Adapt and Prepare

by **Baelin Holt** on November 8th, 2019, 7:44 pm

17, Fall 519 AV

Baelin liked to think he wasn’t a complete idiot. And after having his coin pouch plucked right from his belt the other day, he figured it’d be pretty stupid to just keep wearing his mizas in the same way. No, he needed something different. Something that he could maybe wear under his shirt, strapped around his waist. A belt, concealable and close-fitting. He could still wear his coin pouch with a few mizas for small expenses, but the rest that he’d be carrying around would be tucked in and harder to get. The exposed coin pouch could be an expendable target, and the actual waist pack would keep the rest safe.

He thought it was a great idea. See? He wasn’t so stupid.

Or, at least, he thought it’d been a good idea. Right up until he couldn’t find what he was looking for in the market. There were waist bags, sure, but they all had huge pouches on them. Big and obvious bags that―while they may have been better secured than your typical coin pouch―looked ridiculous and were far larger than he needed. Baelin could imagine he’d become a target just because of the sheer absurdity of some of them.

But Baelin was handy. He could make things. That’s what he told himself, anyways, as he left the Commons seventy gold mizas poorer and with a leatherworker’s kit. He’d also bought a pound of leather to work with, and hoped it’d be enough. It was just your typical common, garment grade leather―this wasn’t armor, after all―and he figured it’d be best to work with the cheap stuff first. That way, if he messed up egregiously, the three silver mizas he spent on it won’t put him out too much.

Unlike the kit itself, which absolutely put him out a good deal.

But, he tried to reason with himself, while still reeling from dropping more mizas on this one purchase than he would for a season’s worth of rent, The toolkit is an investment. Leather armor seemed far more popular than steel here in Sunberth, and Baelin needed to work on his skills if he hoped to ever catch up.

That didn’t change the fact that this would be the most expense thing he owned. By far.

Buyer’s guilt was relentless as it ate at him on the walk back to his apartment. He held his new purchases tight in his grasp, almost terrified that he’d lose them before he could even use them.

Baelin spent so little on things he wanted―he was definitely still trying to reason with himself―surely he could justify this one thing.

Right or wrong, what was done was done. He’d bought the kit, and now it was his to do with as he pleased. And what he wanted was to make himself a damned coin pouch that wouldn’t be pilfered at a moment’s notice.

Closing the door to his apartment behind him, Baelin dropped his new purchases on the table and took a step back. Where to start? He knew he’d need to cut out what he needed from the sheet of leather, like how you’d cut out a section of steel with snips for an armoring piece. But for steel armor, Baelin had always used templates. Never before had he made his own template. There’d never been a need; not at the munitions grade he worked at.

Okay…so he needed to make a template. If it was going around his waist, it’d likely be best for him to measure straight around his stomach. Now how to measure… Baelin picked up the roll of leather and held it up so it’d tumble open. The sheet was a bit unwieldly to position―like trying to use a stiff and relatively heavy blanket as a wrap―but Baelin eventually got it wrapped around his waist like an awkward skirt. Holding it in place with one hand, Baelin reached over to the kit and pulled out a scratch awl. Basically a spike with a handle and a sharp tip, Baelin was able to mark the spot where the leather wrapped over itself using his new awl.

That done, Baelin unwound himself from the sheet and draped it over his table. Baelin scratched his previous mark in the leather again, making it a bit more obvious and longer. He then went further down the edge of the sheet by about a hand’s length, figuring he’d want that overlap to work with, and made another mark.

So now he had the length; or at least a good first try for it. But how wide should he make the section he’d cut out? For it to hold anything, he’d need to fold the leather over itself. He knew that much. What he didn’t know was how much excess he’d need.

Figuring a hand’s width was as good a guess as any, Baelin laid his hand down alongside the edge of the sheet and made a mark with his scratch awl. Then he shifted his hand down and made another scratch, for a width of two of his own hand-widths. He hoped that’d be enough to fold down and have a usable storage area.

Now to cut out his section. He really should be using a straight-edge for this, but without the proper tool Baelin decided to just wing it. It wasn’t like he was going to try to sell this anyways, nor was anyone going to see it if it served its function correctly. So Baelin plucked a knife out of his new kit and eyeballed a straight line down from the edge. Being cheap, the leather wasn’t particularly thick and Baelin didn’t have to fight too hard to cut through it. He stopped cutting when he thought he was about in line with his mark on the other edge of the sheet, then moved over to start his cut there.

When it was done, his section of cut out leather looked a bit more like a rhombus than a rectangle. He hoped that’d be fine. Or, at the very least, that he could fix it later down the road if it proved to be a problem.

Expenses :

WC: 1024

by **Baelin Holt** on November 12th, 2019, 4:32 am

Baelin had at least seen some of Nathaniel’s work on leather armor. There’s cutting, stitching, molding, and then quite a few extra steps to make the leather actually effective as armor. Baelin didn’t need armor; he just needed something that’d hold mizas tight to his body. So he opted for simple. He folded the cut out leather over itself and pulled a stitching groover out of his kit. The groover wasn’t much more than a handle with a right-angle bar going through the tip, held in place by a chuck. The bar held a small, dull blade that gave the tool its name: when it was dragged across the surface of leather, it should cut a groove into the leather.

