I first learned how to sew on a harness stitcher in the summer of 1979 in Twin Falls, Idaho. The shop I worked for was a high quality holster production outfit owned by Chet Hillman. Chet had a contract to make the Thompson Center Contender holsters back in the day when silhouette shooting was popular. Our crew of a dozen or so had a goal of wet-blocking three hundred holsters a day! I remember sewing on either a Landis 3 or a Randall machine for eight hours each day. By the time I turned 20 years old that year, I had more hours sewing on a harness stitcher than most saddlemakers accumulate in their entire career.
Today I have a Randall that I bought from the late Don King of Sheridan, Wyoming some years ago. The Randall was my favorite machine all those years ago and it still is today, and I still use the same tried and true polished linen thread. Thankfully, tech support and parts availability is excellent on these needle-and-awl machines. Conrad “Connie” Nagle of Campbell Bosworth has an outstanding business in Yoakum, Texas that serves the folks who still run these machines.