Latest watch roll, in natural leather with a bit of burnishing and painted edges. Subtle green thread. Not as soft as the brown one from a couple weeks ago but it will soften up. Lots of rivets and small pieces!

 

Sonofabti#@h, you integrated a loupe and spring bar tools into your watch roll design Nice work! The wood grain is pretty sweet too. Congrats

 

I made a couple of fixed lug straps. Learning as I go. I used my Waltham and made them 13 mm wide. The first one has the wide cuff. I tried to use a rough looking leather and kept my stitching about the same colour. Looks good. The strap could be about an inch shorter but it still fits. The other strap I made was a two piece and I used staples. Since my strap is so narrow, I could have rotated the staple 90 degrees on the tail side to facilitate stitching. It still worked. This was an experiment so I did that 90 degree rotation for the buckle piece. Stitching was easier. It was easy to attach to the fixed lugs. I used a screwdriver to push the leather down (vintage screwdriver looks cooler but not required). I then folded the staples down. I like this also. The strap that goes under the watch is one layer of leather. The other has two and is thicker.

 

This thread is just damn... ... In that order

 

Today was an adventure that I hope will never be tested. Look, I am no Brain Scientist or Rocket Surgeon (wink wink) and this may have been a useless exercise but it was fun anyway. I’ve had this fire retardant document bag for a while and it’s been falling apart - fraying at the edges and becoming pretty useless. I also had this old deer skin, so I decided to make a two-watch pouch lined with the fire retardant material. I suppose it would help if inside a 30 minute fire resistant safe, but the crystal and other parts of the watch would likely melt, right? My Adler 30 sewing machine made easy work of two layers of deer hide but I was not convinced that it would handle four, so I used rivets to fold and hold the front compartments together. The rivets made the compartments too tight, so I removed them with this monster. Now I have glued the sides of the compartments and used heavy waxed thread in the rivet holes. Perfect prototype! Gonna make one more!

 

Beautiful! You’ve outdone yourself yet again…

 

When are you gonna set it on fire?

 

I feel honored to have received this strap from @Duracuir1 after failing to be fast enough so many times before. This has quickly become one of my favorite straps. The craftsmanship is on point and the leather is so soft and has aged really well. Along with the strap was a hand written note giving me the history and approximate age of the leather, which is from the palm of a baseball glove. This UG was a tool watch for the Italian railways in the mid 60's. This strap, of similar age, pairs so well with it and I really enjoy knowing it was made from a purposeful tool for a purposeful tool. Did I say how well this leather has aged? Dare I say... it fits like a glove

 

Okay, I found a nice old ball glove at a thrift shop today. I’ve looked everywhere, but can’t find the will to cut this charming old glove up! Would a liberal coating of tequila help?

 

That is a nice old ball glove. I still have mine from high school (outfielders glove) that I still use whenever anyone wants to throw with me.

 

You’re not helping…

 

Latest projects. 19 mm strap from an old baseball glove’s inner palm. I used a 90 year old saddle to make a strap for a ww1 era watch. Looks like it’s been on there since 1916. I had never heard of « bushcraft » before but some of my colleagues wear these huge belts with snaps and rings and a hatchet and go hang out in the woods. I had to google it to make this latest creation. A pouch for some kind of « tin » is under construction. This belt is huge and it is apparently worn loose. I’ve never heard of this and grew up in the smallest of small villages in N.B. Reminds me of Mad Jack in Grizzly Adams.

 

Before… and after. No cats were injured during this creation.

 

You could branch out and start to make fire retardant pantie liner as well, if you know what I mean.

 

Wow! That is a very good looking bag, Steve.

 

Very nice, what is the size? Dibbs

 

Fred, I made a similar one in 2018 and used an old kids backpack for reference. They were like cardboard back then. I made it with much better leather. It’s about 14 inches wide by about 18 high, I think. I took the original one on my recent road trip and my friend wanted one. For reference, here are the two bags with a football. New one ships tomorrow. I hand stitched everything and to be honest, there is no money to be made here, it’s more of a piece of art. About a hundred hours spent hand stitching, and $350 in material. This has been more of a relaxing pass time.

@FREDMAYCOIN

 

It’s amazing how much people don’t realIze what goes into hand crafted goods, even in a more industrial scale. I have several pairs of custom made work boots (made based on my foot measurements and on the last of my choosing), and people balk when I tell them what they cost.
Then I ask them two questions:
How many pairs of “cheap” work boots have you gone through in the last 10 years?

How much is your time worth?

 

Absolutely on point. And additionally, how does something thing handcrafted and made from the heart make you feel? I’ve had similar debates with fellow musicians about my guitars.

 

One of the questions I have is whether the younger generations will appreciate hand-crafted goods like those beautiful pieces above…or are they too focused on their technology to appreciate what goes into generating something like that?