One of the biggest problems I have encountered making leather pouches is that I'm a peasant and cannot afford the genuine article that's required for the classical moulded designs. Plus my tooling is limited and I have the hand skills of a blind chimp who's drunk a bottle of Jack Daniels, so short of winning the lottery gearing up just to attempt some practice pieces is unlikely to ever happen soon. Instead I have to work with what I can find and that typically always means upholstery leather of one form another and that stuff is nearly always really thin, soft & floppy making large or rigid pouches impractical... then I had an idea.
Mooching through the local £shop discovered some woven cotton dustsheets and having a handy supply of free bin bags wondered if the two could be laminated together with a domestic hot iron into something stronger, yet still flexible. Turns out it they can and when you get to around six to eight alternating layers the resulting composite feels & behaves like a wood veneer or Birch Bark. Less layers and you are in the realm of being like a tough plastic carrier bag, slightly stretchy where thorns could poke a hole kind of thing.
![DSCN2372.JPG DSCN2372.JPG](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44569-9061ac25523a5d7e7fb7e2b1be8e0e56.jpg)
Now the fun begins as we all know hot plastic will stick to just about everything so ironed a piece of the test composite onto a scrap piece of upholstery leather.
Scale is difficult to judge from the photo so got out the digital caliper: white/cream leather is 1mm thick and the blue plastic about half that at 0.5mm
![IMAG3621.jpg IMAG3621.jpg](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44570-9b62015691cbdc5d9918cd3629b3afe8.jpg)
Whilst still warm folded in two ninety degree bends and left to cool and there it sits nicely rigid holding its shape
![IMAG3624.jpg IMAG3624.jpg](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44571-9d1b68bbb26a7767ec22382adb67441a.jpg)
So now in theory once I carve a block form and get some little G-clamps I should be able to make pouches like these (below) found on etsy using the faux leather I have lurking under the bench.(sods law it wont be that easy but I figure it's a step closer if nothing else)
![etsy index.jpeg etsy index.jpeg](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44573-2b77590d2766836c164c09f57eed7e05.jpg)
Mooching through the local £shop discovered some woven cotton dustsheets and having a handy supply of free bin bags wondered if the two could be laminated together with a domestic hot iron into something stronger, yet still flexible. Turns out it they can and when you get to around six to eight alternating layers the resulting composite feels & behaves like a wood veneer or Birch Bark. Less layers and you are in the realm of being like a tough plastic carrier bag, slightly stretchy where thorns could poke a hole kind of thing.
![DSCN2372.JPG DSCN2372.JPG](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44569-9061ac25523a5d7e7fb7e2b1be8e0e56.jpg)
Now the fun begins as we all know hot plastic will stick to just about everything so ironed a piece of the test composite onto a scrap piece of upholstery leather.
Scale is difficult to judge from the photo so got out the digital caliper: white/cream leather is 1mm thick and the blue plastic about half that at 0.5mm
![IMAG3621.jpg IMAG3621.jpg](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44570-9b62015691cbdc5d9918cd3629b3afe8.jpg)
Whilst still warm folded in two ninety degree bends and left to cool and there it sits nicely rigid holding its shape
![IMAG3624.jpg IMAG3624.jpg](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44571-9d1b68bbb26a7767ec22382adb67441a.jpg)
So now in theory once I carve a block form and get some little G-clamps I should be able to make pouches like these (below) found on etsy using the faux leather I have lurking under the bench.(sods law it wont be that easy but I figure it's a step closer if nothing else)
![etsy index.jpeg etsy index.jpeg](https://bushcraftuk.com/community/data/attachments/44/44573-2b77590d2766836c164c09f57eed7e05.jpg)