thecapgunkid
40 Cal.
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A butt seam is one where the two edges of leather being sewn butt up against each other and the stitch goes into the face of each, through the edges where the two pieces of leather meet, and up through the face of the second piece of leather. It has a very distinct appearance that makes a statement on your persona that embodies pre-industrial gear.
It’s there on shoes, by the back of the heel or the underside of the latchets because the seam does not rub on the foot or stick out. Since the threads hide inside the leather, there is no exposure of thread. Pretty cool, huh?
My Master could dig into one side of the leather, come through both edges and out the other side of the leather in one even stroke. You want to end up that way, but we’ll start here in a more basic sequence until you do.
You need and extra tool, often referred to as the block and stirrup. You gotta make this, so let’s do that first. For the block”¦Secure a piece of a 2 X 8 board about four inches by four inches. That’s it. The rest of the board can go to somebody’s house or into the fire. For the stirrup”¦I prefer a ¾ inch strip of leather at 8 to 9 ounces.
Sit down on a bench or open-backed seat so that your thighs are parallel to the floor. No give here”¦either parallel to the floor or find a different seat. Run a tape measure around the ball of your foot with your shoes on and over the top of your thigh , closer to the knee that the naughty bits. Add about eight inches and cut the strip of leather.
Trim the flesh side ends of you leather from about three inches back to their ends. Don’t trim the flower side. This step isn’t necessary for first timers, but it makes for a neater strap. Contact cement the ends the full three inches on each end. Glue a flesh side to a flower side to complete a circular strap. If you have not figured this out already, flower means finished and flesh means unfinished. Now run two flat seams along both edges of the strap where the glued parts overlap.
Next take a furring strip about six inches long. Round both corners of the wood along the ENTIRE LENGTH of the furring strip on ONE FLAT SIDE ONLY. Make a nice, graceful roof so that the piece looks like an Iroquois Long House or a Quonset Hut.
When you fashion a butt seam, you will place the furring strip on your thigh, lengthwise, the strap under your foot, and sandwich the project on your thigh between the strap and the furring strip. BY having the block under your heel you will be able to adjust tension on the strap as if holding down a gas pedal. Neat, huh? Don’t get a big head. Now comes the hard part”¦
The right way to do this is to have an array of curved awls, each of which has a different arc usually between 45 and 90 degrees on the curve, so you can make the right size holes in varying thicknesses of leather and tasks in one shot each. Most of us have neither the time or the inclination to search out and buy a lot of awls, and the retail stores have not the vaguest idea as to how to offer a selection. So we are going to learn a generic way that will produce results but would have gotten you kicked out of a shoe shop because it’s a little slow. Here’s what we will need;
”¢ A Curved awl where the blade tip looks like a little, tiny sword point”¦ with blades on either side of the tip. The curvature should be close to 90 degrees. When you find one like this, say at a flea, make sure it is not pitted, take it home and polish it good.
Ӣ A Divider OR the groove making tool. You will make stitch line grooves with either. I prefer the tool.
Ӣ Your block and stirrup arrangement
Ӣ A couple of pieces of scrap leather, cowhide, about 7-9 ounce so there is some meat on them. Use scrap for the first time. Cut a couple of squares four by four so there is something to work with. Future posts will work on projects unless God calls me to walk the streets of glory before I get to write them.
Ӣ Tapered, waxed thread and a pair of either size 1 or 2 harness needles or bristles. These are covered in previous posts.
This method will be geared to working with needles. The key to performing this type of stitch, whether clumsily with needles as here or with bristles, is to use the thread to guide your second needle/bristle through both holes. The curve of the furring strip is going to hold the work in place to expose both holes because the strap pinning the work will tend to follow that curve with pressure. Let’s go.
Wet your leather just beyond damp so the curved awl doesn’t tear the hole in dry leather. It also flattens this seam better. Using the rule we cited in earlier posts about stitching, mark or cut your groove on both facing edges of leather equal distances from the edges. Keep in mind the width of the stitch should be the thickness of both pieces together to start. If you keep at this, you will learn the proper marking distance based on the ability of your awl to go in and come out on both scribed lines. The scribed line is deep”¦the grooved line is shallow.
