Adventures in strap making

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

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

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.

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.

Expect the cease and desist from Rolex any day.

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

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.