Leather sewing machine

[Curious Cat]

I'm thinking of delving further into my leather work and I'm considering buying an industrial machine. I wondered if anyone had any experience of machine stitching leather and if they could offer any hints or tips to help me choose the right machine? I work with tooling leather mainly so I will need something that can handle quite thick pieces.

I'm aware I'll need a walking foot, but is there anything else??

Thanks in advance,

cj

[Classical Genesis]

It really depends on the type of leather work you want to make. I have been through two industrial machines and they were/are both quite content to sew leather up to mid weight belting. I have made composite straps from three or so layers cut from upholstery grade skins and I have sewn leather car upholstery.

Firstly I would not go near a walking foot machine. The pressure placed on the face of the leather by the mechanical foot as it grabs the leather between itself and the feed dog will mark the grain of the leather and produce tracks in it.

The main thing that I have found is to use the correct thread matched correctly to the leather needle A leather needle has a blunter end and whilst sharp it punches its way through the leather rather than cutting its way through thus leaving a larger hole for the thread to pass through.

I am not familiar with tooling leather but from what I can glean from your post it is quite substantial. I have tried to stitch through thick belting on both industrial machines but neither the brand new Brother machine nor my needle feed Toyota, an even stronger machine, proved capable of making the stitches.

I would be inclined to talk to a sewing machine distributor, someone like Braithwaites http://www.braithwaite.
They will have a wealth of knowledge on the topic.

Hope this gives you a starting point......................Clive

[Curious Cat]

Thank you very much