With a scratch awl mark two starting holes at the start of the seam. Line those two starting holes up. I like to use an overstitch wheel here to mark the rest of the holes because of the cute little groove it marks between each hole. Start at the mark you just made and run the wheel on both stitch lines. Eyeball to check that the holes are aligned and sitting in the groove. Now run your awl to drill each hole. For this first time, make sure you think about each of these for every hole;
Ӣ The awl shaft is at an exact 90 degrees to the leathers edge
Ӣ Each hole goes into the face of the leather and comes out midway through the thickness of the edge
Ӣ When the awl comes out the edge drive it up to the crotch of the awl point. Do both pieces separately for this first time.
Ӣ Try to stay exact, especially when working the second piece of leather
Now push your needles through the first opposing holes in each piece. Line them up and, while they are still flapping around loosely, coax your second stitch through closing. Check with Part IV of the Eighteenth Century Stitching Post regarding the mechanics of each stitch. Don’t close this second stitch overly tight. Now put the whole rig on your thigh with the block and stirrup arrangement.
When you stitch this seam you will have to coax the first needle through both holes almost every time. Keep the awl in your hand because you will have to remind the leather to keep the holes open. Gently, son, gently. When you place the second needle, rely on the thread to guide it completely through both holes. Double check that the second needle did not go through the thread fibers as you pull it through. Close your stitch just short of crimping the two grooves closer together.
Wrinkles are sometimes referred to as “grinning” and that was a no-no amongst Cordwainers. Look at the sheath picture where the blade points to a grinned stitch. Ruins the whole piece and can happen in an instant, so be careful.
Make sure you are re-waxing your thread every so often, and double back three stitches or so when done. You might even surprise yourself by getting the feel of driving the awl through both sides of leather in one stroke. This will eliminate a lot of time and the need to run holes on the second scribed line. Tap the seam in the damp leather flat. Don’t re-engage the overstitch wheel and don’t use the awl butt. Tap, tap, tap the seam flat.
When admiring your work, look at how even your holes made each stitch, and turn the work over to verify that you can’t see any thread on the flesh side. That’ll tickle you because it took talent.
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It’s there on shoes, by the back of the heel or the underside of the latchets because the seam does not rub on the foot or stick out. Since the threads hide inside the leather, there is no exposure of thread. Pretty cool, huh?
My Master could dig into one side of the leather, come through both edges and out the other side of the leather in one even stroke. You want to end up that way, but we’ll start here in a more basic sequence until you do.
You need and extra tool, often referred to as the block and stirrup. You gotta make this, so let’s do that first. For the block”¦Secure a piece of a 2 X 8 board about four inches by four inches. That’s it. The rest of the board can go to somebody’s house or into the fire. For the stirrup”¦I prefer a ¾ inch strip of leather at 8 to 9 ounces.
Sit down on a bench or open-backed seat so that your thighs are parallel to the floor. No give here”¦either parallel to the floor or find a different seat. Run a tape measure around the ball of your foot with your shoes on and over the top of your thigh , closer to the knee that the naughty bits. Add about eight inches and cut the strip of leather.
Trim the flesh side ends of you leather from about three inches back to their ends. Don’t trim the flower side. This step isn’t necessary for first timers, but it makes for a neater strap. Contact cement the ends the full three inches on each end. Glue a flesh side to a flower side to complete a circular strap. If you have not figured this out already, flower means finished and flesh means unfinished. Now run two flat seams along both edges of the strap where the glued parts overlap.
Next take a furring strip about six inches long. Round both corners of the wood along the ENTIRE LENGTH of the furring strip on ONE FLAT SIDE ONLY. Make a nice, graceful roof so that the piece looks like an Iroquois Long House or a Quonset Hut.
