Solo Fine Threading VIII

[Willis Efram]

91 Spring 525

Nearing the end of the season, Willis made his way back to the mercantile where he sold his wares, received work, and refilled on items needed to continue his work. Today he had a few repaired items to turn in, and was hoping to either get a commission for something specific or possibly more repair work. If neither of those were available he would need to make a item himself and hope someone would want to buy it at a later date. Such was the risk when making something no one had ordered.

After arriving and greeting Juli with a smile and a wave Willis headed off to the side where the woman had gestured and dropped off his load of repaired items. At this point they both knew what to do when he arrived, having come there with an armload of work quite a few times prior. These had not really been anything too hard, just simple repair work for items worn out, ripped, torn, or otherwise damaged, along with some items needing new waterproofing and oiling for general maintenance in such a wet environment.

Once that was done Willis turned back to Juli with a grin.

"So, do you need anything specific today? Or did any commissions come in?"

Juli for her part thought for a few moments while leaning on the counter, before seeming to recall something. "Ah, no, no commissions... But... We are in need of some Ixam saddles. A bit different from the other things you have made for us before, but still leather goods. Do you think you could make some? If you are just starting out the soft ones would probably be easier, but the firm ones are trickier to make and likely require more complex equipment... But they will sell for more and work better for longer usage compared to the soft saddles. You can check a few we have over there."

Hearing her explanation Willis headed over to where Juli had pointed and began examining the goods in question. The first was the mentioned soft saddle. More or less a flat piece of leather, with a softer spot to sit on, some places to hold the riders feet, and a place to hold your hands. It would work decently, but from looking at it Willis could tell it was not as reliable as the others and would not let the rider move much while in motion. Not based on how he had seen Ixam move climbing vertically up trees and the like.

The other was a hard molded thing, a solid grip raised off the front of the saddle, solid stirrups that could be slipped into but gotten out of it the rider moved right... It also seemed like it would support the rider better, particularly on climbing. For a short ride the soft saddle might do, but for anything strenuous or longer a hard saddle would be needed. For that though Willis would need better equipment, and likely some wooden pieces to mold the leather on to fasten it to the required specifications.

"For now, can I borrow one of the soft ones to try and copy? If that goes well, maybe I can move on to the hard saddles later."

Luckily for Willis Juli agreed, and so Willis headed out with the material to work with and the example saddle to use.

WC: 563

[Willis Efram]

After grabbing the equipment, supplies, and materials he would need Willis headed to the commons to get some work done. Once more finding a nice spot under some cover where he would not get in anyones way, Willis spread out the finished soft saddle he had borrowed from the Mercantile. Other than being a large piece of work and having more parts to it the piece was not so different from others he had worked on. Like most anything in Syka it was waterproofed, this one with an oil since it was meant to be in contact with a person for long periods.

As usual he tried to break the item apart into its component parts rather than tackling it all at once. starting things off therefore he focused on the largest bit- the seat. Measuring out that piece of the work with a measuring device and some chalk Willis worked out the rough dimensions of the object. Looking the example piece over Willis could see the seat was one large piece of leather meant to drape across the top and sides of the Ixam. It was then fastened bellow by leather strips that acted as fasteners while also allowing space to tighten or broaden it to it a specific Ixam's size.

Near the base of each side hanging off the edge of the seat area was a pair of stirups a rider could fit their feet into. Unlike a horse though it appeared a bit more complicated. Reasoning this out Willis realized this was because a horse just moved across the ground, while an Ixam moved in three dimensions. This meant any saddle would need a much firmer grip on its rider... Near the front of this saddle in particular there was a spot for one arm to be looped through and fastened, but only a grip for the other hand. This also made sense considering it as a whole, since should both hands be fastened in place it would not allow for the rider to unfasten their and. Instead one was tightly fastened while the other was just a grip area the rider could grab.

Having gotten a decent idea of the entire thing Willis checked over the specific measurements for the large piece, and took out a large piece of prepared leather he could work off of. Then he began measuring and marking, mapping out the places too cut and the general form of the piece. Once he had that all sorted, erring a bit on the bigger side, Willis began cutting at the leather and trimming down the large size of leather into a somewhat smaller but still large piece that would work as the seat of the piece. Working his way around the piece he cut, using a large blade for mass work and slowly hacked out a pattern roughly the same as the original piece.

WC: 481

[Willis Efram]

Having completed the main cutting work for the biggest piece of the project, Willis moved on to the more precise work. Laying the stuff he was cutting across his scrap wood - which was a small flattish piece covered in nicks and marks - Willis began on the more precise work. Where before he was chopping and hacking, now he was trimming. Doing his best to stick around the edges of the chalk Willis slowly cut, turning the piece in place to keep the cutting point above his scrap wood. He kept at this for awhile, slowly trimming down things until finally he had the large piece more or less cut to match the example piece.

Once he felt this was more or less done, Willis moved on to the chest piece. This piece would need some metal parts, something he could not do, but so long as he made all of the leather parts to match the example it should be possible to sell the parts he could make. Later on someone would then be able to fashion out some metal clips and rings to work as fasteners, and for loosening or tightening the piece in place.

