Tandy Leather Craftool Chisel Set

[Boriqua]

The finish on mine are about the same, however they do work pretty well. If you want them smoother, you can work on them some with jeweler's files, or I know I have some things for the Foredom that would polish them up. Any decent quality steel can be made better.

Art

Hey Art .. is the individual prong width consistent over the different chisels. Im pretty good with sharpening and polishing so I could clean those up but my biggest complaint about the Tandy set was the holes being one size when punched with the single or double prong and another on the 6 and 4. Thank you so much for your sharing your personal experience!!

Alex

Edited September 3, 2015 by Boriqua

[DR80]

The finish on mine are about the same, however they do work pretty well. If you want them smoother, you can work on them some with jeweler's files, or I know I have some things for the Foredom that would polish them up. Any decent quality steel can be made better.

Art

Hey Art .. is the individual prong width consistent over the different chisels. Im pretty good with sharpening and polishing so I could clean those up but my biggest complaint about the Tandy set was the holes being one size when punched with the single or double prong and another on the 6 and 4. Thank you so much for your sharing your personal experience!!

Alex

I think it's different thickness, because goods japan sells different single chisels, dependent on spi.

[Colt W Knight]

My problem with the Siewa is that it doesnt look finished very well between the prongs which makes it a pain to remove once you have hammered it through your leather. I took a close up screenshot of one being offered by goods japan on ebay. Is anyone making a chisel that is Finished. Those insides should be polished. I have to admit I am getting tired of spending fair money on tools that I have to finish making usable.

On all my leather punches, I have started "dipping" them in beeswax before punching. Tools really like to get stuck in thick leather, and the beeswax makes it easier to removes and keeps them sharper longer. It also prevents bending tools because you don't have to wiggle and pry them out of the leather.

I have a chunk of beeswax I keep on my table, and before I punch something, I just dab the tool into the wax.

Ultimately, if you want the best stitching holes and uniformity, I would move to using quality pricking irons and a sharp/polished diamond awl. I got tired of hand stitching and bought a sewing machine. Hand stitching yields better results, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think many people care about the difference between well done hand stitching and well done machine stitching.

[25b]

Paraffin wax works as well as beeswax and is readily available in grocery stores (baking section...stuff I have was made by "gulf"...same as the old gas stations. )

I found it difficult to find beeswax locally. I eventually found some, oddly enough, at the local Renaissance festival.

[ContactCement]

I recently purchased the Craftool Pro Fine Diamond Awl 3.5mm. It punches through 2 layers of leather fine. However removing the tool and its prongs is another story with or without hard beeswax rubbed on the prongs. The Craftool Pro Fine Diamond Awl 3.5mm prongs made 7 diamond slots / stitches per inch in White leather and didn't look good with 150 speedy stitcher waxed thread. My imported diamond punch from China made better 8 stitches per inch with the same thread in the Brown leather.

[bikermutt07]

I'm throwing in my .02.

If I had it to do over again, I would order the crimson hide chisels\irons.

They are a hibred of chisels and pricking irons.

Nigel has a great video about them.

I may still do it over again.