Solo Fine Threading XIV

[Willis Efram]

Continued 5 Winter 525

With the main part of the sandal - the sole- more or less done, Willis turned on to the smaller but still important tasks. After all, Willis thought to himself, what was a sandal with only a sole? Efram for his part chimed in silently in their head with -a fat lot of useless nothing- which was true enough if a bit more negative than Willis own comment had been planned to be.

Returning to his diagrams Willis began with three small strips of leather, each ending in a smaller end which would fit through the holes in the sandal. The other end would be sown together with each other, and once all three were connected it would be a full support using the toes to keep the sandal in place.

Taking out a smaller blade for some of the softer leather he had marked out Willis once more used his normal method of cutting out a piece or pieces. Nicking a shallow groove in the surface to give purchase, then returning with a larger knife for cutting properly through. Once that was done and the piece was out it was back to the smaller knife, to cut off the small mistakes or imperfections or excess bits here and there until the piece was trimmed down to what Willis saw in his mind and what was represented on his diagrams and markings.

Soon enough those three pieces were out, and Willis took back out his smaller hole punching tool and made some small openings here and there at the ends of the piece where the three would join and overlap. One, two, three, repeated on each of the three, and with it being much softer leather and smaller holes it did not take long to do. With that done Willis took back out his needle and threaded it, and laying out the three small pieces in a pattern quickly sowed them together by weaving in and out of the matched holes on the end of each piece but on the middle of the pieces as a unit where they would meet once connected. Once that was sorted it was back to the snipping tool to cut off the end, a small knot tied from that excess end, and a bit of leather fastener to hold it in place. Then that was repeated at the other end once the tied off bit was pulled taught. The excess was snipped off, the end knotted, a fastener put in place, and the three parts were now one part.

At that point his work was quite close to being done, and so Willis fed each of the three ends of the piece into their respective holes, and added the larger leather fasteners to the bottom of the sandal where the leather poked through. After that was one final trimming to cut off the last excess bits of each so they did not drag on the ground, and Willis paused again to check his work. All that was left was to add the back end part to hold in the heel, and the sandal would be done.

WC: 521

[Willis Efram]

Finally on the last stage of the piece, Willis could see the small project nearing its conclusion. Going through the remains of the leather skins and his chalked out diagrams, Willis pieced together the last few parts that needed to be cut. Three pieces were similar to the earlier piece for the front of the sandal, but somewhat different. While each piece was small at one end to be fed into the sole of the sandal, the other end was not much thicker since it simply acted as a support and connection to the heel piece. The biggest and hardest piece of the remaining pieces was the heel piece, a piece of leather meant to curve around the heel and hold the sandal in place as the wearer moved.

Making a few adjustments based on the earlier work he had done, Willis examined his plans one last time before beginning to cut. A long piece that would be curved once removed, and three long and narrow pieces for supports but shorter than the heel piece were mapped out. Now, Willis reminded himself, was the action step.

As with other parts Willis began with a smaller knife, scoring a shallow cut to give purchase for later rounds and to help with accuracy. Rather than doing these one at a time and switching blades Willis scored all four pieces one by one, leaving a small cut on each surface. Once this was done he then turned to the bigger blade he used for cutting out pieces, and returned to each of those scored cuts to further deeper the cut until he was through the leather.

As each piece left the leather skin Willis set them aside, checking them over one by one but then focusing back on cutting out the next piece. Once all of them were cut out he returned to one of the smaller trimming blades, cutting the small excess here and there. In some ways making a shoe was just leatherworking, but in other ways it was quite distinct since it was interacting with such an important part of ones anatomy and affected the wearers motion and ability to move about. While this first piece he made was simple he could see himself improving and building upon it, and before long being nearly as proficient with making shoes and the like as he was with general leather goods making.

With all of the four pieces trimmed and cut Willis took out a smaller hole punching tool, and began to add the needed stitching holes to the pieces. Two holes near the top of each of the trio of pieces were punched one by one, the metal and wood in Willis hand surging one after another into the soft leather surface. These holes were then mirrored by two holes three times across the heel piece where those supports would be attached.

