Solo Slicing Leather

[Fallan Windchaser]

25 Fall, 513AV

The morning light was still new and there was a chill to the air outside which is why Fallan sat close inside the entrance to the pavilion where the light was strong enough to see what he was doing and keep his hands warm, yet there was enough fresh air coming in to clear the relatively stale air inside the tent.

He pulled the knife which rode at his belt from the sheath and then pulled free the small hone which had it's own small pocket on the front of the leather sheath and worked it along the blade, checking carefully the edge as he worked for steel was precious out here in the sea of grass and in any case it was a waste of effort to over sharpen a blade. He used the edge of the hone to remove the wire edge that had built up and checked again the edge to ensure that there were no longer any reflections from the edge.

Satisfied he slipped them both away and turned his attention to one of the hides that he had bought in the market. He was somewhat out of practice with his leatherwork having effectively used it mostly for rough repairs whilst out and about, but now it was time to remind himself of some basics and to work on improving his skills.

Most of what he knew he had learnt at the feet of his brother Skylar, who generally was the one who looked after the leather gear of the family, mending and making new as needed. It was a task that suited him and the rest of the family well enough for it meant he could work in his own time and more importantly in his own company.

He surveyed the hide and recalled the lessons for he wanted to make braid, something that Skylar made look easy and yet Fallan knew only too well was not. He checked the hide over carefully, looking for flaws that he had not spotted when he bought it. There would be some, there always were and for this he could work round them.

The first thing he needed to do was to trim off the edges which served two purposes, one of which was to remove the thinner leather which most notably was around the stomach and legs for this was weaker and while it had its purpose, it would make the braid inconsistent and weak. At the same time he trimmed the edges so that it was closer to a large oval. Sharp turns would show up in the braid whereas larger slow turns did not so much.

His knife was used to good purpose for this and soon he had a pile of trimmings and an oval of hide ready to start work.

[Fallan Windchaser]

A sharp blade and a very steady hand were now called for as well as a good deal of expertise, the latter of which Fallan was notably lacking even if he could manage the first two well enough. Fortunately he wasn't attempting to make a whip or any similar which would require the leather braid to taper along its length. That could come only from experience he knew and for the moment if he could manage to produce a reasonably continuous length of leather that was somewhat similar in thickness then he would be happy.

His brother had once explained to him that almost anything could be made of leather if you were of a mind, for it could be made both flexible and stiff depending upon the type of leather used and whether it had been cured or not and indeed depending on the cure used and how the skin was prepared.

For now he relied upon the expertise of the tanner from whom he had purchased it and did not expect to be learning much tanning of his own just yet, not at least while they were still with the city. Once they broke away once more as they always did with the change in weather, then he intended to take some lessons of his own. The thought stopped him then and there. The Hunt would shortly be upon them and hides would be available in plenty, possibly more than the tanners would be able to handle, so it might be the perfect time to learn that as well. He nodded to himself and turned his attention once more to the task in hand.

His first cut was tentative and the first length that he produced was ragged despite his previous trimming. Annoyed he concentrated more closely and changed his hold on the hide because the lack of tension was the largest part of his problems. This time the cut went more smoothly but still it was hard to keep the blade such that it cut evenly.

Sweat was shortly beading on his forehead and his tongue was trying to peek from the corner of his mouth while his hands were damp with sweat and slipped on both hilt and hide. Several strips of somewhat uneven leather now lay on the ground beside him which was quite unlike the single continuous strip that his brother was able to produce seemingly at will.

Fallan laid the leather and knife aside then wiped his palms and forehead. It was tempting to route out his brother to ask his advice, but pride as well as practicality stopped him. He knew everything that his brother would tell him, he'd done this before under his tutelage, all he needed to do was to develop the dexterity to do it and that required simply care and attention to detail.

He took a deep breath, wiped his hands once more and set to the task.

[Fallan Windchaser]

The hide was large enough that he had plenty of chance to practice and to get his hand back in. By the time that much of the hide had been converted into braid he was creating a braid that he was happy to attempt using to create a weave.

There were a number of ways that he could produce something with the braid, but he knew from experience that it was easiest to start by wrapping it around something. What he used in this case wasn't too important, though that normally wouldn't be the case. There was a direct relationship between the size of the object to be covered in braid along with the number of strands of braid and the width of the braid. It was a matter of common sense that the braid had to cover the object without leaving any gaps or overlapping and the number of braids needed, nearly always, to be even. A good leather worker started with the object, decided upon the braid to be used and then cut the leather to the right sizes.

Fallan however was not yet a good leather worker, not at least in this form of leather working but he intended to make this work as best he could. Since wood was reasonably rare out here in the plains he couldn't just walk into a forest and make his choice of pieces of wood that could be trimmed to size and shape. Fortunately there were plenty of other alternatives to choose from, and his choice for this day was a thigh bone from some form of deer. It seemed to him to be a good choice of material for it was light and strong and about the right width to make a handle. As with wood, bone could be worked directly and even incorporated into the design by leaving gaps in the covering braid. That however required the use of some more complex braid patterns that Fallan was not yet prepared to attempt.

