Heavy Waxed Thread

[Troy Burch]

I used some of Tandys heavily waxed thread, even though my hands and table were clean the wax turned a dirty grey. Is there some way to clean it without hurting the antique and finish? Thanks Troy

[mlapaglia]

I dont know of a way but next time run the thread between some brown paper from a paper bag and remove the excess wax. Sorry I dont have a better idea.

[WScott]

Ya, burnish it a bit first so the excess wax won't pick up as much junk while stitching.

I asked a similar question when stitching a red oil tanned bag up and was getting muddy red thread instead of crisp white contrast. The experts on here suggested I don't use too long of white threads...ie the more the same threads have to pull through the leather, the more stuff they pick up. So I switched to stitching sections of the bag at a time rather than long threads the whole way around.

Another thought is to switch to a better thread.....I like my Tiger Thread, but there is a lot of discussion on the forum about good alternatives.

Hope that helps

Cheers, Scott

Edited July 31, 2014 by WScott

[Troy Burch]

Thanks for the replies.I will definitely clean off the wax if I use this stuff again but WScott probly has the best idea to use a better thread.

[cgleathercraft]

Had the same issue with Tandy thread. Bought a few different kinds/sizes from a couple different places and waxed some myself. I had mixed success.

Heard lots of good things about Tiger thread. Finally bit the bullet and ordered a couple spools of 0.8mm. Shipping from England to Midwest was faster than I expected at about a week(if I remember correctly). Just running a short 3" line to test it out on some scrap 8oz and I am sold. I followed Nigel's videos on YouTube as well.

The rest of my thread will sit on the back of the shelf until I have an absolute need for it or buy a machine.

[Troy Burch]

Had the same issue with Tandy thread. Bought a few different kinds/sizes from a couple different places and waxed some myself. I had mixed success.

Heard lots of good things about Tiger thread. Finally bit the bullet and ordered a couple spools of 0.8mm. Shipping from England to Midwest was faster than I expected at about a week(if I remember correctly). Just running a short 3" line to test it out on some scrap 8oz and I am sold. I followed Nigel's videos on YouTube as well.

The rest of my thread will sit on the back of the shelf until I have an absolute need for it or buy a machine.

Could you give me the site you ordered from and would you know what mm size would be just smaller than the 277 thread. Thank You Troy

[cgleathercraft]

Could you give me the site you ordered from and would you know what mm size would be just smaller than the 277 thread. Thank You Troy

For the SIZE comparison I checked here, near the bottom of the page:

http://www.thethreadexchange.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=nylon-thread-information

basically 277 thread is approximately 0.5867 mm.

Abbey England have a comparable sized Tiger thread at 0.6 mm diameter in 1000 m spools

Found here: http://www.abbeyengland.com/Store/tabid/77/productid/68933/language/en-GB/Default.aspx?txtSearch=tiger+thread

I went with the 0.8 mm Tiger thread which is approximately the same size as 415 thread.

FYI Tiger thread is meant for hand sewing only. I haven't heard of anyone using it for machine sewing. The reason I only do hand sewing because I don't have a machine.

[Troy Burch]

Thanks cgleathercraft that's just what I needed. I have 2 machines a Boss and an Adler 205 but sometimes I hand stitch also but not enough to know what to use.

[Nuttish]

I used some of Tandys heavily waxed thread, even though my hands and table were clean the wax turned a dirty grey. Is there some way to clean it without hurting the antique and finish? Thanks Troy

I use a stiff denture brush to remove some of the dirt that seems to collect on my thread. Notice that you can sometimes scrape it off with your fingernail, which means it hasn't penetrated the thread.

I also wear nitrile gloves when I'm working with very bright white thread and something like Chromexcel. It's pretty filthy stuff.