find suppliers or learn more about the product. Screw those guys. Shrug.

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

Muslin isn't stretchy, it's a thin loose weave cotton fabric (the fibres are not woven tight together so they let through a lot of air) so it could seem to be stretchy.

Ah I see, thanks for keeping me sharp ;]

[KiwiLeatherLearner]

What kind and size of thread are you using and what kind of work are you doing? Do you want a prominent contrast thread? Are you making heavy use items?

I'm wondering if it's too big for your project. You don't necessarily need to groove your stitch line if you're saddle stitching a thinner thread. My work is more "European" style so I'm using 332, 432 and 532 Sajou Au Chinoise cable linen, as one of the first posters recommended. It's substantially narrower than the 4+ ply threads some people use. Using high quality thread suited to my projects has improved my stitching 1000%. There's no need to set Au Chinois in a groove because my focus is absolutely not to show a prominent contrasting thread. It's quite lovely and solves every single one of the problems you addressed. It's highly polished and slightly waxed. The slick finish makes it easy to sew with. It's not actually substantially more expensive that decent quality 100% Irish linen unless you know to buy unbranded Crawford's from Royalwood. :-)

Tiger thread isn't for everyone. It's braided and sometimes difficult to stitch around, lending itself to picking off very small synthetic threads that are a pain to unstitch. Those can appear fuzzy even if you manage not to break them, though they seem easy enough to slick back down with some wax and a quick canvas burnish. You can even cheat by running a lighter under them very quickly to shrink up the synthetic fuzzies. I also don't like the sizes of Tiger that I've been able to get in the States in the last few months. The German company that makes Tiger is frankly offensive to me as a small outfit not buying commercial quantities for manufacturing — they don't respond to inquiries so it's hard to find suppliers or learn more about the product. Screw those guys. Shrug.

I'm currently using a 3 cord 100% flax linen thread. I'm mainly making belts and wallets and I like the stitching to be a feature (while my work is still looking "home-made" anyway =] )

Yea I've been meaning to look into yet more threads and your mentioning of a 1000% betterment is exciting haha and YEA I've run the lighter along my belt stitching. Seems to be doing the trick. I'm yet to try it on the wallets. Wallets, being in, and being taken in and out of pockets would in my opinion put items as heavy use in regards to the stitching anyway (the friction n stuff).

I've been using a lot of black thread recently (that is plain thread that I dye myself and then wax in the way that Jimmy Eng does) so I'm thinking that I might just buy a spool of black prewaxed thread to help solve my problems. I assume that a mass produced dyed and waxed thread might give more consistent and pleasing results.

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your time =]

Edited November 30, 2013 by KiwiLeatherLearner