Using the excess piece from the one he had cut earlier, Willis traced out the long belly strip that would serve the function of joining the fasteners. Like with the other pieces he had worked Willis slowly marked it out, getting the measurements off the finished piece and then mirroring those on the new piece. So long as he recalled the shape and dimensions he would be able to make a copy of it later, but that was for later work. For now he simply did his best to recall the nuances of the piece. Its curves. Its shapes. Its bends and joins. The size and length of each piece. How thick the leather was. Its feel. Anything that might be of use in his work. Once all of that was down he would truly understand the piece.

Continuing with his chalk markings Willis marked out the edges of the strap, admittedly an easier piece than the big seat piece, but still something that needed doing. Once he was confident in his measurements Willis finally began to cut, start as before with a bigger piece and a bigger blade to cut off the large excess. Once that was done he finished things, working his way cut by cut slowly as he circled the piece, cutting it down to the final image of the piece from the example before him.

WC: 425

[Willis Efram]

Done cutting out the main piece for the seat and the smaller long pieces that would go across the belly of the Ixam Willis spent some time matching them up together. While he had not finished either yet Willis felt it was a good idea before he got too far into things to make sure he had them spaced out right and that it would all fit together once the needed metal fasteners were done.

Folding the leather pieces over where the fasteners for tightening it would go Willis saw the pieces seemed to fit more or less. If needed a bit could be cut off at the end, say if it was too long, but he would rather give a bit of extra room than not have enough and so he left this excess space for now.

Going from there Willis moved back to trimming leather, cutting off the tiny excess bits here and there on both pieces before continuing onward. He wanted things as close to done as possible before attaching anything. And while the fasteners would come in later for tightening things, the ends of each piece did need to be attached to the seat of the saddle.

Checking where each fitted Willis prepared to bore a few small holes, matching up each piece and then taking out the tool he used for stabbing a small hole into something. Marking each spot with chalk he planned on four points of piercing the fabric on each end, and then four more on the edge of the seat to work with these spots. Once he had measured these out several times and made sure the spacing was all as good as could be Willis began actually piercing the leather for the holes. He would not actually sow them just yet, doing that as a last step after everything was oiled and done, but still needed to get them done. Carefully he did this, one hole at a time, taking care to pause periodically to match up each hole and fit each just right as it needed to be done. In the end Willis was left with sixteen holes, four on either side of the saddles seat where the belly strap would attach, and four on each end of said belly strap where it would attach to the saddle.

Having finished this as well Willis could feel himself nearing the end of his work. While much sowing and oiling and waterproofing was left to do, for the cutting work only the single step of preparing the stirrups were left. These would also require some metal parts to allow the leather to tighten, but like with the other parts he only planned to do the leather bits and was going to leave that part to another craftsman.

WC: 466

[Willis Efram]

Returning once more to the example piece he would be returning once finished, Willis inspected the stirrups again. While at first glance they seemed similar to other stirrups he had seen, two pieces of leather fastened together which a person slid their foot into, on a closer look the Akontak could see there was another aspect to it. Where a horse saddle had stirrups made to hold the feet in place and to easily be slipped in and out of, this particular stirrup had feet stirrups with fasteners for tightening or loosening it, while also having a second set of fasteners higher up on the leg section where ones thighs would be fed through.

Considering it more closely it made sense, during a climb supporting all the weight on ones feet and hands was not a good idea, so the thigh fasteners helped distribute things more evenly and securely... However it also meant it was harder to dismount quickly. Because of this it seemed like their was a third set to the strap, a sort of emergency release as far as Willis could tell. This tightened things. This loosened it. And this third piece, harder to pull by accident by its make, quickly opened things to let someone out while requiring a decent bit of work to get it back in place for riding. Clearly it was only meant to be used to release the rider in an urgent emergency, not just a normal dismounting.

Chalking and marking the new pieces of leather that would form the straps and stirrups Willis thought over this idea, not something he had considered before. A pair of boots did not need an emergency release. A pack did not either. But a saddle, something you wore while moving and might need to get out of quickly, that did. Thinking it through as he drew with the chalk and outlined the planned cut Willis pondered the various applications for this function. For jungle travel ditching your gear might be needed, say if a large clawed beast had jumped atop it and was trying to pull you down. Realizing this, Willis wondered if he could add such a function to future packs he made? But then like with the saddle, even this simple one, such a function would likely require adding metal parts... It was a trade off, Willis realized as he finished marking out the pieces, but likely a worthwhile one.

Still pondering various use cases in the back of his mind, Willis turned to the task at hand and began cutting out the stirrup pieces. Two large pieces for the foot holding part which would require a metal fastener, a small bit of leather for loosening and tightening it, and then two more pieces for the thigh fastener... This was all then doubled as it was needed for each leg. Slowly Willis cut his way through all of this, starting with the large cuts and then trimming things down. Once all of the cutting was done all that was left was to attach the stirrup parts and the fasteners that attached to the saddle the same as he had the other part...

It was only then Willis realized he still had another unused portion of leather, making him recall that in his focus on the emergency release he had forgotten he still needed to cut out the piece that would form the handhold for one of the hands and its fasteners along with the grip for the other hand. Letting out a sigh Willis returned to his measuring, planning out the last piece that still needed cutting.

WC: 603