Solo Fine Threading VII

[Willis Efram]

1 Spring 525

On another day in Syka Willis slowly made his way to the commons. Not really needing any heavy equipment to do his work other than a nice flat place out of the rain the commons served well enough for him to work his craft. It also meant company in Syka, being a common working place for various people to do various things and small repairs and so the Akontak was able to work while listening to people chat away or perhaps even making some small talk and chatting back. Why?

Community. While Willis was new to the city, he tried to work towards a greater sense of community. Efram for his part saw things a bit more cynically, but also agreed it did not hurt to have people like them more and so he also agreed to Willis chatting things up all friendly as could be in the commons while they worked and made a living.

On his back he carried his various pieces of assorted equipment used in working leather. The tools of his trade being things to cut, sow, fasten, and overall repair or work leather goods. In his arms he carried a sack full of various leather items he had been trusted to repair which had all been left in varying states of disrepair.

After his arrival Willis greeted the others working there, said a few words of greeting, and then pulled up at a nice empty shady spot where he could do his work.

As usual before he began any actual repairs Willis began by planning out his work. This began by first assessing the level of damage for each item, figuring out what he could repair, how he would repair it, and what he would need to repair it.

The first thing he pulled out was a pair of worn out boots. One half of the pair seemed to have a heel almost torn off but was otherwise intact. The other seemed to have the leather laces for tying it worn out and full of leaves and other detritus. Mentally cataloguing the tools he had the Akontak recalled the cobblers tools he had purchased, and figured those would work for the boot better than other things. The only issue there was he had never worked with shoes before and had no experience with cobbling, which of course meant he would need to get creative in his practice and likely would do little more than a temporary patch job due to his lacking skills. Still he would hopefully leave the stuff in better shape than when he started, and that was the only requirement to get paid. Though, he admitted to himself, the extent of the repairs he did affected his pay...

In the end the happy craftsman decided it was a learning experience, and set aside the boots to work on later as he checked the other things in the sack. Inside of the leather sack, Willis feeling around with his hand, he found a leather... Sack? A bit confused for a moment Willis wondered why someone had put a sack inside of a sack, only to realize it would not close seeing as the leather ties used to lace and fasten the sack shut at the top was also frayed and filled with junk just like the one boot.

Letting out a sigh and finding the bottom of the sack empty Willis turned to the leather he had to work with and use for repairs and considered his next steps slowly and methodically before moving onward with his task.

WC: 595

[Willis Efram]

Having gone through the items needing repair, Willis decided to start with the easier job by repairing the leather sack first rather than the boots which were less familiar to him. Checking over the item more closely, he saw that while the bottom and sides of the bag were closed surfaces the top was opened. On his perusal he also found that rather than tying it shut as a flap or such would be on a satchel or pack, this one was tied shut by tightening the leather cord at the top until the ends pulled in and scrunched up... For some reason the Akontak could not say he knew this reminded him of something else he had been shown back in Mura not related to leatherworking at all but what that was he could not recall what specifically that was.

Odd method of clothing it aside though, the sack in Willis mind seemed more or less normal. That is until prodding with his fingers he found another oddity, metal imbedded in the leather at the mouth of the sack. In particular metal in the areas where the leather fastener was meant to be fed through and tied to shut the sack.

After puzzling for a few moments and feeling around on the material of the sack, he finally reasoned out what they were. Reinforcement. Inside the sack with a layer of leather on either side atop and below hiding it the metal rings, and rings were what they were, where fastened in place. Then rather than feeding the leather tie through a hole in the leather which would rub against its edges in use and wear at the surface of the leather, the leather tie was fed through the open metal ring embedded in the leather instead. Looking at it more closely Willis could tell it was not iron or steel but a more brownish metal, but not knowing much about metals Willis could not tell much more than the most obvious statement of it not being iron or steel.

Feeling like he understood the item a bit better, Willis began by cleaning the item with a brush and working to remove the damaged leather tie. Going through another pack where he kept his equipment Willis also pulled out a length of leather tie that he felt would fit the bag, something he had made during previous sessions using excess leather. However part of the way through his work removing the leather tie, which required some force, the frayed material finally gave out and snapped leaving him with two odd frayed pieces of leather tie and some knotted up pieces where it had previously been tied to keep it all from unraveling and coming loose from the holes it was fed through.

While this did make his work a bit easier, it did further make clear why this item was sent for repairs. Clearly someone had taken this item through the jungle and worked it hard. It did not take long to fully remove both damaged pieces, but as Willis finished this task and checked over the rest of the bag he saw an opening on a side where it should not be open on the lip of the bag, with a bit of metal revealed. It appeared along with the leather tie the setting for one of the metal rings had been torn, and that area also needed repair.

WC: 571

[Willis Efram]

Checking over the materials, Willis went through his tools again and took out some thread and a needle, along with a small snipping tool. Looking at the leather around the revealed metal ring Willis found where the leather had come loose, happy to find the leather itself was still intact and it was just the threading keeping it together that was damaged. Finding it much easier to repair than to replace an entire piece Willis felt around with his fingers to find the seam of the threading, and what part he needed to remove to get the metal ring well fitted back as it was meant to be.

Once he found that he carefully snipped the knotted bits of thread holding it all in place, and freed the short length of threading for that piece. Looking at it again he saw that rather than one long piece of thread tying it all together this piece had used several smaller sections each individually knotted and tied off and in place, which as Willis now realized meant one damaged piece would not ruin the entire thing and make the entire piece come undone. This also explained why the metal ring was only a bit exposed rather than loose completely, and was a design Willis reminded himself to try later on his own pieces. Particularly, it seemed, when durability was a key factor. Making armor seemed a clear usage for it, though Willis had not really worked much with that usage of leather working he could see how it could be applied to this new method.

