Before I go all willy neely with these pricking irons. I need to practice some. Never used these things before. But what I do know is, I want the holes uniform. Masking tape on the iron for depth control. I need to practice keeping it plumb to the leather before doing my belt.

Pricking irons (top) verses sewing needle in a drill press (bottom). The irons make a bigger hole. More room for the needles.

I'm gonna buy a new over stitch wheel. I have a cheapo. Never attempted to make one because indexing the points on the little wheel would be a PITA. If you've been curious what they're used for besides marking holes. Is shaping the stitch groove so the thread lays uniform. Compare with the previous picture.

The backside stitch holes. What an over stitch wheel does on those.

I gotta be in the mood to punch the holes. I'm ready. Still thinking about the process. In the meanwhile. Here's my stitching pony. I'd say I made it around 2006. You sit on it. The bottom goes under your legs. Two hinges.

This isn't too bad. They line up fine. Easy to hammer. After each section the iron is stuck into a small block of white wax. Not beeswax, too sticky. White wax is slicker, makes pulling the iron out the leather more easy.

Not bad, not bad at all.

Yep, these are purrty slick'. I paid up for them. Didn't bother with the cheap ones. They punch holes nice and straight. So far I've only used the 9 and the two tine.

That concludes today's episode. I need to touch the end up and bevel the edges. All the holes are done.

Doing some reading last night. It seems chrome tanned is looked down on. You're not supposed to be able to burnish the edges. Well, no one ever told me that. Leather craft use to be more fun before the internet filled up with experts.

Here's my, "round" edgers. Made around 2004. Called round because they round the edge. Made from spring steel I recycled from a vintage couch. Hardened and tempered. The numbers stamped on them mean nothing. When I made these. I eyeballed the amount of edge I needed to remove. Made the edger to that. #1 measures a hair under 1/16". #2 is 1/16". #3, not shown, is huge. I'd guess 3/16". So somewhere along the way, I needed a big one.

I don't know if I'm not supposed to be doing this either. Maybe because chrome tanned is so soft(?). Anyway, it's beveled on the back. Now the front. Dye touch up, dried. Then a finish before I burnish the edges. Angelus brand, No. 600. It's supposed to be a soft sheen. Not high gloss. We'll see. I'll stitch it up after the finish and then burnish.

That's done. The dye went deep enough. Maybe I'll touch it up...If I'm going to do it. Now is the time before it's sealed. It'll take a couple hours for the dye to dry. I'm too old to be in a rush. I've earned taking my time.

It says twice on the side of the finish bottle. You can use an airbrush. I'm not an airbrush artist but I do have enough common sense to know how to spray my belt with acrylic leather finish. Why not? The other way is basically rubbing it on. Which can be tricky.

Never mind, I almost messed up. I can't spray it until after the edges are burnished. There's things that need to soak into the edge to be burnished. Can't do it that with it already been sprayed.


Next up, is stitching it. Then burnished, then finished. After it's all done. I move on to cutting the billets out. Doing everything I did to the main strap but to them. Then the billets are stitched to the main strap and it's done. We're almost there. We're on the downhill.

Last note of the day. I bought 50meters of thread. 90inches times 5 is 450inches. 450" is ~12meters.

I had better bought enough thread. I doubt I'm going to stitch it today. That's an early morning coffee time type deal. It's not that hard to run a saddle stitch. But it can be rough on the hands and fingers. Running a stitch with 450inches of thread, it's up there.


I hope everyone has a Blessed Friday.