Leather lacing

September 18, 2014

3-Minute Read

Leather lacing

Here is an article to explain how to make homemade tools for doing lace edge braided sewing on leather, like so :

Double loop stitch

The making of this stitch is not very difficult. It is done with a leather lace, that goes through elongated holes, spaced regularly.

Here is a document showing the details of this stitch : (Credit: Webarcherie.com)

[ Credit :Tandy LeatherFactory ](http://www.webarcherie.com/index.php/topic/19318-tutoriel- lacages/page-2)

For doing this stitch, you need two kinds of tools :

a comb shaped chisel called a pricking iron that allows to cut doted lines
a lace needle

The comb :

I started from a scraper, a thick rigid one, beveled. I took the handle off, and cut across the upper part, like so :

I then made some teeth in the shape of a crenel, every 3mm. The recess are ground with a Dremel tool.

In place of the handle , I put a steel sleeve, that will allow to strike with a hammer.

Finally, I have sharpened the cutting edge, on the bench grinder, with a double bevel.

The lace needle :

The problem, with a lace, is that when passed through the eye of a needle, it is not oriented the right way, and it is impossible to pass the needle through the holes.

An other problem is that, with a standard needle, you need to pass the hole with a double thickness of leather, which is also impossible, unless you do really big holes.

My solution is simply to make the needle using piano wire, with one end folded along the body of the needle, like an open eye of a needle.

You can see in this picture my needle, and at the bottom, a real lace needle.

With my needle, the lace is not really threaded, I make a little hole at the end of the lace, and I pass the needle through that hole.

The lace is well aligned with the needle, like a true lace needle.