Bristling at the very suggestion

[paul_k]

Well DW,

I am just goobsmaked! That was great! I sat there spell bound. (My wife says that happens alot tho).

What a fantastic jeenie you've let out of the bottle!

Thank you. ANd I'm looking forward all the more to my September.

[shoestring]

DW,

I'll use that word Paul used Iam " goobsmasked " myself I know you said 6 minutes but I sat looking for more.Seeing is a lot better learning tool than reading,now like a child I will be looking for more Graet Job............

Ed

[jenny_fleishman]

DW, if you could possibly post a WMV of applying a wiping strip at some future date, I would be eternally grateful.

Jenny

[tomo]

DW,
That was FANTASTIC!
You learn way more from pictures, that's why I like to see them of guy's shops, but that was excellent.

Couldn't help but think of the words to the Waylon Jennings song from the Dukes of Hazzard, "They keep showing my hands, but not my face on TV."

Another DW innovation to assist the tyro bootmaker, thanks.

FYI, it took a bit over 20 minutes to download - not using broadband, which isn't bad considering how far it had to go.

More power to y'awl

T.

[dw]

Jenny,

A short on wiping is a good idea. I have a pair of packers (lace-ups) that I am about to last and somewhere in the ensuing process, I'll try to get the camera crew and the grips together for a shoot.

Tom,

20 minutes!...you've got fortitude, mate. Either that or "high hopes."

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[jake]

Dee-Dubb,

You did it Ol'Buddy! Great job! I really enjoyed it.

You're gonna be hammered for more now!

[dw]

Jake,

Thanks Homie...but I'm waiting for yours! No fair posting How To's on Root Canals, either, dern it!


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[relferink]

Great job DW, let the fun begin. To post files just use the attach formatting command?
So what's next. I'm envisioning a DW shop-cam. Do you have any pets, putting a web cam to their collar and have them run around makes for interesting watching. Let us know when to start looking for the DW boot show on cable.

I'll try to put something together soon and see how it works. I'm very excited about having this tool. You know how a picture is better than a thousand words, how many words to a movie?

Thanks for the hard work getting this up and going.

Rob

[dw]

Robert,

Thanks. Yes, the attach command will do it.Try to keep the video in the 10-20mb range. This will, unfortunately, mean that the display window will be small...I think the final version that posted was 320 by something or other, instead of the 720 by 480 (?) that I had hoped for....of course that original was 80MB!

Before there's gonna be any further ramping up of production values, I gots to find me a beret and a eyepatch.


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[cwsaddler]

D W,

Very nice. Now all we need to do is have one of Al Saguto doing a #10 best common. Another needed video is attaching the thread to the Nylon or Bristle.

Jim Kladder

[dw]

Jim,

I agree with you!! Do you have a video camera? Can you corner himself? It might be like trying to get footage of the yeti, otherwise!

So many videos...so little time!! [img]http://www.thehcc.org/forum/images/old_smilies/proud.gif"%20ALT=":O[/img]

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[jenny_fleishman]

DW, just a suggestion. Would it be possible to start a seperate thread for video clips? People could post an announcement on the appropriate thread (ie. "Lasting" or "Tools of the Trade", or whatever) to let people know they are posting a video on the Video thread on that topic. As long as people start out their Video thread post with the topic of their video, it will show up in the directory (message tree??) and be easy to locate.

My thinking is that there are bound to be videos that are way beyond my skills at this point, but I may want to look at them again later on, but they will be hard to find. Having them all in one place would be a great resource.

Jenny

[shoestring]

I have been catching H@** all day trying to use guitar wire as a bristle and everything has gone completly wrong.I read a while back that it was used but forgot how he made it work,I have a 22 string.I am now going to try mono,did a word search to see how to wrap it but no luck could someone help me on this one or with the wire.

