Die Accuracy

[Nuttish]

I'm looking to have some dies made to cut pieces for small goods that will be saddle stitched at around 9 spi.

Some of the hipster stuff I'm looking to compete with appears to have its stitch holes punched by the die, and they're larger and spaced farther than my work requires — I'm using .6mm thread and (hopefully not much longer, since they're not practicale for production work) pricking irons.

Is it possible to get dies made that include flat blades at 3mm from the edge to open stitch holes at 9 spi? I've spent quite a lot of time trying to understand how steel rule dies are made, and it appears that there is a limited number of punches available commercially and they're all round. Perhaps I should be looking at CNC milled dies? Laser cut?

Any insight appreciated.

[DavidL]

Each individual hole will cost a few dollars each and 9 SPI has 100-200 holes for a wallet. Use a scratch compass and a pricking iron make the stitching holes.

[Macca]

its going to be very, very costly, if its even possible.

I don't think you will find many places willing to even try it, keeping those slits perfectly aligned over time would require a huge chunk of metal behind them tapering down (like pricking irons but all round the piece)

Also, that would be a monster press required & good luck getting the cut leather piece off it afterwards !

I do understand why you would like to go this route, I think the stuff with round holes & large stitching are horrible

But I don't see any shortcuts unfortunately

Each individual hole will cost a few dollars each and 9 SPI has 100-200 holes for a wallet. Use a scratch compass and a pricking iron make the stitching holes.

he is already using pricking irons

[Neillo]

It can most likely be done, but it'll be very expensive.

Weaver leather makes custom dies but to my knowledge they use the round hole punches and they can only be space so close together.

Your best option if you want to do any kind of large production is to use dies to cut the parts, mark the seam allowance and sew with a machine.

If you insist on hand stitching, you'll have to look into some advanced and expensive custom dies. I vaguely remember seeing a die making company

that used diamond hole punches in their dies, you might be able to find them in 9 SPI if you're lucky and do some looking around.

The craftool stitch fork below is about the closest i've seen to what they used in those dies; the 1/8" spacing would yield just over 8 SPI and might be

the way to go if someone can integrate that into a die.

Here's a pic for reference, good luck Nuttish!

Edited April 28, 2014 by Neillo

[Nuttish]

I figured a production process out. Thanks.