Working on a 17 tapered to 14 with fine stitching. Squirrel has seen better days. I fed it a slice of bread with peanut butter! Pranced away! And will leave my bird feeders alone for a few hours.

 

For a second there, I thought you were going to say "squirrel skin strap".

 

Well that poor squirrel is almost ready to become one….

 

Your straps just keep getting better and better…really nice to see the skill level continue to escalate.

 

Strap looks great. What is all that white stuff on the ground?

 

Haha! I can’t complain too much. We have had very little this year.

 

I recently picked up an old pair of Ferragamo loafers at the thrift store. These sell for hundreds new but after a long life the owner moves on (or steps away ).

The leather is very nice and does not smell like feet!

I took the shoes apart… They were made with one single piece of leather. Except for the tongue and an extra part at the rear, above the heel. They still did not yield a lot of leather but the usable pieces were wonderful. So smooth.

I thinned out the single pass strap but left the wider piece at full thickness. The strap measures 9 1/2 inches and at its widest is 17 mm and tapers to 16.

Since I sold most of my watches I had to borrow my wife’s Bulova. It fits well but that watch has long lugs. My Vulcain Cricket did not fit so well. Amazing leather and super smooth. I used an old strap that I picked up at a garage sale as a guide.

 

Careful you are giving me ideas. I have a lot of scrap pipe organ leather ...

Gents ties (often silk) are a great source of material for making doll's clothes. Thrift stores are a great source of raw materials. Too bad they got greedy about the watches.

I took a shoe making class once. (still have the shoes.) On of the other members had a pair of expensive Italian shoes. They were almost impossible to take apart being so well made.

Curiously, stiletto and shank are the name of metal parts inside the shoe that supports the heel. The reason we were dissembling shoes was to get these parts.

 

About 12 years ago I bought several pieces of equipment from an Italian shoe maker who had a shop here in Canada. He was obviously very good. Here is a work in progress that sadly was not completed. He had just died I bought more leather from his family than I will ever need, but I still enjoy repurposing old stuff. And Ferragamo being such a legendary shoemaker makes the strap even more special. Here are a few pieces of equipment that I bought from the shoe maker’s family. I plan on making better use of this equipment when our renovation to an old building is complete. Hand tools that were made in England are my favorite. And I insert this Longines crystal tool because I could not find it a while back when someone wanted to buy it. These shoe photos were accidentally shuffled down here. They were supposed to appear above with the other shoe pic.

 

I have one of those longines case openers as well. Missing the die rings though.

Most of my stuff came from Tandy. They had a brick and mortor shop (a few doors down from the Radio shack.) Curious how a store that did mail order could not handle the transition to online.

Pipe organs attempted in the 1970s to switch to perflex. Pretty much cost the industry. Only leather works in the pnuematics. The best leather is kangaroo, which is technically illegal in this state. Not really that different from sheep and goat. I guess the industrial uses are ignored. It is probably people that make clothing out of it what upsets the soft hearted.

Pipe organ bellows mostly use horse and cow. And one needs several hides to cover the bellows. A regulator or bellows job can cost 6 figures when done by one of the experts.

Player piano work uses rubberized cloth. This has become almost impossible to find. The material was used for black out curtains and gas bags in WWII. The smallest leak will cause total failure. Which is why I do not work for others. I do the electronics anyway. As well as doing the work for a volunteer non profit.

There is not much market for pipe organ (or the associated player piano repair) , although the old guys have a waiting list. The other issue is such things are owned by foundations and other bureaucratic entities.

It is also impossible to use the natural glues and shellac. Not to mention the Heavy metal alloys that make up the pipes themselves. These have been mostly banned as well. The modern glues and finishes will not stand up to the centuries old methods and materials. Failing in a few years, when the old stuff lasted nearly 100.

Probably why one can not give them away (Usually strings attached.) The instrument may only cost 2 to 5K but the moving and installation will be 250K and require a maintenance budget of several 1000 a year. Most of the Theater instruments are 100 years old. Concert instrument can be many times that.

 

I was taking photos of some straps and realized that my ruler may be more desirable than I thought.

 

I took apart a cork purse ($6 at Goodwill) and am trying to make my first strap with this weird material. At our previous house we had cork floors and they were nice and durable. For a watch strap? Not so sure. Don’t call me Duraliege just yet. @Syrte will understand. While I was working on the strap, a small repair came in. Small town living. People can find you if they need to… To be honest, the watch straps are a relaxing pass time. We are fixing up a historic building in our small town. Once it’s done I may set up a small workshop in there for general leather repairs. Here is the repaired bag. Two snaps changed. Less than 5 minutes. And now back to my cork strap. Will show it if it does not end up looking like a disaster.

 

Expect the cease and desist from Rolex any day.

 

Bucket bag for a local lady. She was expecting basic natural leather but I went nuts with the basketweave. She loves it. She cried and I got hugged!

The basketweave is not a quick job and not a “moneymaker” but seeing her reaction, along with the fact that this is my hobby, was well worth it.

Next job: a freebie for the mid Atlantic crew. And the result…

 

Really nice, Steve. And I feel very fortunate to be a beneficiary of your leathercraft - as does my Ranchero.

 

Yesterday I made my first strap in a long time. A man in his mid 70s somehow inherited his grandfather’s Rolex Sky-Rocket and wanted a strap. The watch has a silver case and was serviced.

Making the strap was easy because I used my own Sky-Rocket. We compared case sizes and they were quite similar. But I would run into some problems… Pile of leather samples and my watch and strap. He wanted this style of strap. Once he selected his leather I began work on the “bund”. I like the look of the bund when the stitching is visible along the watch case. I put a back piece that looked as if it should have been the front. Nice leather. Everything went as planned and I mounted my watch to the strap and wore it for a bit. I was very happy with it. This morning I was unable to remove the buckle strap. I wanted to paint the edges and ship in the afternoon.

I ended up cutting the strap off and snipping the spring bar. This happened to me before. Maybe that was one of those spring bars designed for drilled lugs. Better to cut off the strap than to risk damaging my watch. And back to work. In the end, the new buckle strap is better than the first. A bit of edge paint. And ready a few hours later. Note that in the last photo of my watch on the new strap, well, my watch is simply resting on top.

I hope he does not like it. I should have made an extra one for me!

 

Steve, plain and simple! You are the best craftsman and human in the world!

 

That print is amazing and that lady is mighty lucky!

 

Incredible work, Steve! Amazing talent and beautifully crafted wares! Well done, Sir!

 

That tooling is really nice Great to see you expanding your repertoire.

I made a case for my stamps this summer. I wanted something to keep them from getting dinged and bounced around while in a drawer, and thought some vintage licence plates would make decent covers for the case. Because of the layers, the leather is pretty thick in parts, making the stitching lines hard for me to do. Oh well, it’s not perfect but I’m happy with the outcome.