Expensive Vs Cheap Pricking Iron

[St8LineGunsmith]

as long as you are placing the stitches in correct sequence then you don't need to make the knot.

despite popular belief the knot don't make the stitch any stronger

but ya the pricking iron will have no effect whatsoever on the result you are trying to achieve. the pricking irons only purpose is to mark an evenly spaced stitch hole line.

FYI you can still get a nice herring bone effect on your stitching with a grooved stitch line as long as you stay in sequence.

[St8LineGunsmith]

watch Dangerous beans make the saddle stitch this is how to do the saddle stitch the right way

http://youtu.be/TGuiha5S2oE

[9tpi]

I always buy the very best tools I can afford. I'm a Hydraulics technician by trade and ONLY buy Snap-on tools.

With the exception of "designer" goods, there is usually a good reason for the difference in price. Weather it's the materials used or how those materials are treated. For example the Vergez Blanchard pricking irons are hand forged (hardened) steel, allowing the tangs to stay sharper longer. I doubt Tandy stuff is anything near that level of quality.

If leather is something you plan to work with for a while, I'd buy quality.

IMO.

I may have veered off topic slightly, but it fits the expensive vs cheap argument.

Edited February 19, 2014 by 9tpi

[JerryLevine]

Chris,

I'm with 9tpi. I've used both stitch marking wheel/overstitch wheel (mine are the fixed wheel variety, mostly from Gomph) and pricking irons. I prefer the pricking iron method because it marks the slant for you so it always comes out uniformly angled. That said I would not disagree with the methods described above. If you search you tube for "nigel armitage saddle stitch" you'll see the pricking iron in action: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGuiha5S2oE

A couple more things that may also help with the slant:

As others have mentioned above, how you hold your awl is critical to a consistent stitch. If you can find the correct position of the awl and then carve a finger notch in the handle or carve the handle in some way so your hand can always come back to the same position with the awl at the same angle, that will help considerably. You do have to practice keeping the awl perpendicular as well so you maintain an even stitch on the back side of your project: this can be very tiring until your muscle memory kicks in!

In order to help with this, you could mark a light line on the back of the project with your dividers set the same as your stitch line (if you can do it without marring the project) which will help with your aim and getting all the stitches out in the same line.

Good luck,

Edited March 10, 2015 by JerryLevine

[silverwingit]

I have a bit of a different view on stitching from previous posts. What camano ridge described is classic Western stitching as taught by Al Stolhman. Nigel Armitage (Dangerous Beans), being a Master British Saddle Maker, teaches classic British saddle stitching.

The major difference is in the finished product. Western stitching recesses the stitches in a groove where British stitching relies on the tension applied to the stitch work to recess the stitch line. The means for achieving the two types of stitching also differ. Both overstitch wheels and pricking irons are effective in determining the location and hence the spacing of the stitches. But what hasn't been mentioned is that the pricking iron serves a couple other important functions. It helps guide the awl blade into that slanted position where the overstitch wheel doesn't provide any assistance for this. With an overstitch wheel method of spacing stitches, the leatherworker's hand-eye coordination, technique and muscle memory are left to determine the angle of the awl. The pricking iron also serves to ensure that the stitches fall in the right location along the slant and hence in a straight line. If you push the awl through off-center along the slant, the ends of the pricking iron marks guide the blade back toward the center.

In my own experimentation, I tried using an overstitch wheel without first using a stitch groover to see an apple-to-apple comparison of the effectiveness of the wheel against a pricking iron. What I discovered is that using the groover forces stitches to lie in the straight line of the groove. In other words, the groove hides small deviations from perfectly straight or from that elusive 45 degree angle. The exact position and angle of the awl doesn't matter so much since the stitches will be forced into that straight groove anyway.

So it is a personal preference sort of thing. You like one or the other for your own reasons. But, do try both and experiment like I did. You will learn volumes and be in much better position to decide for yourself. I personally appreciate the beauty of the zig-zag appearance of British stitching.

Michelle

[REN]

I used Blanchard, disappointed. I love the high end Chinese pricking iron now. They are hand polished and punch through thick leather easily and have beautiful line. It's the only thing I need to make a hole for stitching, nothing else. But for box stitching I still use awl.

[Geoff]

I used Blanchard, disappointed. I love the high end Chinese pricking iron now. They are hand polished and punch through thick leather easily and have beautiful line. It's the only thing I need to make a hole for stitching, nothing else. But for box stitching I still use awl.

Could you please provide a link to the high end Chinese tools?

[REN]

Could you please provide a link to the high end Chinese tools?

there are a few on taobao.com I post some pic on Instagram, the good ones are mainly pricking iron or edger. My Instagram is RenLeather

[Django57]

Hi i have had a look on your instagram and your stitching is very neat , i noticed the name C.mason on one of the Pricking Irons but i can't find anything about that company on the net , could you post a link to there web site please ?

[grmnsplx]

I am also interested.

taobao.com is almost entirely Chinese so searching it is a problem (for me). Have you got a contact for the seller? perhaps they also have an Alibaba store?