Leather Stitching Iron Jig - Why I designed this tool.
When I started hand-crafted leather work, I struggled to get my stitching holes look great on both sides of a work piece. The stitching on my very first project was terrible. It was mediocre on the top and horrendous on the opposite side.
I did improve quickly and I am able to do a pretty good job free-handing my stitching holes but, in time, my own standards also rose. For Items I make for myself, I can tolerate some things being out of alignment. However, if I am making a product to sell, or a gift for someone special, then it is worthwhile to get closer to perfection.
Fundamentally, I really needed something to help remove the guess work of using my eyes to measure 90 degrees. In other crafts - like woodworking - there is no shortage of tools, jigs, and techniques specifically designed to make repetitive tasks, like making perfectly perpendicular holes, fast and easy. Drill presses, dowel jigs, and all the various fences for power tools serve precisely this purpose. In leather work, most of the guidance I found for making excellent stitching holes was to “just to a better job holding your stitching iron at 90 degrees.”
This guidance always bugged me. I always thought that there had to be some kind of tool for that task. Of course, there are sewing machines that cost thousands dollars. There are also some hacks for arbor presses. I could not find a purpose-built tool for making consistently straight and perpendicular stitching holes that was light, manoeuvrable, easily adjustable, and at a reasonable cost.
So, I set out to design my own tool. Using CAD software and 3D printing I went through several iterations of prototypes until I landed at an agreeable design that I could craft from beautiful hardwood.
Here’s a demo of how it works.