Having removed the small bit of ruined threading Willis took back out his leather brush and continued cleaning the material, wanting to get this step done properly before going to do any repairs. He was careful to brush around the ring, where the opening had happened, along the holes where the rings were fitted and through which the ties would be looped, working on each section and piece one by one carefully to avoid doing any damage.

Only once it was well and properly clean did Willis focus back on the revealed ring, and fitted a length of threading that would fit the need. Carefully threading the needle Willis worked back through the holes where the threading had formerly been fitted, trying to redo the piece just as it had been. He felt whoever had done the original work was more skilled than he was, but he also felt he could do a good enough job to copy and repair that work at this point in his progression as a craftsman.

Once he had rethreaded the part he was working on he removed the needle, and then knotted off the end just as it had been done before. Then going back to the other end he snipped off the piece of thread from the roll of thread he was working off of, and knotted and fitted the thread at the other end before snipping off the small excess piece.

With that done Willis felt the small bit of repair work was done, the ring once more properly ensconced in the leather rather than being in danger of being further damaged and ripped out.

WC: 536

[Willis Efram]

Having finished repairing the damage to the actual sack and cleaned it up as good as he could, Willis moved on to replacing the long leather tie that would keep the sack shut. This part was much easier than the actual repair work, and was more like replacing a set of laces on a shoe. Willis completed this part quick enough, lacing the length of material with a fresh piece he had made recently, already oiled and ready for use in Syka as was all of the leather items he made, and then tied off each end with a knot and finishing by snipping off the excess leather material.

With that item done Willis returned it to the sack it had come in, and then turned to the pair of boots. Starting with the easier one he removed the leather laces and brought out his brush again to clean. As with before Willis did this step slowly and methodically, using it as a chance to familiarize himself with the item and also to check for any damage. Unlike the other items however this show was not damaged, it just needed a new lace after this one had been chewed up or torn up by usage like the one on the sack had. How this had been done without damaging the boot more than some scratches and scuffing he could not do much about, Willis was unsure.

The solution for this was simple enough, more or less repeating the final step of the repair process for the sack. Working quickly Willis removed the worn out leather lace, this time not breaking it as he did, and then did a bit more cleaning. Once that was done Willis returned again to the shoe, replacing the lace by slowly weaving it through. Then fitting it into place he as always tied off each end, this time tucking the knotted section into a covered spot on the book, and snipped off the excess leather that would not be needed for tying the laces or fitting through the holes cut into the boot.

Having finished his work on one boot Willis inspected it more closely and then compared it to the other, getting a general idea of what had gone wrong with the one nearly missing a heel. He vaguely had an idea of how boots were made, but seeing one nearly torn apart gave him a better idea and showed him the series of nails holding the sole of the boot together with the other pieces of the boot. Of course, as made sense once he reasoned it out, the nails were facing down and were into the boots sole, so if the nail did somehow piece through it would come out the bottom of the boot not up into the sole of someones foot.

Simple, reasonable, and well enough designed. After looking things over again Willis returned to his tools, these ones meant for working shoes, and began to figure out what he would need exactly for working on the boots.

WC: 508

[Willis Efram]

As Willis finished sorting out the tools he would need, he examined the boot a bit more closely and noticed a few more aspects of it. While the heel did jut down a bit, and was held in place by small nails in the heel area of the sole of the shoe going down into said attached heal, the front of the boot was more flat. It did not dangle however as it was at a bit of an angle, leaving a small gap between the forward edge of the heel and the area at the front of the boot that touched the ground.

Rather than redoing the entire thing Willis started by trying the simplest method of fixing the boot. Hammering the nails back in. Normally this would be done before the sole of the boot was fixed to the sides of the boot that covered the side and top of the foot, but that would require taking apart the entire boot.

Not wanting to do that Willis went for a somewhat smaller but longer handled hammer, and tried to carefully fit it into place while making sure he could see into the boot himself. Pulling out a flat leather insert that covered all of the nails beneath Willis exposed the bare leather of the boot that served as the top of the bottom of the shoe where once covered in a insert of leather the foot would sit. He also made sure to match up the heel of the boot just as it was when originally made, not wanting to make the heel offset from how it was intended nor to damage the prior work done.

Once he did all of this carefully Willis began slowly tapping at the nails. This took a few tries, and a few adjustments to get the nails lined up just right, but soon he was able to get the nails back in place. With that he began knocking the hammer a bit harder, holding everything else in place and slowly working at it. While it was only barley cobbling, Willis felt he was gaining a better grasp of the techniques involved in making shoes just by partially repairing these shoes.

After quite a bit of careful hammering Willis picked up the boot and was glad to see the heel was no longer dangling from where it sat. He perhaps had not done a perfect job, but had done decent enough, and also had a general idea or frame of reference for how boots were configured.

As with everything in his craft he tried to slowly expand on what he could do, and learning to make shoes and boots surely was something he would need to learn at some point if he wanted to be a proper leatherworker.

Done with the repairs Willis stowed his gear and the goods he had made, smiling at the others still working, feeling the air on his skin as he stood, bringing voice to the feeling he had been getting for awhile of an oncoming heavy rain..

"Well, I am off, gonna get these put up before the rain comes. I can feel it, should be a heavy poor in just a few chimes for awhile. At least a bell solid. But that gives me enough time I can probably make it back to the inn if I rush before it gets too bad.... See you all later!"

With that the Akontak rushed off, hurrying back to the inn he stayed at and wanting to get his things properly put away before the rain got too bad and ruined any of his work.

WC: 606