Ed

[dw]

Ed,

First, the guitar wire...I use a thin wire--I think I'm using 11's now. Then I cut 9 inches and fold it in half. Carefully clamp the two free ends in a vise or vise-grips with the tips right up next to each other. Slip a flat metal shank or a marlin spike or even the handle of a lasting pincer in under the fold.

Hold the vise-grip in one hand...down...and the lasting pincer in the other...up. Twist the lasting pincer handle around and around with just a gentle upward pressure. Twist until the wire is very tight...almost to the point where it looks like it may kink.

Release the vise-grips. Pull the lasting pincer handle free. The lasting pincer handle leaves an "eye" for your bristle and the end result should be a very tightly twisted, very thin "needle."

The last step is to clip the end so that there is no space between the twists. Sand the tip so that there are no sharp edges. This can be accomplished by holding the bristle near its point and rubbing it in a circular motion on a piece of emory paper.

If you use too heavy of a wire to begin with you'll have troubles from the get go.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[dw]

Ed,

Part II...

Nylon bristles--take 9 to 12 inches of 30-40 lb. test nylon monofiliment fishing line. Lightly sand half the length. You can also "crimp" the sanded half for even better adhesion with the jaws of your lasting pincer.

Rub some hand wax/coad (not beeswax) on the sanded half. And, just for the heck of it...while you have the wax out...re-wax the taw too, just to make sure that it is fresh and fully waxed. This can be important when using poly strings which tend to shed the wax if there is any delay (like a day or two) between waxing the thread and putting on the bristle.

Hold the bristle up about eye height with the sanded area to the right.

Take the tip if your taw and lay it on the bristle, overlapping the sanded section by about one-half inch. The tip itself should be pointed into the sanded section--to the right.

Begin wrapping the taw, very closely, over the half inch tip--wrapping to the right. Keep some good tension on the thread so that the taw wraps flat. Keep your wraps flat and, again, very, very, very close together. When you start to reach an area where the taw is approaching the full thickness of the waxed end, the wraps may be spaced further apart.

When there is about two inches of bristle unwrapped, use an awl to poke a hole in the thread itself and feed the unwrapped end into that hole. Repeat about an inch further on. This will lock the end in place.

If the thread and the taw are twisted well and the thread has been waxed with handwax/coad the thread should not unravel or split apart when it is pierced with the awl. And the second hole will be a number of twists around the thread from the first hole so there should be no opening up of the thread.

A gentle bees-waxing of the wraps and the thread for about fifteen inches beyound the wraps completes the process.

While others may have success with pre-waxed or paraffin waxed strings, I believe that an objective case can be made that if the wax on the thread is a hand wax rather than a paraffin or beeswax, the whole will be much more secure than otherwise. Beeswax only comes into the picture after the wraps are completed.

I hope all this helps...

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[j1a2g3]

Ed,

I'll give this a try.

1st buy the cheapest mono you can find. The more expensive stuff doesn't split very well.

Cut about 18 inches of mono off the roll. Tape it to your work bench with about 1 inch sticking out. Now take a hammer and try a flatten the mono end. Once it's slightly flatten, take your scary sharp knife and split the monofiloment. You just have to split it at the very end. This isn't easy but keep trying you well finally get it. Trust me, it took me forever the first time.

Now, take it off the board and pull the two ends apart. You want to split the mono about halfway up the length.

I presume you already have your feathered cord done and waxed.

Now your going to take some rough sandpaper or a file and roughen up the split ends of the bristle. Once this is done, lay the feathered end in between the split bristle. you want it to overlap about a 1/2 inch. Wrap the end around the bristle and then back down and between the split ends agian. Then just braided the three strands. (cord and the split mono). I have found that clamping the bristle at the start of the braid helps makes it a lot tighter.

Once you have made about 8 twist, stop and lay the cord on your work bench just where the last twist was made. Now, flatten the cord just after the twist with your hammer. Take a scratch awl and poke a hole in the cord. Take the end or top of your bristle (mono) and pull it all the way through the hole.