When you fashion a butt seam, you will place the furring strip on your thigh, lengthwise, the strap under your foot, and sandwich the project on your thigh between the strap and the furring strip. BY having the block under your heel you will be able to adjust tension on the strap as if holding down a gas pedal. Neat, huh? Don’t get a big head. Now comes the hard part”¦
The right way to do this is to have an array of curved awls, each of which has a different arc usually between 45 and 90 degrees on the curve, so you can make the right size holes in varying thicknesses of leather and tasks in one shot each. Most of us have neither the time or the inclination to search out and buy a lot of awls, and the retail stores have not the vaguest idea as to how to offer a selection. So we are going to learn a generic way that will produce results but would have gotten you kicked out of a shoe shop because it’s a little slow. Here’s what we will need;
”¢ A Curved awl where the blade tip looks like a little, tiny sword point”¦ with blades on either side of the tip. The curvature should be close to 90 degrees. When you find one like this, say at a flea, make sure it is not pitted, take it home and polish it good.
Ӣ A Divider OR the groove making tool. You will make stitch line grooves with either. I prefer the tool.
Ӣ Your block and stirrup arrangement
Ӣ A couple of pieces of scrap leather, cowhide, about 7-9 ounce so there is some meat on them. Use scrap for the first time. Cut a couple of squares four by four so there is something to work with. Future posts will work on projects unless God calls me to walk the streets of glory before I get to write them.
Ӣ Tapered, waxed thread and a pair of either size 1 or 2 harness needles or bristles. These are covered in previous posts.
This method will be geared to working with needles. The key to performing this type of stitch, whether clumsily with needles as here or with bristles, is to use the thread to guide your second needle/bristle through both holes. The curve of the furring strip is going to hold the work in place to expose both holes because the strap pinning the work will tend to follow that curve with pressure. Let’s go.
Wet your leather just beyond damp so the curved awl doesn’t tear the hole in dry leather. It also flattens this seam better. Using the rule we cited in earlier posts about stitching, mark or cut your groove on both facing edges of leather equal distances from the edges. Keep in mind the width of the stitch should be the thickness of both pieces together to start. If you keep at this, you will learn the proper marking distance based on the ability of your awl to go in and come out on both scribed lines. The scribed line is deep”¦the grooved line is shallow.
With a scratch awl mark two starting holes at the start of the seam. Line those two starting holes up. I like to use an overstitch wheel here to mark the rest of the holes because of the cute little groove it marks between each hole. Start at the mark you just made and run the wheel on both stitch lines. Eyeball to check that the holes are aligned and sitting in the groove. Now run your awl to drill each hole. For this first time, make sure you think about each of these for every hole;
Ӣ The awl shaft is at an exact 90 degrees to the leathers edge
Ӣ Each hole goes into the face of the leather and comes out midway through the thickness of the edge
Ӣ When the awl comes out the edge drive it up to the crotch of the awl point. Do both pieces separately for this first time.
Ӣ Try to stay exact, especially when working the second piece of leather
Now push your needles through the first opposing holes in each piece. Line them up and, while they are still flapping around loosely, coax your second stitch through closing. Check with Part IV of the Eighteenth Century Stitching Post regarding the mechanics of each stitch. Don’t close this second stitch overly tight. Now put the whole rig on your thigh with the block and stirrup arrangement.
When you stitch this seam you will have to coax the first needle through both holes almost every time. Keep the awl in your hand because you will have to remind the leather to keep the holes open. Gently, son, gently. When you place the second needle, rely on the thread to guide it completely through both holes. Double check that the second needle did not go through the thread fibers as you pull it through. Close your stitch just short of crimping the two grooves closer together.
Wrinkles are sometimes referred to as “grinning” and that was a no-no amongst Cordwainers. Look at the sheath picture where the blade points to a grinned stitch. Ruins the whole piece and can happen in an instant, so be careful.
Make sure you are re-waxing your thread every so often, and double back three stitches or so when done. You might even surprise yourself by getting the feel of driving the awl through both sides of leather in one stroke. This will eliminate a lot of time and the need to run holes on the second scribed line. Tap the seam in the damp leather flat. Don’t re-engage the overstitch wheel and don’t use the awl butt. Tap, tap, tap the seam flat.
When admiring your work, look at how even your holes made each stitch, and turn the work over to verify that you can’t see any thread on the flesh side. That’ll tickle you because it took talent.
, still making the same mistakes !!! Great tutorial Greg.
