lancepryor wrote:DW:
Thanks for the detailed description and the pictures. I'm sure they will be very helpful for folks who want to give this a try. I think what I've done in the past is pretty much as you've described, but I'll have to try it again sometime to see if I can have better results.
Two questions: what do you do with that 1/2" of thread you stick through the legs of the bristle? Do you trim it back, counter-wrap it after doing the main wrapping, or what?
I just let it hang. It generally folds back over the wraps and never presents a problem.
Also, when starting, do you do one wrap over the single leg, one wrap over both (etc.), or do you do say 2 then 2 (or 3 then 3, etc)? I think I've generally tried 2 then 2 or even 3 then 3, so perhaps that's where I've fallen down. (Or perhaps it's my hand-wax, or my bristle preparation, or .....)
One wrap around single leg. Then one wrap around both. Then one wrap around the self-same, original leg, then one around both. Repeat until ready to wrap leg.
When I spent a day w/ Jim McCormick, I brought some of my awls for comparison to his. He said my inseaming awl was too small -- too small an awl causes the wax to get stripped of the cord too quickly. I should think this is less of an issue with Teklon, since the wax is less critical.
Well, that's contrary to what I was taught...and experience. And I don't care how large your awl is, some wax is going to strip off, if there is any...even incidental...contact with the leather. I learned using linen, too. Good hand wax heats up and seals the hole. And if you're using linen the traditional expectation was that you would re-wax the inseaming thread every so often. Pays to have a ball of hand wax on your bench and handy.
One of the reasons you had so much trouble getting the stitches out is that, as it gets hot, the wax penetrates the fibers of the leather. That's good. Not so good is the issue of breaking the stitches when trying to remove them. Why? Because it illustrates a problem that I've seen so many times, it eventually drove me to look for an alternative...ie. Teklon.
Especially on boots or shoes that are worn hard, and especially if the wax is somewhat superficial (doesn't penetrate and permeate every fiber of the linen yarn) the wax itself becomes somewhat fugitive (as Mac suggested) and then the linen thread will rot. It's organic. The interior environment of a shoe or boot is a jungle--there are lots of beasties that make their living eating dead skin and other available foodstuffs.
I made a pair of boots for a farrier some years ago. He worked really hard in 'dirty' conditions--amidst barnyard acids--and he also perspired hard. At the time, I was making ten cord linen threads by waxing three cords, three more, a final four and then twisting and burnishing them all together...and this was Irish linen. After about six months he came in complaining that the welt was coming undone. Sure enough you could just pull on the welt and the inseam stitches would pop. I rewelted the boots but even though the stitches had popped easily, I couldn't hardly get them out of the holdfast. Some I had to re-hole...just as you describe.
Use a heavy, round awl to remove those stubborn stitches...I have one that is about 5/16" in diameter. It's a saddlemaker's tool. No square edges.
You should be aware that even with the best of wax, Teklon will never hold it reliably. It doesn't strip off, so much as move around and it never penetrates the fibers like wax on linen will. Also Teklon stretches...not like nylon does...but some, nevertheless. A lock every stitch can ameliorate that but I rely on a really tacky hand wax and I often re-tighten the previous stitch before cinching down the one I'm working on.
Of course, the major redeeming aspects of Teklon is its strength and the fact that it will never rot. I've broken good 10 cord Irish linen threads meownself...never have done with Teklon.
You mention that you have perhaps a 4 inch distance from taw to full thickness of the cord. I generally have more like 8 inches, give or take. I like to have about 1 inch of stagger between each thread (maybe even a bit more for the first one or two staggers), so with a 9 cord linen that makes 8 staggers, hence 8 inches.
I have an inch and a half "leader" (tip) and then I stagger each successive cord about half inch but each end that is staggered is, of course, tapered for about an inch. When I was using linen I would skein off the linen and taper it in hand. I always ended up with a similar configuration.
Next time you do some round closing, try the boar's bristle again. I think you'll find it superior to the nylon. The greater stiffness really helps when you are trying to find the hole on the edge of the leather. The folks at Edward Green still use boar's bristle for this application. Given the volume of closing they do for models like the Dover, I imagine they've tried nylon and found the boar's bristle superior.
I will, but I'm using two cord Teklon for closing and a tiny sewing awl--probably less than a millimeter in diameter and about inch and a half long. I don't know that I have a boar's bristle that is fine enough to do any good with that small a hole.
PS..on edit...here's a photo of two bristles after having inseamed a whole boot. It illustrates (somewhat) how the wraps smooth and even out with use. They looked like this after four stitches. The initial wraps on the lower bristle are bent...it's not a bulge in the wraps. (click on the photo to get a larger look)
DSCF2518.JPG
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