Thanks for the responses fellas. DDunn, I can see what you are talking about already. I had made a card wallet with alligator on the lower pocket face only. Someone saw it, liked it and asked me about it so I shot back a price and it was almost as if they were offended. I am by no means a big name in the game but the price was reasonable I thought. I told myself “oh well” and moved on. ill post a pic of the finished item. I did sell the one in the pic and that person was happy with it. There’s a few things I forgot to do before finishing it up but I’ll remember those things on the next one.

I experience the same exact thing so I don't believe its the awl penetration that you speak of. I've been playing around with different techniques as I pull the thread tight and can get slightly different results. When I pull my thread tight, my left hand is pulling up and away and right hand is down and towards me, like you're playing the guitar as they say. My left hand is holding the thread on the backside of my item. When I pull tight, I notice the thread on the backside is pulled up too. So what I've tried after its tight is to simply grab the thread close to the hole on the left and just pull it down and away from the top edge of the hole. By no means is this the solution to your problem. As I mentioned above, it can give me a slightly different result. Also, i've tried a smaller thread and that seems to help a little.

Thanks for the responses fellas and to answer your questions 1)Alran goat skin 2)only used chrome tan so far 3)No negative outcome but was trying to learn how to skive a bevel. I was going to mess around with lining leather with a turned edge to see how well they lay together. I also purchased some low friction ptfe tape to try avoid marking any leather. I see some people use it so I figured its worth a shot. I'll give your recommendations a try. Thanks!

I'm liking the idea more of trying to make luggage like the luggage box pic you posted wrapped in some nice leather. Something about them is catching my interest more and more. Outside of that, I want to try and make bags for traveling like a weekend type bag or something small enough to be able to carry on airplanes. Third, watch cases. I have a few friends that have some really nice watches so it's got me thinking about trying to make one for them. I have some good ideas, just need to execute them.

Loving the old machinery they're using. Seeing this video and watching Terry Millard make a case is making me want to try and make one myself.

That's coming out awesome! I'm loving it.

I like the black corner protectors. Maybe if you were to secure them with brass hardware to match the latch you have to contrast the black leather, it might look pretty cool.

Thats the kind of the struggle I have going on with the direction I want to go in. I feel like if I buy a few machines to aid in making an item, such as a clicker press like you mentioned for example, that it takes away from the handmade aspect.

the gentlemans email for the reinforcement material is Jung.muehlheim@t-online.de He’s very helpful. I’m actually in the process of ordering some material from him. When you first ask about it, he’ll orobably send you a sample. Then, you’ll make a decision from there.

@Philip I had a small company by me make me a "skiving knife" (just helping out the small guys). Not sure what material it is but it's 3/4" wide 1/2" thick with a single bevel. I bought it before I knew much about anything really and I think we were on different pages as far as what I wanted. It does work very well and is sharp. It's difficult not to buy into tooling that everyone uses on social media so i'll stick with it for a little while and learn to use it before I purchase a nicer one.

I definitely want to improve my skiving as well. I come across more scenarios at the moment where I need to skive a lot. Just the other day I was working on a project and the skiving was kicking my butt. I walked away for a bit and recollected myself. When I came back to it, I tried a different way and it worked better. I definitely focus more more on the sharpness of my tools lately too. The next thing I want to have a better grasp on is the hand stitching with the awl also. Im kind of like Toby too where I run the entire process in my head trying to foresee any problems before I actually commit. I still mess up but that’s where I learn more about what I’m doing. My scrap pile keeps getting bigger but I’m definitely learning more every day

Im in the same position. I just bought an awl and am forcing myself to learn to use it. What I’ve been doing is scribing a line on both sides of the test piece The same distance from the edge. I then use a pricking iron on one side to mark my angles. When I pierce the leather with the awl, I make sure that the awl pierced through the center of the line on the other side. This will also help me make a straight stitch the length of the piece. If I practice that long enough, hopefully I get used to the motion. The line helps me see if my arm is too high or low when I pierce