3. When laying out your stitching, do you use a groover or calipers or some such tool to make an incised line to lay out your stitches, or do you freehand it?
4. Do you use an overstitch or pricking wheel, or chisels with various numbers of points or what? And how many stitches per inch do you normally use?
Here are my answers.
3. I use a Pro Groover from Tandy Leather to make a nice groove around the edge of the leather. That allows the stitches to kinda lay down in the groove and avoid being rubbed during use. And it keeps them all straight looking too.
4. I normally use a 6-stitch-per-inch pricking wheel to mark out my holes. I use a small diamond shaped awl to punch my holes at a 45 degree angle to the edge. I have overstitch wheels in 5,6,7,8,10,12, and 14 stitches per inch. I’ve never used the 14, but the 10 and 12 I’ve used once each. They both took a looong time to sew up!