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kt72664

Messy cutting....

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Hi, I am a total newcomer to leatherwork.  I have a Singer 111w and a Chinese shoe-patcher, no problems with either.  My question is whether or not there is a way to avoid the presser foot tooth marks on leather items? are there smoother feet sold, or could you file some of the sharpness off a spare set, and the pressure alone would be enough to move items sewn?  Also, I have been teaching myself via YouTube and books how to make leather pouches (I am using 6 oz. leather)...but after trying to use a box cutter, a rotary cutter, and scissors...I can't get clean cuts, particularly in corners.  What do you do about that? -  Thanks for any help~!

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If you can post a pic of the offending cuts. It may tell us something about what is happening in the corners and how it might be better.

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I can't at the moment, but I will try to describe....at the juncture of the corner there will always be "tufts" of leather, which I have been trying to go in and clean up with a craft knife, which in turn creates more lumps, or tufts, like I haven't completely cut the leather in the corner, and have kind of pulled that last little bit by hand....bcs with the rotary cutter, etc, I would try to clean it up and kept going deeper and deeper...they look raggedy....

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Perhaps this will help. When you cut with either a rotary tool or box cutter exactly to your marked line you still have the thickness of the leather to contend with. With some wood tools like band saws or jig saws the blade is vertical and you can cut right up to your mark but a box cutter wont do that. On the surface it will look like you have 2 intersecting lines but at the bottom there is still very much a leather connection and when you go to pull it apart .. Tufts!

You can solve this by going past your marks on the intersecting lines but that can waste material. What I do if I want to cut out a corner without over cutting my line is to cut up to the line say with your box cutter but then I use an exacto knife and I tilt it in under the leather. With the tip of the exacto in my cutting board I lift the exacto blade so that it cuts from underneath until it is even with the cut I made on top. Wala .. nice clean corner with no hairs sticking out.

 

 

 

 

cut.png

Edited by Boriqua

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