Machine sewing with waxed thread

[T Moore Medicine Hat Saddlery]

. Is anyone using waxed linen thread in The older pearson /landis type machines.  Or is everyone using the nylon/poly thread. About all I've ever used has been the modern thread but seems like there is information out there that the waxed linen has several advantages. Can anyone that has used both chime in with some good info 

[DrmCa]

Worth mentioning what sort of leather and produt you are looking to saw with it. Just my 2c.

[Matt S]

I use linen as well as nylon and poly in my Pearson 6, but put liquid wax in the pot on the top. The manual suggests that prewaxed thread can be used but heating might be necessary to soften the wax during stitching. Heating used to be achieved using paraffin/kerosene lamps, electric blocks, or gas jets, all of which were optional extras and few survive.

[T Moore Medicine Hat Saddlery]

I was thinking about using it in my pearson#6  or landis#1  but didn' know if there is any advantage   Since you use both what is your thoughts

[Matt S]

7 hours ago, T Moore Medicine Hat Saddlery said:

I was thinking about using it in my pearson#6  or landis#1  but didn' know if there is any advantage   Since you use both what is your thoughts

Linen is preferable to nylon in applications that might be exposed to lots of UV (sunlight), however so is polyester. Other than tradition, I'm not sure there is an advantage to machine sewing with linen over poly. However in the larger sizes I can only get poly in black or white, whereas linen can often be found in a few different colours even in 18/5 or 18/6. When running polyester I put sewing oil in the wax pot on my No6 machine instead of liquid wax. As to prewaxed linen in the No6 machine I have nothing much to add beyond what the manual says since I've not had call to try it.

There may be specific advantages to using linen over synthetics in saddlery or harness applications but you'd be better speaking with someone like @Les No6 about this.

[Les No6]

No advantage to waxed linen at all there are many advantages to unwaxed, the main failure mechanism of stitch seems is loose stitching, Linen thread non-elastic zero extension holds the tightest knot, on the right-hand side of the solution box on the Pearson is two plates that nip together which is a thread break all machines with a thread break require a non-elastic zero extension thread to operate correctly, polyester elastic high extension won’t hold a knot, nylon highest elasticity highest extension will hold a knot but abrasive, service life, linen 2 centuries, polyester ten-year, nylon unfit for purpose. Comparing Linen to polyester and nylon is akin to comparing tool steel to knicker elastic and cheese strings. the first thread sewn into leather over thirty thousand years ago is Linen still the best by far.