Leather Possibles Pouch

[craeg]

Hi all

I made a new wet-forming last on Saturday and then made this pouch from it.

The pouch is 3-4mm veg tan leather that was wet formed and measures about 5" x 5½" x 1½". The holes were were done the traditional way by using a diamond awl and all the stitching was saddle-stitched with 40lb artificial sinew. It was stamped with my maker's mark, the edges were heavily burnished to a lovely shine and then the whole thing was dyed brown, carnauba waxed and finished in resolene for waterproofing.

I made the pouch with belt loops to fit a 2" belt and also included brass rings and a couple of 2" danglers with solid brass studs, to enable it to be worn lower on the belt. The closure is a solid brass 3/4" roller buckle and the closure strap is bridle leather for increased wear resistance and strength.

Let me know what you think and any comments welcome :)

Front
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/craegs_leathercraft/60c25f84.jpg

Front
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/craegs_leathercraft/3597391f.jpg

Back
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/craegs_leathercraft/7caaa761.jpg

[Toadflax]

A nice piece of kit there. A fair bit of work must have gone into that.

Do you find that the resolene doesn't smear the dye after waxing? I've not had good results so far with resolene, but it's always so far been straight onto dye. I haven't tried two different finishes.


Geoff

[Handmade Matt]

Wow, that looks great mate.
It gives me something to aspire to.

Did you wet form the shape before or after stitching it into a pouch?

[mountainm]

I think they've been done on a forming last pre stitching? I haven't got a last so I'm going to experiment with an idea by wet forming a stitched pouch, unstitching the pouch the sewing them back on to flat backs. A bit more sewing but nice predictable results.

[craeg]

Cheers guys :)

Geoff.
Iit seemed to go on quite nicely. It's the first time I have used it but I was recommended it by a saddler that I know.

Matt.
This pouch was wet-formed then stitched together afterwards. You can do it the other way but only on smaller pouches. I have made little 'peggy pouches' using the wedge forming method.

ATB
Craeg

[topknot]

Nice bit of wet forming there. I do like to see the traditional way of stitching using a awl and not a drill.

Topknot

[Mesquite]

That's really nice goodjob :)

[craeg]

I wholeheartedly agree Topknot. It takes a lot longer to manually awl things but the results are much better IMHO. It was how I was taught to do it and it is how I will always do it.

When I get chance, I will post some photos of the 'wedge' style of wet-form. Basically, you stitch 2 sides of a pouch together, wet them, then push in your 3-way wedge form. Good results can be had but only for small pouches IMHO. This little 'peggy bag' was made using this method (a very early example of my stuff BTW :o)

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f371/craeg67/My%20Crafts/Leathercraft/PICT0733.jpg

[Dreadhead]

excellent pouch! can see a lot of skill has gonae intae it. looks very similar tae pouches i saw in a tutorial on here somewhere, i think it was luckylee, correct me if im wrong.

i like the other pouch/bag too looks great

[copper_head]

Mate, your stuff is great,
Can you recommend a book on leather work basics? I'm very keen to give a few leather projects a go....

[craeg]

Thanks again guys

Copper_head:
I can recommend The Leatherworking Handbook by Valerie Michael (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leatherworking-Handbook-Valerie-Michael/dp/0304345113). Great info and tutorials for you.

Dreadhead:
It was Magikelly that did a great tutorial but his method is forming with nails which I found a bit messy. I use a form and cut-out for my wet-forming :)

ATB

Craeg

[craeg]

Found his tutorial here (http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46681&highlight=pouch) :)

[copper_head]

Craeg you are a gentlemen sir! I might just have to treat myself to that.
Thanks