Solo Fine Threading XII

[Willis Efram]

16 Fall 525

After finishing the hardening process on the first piece of his pack, Willis had decided to take a break. That, with the weather being what it was, meant starting up again the next day. While with some cover Willis could do some of his work with light rain, this did not work well when trying to dry pieces nor when it was raining more heavily. Oddly enough this minute adjustments to the weather was something his particular ability allowed, though certainly it was not expected when he first discovered his ability to predict the weather that it would be used to plan leatherworking.

As Willis thought on this on his way back to the commons to continue his work he could not help but smile at the sudden mental image of several Konti being surprised or offended at his odd usage of his ability. But, Willis felt, it was his ability and his to use as he saw fit. And while he had not explicitly told everyone in the settlement about his ability he had mentioned it to a founder on his arrival. That plus seeing him oddly "by chance" always leave the commons or other areas he was working in only for a torrential down pour to occur shortly after led several others to pick up on his seeming knack for knowing when it was going to get bad out and after several seasons of this noticed several others would quietly pack up and go inside when they saw him suddenly leave when he was clearly not done for the day with his work or otherwise at a good stopping point.

Arriving back at the commons again, Willis began to unpack his things. Tools for cutting leather, tools for stitching it together, thread to do that stitching, various pieces of leather and cloth and rags and other things for waterproofing. At this point Willis kit had become quite involved and between the materials he was working on or with and his actual tools he generally carried it all across two different packs.

Once this was all out Willis began inspecting the first piece he had prepared before, the "armored" back portion he had made. Running his fingers over it he could feel the stiffness of the leather, but also expected that meant it would be stronger and harder than before. Almost like a hard shell serving as its back, this made the most sense as the place to put the armored piece since it would be where a surprise attack was most likely to come from and also was not in contact directly with the wearers skin.

With a smile Willis rapped his knuckles twice on the leather, before beginning to check its size. Compared to before it was certainly smaller, but the shrinkage was within the expected margin for the work he was doing. With that piece done and inspected he did not need to return to it till he was actually making the holes to sow it together with the other pieces, something he could not do till he knew the exact spacing. Setting aside that first cut out and prepared piece Willis turned to the next piece, the one that would form the back of the pack which was against the wearers back.

WC: 547

[Willis Efram]

While Willis had made rough markings on the back piece of the pack before, this had been done prior to him finishing the main hardened back piece. Now that he had, adjustments were needed on this piece. Holding the finished piece up to his prior marked piece, Willis could see the changes that had occurred now that the other piece was done.

Erasing some chalk marks and adding new ones, Willis slowly adjusted the back pieces marks until it fitted the hardened outer piece it would be fitted against. Then as usual he checked his work again, making sure he had left a proper margin of error. Once that was done he got to the real work he could not turn back on, cutting the piece out. Being the back of the pack this part was a bit easier, more or less being a flat squareish shaped piece to cut out. Compared to cutting out a piece that would be bent and molded into shape later this was a much simpler task.

As with his prior work Willis began his cutting with a shallow score with a smaller blade. This served as a purchase point for later cutting, along with a guide for his broader work and made those cuts to come easier. Slowly he guided his blade around the marked points, doing the mass work to cut the larger piece out before he pruned and fixed down the piece to its final form.

While this cut was not too deep it was still on fresh leather, and so the cutting was not easy. Slowly Willis traced his blade around, carving a shallow score into the surface. Once this was done he repeated the process, only a bit deeper, as he cut into the leather. With several passes he was left ready finally for the bigger cuts, and so Willis turned to a larger blade and began to cut through the leather all the way. This work was a bit slower than before, though made easier by his earlier prep work. It was also a bit easier for the shape, since straight lines were easier when cutting than waving or curving shapes like the one he had done for the back piece.

Eventually this cutting work was done, and the main piece of leather had been cut out of the surrounding larger leather piece. The rest could either be used for smaller pieces, scrap pieces, or leather cording used for tying things which was easy to make out of any shaped cuts of leather so long as it was lone enough when wrapped.

With the main work done Willis turned to a smaller sized blade, and began the more precise work of cutting down the small bits of excess or miscut leather where it bulged over the marked line and left extra material. This was more spot work than consistent work, as Willis would trace the outline, find a point going over, slowly cut it off, and then repeat his tracing until he either found another spot needing trimming or no more. This process continued for a time, until finally Willis felt he had gotten the piece as close to his goal as it could get.

WC: 536

[Willis Efram]

Having cut out and trimmed the back piece of his work, Willis picked it up and fitted it against the outer center piece of the pack. At this point fit was important, as was clean lines in his cutting. As he thought on this Willis realized a single piece of leather would be better for waterproofing, but also made it harder to armor as he had done here. Thinking it over Willis wondered if on future pieces he could make the core out of one solid bent piece, while layering outside of that the piece that would act as the armoring. This would also mean the armor could be replaced more easily, but on the downside making it less integrated into the whole and more likely to be ripped off.

Everything, Willis was learning, was a trade off. Still he considered segmenting his work for such tasks, allowing him a happy medium of having the finished product be as waterproof as possible while also allowing the armoring to serve some purpose. Not, perhaps to Willis mind, as armored as this piece with its more pure focus on that, but more armored than a normal pack while having superior waterproofing.

Fitting the two pieces together, Willis began marking small points along both where the holes would need to be punched out and where the two pieces would be sown together. Invariably any two pieces would need to be fitted together, and this meant making openings. However, as he had seen and done on earlier pieces he had made or repaired, it was still possible to cover these points and secure them against water leakage or scrabbling claws. Not as much as a single jointed piece, but still better than nothing.

