We have been getting several orders for many different kinds of leather products. This is actually what I like most about doing leatherwork for customers, the variety and the challenge for which I am happy to apply my creativity.
Most recently, I made this custom tool pouch for one of my leather customers who does TV repair. He had specific requests which required me to create my own pattern from scratch. Without having his tools to use for making accurate measurements, I improvised with my leather tools that were approximately the same diameter. This way I could wet-form each component of the pouch to fit that specific tool that he requested to be able to carry on the pouch.
Allow me to expand on "Wet forming". This is a process/technique by which we completely wet the leather then place it in a "form" and let it dry overnight to maintain the shape required for that specific component. As can be seen by the large rectangular pouch for the two uniquely shaped pliers, I took a piece of wood, shaved and sanded the edges and corners then wrapped the wet leather around it and placed everything between my granite pounding blocks ... sometimes you have to improvise if you don't have the exact size block or dowel to do the wet forming, as was the case with this project.
Then, of course, there is the placement and punching of the stitching holes. Always trying to keep the stitching line straight to make it look like it was done by machine when, in fact, I do ALL of my stitching and lacing by hand. The customer was very impressed by the tool pouch and was willing to pay a pretty penny for it. Again, this is what makes this all worthwhile for me, seeing the customer's face and hearing their positive comments about how much they like the product.
Until next time, All the best.
Frank, the KC Leather Guy
Most recently, I made this custom tool pouch for one of my leather customers who does TV repair. He had specific requests which required me to create my own pattern from scratch. Without having his tools to use for making accurate measurements, I improvised with my leather tools that were approximately the same diameter. This way I could wet-form each component of the pouch to fit that specific tool that he requested to be able to carry on the pouch.
Allow me to expand on "Wet forming". This is a process/technique by which we completely wet the leather then place it in a "form" and let it dry overnight to maintain the shape required for that specific component. As can be seen by the large rectangular pouch for the two uniquely shaped pliers, I took a piece of wood, shaved and sanded the edges and corners then wrapped the wet leather around it and placed everything between my granite pounding blocks ... sometimes you have to improvise if you don't have the exact size block or dowel to do the wet forming, as was the case with this project.
Then, of course, there is the placement and punching of the stitching holes. Always trying to keep the stitching line straight to make it look like it was done by machine when, in fact, I do ALL of my stitching and lacing by hand. The customer was very impressed by the tool pouch and was willing to pay a pretty penny for it. Again, this is what makes this all worthwhile for me, seeing the customer's face and hearing their positive comments about how much they like the product.
Until next time, All the best.
Frank, the KC Leather Guy
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