Having made the openings Willis returned to stitching, attaching the pieces together by a sturdy twine in a repeated series of motions he had done quite a few times today. The process was simple, and repeated almost identically three times. Thread the needle, stitch the support and backing together, cut off the needle, knot the end, add a fastener, cut off the excess, cut off the other end, knot it, add a fastener, and cut off the excess. Once this was done the supports were well attached to the heel piece, and all that needed to be done was place the ends of the supports into the sandal and add the final leather fastener to the end of each of those three pieces and cut off any excess material.

All of that done, Willis let out a sigh and held up his finished product. It was a simple sandal, but still foot wear and his first attempt at making something new for that part of the body rather than just repairing it. With that done Willis felt ready for a break.

WC: 662

[Willis Efram]

7 Winter 525

After finishing his last project, making a sandal fresh rather than repairing or fixing a damaged item of footwear, Willis felt a sense of accomplishment. It had been a simple item, Willis knew and acknowledged, but was still an example of him expanding his horizon and abilities and how they could be used. Efram also accepted that he had much to learn, but his thought was that he was far away from making a legendary pair of battle boots fit for kicking in a gods teeth when worn by some mighty warrior, but perhaps some day...

If nothing else this showed how the brothers sharing a body could be both on the same page and yet so far off from each others thinking at the same time. As they walked back to the commons they hefted their normal packs with tools, equipment, and materials, along with a sack full of damaged items needing repairs. Now that Willis had shown his abilities time and time again Juli at the mercantile had a rough idea of his abilities and what he could fix and so no longer talked things over with him item by item. Instead she would hand him a sack full of damaged items, and wait for him to return the sack having fixed whatever he could in it or explaining what he could not and why as he gave them back unfixed.

Waving at a few of the regulars he often saw at the commons, someone someone some clothing to repair them, someone fixing a fishing net, and someone whittling something, Willis found a nice open spot and began spreading out his tools. For working leather he had many things to use, from blades of various sizes and thickness, smaller thin pointed ones for punching holes of various sizes, sheers for cutting thinner leathers, various smaller blades with curves or other surfaces for pruning and trimming, and some smaller snips and sheers for cutting off twine or thread or other things being used to bind the leather together.

Along with his tools was a pile of leather skins of various sorts, some or all of which he might use depending on the tasks at hand. Going into the sack of damaged goods Willis took out the first item, finding... A leather arm covering. Looking at it Willis was not sure, but based on the size and wear it seemed like this was some sort of arm guard used by an archer. Willis could see the worn out piece of it positioned where a bowstring would pop back, and so it seemed likely that this was what it was for. The overall piece seemed fine, excepting that one piece.

As usual before he began any cutting Willis took out some chalk and some scratch hide and began drawing out some simple diagrams and measurements, noting down the numbers in turn as he picked up a long numbered measuring cloth and seeing how long the item was, its width, estimating its width when not rolled, and other such things. Once he had a general idea of the item in its current damaged state Willis took out some snips and began undoing seams and threading here and there where the piece attached to another. Luckily in this case this arm piece had an upper and lower half, and so only the one half that had been damaged would need to be removed and replaced. Taking a few moments to continue his work Willis finally took the last critical seam out and felt as the pieces detached from each other. A clean separation, and the first step in his work.

WC: 607

[Willis Efram]

Having separated the two halves of the item, Willis spread out both pieces and took some additional notes. Taking back out the chalk Willis marked and measured the pieces with them laid out flat, getting a better idea of their shape and dimensions than when they were in arm form. Once that was done and planned out a bit better, Willis moved on to preparing the replacement piece. The damaged piece was not quite ruined yet, but was nearing it, and from his understanding of leather goods using it too much longer risked it breaking during usage. How long that would be he could not say, but surely not a risk a skilled hunter would take- or so Willis believed.