From amongst the rougher but still potentially useable scraps of braid he chose suitable pieces that would just cover the bone with six pieces and then tied them around the top end just under the knuckle of the bone, which would stop them riding up. Each was laid as neatly as he could make them so that they butted up against the one next to them and left no gaps. He recalled that this part was always a little messy and only an expert braider was likely to be able to leave this uncovered. Everyone else would cover this with either a decorative knot, reminding himself of which was yet another task to be done, or by simply whipping over it. Some glued the ends in place and this seemed to Fallan to be the most sensible option for him, and he suspected that whipping covered by a decorative knot was the most sensible for him until he could make the latter very well.

[Fallan Windchaser]

With the preparations done Fallan viewed the work in hand and mentally revised what came next. From here were a number of patterns possible, though with only six strands that choice was much smaller than with more strands. Still though, he reflected, this was was practice and attempting a more complex round braid at this stage was both foolish and unnecessary.

Sitting the work in front of him he smoothed the braids out so that they fell equally each side with the stands in order from back to front. The might right hand strand he took behind and brought it around under the most left hand one then wove it through the other strands to the right, weaving it over then under until it came back to the right hand side but this time as the lowest strand. He pulled the tension slightly so that it settled into place.

Then it was time to reverse, and took the left most strand, the one that he had skipped from bring braided in by the first strand and took it under to the right, pulling it through so that it missed the most right hand strand and wove it’s way to the left across the front of the piece going over then under until it too was all the way over to the left but now at the bottom.

Once more he had three strands pointing left and three to the right, only now the strands which had been at the top were now at the bottom. He pulled the tension carefully on all the strands and neatened them up. He could recall from his previous memories of doing this that the weaving was the easiest part, for even when he forgot the pattern, as would be almost inevitable and was forced to unweave upwards, the thing that made the difference between his attempts and those demonstrated by his brother was in the tension and neatness of the way that the braids laid.

It was all too easy he recalled to end up with gaps in the braiding so that the bone underneath showed through. This problem of course was made worse by the uneven widths of the strands that he had cut. Getting good quality strands and good weaving techniques were the real solution, though it was also possible to place a piece of leather underneath the braid which covered the bone so that any inadvertent gaps would not be as obvious.

But he was getting ahead of himself as that was only the very first two strands and now he needed to continue. It was a useful break though to remind himself of what was important. He stared at it for a moment then wrapped the rightmost strand behind the bone and pulled it up between the two leftmost strands then wove it to the right. He repeated with the leftmost strand, wrapping it behind and pulling up between the two rightmost strands and wove it back across the front the left going over and under until there were no more strands to cross.

[Fallan Windchaser]

It of course was not long before overconfidence struck and Fallan was forced to carefully unweave some strands and to start again. It seemed to be simple and indeed it was simple but that wasn’t the real issue at this point. The simple weave produced a cross over pattern which was perfectly functional if not overly attractive, but the regularity of the pattern also served to highlight any irregularities or mistakes in it.

Fallan started again, this time working more slowly and carefully, checking the tension as best he could and looking also for gaps every time he pulled the weave tight. Tension was in some ways one of the most difficult things he found to judge. Too loose and there were gaps, too tight and the leather stretched too much making it thinner and also producing gaps. There was a balance where it needed enough tension to hold down the other strands, locking them and the pattern in place and yet not too much so that the width of the strand reduced more than those around it which is where some of the gaps were coming from.

Although he was working slowly, he was also taking a fair amount of time in doing so and from time to time carefully tied a strand of leather around the completed section which kept them all in place so that he could let go of the unwoven strand ends and relax his fingers. On one such break he worked his fingers to relax them and wiped them free of the sweat which had built up to notice that Skylar was watching him. Skylar raised an eyebrow and Fallan grinned at him. ”I’m getting there,” he laughed, ”but it seems that I’ve let my hand get badly out of practice.” He received an answering grin which even if it was short lived meant the two of them had shared a moment of understanding.

Returning his attention to the work Fallan continued with his methodical weaving. Now he had the rhythm of it, bringing each strand around the back and then pulling through and feeding through the strands. Every couple of strands it was necessary to untangle the loose one which hung below as every weave created a new and mirrored weave in the loose strands and if allowed to continue would create complex knots to be unpicked. A simple shaking loose was the answer but it on the whole required some juggling as it needed a free hand so the existing work did not also fall free as the strands were shaken loose.

Soon he had the braid over most of the length of the bone that he wished to complete and it was time to consider the finishing of it. The finish was a mirror of the start, so he worked a little beyond where he wanted it to end and then tied a locking strand around it there as he had been doing above. When he finished it properly he would do so at the correct point and then allow the rest to unweave.