Now repeat this procedure, 8 twist, hole cord and pull the top through until you have no more mono left. Then hand wax the whole bristle.

I also rewax my cord after I pull the top through each hole. This just helps keep the cord and bristle together.

One other thing, before you inseam with your new bristle, take beeswax and coat the whole bristle with it. This will help the bristle go through your insole easier.

I have to stop and thank DW for teaching me this. If it wasn't for him I still be using curved needles. Thanks DW

Hope this helps, Joel OH! Good Luck

[j1a2g3]

It took me so long to write this, Dw beat me to it. Joel

[dw]

Ed,

This has been posted before but "it bears repeating" ...

4901.jpg

As you can see, wire bristles can be used with almost any kind of thread--waxed ends or "off the spool."

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

(Message edited by dw on April 06, 2007)

[dw]

Ed, Joel, all..

Here are two more photos--the first is of a twisted monofilmanet bristle as I just described above. This is after use, so it has been pulled through the insole many times.

The second photo is of a braided bristle somewhat in the mode of what Joel just described. Again, just the leftover scrap.

Joel,

Good description...you're doing it a little different that I do. That always makes me feel good...when someone takes a technique that I have described and "evolves" it to better suit their own purposes or to make it work better. Good on you.

4903.jpg

4904.jpg

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[shoestring]

DW,Joel,
Thanks for lifting the pressure off my head I thought about this all day but knew I went to the right source,the Fourm.Now that I see the light some,I really made a cluster.I used the wire as thougn it was a needle.Made a small eye no sanding every thing just crude.Know wonder I was stabbing the linning,I think it bleed some .Man you guys don,t know how easier I am breathing.Thanks for every thing,I will put a second reading on these post so it will sink between my ears.Again thanks.

Ed

[j1a2g3]

Dw,

In the two pictures you just posted, the cord is white teklon? Is your handwax that dark or is that color from inseaming?

Thanks, Joel

[dw]

Joel,

Yes, white Teklon. And yes, my wax is dark...I make my own from a black pitch that I bought from Rausch Naval Yards many years ago and the rosin I have is none too light, either. So, while it may bronze up when "taffy pulling" it ages to almost black. The inseaming tends to scape the wax off to some extent so whatever lightness you see is the Teklon showing through.

And...looking back over the photos, the top photo of these last two was probably waxed with a white wax made from hot melt stitcher wax (sometimes called Atom Wax) and rosin.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[shoestring]

Another question,I am using 6 cord Barbours linen on the inseaming job other than Teklon what's the other most common size thread for inseaming ?Also how do you think a 3 cord linen would hold up on an inseaming job,reason I asked I noticed on some post that the thread seemed sort of heavy 5 to 6 cord.

Ed

[spider]

Sir:
Three cord is too light. I like to wax together nine cords of two oz. hand shoe thread. Twist tight and jerk hard.

Spider

[dw]

Ed,

Spider's right...three cord is way too light. And if you are using made up linen stitcher cord in 6 cord weight, you are just making things hard for yourself. Hard to taper to make a "taw," hard to "cere" (wax), and in the end that too is considered too light for men's work.

If my memory serves some of the historical literature suggests 11 cord of #10 linen yard for heavy men's works shoes.

The interesting thing...from an historical perspective...is that "lingles" (waxed ends) were almost always made up in odd number of cords on the theory that this would make a round (is that right?) thread with the odd cord in the middle verus a square thread if an even number of cords are used.

And if the 6 cord stitcher thread is all you have seen or experienced, a 9 cord waxed end will be a bit over half again heavier, no mistake.

Sometimes it's really interesting to plug a word like "waxed ends" into the forum's Keyword Search engine and read some of the posts on a subject..especially some of the early ones...I just did this and read about three archived thread. It just astonished me how much interesting info is buried in here. I'm gonna have to go back and look over the Archive CD too, one of these days.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC