I’m relatively new to leatherwork, so please do not take my evaluation as gospel.



Yesterday, I used the much respected “Tiger Thread” for the first time. Overall, I was pleased with the results and see it as a considerable improvement over using Tandy’s thread. There are four aspects of Tiger Thread I would like to highlight: its wax content, flatness, ease of use, and appearance after use.

image used with permission, from Popov Leather

Wax Content

The Tiger Thread I purchased is every so slightly waxed. When you run your finger down the thread, you feel a very small amount of resistance due to the wax. To be honest, I wasn’t completely sure there was wax on it, and am considering adding some for my next use. There are three ways this affected my use of the Tiger Thread, it’s appearance (covered later), the ease with which I could pull the thread through the leather, and its hold after pulling a stitch.



When I pulled the Tiger Thread through the leather, it glided through with little resistance. Now, this could be due to a couple of other factors (flatness, 0.8 mm size in comparison to 1.0 mm, size of holes), in part or in whole. This made the stitching process more enjoyable and easier, especially around the eye of the needle which can get caught in the leather sometimes.

Another thing I noticed is that after pulling a stitch tight, the thread would loosen very slightly. The leather would compress under the thread’s pressure and then decompress. I figured this could be because there isn’t enough wax-on-wax grip between the two threads (using saddle stitch), or due to the thread’s flatness. On the one hand, I think when you pull the stitch too tight, it looks bad and can change the shape of the leather, but on the other hand, I want to have a strong and secure hold. I’ll be interested to see how it holds up on the long run.



Flatness

Tiger Thread, unlike Tandy’s thread that I used previously, is flat instead of round. While this helps when you have to pierce the thread to lock it on the needle, I had concerns that it would not lay flat for each stitch.



After spending a decent amount of effort to ensure that the thread didn’t twist into a helix as I was pulling it through the leather, I eventually gave up and just pulled, helix or not. The end result was seemingly, if not actually, identical. The thread lays flat for each stitch, assuaging my previous concerns and allowing me to work more efficiently.



Ease of Use

I previously mentioned how Tiger Thread was lightly waxed and thus pulled effortlessly through the leather. While that’s certainly a good quality, I think it comes at the expense of another quality.



On several stitches, after putting the first needle through the hole, the second needle would pierce the thread. This was a nightmare with Tiger Thread. Because it is made of many superfine fibers, it was nearly impossible to get the needle back through the right fibers to fix the problem. Regardless of the effort, the thread didn’t look the same afterward and had noticeable bumps and snags in it.

While these snags aren’t visible in the end product and don’t hurt the aesthetic whatsoever, it does create a significant workflow problem. I began ensuring that my first thread was pulled to the far side of my awl’s hole and that the second thread was far on the closer side, but sometimes my efforts were in vain. It would take several minutes of getting the needle through the right fibers to fix the problem. I think more wax to make the fibers stick together and would solve this problem.



Final Appearance

I’m extremely pleased with Tiger Thread’s final appearance. The stitches are extremely crisp and well defined. My previous use of Tandy’s thread sometimes ended in what looked like solid lines down the edge of the product. They would mush together due to the wax content, I hypothesize (this is what I reference in the wax content section).

Tandy’s thread on left, Tiger Thread on right

Another positive difference with Tiger Thread in comparison to Tandy’s thread was that it doesn’t seem to get dirty. It has the same consistent color throughout the entire line of stitches. I always felt that the clean cream color of Tandy’s thread eventually darkened due to dirt on my fingers or the leather’s dye. It was frustrating when my intention was to make the stitches pop (cream stitches on brown leather).

Summary

Tiger Thread is definitely my preferred thread in comparison to Tandy’s thread. Its crisp finish provides the high-end aesthetic all leatherworkers strive to accomplish. When purchased in bulk, the premium is negligible and justified. To address the questionable hold and piercing issues, I’ll experiment with added wax.