Leatherwork – Piercing on the Block

You would normally pierce your stitches with the leather held between the jaws of the clam, but another way to do this is with a thick cork block under the leather and you’ll find this very useful when you are working with thicker leather.

To practice piercing ‘on the block’, you will need a cork block with a depth greater than the length of your harness awl blade. You will also need a piece of leather which has been prepared for stitching…

You can purchase cork blocks from IKEA, or online. Use a suitable depth depending on your awl size and a suitable width depending on the size of the piece of leather you’re going to be working on – we tend to use the standard size, circular cork placemats. To make your cork blocks deeper you can pile one on top of the other using masking tape around the outer edges to hold them together. Don’t be tempted to use glue though as this may blunt your awl blade!

Before you start, check that your harness awl is sharp and maybe give it a polish on the strop. See link for more information about keeping tools sharp. https://gdhleathercourses.co.uk/blog/keeping-tools-sharp/

Place the prepared leather on top of the cork block making sure that your first stitch marks are on the flat surface and not overhanging the edge of the block – you can move the leather along as you work.  Insert the tip of the blade into the first stitch mark checking that your awl is being held vertically and therefore perfectly straight. Pierce straight down through the leather and into the cork block.  Position a finger on either side of the stitch you are piercing as this will support the leather when the blade comes back out – Make sure that when you are pulling the awl back out you are doing this slowly – drawing it out – so that the blade doesn’t jump. As you work, the purpose of the cork block’s depth will become apparent as you’ll notice that when you pierce, your awl is prevented from coming into contact with the table or bench that you’re working on.

You can use this method of piercing for a single, or double layer of leather.  If you want a double layer but find you’re struggling to get a nice straight row of stitches on the back of the work you could pierce one layer of leather on the cork block, glue it to the second layer then stitch in the clam as normal – you’ll find this easier as the first layer has already been pre-pierced.

You can watch the video related to this post by clicking the link  https://gdhleathercourses.co.uk/leather-training-videos/

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