As with all of his work Willis was methodical. Planning and prep work, in the Akontaks mind, was just as important if not more important than the actual work of cutting and putting things together. After all, he knew, once something was cut it could not be uncut and so it was much better to have a firm plan in mind going into things before any cutting occurred. Otherwise one mistake would mean starting an entire section over, which would be much more wasteful than spending a bit of extra time on planning.

Keeping at his work Willis slowly marked out each point he would be punching a hole at, along with an extra planned layer at the seam to keep it from leaking or letting water in.

Once this was all done Willis turned to planning out the next piece, the one that would serve as the divider in the middle of the pack in order to keep the two pockets separate. With his other pieces cut Willis used some parchment to get some measurements, finding the length that would be needed while leaving a bit of extra material to fold over and work as a seam cover between the back piece and the outer middle piece. With a smile Willis kept at his work, slowly marking out another squarish like shape for this piece.

WC: 515

[Willis Efram]

The middle piece, Willis soon found, was not so hard as the other two earlier pieces. This was because, in part, this piece was built to be flexible. The outer ring of the piece after all would serve as a cover for the seam of the other pieces, and so it was meant to overlap a bit and have some excess. Still Willis was careful in his markings, making sure not to leave too much extra.

With this in mind Willis finished up his marking, and for once was quite to begin cutting. Perhaps, Willis thought, this was just him slowly gaining confidence as his skill grew. Or perhaps this piece was just easier than the others and did not need as much preparation. Willis was unsure which of these was the reason, or if it was perhaps a mix of the two.

As usual Willis began with a smaller blade, cutting a shallow groove. This was repeated several times until finally Willis took out a larger blade and began cutting the leather as a whole. Soon enough this step of the process was done, and the planned piece was cut out of the larger prepared piece of leather.

Once the main cutting was done trimming came back, and Willis spent some time slowly cutting the excess bits here and there from the planned cutting. Being a smaller piece than the others this did not take too long, and soon enough he was on to the next portion. Once more it was a planning step, marking out the planned folds on the leather, along with where all of the holes would be punched into it to fit it to the surrounding pieces. This was a bit slower work as this piece needed quite a few marks. A fold her, and there. where it would meet the front and back pieces. Being a divider it only met those two points, but still needed to be fastened together. After that it was a process of marking out the planned points to fasten the two together, and if needed to fasten down the folded bit to protect and reinforce the seam. Eying each point and occasionally taking out his cloth ruler to measure the distance and angle, Willis eventually finished the process of marking the piece out.

With that done Willis had the back piece, the center outer piece, and the piece dividing the two halves of the back. All that was left was the top and bottom piece that would serve as the packs openings, the straps feeding into the buckles for the arms, and the smaller straps feeding into the buckles for the openings.

Wanting to see the larger pieces first, Willis began on the top and bottom piece. These two pieces would be similar, but would be slightly different. The pack, due to its size and shape and how weight held, had needed to be a bit broader on the bottom than on the top. The top part however was a bit more narrow, and led to a smaller opening and a smaller top section of the pack. Still it was not beyond Willis abilities, and as before he slowly began marking out the lines for the top and bottom covering pieces.

WC: 542

[Willis Efram]

Once the markings for the top and bottom opening covers were done, Willis launched once more into cutting. At this point his process for this piece was ingrained in his body. A smaller groove cut with a smaller knife, etched several times into the leather. Then taking out a larger blade and cutting through entirely. And finally going back to a smaller blade to cut off the extra pieces. Soon enough he had burned through both of these steps, and had cut out the top and bottom pieces.

Having cut out quite a few bits, Willis once more fit them all together, checking on their fit and consistency. Once he was satisfied he was still on track Willis marked out the holes to be made on the top and bottom covers. This also included where the straps would fit, one on the top and one on the bottom piece. Willis then returned to the outer middle piece, and plotted out the other end of those straps which would make the piece close. Having done those Willis recalled the arm straps, and marked out four additional points on the back piece. These were near each corner, and would be where each of the two ends of the two arm straps would be attached.

With all of these marked out, Willis really only had two steps left before waterproofing and assembling the pieces. Namely cutting out the many strap pieces, four for the back and two for the top and bottom each - or eight total- and punching the many holes in the leather that would serve as the places to fasten the pieces together with some strong twine he used for stitching together leather.

His plan in mind, Willis began quickly mapping out each of the eight straps, checking their length and stretch using markings and measures and notes on a piece of parchment. Two four pieces that would serve as the top and bottoms fasteners would be smaller, while also leaving less margin of error. Having long excess pieces of leather dangling off would be a problem, and so Willis expected to have several sessions of trimming through the work of making the piece.

The other four pieces would have a bit more leeway, as their excess would be sitting against the body of the wearer, and also was needed for different fits or tightness of wearing the pack along for different sized wearers. This was of course the entire point, and what made the pack adjustable.

With all of this in mind Willis kept at his craft, working through the many pieces he needed to one by one. Once all of the straps were measured and marked each was cut out. And then once cut out each were trimmed and fitted, with the expectation of more trimming later. And finally each of the straps where marked where the holes would be punched.

At this point Willis only had a few steps left, and had been working for quite awhile. And so at that point Willis decided to come back later to finish the last few steps, that of punching out all of the holes, waterproofing it all, and then finally assembling and sowing it all together.

WC: 536