I've spent the last 6 months contemplating upgrading from my cheap & nasty diamond chisels to something like the dot dokki irons, however I wanted to get a feel for what kind of an impact the French style pricking irons would have on on my stitching before I go ahead & make the purchase.
yes I understand that the steel that these cheap irons where made of probably is not all that strong/hard how ever they have held up surprisingly well after quite some use so its defiantly a viable option to run for a short while. Or if you are committed to shaping your own chisels to use long term you could buy high quality diamond pricking irons and use them as you base.
I will make an edit to this post showing what fit au chinois Lin Cable 532 looks in combination with these irons before and after.
I will make a video explaining how it can be done very easily and in the mater of an hour if there is enough interest.
modified stitching chisel example
cheers
Hey all,
I'm looking for a quality stitching awl. I've got a full hide of really thick tooling leather and I'm getting back into leathercraft after about a year off. I just made a double layered CCW belt and ended up snapping my cheapo stitching awl about 3/4 of the way through. I've only ever had a cheap kit and I'm looking to upgrade to a nice stitching awl that can handle some tough leather without breaking. Any suggestions where to buy quality leather tools from?
Newbie question.... When attempting saddle stitching, how important, if at all, is it to have a diamond awl? I've got a set of diamond chisels from Tandy. Should this be good enough, or should I pick up an awl as well? Does an awl help to "clean" up the prepunched holes, or is there some other reason I might want one? Thanks in advance!
Hi everyone,
I'm new to the craft and have been trying to search the internet for answers, but I couldn't find much on the pro of stitching with an awl. I was looking up some chisel and pricking irons to buy, and I got curious on why some people prefer one method over the other. I'm assuming it's because the chisel creates uneven holes while the awl (in theory), would create a uniform hole on both sides.
Is this the case or am I missing some more information?
Thanks for taking time out to read my post!
-T
So I immediately screwed up. I now realize the leather was saddle leather, very thick. I have a few tools and haven't made anything yet.
I got a diamond awl from Tandy and bent it at 90 degrees tip is still a bit curved but it's mostly been corrected. Secondly, I've snapped two needles trying to get them through the leather. When poking through leather should I do it into cork? How do I keep my lace lock from unraveling and slipping, and will thinner leather prevent my stitching needles from snapping?
Hi all. Can anyone recommend a good thin awl blade available in the uk? I've got a couple from abbey; http://abbeyengland.com/Store/CategoryID/439/Level/a/ProductID/69146 but they're a little too wide for 1mm thread.
I got into leatherworking a few months ago, and after finishing a few small projects, I stopped after getting frustrated. I want to get started again, but I wanted to fix a few problems first.
-
I bought this awl, and it was fairly dull right out of the packaging. It took a lot of force to get it through the leather. After doing a few projects, I attempted to sharpen the awl with a aluminum oxide stone I had lying around, which really didn't really make a difference. I might have made it worse actually.
-
Stitching was also another problem. I bought the thread and needles from Tandy, and passing the thread through the holes was really hard. Tandy needles were too large, so I used some regular sewing needles. I still had to resort to pliers to pull the needles.
I've already watched Nigel's videos on the stitching and sharpening, but I still don't know what to do. Does anyone have any solutions?
Clearing out some excess tools. Pics can be found here. Prices include shipping CONUS.
-
Seiwa 4mm 1+2prong stitching chisel + 4mm 6prong from Ebay. The 6 prong looks just like the Seiwas and punches through just as sharp. $20 SOLD
-
Seiwa 3mm 2+6 prong. $20 SOLD
-
Ogura 2.5mm Diamond Awl. Totally unused. $26
-
Crafttool French Edger. I've sharpened this one so it's better than out of the box. $12 SOLD
Hey! I grew an interest in leathercrafting viewing this subreddit and seeing the work people have posted. I bought some scrap and practiced stitching and using the awl based on videos and using the book by Al Stohlman and was looking for tips on how to improve. Also, what are your suggestions on finishing backstitching?
http://imgur.com/a/Lbz5Y
Edit: I've read all the posts and just want to thank you all for the feedback! I'll definitely look into getting a smaller awl and practicing more based on the information you guys gave me.
I prefer to hand stitch and I have quite a bit of 7-8oz. veg tanned leather that I cannot for the life of me pierce with a stitching awl. I'm pushing it through at a 90 degree angle and sometimes I try to "start" the stitching hole with a puncture from my sewing machine, but it doesn't make it much easier. Is there something I'm missing here? Instructional videos make it look so easy.
I don't know what to do. I'm now stuck on a project. I haven't seen any tutorials that cover this.
I'm looking to make a belt keeper by stitching together the two ends.
Can anyone recommend a cheap awl, needles, and thread that will do the job?
Would an awl like this work?
http://www.amazon.com/Speedy-Stitcher-1125-Sewing-Awl/dp/B000HGIJQ4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445302210&sr=8-2&keywords=stitching+awl
Any recommendations for a high quality thread?
Real easy one here. My Speedy Stitcher came with a loaded bobbin of waxed thread and several belt pouches later it's run out. I went to re-wind it and my GOSH this thing sucks to load up. Apparently, I've been spoiled winding bobbins on the sewing machine.
I did some Internet searching and didn't see anything related directly to the topic.
Is there a simple way to do this or am I stuck doing it the long, slow way?
EDIT: I hooked the bobbin up to my power drill... worked like a charm. Very happy with it. Thr bobbin has little nubbly spindles coming out of either side of it along the rotational axis. There's juuuust enough nubbin there for the chuck of my drill to catch. My wife thinks I am a handyman GOD now.
I started leatherworking a few years ago, my dad is into it so I'm lucky, and I have all of the tools, stamps and the occasional leftover leather to work with, as well as some of his knowledge.
Unfortunately, he is very busy right now and I haven't seen him for a few months. My first project was a sheath for a tomahawk I made (re-made from a cold steel tomahawk, refinishing/waterjet cutting/ filing cuts on the steel, and staining on the haft) and it turned out perfectly.
It's been awhile since I've been at it, and I just thought I would start again and make a holder for my Nexus smartphone like the MAKR leather holder. simple design, and it was going quite well.
I used grid paper to make my template, and an extremely sharp roller style exacto blade to cut my leather pieces. I did hand-draw the rounded corners on the bottom of the pieces and I think this is where I went wrong.
I had two perfectly cut pieces of leather, they were laid on top of each other, measured out, and after all of the handling they were starting to soften up and get perfect for the leather work. I cut the groove around the outer edge for my stitching, used the wheel and marked everything out based on an awl punch through both pieces where I would start - the holes were perfectly lined up.
As I went down the side with a standard style stitch (two needles) the holes slowly started getting misaligned, by the time I got around to the bottom, it was way out of wack, maybe like a quarter inch, the pieces had turned away from each other.
This was extremely frustrating because I have encountered something similar when I first started and I took every precaution to make sure that this didn't happen.
Where did I go wrong? was it my free-hand drawing of the rounded corners? how am I supposed to make nicely rounded corners? These corners were drawn out on grid paper and then one piece was flipped to help mark the other on the leather before it was cut. then they were placed together properly and extra bits gently cut away, they seemed to be just fine.
I started my roller on the awl mark that I punched through both pieces at the same spot, this should have made the marks perfectly parallel to each other.
Please help me out! I don't know why my marks moved away from each other like this. I don't have a pony, I am going this on a work table. It still should not have happened!
Thank you for reading the wall of text and for your suggestions and advice!
