Creasing

[silverwingit]

Just a quick note about flames sources. You don't want to use a match, cigarette lighter or candle as they will soot up your creaser. Based on advice on leatherworker I bought a nice little soot-free alcohol lamp just for this purpose.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QDP42K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Good luck and please let us know how you fare.

Michelle

[Tannin]

Neat. I recently bough a screw crease. I warmed mine on the top of my wood-burner (I used a wooden stick to keep the wooden handle off the hot surface). It seemed to work well enough but I am still new to this tool. I found it quite difficult to follow edges, particularly round corners - although it work well on a straight strap. I wonder if a thick, curved piece of wire or an old screw driver, ground with a curved & rounded edge might work as well or better though.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Tannin

[Basically Bob]

Tannin,

Keep practicing and you will get better with the creaser. Corners are difficult at first but you will get better at it. On a rounded corner, I will move the creaser and the leather at the same time. You will eventually get a feel for it.

Also, it really isn't necessary to use the creaser hot on veg tan leather. I use mine cold all the time, starting with a light line on the leather, dry. After I have a line set, I wet the leather, let it come back close to its original colour then do it again with lots of pressure.

Just curious, what type of screw crease are you using?

Keep practicing

[Tannin]

Thanks Bob. I have a new Dixon screw crease. I bought mine from Dixon's on eBay.co.uk, they just started selling there. I made an offer price and they accepted it. Simpler and better than ordering from their website I think. The tool itself looks better than their standard image the screw is rather long tho.

[unicornleather]

Traditionally we hot crease bridlework in the UK, the reason is to seal the fibres of the hide on the edges and to give it a decorative crease mark.

The crease line should be about 1/16th of an inch in from the edge on bespoke handmade bridles, the finer the crease the better quality the work.

The mark for the stitches (pricking iron) should be 1/8th of an inch in from the edge, is other words the line of the stitches and the crease mark should be equidistant from each other and the edge.

The heavier the work as in say harness or headcollars the crease can be further in to suit the heavy feel of the work in question.

When you buy a screw crease you need to file the edge down a little, I will try to get a photo of mine in the next day or two to show you.Filing makes sure one edge is higher than the other to help you "lock it into the edge" whilst creasing and the lower edge of the crease when hot will seal the edges of the leather/fibres nicely. Look at this photo,

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you can see that both sides of the crease are the same length, this makes it hard to use to get finer thinner and narrower lines, if you file the left side down a little so it's shorter it works properly and gives you GOOD crease marks.

Always cold crease first, then heat the iron a few seconds in a gas flame (don't use anything else or it puts soot on the crease which sticks and catches the crease on the leather as well as blackening lighter coloured leathers)

Hold it over hand like you are going to bring it down as in a stabbing action and follow your cold creased line, try do do as much as you can in one go without stopping other than to re heat the crease again. DON'T have the crease so hot it burns the leather, the idea is to melt the fats in the hide to give you a nice shiny crease mark.

I always bring it back towards me, it's easier to control and lock your arm in position, don't bring your arm back but move your whole body back by stepping or leaning back as I do, you'll get a much neater straighter line doing it that way.

If you have to stop mid line to re heat the crease simply go back a couple of inches over what you have done and gently bring the crease back into the cold creased line and apply a little more pressure to continue.

Hope this helps?

It's hard to try to explain it, it's something I take for granted as I have been doing in nearly 30 years in the English saddlery trade.

Oz

Edited December 10, 2014 by unicornleather

[Tannin]

Thank you Unicornleather, that is very helpful I will try to put that into practice. Making the two sides of the tool uneven makes sense to me although, me being new to this & the tool being new, I will likely be cautious grinding the tool down. I almost bought a used screw crease (was out-bid several times) - I expect some used ones would already have been ground-down; I saw one where the edges looked quite fine/slim, almost sharp. Interesting to hear how you use this to mark your stitch line, I will try that; I currently use a pair of old cobbler's dividers to scratch my guide line (per Nigel Armitage's youtube videos).

BTW This is Dixon's ebay store: http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/joseph-dixon-leather-tools

Edited December 11, 2014 by Tannin

[unicornleather]

Thank you Unicornleather, that is very helpful I will try to put that into practice. Making the two sides of the tool uneven makes sense to me although, me being new to this & the tool being new, I will likely be cautious grinding the tool down. I almost bought a used screw crease (was out-bid several times) - I expect some used ones would already have been ground-down; I saw one where the edges looked quite fine/slim, almost sharp. Interesting to hear how you use this to mark your stitch line, I will try that; I currently use a pair of old cobbler's dividers to scratch my guide line (per Nigel Armitage's youtube videos).

BTW This is Dixon's ebay store: http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/joseph-dixon-leather-tools

You can use both to mark where you need to prick out the stitch marks, use the dividers when the screw crease is still too warm to use to mark the where the stitches go.

[MonicaJacobson]

Great thread - I'm about to a creaser, so this has been very valuable.

[lranger]

For what it's worth:

This is a tool I recently made. It is a 120v- 30w wood burning iron, but I made the metal tip that you see on it. The tips attach to the iron by a single screw. The wattage is low so it doesn't actually burn, or scorch the leather.

I have been using it on the painted edges of light weight garment leather like the French fileteuse tool is used in the videos going around lately. It really works very well. I run the flat surface along the edge before painting and it really smoothes the edge. Then I paint the edge, and run the flat surface along the edge again.

Also, if you run the flat surface of the tip along the flat surface of the edge of the leather, it will also smooth that surface and compress it somewhat. It takes out the pebble wrinkles in the surface of the leather, making it smooth.

And, if I use the thin edge of the tip and run it along the leather, it makes a very nice crease. I am going to make another tip, but smaller and rounded for doing creases, so it will go around corners.

I am amazed at how well it works.

[lranger]

Here is a pic of a quick example I just made.

I made a crease around the inside of the stitching on the vegtan piece.

The black piece is 2 oz. garment. I put a crease around one side and I smoothed the edge surface on the other side.

It will also smooth and compress the flesh side, getting rid of the hairs.

I only recently made this tool and I have not experimented with it very much.