Having a feel for the leather, Willis went through his prepared leather skins one by one, trying to find the best match. One was too stiff. Another too soft. Another not quite right. This one was better... But this one was worse. Eventually Willis went through the entire pile, and went back afterwards to the piece he felt most closely resembled the original piece of leather. Not too stiff, supple enough, but not too soft such that it would wear out quickly. With that out of the way Willis began chalking out the dimensions on this new skin, preparing to cut it out. This was of course a bit tricky, seeing as he had to cut it in a flat two dimensional shape, while expecting to shape it into the required curved shape when worn and assembled. Still the more Willis did this the more he felt at ease, almost as if he was slowly but surely picking up on a language of the leather that he could understand. Not quite like speech, Willis clarified to Efram, but an understanding of it all the same from seeing enough examples of it and working with the material long enough.

Efram mentally shrugged- you mean getting a feel for it- and did not question or think on it further as Willis did. Efram for his part was not afraid to just go with feelings so long as they worked, whereas Willis had a tendency to try to understand such things more finely.

Checking over his markings Willis compared those dimensions to the ones he had marked out, along with the shape and thickness, and finally compared it against the removed piece of the leather item before he was ready to actually begin the additive work. As usual he began with a small blade, just scoring a line along the point he wanted to work on to act as a guiding force. After tracing that out Willis returned with a bigger blade and cut deeper, passing around until the entire piece was cut out. At that point Willis prepared some more, comparing and contrasting what he had cut out to the original and his measurements, and pausing here and there to prune and make small adjustments to the piece. Only once he felt it was as closely in line with the original as possible did he move on to the next steps of the work.

WC: 522

[Willis Efram]

Having prepped and clipped the piece down to the right shape, Willis moved on to the next step of his work. As with many of his pieces, this was poking holes in the leather as Efram called it. In reality things were a bit more technical, Willis insisted, using specialized tools to cut various size holes, the requirements to do so in various materials, and this being needed to bind two pieces of leather together which almost all pieces required... Which, Efram repeated, more succinctly meant poking holes in leather.

Letting out a mental sigh Willis began going through his tools, trying to find the right sized hole puncher for stabbing a hole through the leather piece. Since this was more of an arm brace with a top and bottom half holes were only needed at two sides, the two places where the top and bottom parts met, rather than anywhere more complex. However since the one side was being reused and only one side being replaced, and since the holes used had to match up correctly so the stitching would not be off, once more Willis had to do some prep work. Getting out his measuring close and flattening the original piece, Willis copied out the outline in multiple ways including the holes to get a grasp of the measurements for those needed holes. First he did it by simply making a outward notch or line next to each point where each hole went. Next he repeated this process with his measuring cloth, getting an exact measure for how far inward and how far along the outer edge of the piece the hole was punched. Once he had matched both of these up and gotten as close to exact as possible he was left with a general guide on how and where to add the holes for stitching.

Grabbing out the appropriately sized hole punching tool, Willis checked his notes and got out his measuring cloth before beginning the process. This was of course much more tedious than normal, since he could not just simply punch both holes at once and match them that way, but instead had to match it to a finished side. Still taking it slow and methodical Willis worked his way along one side and then the other, eventually after much painstaking work getting them all done. Still, Willis reminded himself, easier and more cost effective than using twice as much leather and replacing the entire thing.

Once all of the holes were cut Willis checked over his work and his replacement part, and began the process of combining the two pieces. This was not too complex, and was more akin to sowing with some extra steps than anything else. In and out Willis went, working his way through the piece. Once this was done on one side he cut off the needle end, tied off and knotted the end, albeit with one extra step. Instead of simply knotting the tied material he also added a small leather fastener, to attach to the end and to keep anything from slipping through. Once that was done he snipped off the opposite end, tightened it all, and repeated the process.

After this his work continued, mirroring all of those stops on the other side of the work. Threading the needle through, cutting it off, knotting the end and adding a leather fastener, and then cutting off the other and and tightening it all and knotting and fastening it too.

Once all of this was done Willis was left with a passable enough product for patch work, and so he was able to pass on to other items also needing fixing.

WC: 613