Leather pouch

[Llwyd]

Sort of a bastardized version of one dug up in some place called Birka in Sweden, I wanted it to look a bit beat up. The first thing I did was cut out the leather and soak it in cold water and scrunch it all up in a ball. Letting it dry for 24 hours I wet it again and made the pouch, let it dry and dyed it and added the toggle. I put some extra stitching with a reinforcement piece on the closure which while making it look ugly allows for harsher treatment and less worry of breakage due to neglect.

By the way, machine washing leather is an old costumers trick to make it look lived in. They did it to all the leather jackets made for the Indiana Jones movies. For purposes of a little project like this soaking and scrunching your leather parts will shrink and wrinkle the surfaces enough to give it some definition and character before you add the dye.

 

[greensurfingbear]

I likes that. Jobs a good un


Orric

 

[copper_head]

Nice work, good tip about distressing the leather

 

[CBJ]

Good job mate, that looks great,

Good tips aswell

All the best

Craig

 

[crosslandkelly]

Great looking pouch Lloyd.

 

[Dreadhead]

nice work i like that! nice tip of distressing. and interesting the way you have stitched the gusset with the front and back overlapping, is there any particular historical reason for that?

 

[Llwyd]

Nope. Just squishes together better allowing the top to close tighter. I guess that is good if you do not want to loose your silver pieces or cell phone.

The historical pieces I have seen on line and in places like Jorvik don't give me much of an idea how and why stuff was done. A lot of the grave finds have lots of bling on them. That is why they get some clue as to what it was and what it looked like as the bling survived and the leather is gone.

I don't really do bling bling pieces unless a customer has really deep pockets and patients. Most of my stuff is average Joe, man in the street stuff without rivets, buckles, or bling.
I assume that there was a lot of variation from place to place in leather work back in the day, and I also figure the olden day makers were at least as smart as me (or more so) when it comes to patterns and such. Not all would have access to metal fittings so would use antler and bone.
For this reason, I limit myself to a needle, a good knife, a pair of pliers to pull needles (beats a thimble for pushing and breaking needles) and a roll of artificial sinew. I keep it simple, don't measure and turn out something close to the museum picture. Back in the day they may not have saddle stitched or they may have? I don't really care and neither do most customers.

I have a strap cutter for saddlery and modern stuff but for historical eyeball pieces I drive my knife into a board and then a nail the distance away from the blade I want the strap width. I push the leather into the knife and et Voila instant strap. Sometimes it works perfect and sometimes you get little variations in width that add character. As long as it is not too extreme it usually looks pretty rustic and cool.

I prefer the "by the seat of my pants" leather working way more than precision and surgery and some of the reenactment people really go for it. Still though some people want it to look like it came from a precision sweat shop and be all pretty. Again, they need deep pockets and patients or I refer them to ebay.

 

[Dreadhead]

i agree about your approach to historical leatherwork, and 10 times out of 10 thats exactly how i like my own personal leatherwork as leather is an imperfect material and should be used as such. i was curious about the gusset as i dont usually see them done that way, usually they are stitched together then turned inside out to hide the seam. but your way looks good and i can see it doesnt distort the pattern as much as when you turn them inside out does if that makes sense

 

[Stringmaker]

Just for context, "some place called Birka" is a bit more significant than that:

"Birka is one of the most complete and undisturbed examples of a Viking trading settlement of the 8th-10th centuries AD."

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/555

 

[Skaukraft]

Oooh.
Liked the look an finish on that one.
I need to dig out my sewing kit and get started again.

 

[Llwyd]

i agree about your approach to historical leatherwork, and 10 times out of 10 thats exactly how i like my own personal leatherwork as leather is an imperfect material and should be used as such. i was curious about the gusset as i dont usually see them done that way, usually they are stitched together then turned inside out to hide the seam. but your way looks good and i can see it doesnt distort the pattern as much as when you turn them inside out does if that makes sense

Ordinarily I would hide the seam too but with leather that thick it would not be as flexible, open as wide, or close as tight. As you say there would be some distortion unless you shaved the edges thinner but that sounds too much like work.

By the way, I think it was your kukri sheath pattern I stole to cover up an old Indian knock off someone gave me. It sold a week later after sitting on my table for a dozen years.

 

[Dreadhead]

yeah i may try that style at somepoint to see how it compares. and thanks

 

[Macaroon]

I love the "seat of the pants" ethos that you espouse. When I make something for my own use I like it simple and fast and the minimum of technology. All the things I've had and loved and used for many years have been made this way..........the beauty and the class are already in the material, you don't have to create it, just bring it out.

Your pouch is a great colour and looks like something you could get friends with real quick.........................atb mac

 

[Llwyd]

My blacksmithing instructor always repeated the philosophy of his instructor. "Pretty is as pretty does". I have since adopted it for most things in life.

I know too many people who are too afraid to use stuff because they paid too much for it and it looks too pretty. I use stuff like I stole it so I want it to be made tough.

As an experiment; go to a group event sometime and listen to the campfire stories. The guys with minimal kit that is a bit beat up have one set of stories. The guys with a few kinds of kit for different jobs (working kit and collector kit) have other stories. The guys with pristine kit and ironed trousers that have of all makes and description of gear often have not much to say except; "look at this".

A friend of mine is an American Civil war reenactor who always borrows my McClellan military saddle for his displays because it looks like it has 10,000 miles on it. Probably it has 3000 but anyway... My point is that gear should be tough enough that you can pass out drunk in a swamp with it, clean it up and carry on with no ill effects.

As such, if I make stuff that is a bit rumpled looking guys are more likely to come up with ideas like; Hey, I can feed my horse out of my rucksack if I run the strap over the back of his head. You end up carrying less and having cooler stories.

as for this little pouch, I doubt it will see much real action but I think it will fit 2 full cans of beer and a pound of beef jerky.

 

[Biker]

I like your thinking fella... and that pouch.

 

[Big Stu 12]

Nice, I do like that, I got quite a large piece of 1.5mm under my desk... not being used, now I think it'll find a use