[Leather Working] French style leather stitching clamp

[Christophe Mineau]

Hi,
Different from the stitching pony and stitching horse, here is a stitching clamp (some even say clam in English) we use the most in France, even in the greatest houses like Hermes.

This is a three pieces clamp with a fix jaw, and a mobile jaw, nothing in between, leaving full room for holding a big piece between the jaws.
And there is a leg pushing down to the ground.

I made mine out of chestnut tree wood (common where I leave), taking care of the orientation of the grain.
It is stained, pore filled and waxed.
For those wishing to make one, I provide my drawing here below at the end of the post.

Here is a full picture :


The leg is foldable for convenience :


It is used between the user's legs, and it is the upper leg that presses down onto the the jaws in order to close them.
The big advantage is that you don't have to unscrew anything to progress on your work, you just have to lift a bit the leg in order to release the piece.
Note that you can also raise your left foot, like a guitar player, in order to get closer from your work:
(on this photo, I'm using an extension small clamp I will show next time)


A couple of personal additions :
I inlaid a rare earth magnet (salvaged from an old hdd), in order to hold the needles.
I also added my French touch, I added a hole that can fit a champagne bottle cork, in order to hold the awls. It is not glued, you can replace it once it is worn out.






Example at use :
Note that the jaws are padded with leather to protect the workpiece.








And here is a pdf of the plan I made : (please see the terms of the license, not to be used for commercial purpose)
Pince_Sellier_Mineau.pdf
This is a multi-page drawing to be reassembled (see the cross indexes), formatted for A4 paper.

[DIYer]

Thanks Christophe Mineau! We've added your Stitching Clamp to our Leathercraft category,
as well as to your builder page: Christophe Mineau's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Stitching Clamp by Christophe Mineau

tags: clamp, leather