Making Holes For Saddle Stitching Your Leather

[camano ridge]

I pre punch my holes with a diamond awl chucked in an unplugged drill press. I do not like drilling holes with a drill bit, essentialy you are burnishing the holes as you drill and it does not heal up. As to rub off on your thread I usually use a little bit longer piece of thread and figiure the first 10 -12" on each end will be waste as that is where most of the dye will bepicked up the rest of the thread should be clean. As you stitch and near the end of your thread and the thread that is left is looking dingy or discolored from the dye rub off cut it off and finish stitching with a new piece of thread repeat as needed.

[Camerius]

I do both, depending on the project that I'm working with. If it's one of my slip cases, then I pre-punch all the holes first with a chisel. If it's a wallet or such, then I use a pricking iron and awl. In both cases I want the stitching to look good while being aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Pre-punching can be good as it can be a time saver on some projects, while going the the pricking iron and awl means that you want to take more care or be more mindful of what you're doing as it takes more skill that way.

[Tannin]

I mark & start the holes using a Pricking Iron. Then I use a saddler's awl to open up the holes, one stitch at a time, when sewing (saddle stitch). That's how Nigel Armitage does it on his excellent youtube videos. Why one hole at a time? Well, the holes start to close up quite quickly, especially if you open up another hole nearby.

[NVLeatherWorx]

I also use both methods, but I used to only use the stitching awl as that is all we had at the time I started. My choice for any given moment is based on two factors: 1) The size of the project, and, 2) Is speed (time) a factor for the project. Regarding the comment about a diamond punch leaving a bigger hole that won't quite close all the way there is a trick to that: only punch your lines when the leather is completely dry, don't driver the punch all the way to the hilt, and ALWAYS make sure that you have a stitching groove on the presentation side. All too often with some of the modern examples of hand-stitched work I see that there is no stitching groove where the stitching line is. This groove is the channel that helps give your stitches a uniform, straight, clean look and also helps to protect the thread from early wear as it protects it from rubbing on everything and from moving around (which we all know weakens the fibers of the material). Not to mention, one of the most common questions ever asked in any forum on the web is "how do I get my stitching to look like this" and then have an image of a perfect line that is even and clean.

There are several users of the awl that I also notice when I am monitoring classes and other venues where leather is being worked that do not use a spacing wheel first to ensure that they have even hole placement, there is nothing more unprofessional looking than unequally spaced stitches that meander all over the place. There are so many examples of this result that you can find thousands of them by just doing a simple internet search for hand-stitched leather goods and then viewing the images. Most scary part of this is that the vast majority of those items are actually being sold online and frequently for prices higher than most of us list our works.

The bottom line is that either method is fine and everyone has to pick their direction but we all have to ensure that we do it right all of the time.

[Tannin]

... All too often with some of the modern examples of hand-stitched work I see that there is no stitching groove where the stitching line is. This groove is the channel that helps give your stitches a uniform, straight, clean look and also helps to protect the thread from early wear as it protects it from rubbing on everything and from moving around (which we all know weakens the fibers of the material). ..

I'm pretty new to this but from I can gather, cutting a stitching groove is the prevalent(/traditional?) style in the USA but in England saddlers do not traditionally/normally cut a groove unless there is a particular need to protect the stitching concerned. I believe the reason is that the outer layer of the leather is the toughest part, so they want to leave that intact. Nigel Armitage marks his stitch line with a pair of dividers (e.g. set to 6mm from the edge) & then marks even stitch hole positions along the line with a pricking iron. Then uses the awl to open up the slots cut by the pricking iron, one stitch at a time.

That's not to say one method is better than the other - just different. With the thick leathers that I am currently using for relatively light duty, cutting a groove would not be a problem and might well improve my stitching. It would reduce the thickness of leather that the awl has to go through too.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Tannin

[jqtoms]

MonicaJacobson,

Please excuse my ignorance, I am new to this. You said above "I use a pricking iron and go all the way around in advance. I have sewed two pieces of 9 oz together in this fashion. Lots of counting holes, though."

What did you mean by counting holes?

I have used a pricking iron to and then diamond awl to sew. The thread was too large the pricking iron's spacing so I skipped a mark each time. Is that what you are referring to?

Thanks.

[MonicaJacobson]

HiJQ,

If the project is small enough, I glue the two pieces of leather together before I pierce the holes. If I'm using the pricking iron to put holes in a gusset, I usually count them when I finish to make sure both gussets have the same number of holes. Otherwise, it will come out uneven. It's not a problem if everything is exactly the same size and you're not careless, but I often make mistakes, so I like to make sure.

Also, when I'm making something with softer, thinner, chrome tanned leather, the leather tends to stretch when I use the pricking iron, and I'll have too many holes on one side and not enough on the other. I suspect this is because I don't own very good pricking irons. Or perhaps in those cases, I should just use an awl to make the holes.

What projects are you working on, and how many holes per inch are you using? You might want to invest in smaller thread. Tiger thread comes in .8 mm, which is plenty small for everything but watch straps and wallets. You can get it from Ludlow Leather supply, and it's basically the same price as cheap Tandy thread.

[jqtoms]

Monica,

Thanks for the reply.

I bought this set: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CBRVKOK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use it to make mark where I wanted to put the holes on the finished side. I did not mark the back side except for a groove to line up the awl when it came out the backside.

Because I am rather new, I have bought numerous threads and it has been hit and miss. I bought some Thread Exchange. One shipment was too thin (thread for machine sewing) and the other was too large for the diamond awl (waxed polyester #554). I ordered some 1mm from Ludlow a few days ago and am looking forward to trying it out. Now I am afraid it may be too thick and I should have ordered the .8mm.

I am making a leather clutch out chromexcel and I think it may be too thick. It was my first craft leather purpose. I do not know the exact thickness because it was scarps from Aurora Shoe Company. I will order a 5 or 6 ounce next time unless I find out that is what I have now. I pretty much have to order and compare different products because I do not know leather people here. My first three projects looked much better than this past one because I used a 4 prong hole punch which leaves a pretty large whole that I am pretty sure rope could fit through

With this leather and the diamond awl, I found the holes to have hardly a diamond shape.

[MonicaJacobson]

I can't really give you the best information, unfortunately. I largely only make bags, and .8 mm looks good on that size. I made a wallet/clutch recently and found out that the 6 holes per inch pricking iron I was using was not small enough, I needed smaller needles and even thinner thread than .8mm. If everything is too big, the leather tends to get mangled, especially as you really need to use thin leathers, something else I found out on that project.

I haven't gotten around to researching what I will need yet, but I do know I need a nice pricking iron that is more like 8-10 spi. Sorry I can't be more precise than that. There are a lot of wallet makers here that could probably give you better information.

But don't let that discourage you. The best thing you can do is just try it with what you've got and see how it goes. It's always fun to see your own progress as you do more projects and get better.

Go through the forums with the search option. It's time consuming, but if you find someone's work you really like, they'll often say what oz leather they used, what size thread, and you can ask them what kind of tools they have.

[jqtoms]

Thanks again Monica. I appreciate your time and thoughts. I will search around for pieces and their crafters. Have a good weekend!

JT