Hello all! To say I am self-taught would be disingenuous. I owe so much to all the enthusiasts and educators here and on YouTube that have built both my interest and capacity to work with leather. On OF especially, thanks to
@Duracuir1 for starting the
Adventures in Strap Making thread that built my interest in leatherwork to the point that I finally decided to pick up some tools and try out a new hobby.
The journey begins when I wanted a pocket watch lanyard but none of the ones I saw seemed quite right. I set out to designing one that had a few features I was after: for safety, it should be detachable from the belt loop; for convenience of switching between pocket watches, it should easily be able to put on a watch and take one off; and, it should have a classic look that is inline with what those gorgeous pocket watches deserve.
Okay, on to the photos! I start with breaking down vegetable tanned 3mil sheepskin
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Then they are cut, dyed and a top coat is applied. Brown dye is frustratingly difficult vs a very forgiving black dye.
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The mystery braid is then is woven in - note that this is all still one continuous piece of leather. The button studs and keepers are then installed
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So I am happy to now have the lanyard that I have been looking for. I offered to send one to
@Canuck for his feedback on the design, and he kindly counter-offered and became my first customer – a true gentleman. Thanks Canuck also for the great feedback. I would value the feedback of others as well on the design or features, and what colours you currently have or would want.
Feel free to PM me if these are something that you are looking for too. Please jump in to this thread so we can share what others are doing with pocket watch lanyards. Though I fear that I might not have a lot of company in this niche.
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