There are a variety of leather threads that are simply made to make hand sewing durable and good looking. But one very important thing that contributes to the hand sewing process is waxing leather threads before using it.
In this article, I’m going to show you 6 great reasons why you should be waxing your leather threads before sewing leather.
So, why should you wax leather threads? Waxing your leather threads is a great hack to get the best out of your threads.
Some of the major reasons why you would want to wax your leather threads is that waxing leather thread makes the thread more durable, easy to use, resistant to rot, water, and fraying.
In order to leather more about the reasons why you would want to wax your leather thread and some additional reasons, cool tips, and hacks, keep reading this article to find out more.
Details On Why You Should Wax Leather Thread
Now let’s delve into the details on the major reasons why it’s necessary to wax leather threads.
1. Keeps The Leather Thread From Fraying
Waxing your leather threads indeed helps to keep the leather thread from fraying. Nobody would want a leather article they spent hours making to have ugly worn out stitching on its edges as a final finish.
This is one of the major reasons why you would want to wax your leather thread for using it to sew.
Leather is super abrasive on fiber so much that if you don’t wax leather threads and you continue to run your stitches, by the time you get to just about the 10th stitch, the leather thread will begin to fray pretty badly.
But this not true for all types of leather threads. You will find that most natural threads are more likely to fray without waxing than bonded polyester or nylon leather threads.
However, this does not in any way mean you don’t have to wax your artificial leather threads.
Waxing is going to further make the leather thread whether natural or synthetic to be resistant to fraying.
This will in turn ensure your leather work is professional looking and long-lasting.
2. Helps Make Hand Sewing Easy
Many crafters when starting out in leather work will do the majority of their leather work sewing by hand.
While this can be a long winding and unwinding battle with your thread and needles, waxing your leather threads before sewing helps to drastically improve your sewing efficiency.
It helps speed up you leather hand stitching process.
It’s usually a huge hustle when trying to hand sew leather without waxing your leather threads.
When you wax leather threads, it lubricates the thread and allows it to glide easily through the stitch holes with a lot of ease.
When your leather thread is waxed it also makes it easy thread the leather thread through needles very easily.
By doing this the leather thread will not drag through the stitch holes.
3. Makes Hand Stitches Professional-Looking
One major goal of leather crafters like you and me no matter our level, whether amatuer or professional is to make our leather products as professional-looking as possible even if everything is handmade.
It’s definitely one sure way you can use to ensure you win the hearts of anyone who patronizes or uses the product we produce.
The problem is that there are a variety of things that comes together to ensure a good finish on a leather project and the stitches you’re going to put on the edges are going to be one of the main attractions of the leather work items you make.
And waxing your leather threads is surely a great way to ensure a very good professional look for your leather work projects whether for sale or as a gift item.
4. Makes The Thread More Durable
The leather thread you’re going to be putting on your leather work projects is supposed to last the entire lifetime of the leather item whether it’s a watch strap, belt, wallet, or billfold.
But what you see most of the time on a lot of leather articles is the thread wearing out in only a couple of years if not months.
Waxing leather threads is going to ensure the fibers or constituting yarns of the thread is intact and held together.
So no matter how many times the leather thread is dragged, pulled, or squeezed through the stitching holes, it’s not going to lose its integrity by giving in to wear. It will be able to hold up.
5. Waxing Is A Great Way To Match Colors
Apart from some exceptional individuals, most of us are drawn to color and we all have our preference when it comes to the kind of colors we like.
While many people will prefer the natural earth colors leather usually comes in, others prefer the modern and trendy warm-colored leather articles.
The color of the leather thread you use adds to the overall beauty of the entire leather work project.
The color of the thread crowns the entire leather article.
There’s something amazing about seeing fine leather thread stitches running delicately along the edge of a beautiful piece of leather furniture or apparel.
It says a lot about you as a leather crafter in terms of how much attention you pay to details.
This is a basic quality that will allow most leather connoisseurs to always patronize the work of one particular artist as against another.
A good example is if you happen to get leather thread and you realize its color is too bright and may not match the overall work, you would be able to dull up the thread quite a bit when you wax it.
In some cases, you will not find a particular color of leather thread you would like to use for the edges of your leather work project.
You will be glad to know that some waxes today come pigmented in all sorts of hues so that when it’s applied to the thread it gives it a nice coloring.
So if you’re in that situation and you find that you’re not getting the kind of thread color you’re after, you can simply get a leather wax in that color and apply it to your thread so that you will be able to match the main parts of your leather work to the stitches you put whether on pockets or edges.
6. Waxing Makes Leather Threads Resistant To Rot And Water
Leather as a material is very expensive and the process of using it to make an article involves a lot of processes before arriving at the masterpiece.
What hurts is spending all that time to make a beautiful work of art only for it to be attacked by rot causing things like mold and mildew.
Leather as a natural material is susceptible to mold or mildew and the first point of attack is usually around the stitches on the leather item.
This is because areas around stitches are tight and would usually have moisture, dust, grease, or oils trapped there – making it a good spot for mold and mildew to thrive.
And if it so happens that your leather thread stitches are not polyester, nylon, or waxed, then you’re going to have rot, mildew, and mold build-up – which will eventually wear your threads and cause it to break.
When leather threads are waxed before they are used to hand stitch leather articles, it allows the thread to stick, bond to each other, and to the leather groove in which the stitches sit.
Waxing the thread will also allow the leather thread to seal off any stitch holes on the leather.
Usually, what I find very common is that the holes created on the leather for stitches are going to allow the leather pave way for water and other liquid stains to get into the leather to cause some serious damages.
How To Wax Leather Threads
While most leather threads will come pre-waxed, you can also wax the thread again to make it more workable.
Here’s a video on how to wax your leather threads.
