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Posted
10 hours ago, Josh Ashman said:

Thanks Vikefan! I use a Cobra Class 4 I picked up from Springfield Leather. I don't have a single bad thing to say about it. At the same rime I will admit that it's the only leather sewing machine I've ever used, so there may be better ones out there and I just don't know what I'm missing. 

Best, Josh

Nope!  None better than the Cobra, some nearly as good, but none better!  by the way your work is great!

Paul

 

Paul long-----108 Briarwood Ln. W-----Kerrville, TX--78028------830 367 5536-- pfl@cebridge.net

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Posted
On 1/17/2020 at 7:35 PM, sheathmaker said:

Nope!  None better than the Cobra, some nearly as good, but none better!  by the way your work is great!

Paul

 

Thanks Paul! I appreciate that and I have to agree that the Cobra sure has been great for me! 

All the best, Josh

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Posted
24 minutes ago, Josh Ashman said:

Thanks Paul! I appreciate that and I have to agree that the Cobra sure has been great for me! 

All the best, Josh

Can you post a picture of what the backside stitch looks like?  I am thinking of buying a 441 clone but am concerned about what the backside looks like.  Seems like results are all  over the place depending on the leather type and the set up.  Right now I'm using a Campbell-Randall to stitch in pre-pricked holes and it looks okay but I need a machine with a long cylinder arm for a project I'm doing.

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Posted
2 hours ago, sbrownn said:

Can you post a picture of what the backside stitch looks like?  I am thinking of buying a 441 clone but am concerned about what the backside looks like.  Seems like results are all  over the place depending on the leather type and the set up.  Right now I'm using a Campbell-Randall to stitch in pre-pricked holes and it looks okay but I need a machine with a long cylinder arm for a project I'm doing.

This rig was shipped out last week so no backside pics for it. I do happen to have this picture that shows the backside of an IWB holster I made a while ago. No particular reason I picked it other than it was on my computer and it shows the backside stitching. In my opinion my Cobra does a fine job on the backside unless you go over about 5/8" thick and then it gets a little wonky. Not real bad, but enough that You want to be careful and not be too surprised if it throws a stitch out of line. At around 3/4" thick my machine will also occasionally skip pocking up the bobbin thread. these issues may be caused by my machine being a little out of adjustment. I've had it for a good long while, I think 4 or 5 years and have never done anything but sew on it and oil it each time I refill the bobbin. 

All the best, Josh

020.thumb.jpg.a99ce2e408ad22fb82ba56289056dd58.jpg

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Posted

Thanks for posting the picture.  The backside looks pretty good.  What would you do further if you needed the backside to look as good as the frontside?  I have tried a number of things but have yet to come up with a protocol that works as good as I would like.

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Posted
18 hours ago, sbrownn said:

What would you do further if you needed the backside to look as good as the frontside?  

Hello Sbrown, my honest answer to your question above is that I would change my way of thinking. I don't need, or expect the backside of my stitching to look the same as the front. Anyone who has ever seen the cantle binding on one of my saddles knows just to what extremes I'll take this line of thinking! :) In fairness to my saddle building skills, I use rawhide binders and stabbing an awl through 2 layers of rawhide and 3 layers of skirting leather and having it come out perfect on the backside is not that easy. There are people who are remarkably good at it, I'm just not one of those people. At any rate, if for some reason I thought the backside had to be better than my machine could sew I'd probably use my machine without thread to make the holes then hand stitch. The other option would be to stab the holes with an awl and then hand stitch. Back before I had a machine my awl skills were much higher and I could get a pretty nice stitch line on the back side, however I seriously doubt I could do so now. I suppose a person could try a modified version of the Stohlman method for stabbing the holes on a cantle binding and stab halfway through from each side, he says the awl blade will find the hole fromt he other side assuming your layout is all perfect. I've never put this tot he test but I'm 100% positive it requires skills I don't have. 

I admire your pursuit of backside stitching perfection even if I don't happen to share it. Good luck in your endeavors!

All the best, Josh

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Posted

Josh is right in that the only way to get better looking stitching on the back is to hand stitch. It's the nature of machine sewing and leather, the back will never look as good as the front.

Machines wot I have - Singer 51W59; Singer 331K4; Seiko STH-8BLD; Pfaff 335; CB4500.

Chinese shoe patcher; Singer 201K (old hand crank)

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Posted

A nice,very smart looking cross draw rig there.

Thanks for sharing

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