Leather stitcher for hand sewing

[hbound201]

I've got an uncle who wants to hand sew but due to age he has trouble with a needle and awl.

 

I've thought about the Chinese stitcher on ebay to poke holes and sew by hand. The tippman is nice but at that price he could just get a sewing machine and he doesnt want to.

Edited June 23, 2019 by hbound201

[chrisash]

You can drill out a small arbor press to fit pricking irons into, and use the arbor to punch through your holes, leaving the same effect as using a awl

[hbound201]

Didnt think about that. Thanks very much.

[dikman]

How thick is the leather that he wants to sew? What does he want to make?

[hbound201]

Usually 1/4 or so total thickness. 2 layers of 7-8oz leather.

[zuludog]

Look at something like a small drill press or a Dremel workstation. Proxxon probably do something similar. Mount an awl blade in the chuck but leave the motor turned off; or mount a drill in the chuck and drill holes.

Get a small, bench top pillar drill and mount a drill or an awl blade as above

As mentioned, you could fit a stitching chisel to the chuck as well

Any of those methods would be OK for making the holes, but you would still have to do the actual sewing by hand.

Look at a combined awl & needle; something like a Speedy Stitcher or Osborne's Automatic Sewing Awl. If you can't manage that by hand you could try turning down the knob so that it could be mounted in a press

But if it's just using an awl to make the holes that's the difficult part, you could start off trying a stitching chisel and a mallet as usual; that would be the simplest and cheapest

Search t'Net and YouTube to see what's available

Edited June 25, 2019 by zuludog

[dikman]

Awl blade in a drill press is a good idea. I started off using an old Singer domestic machine (201K, hand crank) to punch the holes first, using an ordinary needle, and then used the awl to "widen" the holes for hand stitching. Should work fine with that thickness leather. The advantage of using a machine is it gives nice straight lines.

[hbound201]

6 hours ago, dikman said:

Awl blade in a drill press is a good idea. I started off using an old Singer domestic machine (201K, hand crank) to punch the holes first, using an ordinary needle, and then used the awl to "widen" the holes for hand stitching. Should work fine with that thickness leather. The advantage of using a machine is it gives nice straight lines.

That is part of the problem. He tends to get the chisels off perpendicular when doing it by hand so the backside isnt straight.

 

[dikman]

4 hours ago, hbound201 said:

That is part of the problem. He tends to get the chisels off perpendicular when doing it by hand so the backside isnt straight.

 

Hence why using a drill press or a sewing machine is a good idea.