Which Pricking Iron Do You Own?

[DavidL]

Which pricking iron do you think is the best

Im in need of a new 6 SPI iron

Choices

-Vergez blanchard ($150 for 6 teeth - not 10 teeth like the picture below)

-Leprovo ($90 for one inch iron)

-barnsley ( $150 for 10 teeth)

If you had a choice which would you pick and why?

[electrathon]

I have a few different Japanese ones, very happy with them and they were not expensive.

[kevinp]

I have some Joseph Dixon ones in 8 per inch and 6 per inch. they are very nice to use and are sharp.

[cjmt]

If all your options are for brand new pricking irons vergez Blanchard is in a totally different league to your other choices. Old dixons or if your very lucky new Dixons on a good day are their only competitors in the same league of quality

Charlie

[longtooth]

Dixon----12 stitches to the inch. Mainly use this for English work.

[Sona]

I just have two Blanchards and two japanese ones. So I can´t compare them to Dixon or one of the others. Acually I don´t really use the japanese one anymore which is more like a chisel. But I just love the blachards. Quite fine work, marks are not that wide, so you won´t get problems with smaller threads and for me it´s just a joy to work with them. Yes, they are expensive... but I for myself will just save some money to buy another Blachard with a different SPI rather then testing the other ones. Reason for that might be, that a lot of people say, that Blanchard is just the (!) top quality, and I love it. So why trying sth different

Edited March 6, 2014 by Sona

[rawcustom]

I have to agree with Sona's line of thinking on this. I think most of us try to live thrifty, but a good tool so often redeems itself in the improved quality of results, and joy of use that I'm forced to think of the saying "buy once, cry once". For me personally, I always think of my tools in line with inheritance as well. I plan to teach my boy a few of my hobbies, and someday when I'm old or dead, he'll have some quality tools to use and remember me by, and with any luck will pass on the cycle to the next generation. Nobody is interested in inheriting the Harbor Freight items in the shop.

[DavidL]

would any who owns an old barnsley say they equal in quality to vergez blanchard? i have a blanchard but they are pricy.

[cjmt]

I do and no, not in my opinion. Dixons are historically the English counterpart to Blanchard though they have had issues in recent years (but seem to be getting better). Barnsley has always been a slightly more budget option. Recent stuff has been really poor (nylon rollers on plough gauges for e.g.), older stuff is better but was still the budget professional choice of its time.

Charlie

[evandailey]

I do not have any experience with any others except the diamond point ones from GoodsJapan (which eventually broke two prongs off), but I bought these sometime last year on a whim from this seller because of the price and I can't imagine much that a single pricking iron at 10x the price would do that these won't. Seem to be well made. The teeth come to very fine points (edges really) and seem to be properly hardened. I don't know that I'd go pounding them all the way through 2 layers of 8 oz. veg. tan, but that's not what they're for. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Line-Pro-Stitch-3-38mm-3-85mm-Leather-Chisel-Craft-Hole-Piercing-Punch-Tool-/331130001294?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item4d18e2d78e