[Fallan Windchaser]

Before he went any further with the project it was time to review it closely and check that it was completed to an acceptable standard. If there were flaws then he needed to see if he understood why they had appeared and what he could do next time to either remove them or at least reduce them. He was on the whole pleased with his work as he turned it in his fingers. Of course there were mistakes but those were only to be expected from someone who was badly out of practice.

He turned it over in his fingers looking closely at each section. This was not the sort of casual inspection that the had done in the past, instead he first looked at the whole then looked more closely at the pattern using the combination of the two to see the irregularities. His next step was to trace each strand in turn as it spiralled down the bone, alternately running under and over the other strands. Since there were only six strands this was not an onerous task for three ran one way and the others ran the other way. This final check allowed him to understand better the tension on each strand and he could start to see where in some places he had pulled some tight yet in other places the same strand was slightly slack. In the tight places the leather clung to the bone underneath, clamping down on any leather it crossed, but where it was slack then it tended to bulge up, especially if it was being crossed by a tight strand. Where the tight strands coincided as they did in several places, here he could see gaps between them.

He was tempted to try and work the strands back with his bone tools and seeing that there was nothing to lose made the attempt with the thinnest of them. He traced a strand that was slack at one point where it had been clamped in place by a crossing tight strand yet around the other side of the handle was itself tight. Working his tool under the strap on the tight side of the clamping strand he wiggled gently to pull some back under. This seemed to work for the loose section was tightened but then he had a loose section which was now held in place between the two crossing strands. This caused a frown of concentration and he pushed at it with his thumb to see if he could flatten it out, but without any noticeable effect. The only solution was to keep trying and so he moved up along the strand to above the next crossing strand and slipped his tool in once more, working gently from both sides. This time he was more aware of the potential to create a loose and raised section and managed to do it better, but still was not able to completely remove the effect and now it looked worse than it had before he’d started trying to adjust it. Irritation and disappointment washed over him in equal measure as he realised that if such corrections were possible he did not have either the skill or the knowledge required to do them well enough.

[Fallan Windchaser]

Having decided that the braiding was better left alone, at least for now, Fallan turned his attention to the finishing of the braid. At the moment the top and bottom were held on by simple strands that had been tied tight around them. If he slipped the knots then the braid would unweave itself. That seemed a bad idea if this was the handle for something for it would undoubtedly get wear and tear. Likely enough the braid would get hooked on something at some point or a braid strand would get broken and he wondered how he could avoid that destroying the whole.

He had considered glue for the ends and that would certainly work. Glue for this was fairly simple to obtain from a couple of different places, but that would still leave the ends on display which wasn’t overly attractive but more importantly there was a risk that an end could get rubbed and lift. The solution of course was to whip it down which would lock it in place. He thought about it some more and decided that if he had cut a groove into the bone before hand then the whipping would be even more effective as it would push the leather strands down into the groove which would resist them being pulled out. The whipping of course would add some depth to the end, less if some sort of thread was used, but a raised area wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, indeed on many handles that he had seen where a decorative knot was used to cover the whipping, or however else the handle had been finished off there was a deliberately raised section which helped to prevent the hand from slipping off the end.

Taking up a strand he wrapped it over the section he wanted to whip and then allowing fro some spare he cut off the length that the wanted. This was always the point with whipping where he had to stop and think of which way he wanted to start from for the start was always fixed, the end point was a little variable depending on a number of factors including when he felt that he’d done enough, so if one end was critical as it was in this case then he needed to start from there.

Pleased that he’d remembered this time he turned the bone around so that it was conveniently placed for that. Hanging the end of the strand off the end of the piece he left a loop to the right and brought the strand back to the start. Carefully then he started to wind the strand around so that it was neat. Tension was once again an issue and he realised that a strong thread would have been a much better choice. Leather was acceptable for a decorative whip, even a whip over a thread whip, he realised. The problem was that the tension needed to be high, but that would also have the effect of locking the leather loop that he’d left which meant that the leather strand wouldn’t pull through under the whipping but would instead break for leather was not strong in that way. Too tight and it would break, too loose and it wouldn’t hold.

He sighed, consoling himself once more that this was a test piece and it was for exactly these reasons that he was doing this instead of on something that mattered. Leaving the locking strand in place he whipped it over with enough tension to keep it in place but not enough to do what it needed to do, fed the end through the loop and pulled it tight. It would do as a base for the decorative knot, but that was about all it was good for.

[Taylani]

Fallan Windchaser

Skills :

+5 leatherworking
+3 observation

Lores :

Skylar: Teacher of Leatherworking
Leatherworking: Trimming edges strengthens the leather
Leatherworking: Tension is key
Leatherworking: Uneven Strands Mess up Braids

Notes :

Another nice solo  If you have any questions concerning your grade feel free to PM me. Don’t forget to delete/edit your grade request