Baelin held the stitching groover up against one of the short ends of the folded over leather. No matter how he went about this, he’d probably want the ends closed. Once he did that, he could figure out the rest of the stitching design. And, worst come to worst, he could always cut out stitches that he decided he didn’t like. No need to stress about designing the perfect miza pouch when he didn’t truly know what that entailed. Practice would guide future designs; he was sure of that.

For now, Baelin dragged the stitching groover along the leather’s edge. The bar was currently set so that there was only a small width between groove and edge; Baelin saw no reason to adjust it. With his hands steady, Baelin thought the line came out pretty good. The start of the groove was significantly deeper than the rest of it; he had pushed in too hard at the start. But hopefully that wouldn’t prove too much of an issue. He supposed he would see when he actually got to putting stitches in the groove, if it affected its function or not.

Next, Baelin needed to put in evenly spaced marks. These would be the spots where thread would be wound through. Nathaniel often eyeballed this in his own work, but Baelin imagined he’d be better served sticking with the tool. The over-stitch wheel, after all, was designed precisely for this purpose.

Baelin slid his new stitching groover back into its place in his kit, then pulled out the over-stitch wheel. Little more than a notched wheel with a handle, all he needed the over-stitch wheel to do was dig in marks at even intervals. So long as Baelin rolled the wheel forward at a steady speed and pressure, the notched shape of the wheel’s edge should do the spacing work for him.

Steadying his hand, Baelin pushed. The wheel moved forward with surprising jerkiness, getting caught each time the notches dug into leather. He feared he’d messed it up, even with a tool that simple and straight-forward. But―when he pulled the tool away and took a peak at the outcome―Baelin found his fears groundless. Perks of using a tool specifically designed for the job: it was hard to mess it up. The tool had indeed dug in little, evenly spaced divots, despite his inexperience.

Okay, so that was a good start. But now that he’d done the one side, he had to match it on the other. Baelin flipped over the leather and grimaced.

The asymmetry of his earlier cut was already a problem: the folded over edges weren’t lined up with each other. He was staring down at an exposed triangle of the other side’s back. What Baelin was supposed to do was put a groove in this side as well, and then he would have groves on both sides that ought to line up precisely with each other. But, since the edges weren’t actually lined up, this was currently an impossibility. No pre-set distance on a stitching groover would change that.

That was alright. He could fix this. Baelin grabbed a knife and lined it up with the edge of the topside. Using that as a straight-edge, he sliced down through the exposed backside.

Baelin was half-way through his cut when he realized he’d just sliced through the groove and divots that he’d just made. He stilled, blade still buried in the leather, and stared down at the section of strip he’d just separated.

Well shyke. Baelin inhaled slowly, counted to five, and then pushed air out through clenched teeth. Okay. This was fine. He could fix this too. Baelin went ahead and finished the cut. At the very least, the edges were now matched with each other. He’d just…redo his groove and divots.

Baelin pulled the stitching groover back out of his kit and lined it up with the edge. He dragged the blunted edge down faster this time, far less concerned about making a nice groove than he had in his first try. And, in his haste, he let off pressure on the groover far before he’d finished his line. It was an obvious mistake as soon as he set down the groover. His hand freezing on its way to pick up the over-stitch wheel, Baelin stared down at the only half-finished line.

Petch, he was rushing this already. If he kept this up, he’d have nothing but botched leather at the end. Expression carefully blank, Baelin moved with exaggerated slowness. He picked up the stitching groover. Carefully brought it down to the top of his line. Nudged it so the groover lay in the start of the groove he’d managed to set. And then slowly dragged it down. He lifted the groover back off with the same excessive care, not resuming a normal speed until he was sure the line looked fine and the cutting tool was far away and unable to do any more damage.

Now he could use the over-stitch wheel. Baelin dropped his exaggerated caution and pulled the notched wheel down the groove in much the same way as he had before. It jerked, divots were laid in even spaces, and Baelin could call this side a relative success. He then flipped the leather back over to redo his groove and divots on the other side.

Most of his earlier groove had been cut off when he’d tried to fix the overhang. And―after he again dragged the stitching groover down the new edge―he could see the way his new mark crisscrossed over the old. It was shoddy craftsmanship. But, he tried to remind himself again, It’s not going to be for sale. A prototype, nothing more. If he could just keep reminding himself that it was only a prototype, then maybe he won’t feel the overwhelming urge to rip it to shreds.

WC: 1099

by **Baelin Holt** on November 12th, 2019, 5:04 am

With grooves in both sides and divots on only one, Baelin figured it was about time to try out stitching. The kit came with a few thick sewing needles and a relatively small amount of waxed thread. It was likely enough to get someone started on sewing leather, but certainly not enough to do much with. If Baelin was clever, he’d figure out how to make it work for at least this one piece. But, considering how things were already going, odds were in favor of him petching it up and running out.

He wouldn’t know until he tried. Pulling in another slow breath, Baelin lined up the end of his starter roll of waxed thread with the eye of a needle. Calloused fingers unfamiliar with the task fumbled for a tick, jabbing the thread on the eye’s loop and failing to actually slide it through. Baelin readjusted his grip on the needle, braced his wrist against the table to make the target a bit steadier, and tried again.

Success. He then carefully slid his fingers down and grabbed hold of the thread’s end, and pulled a good length through the eye. But, as it was, the thread would slide right back off as soon as he pushed the needle through anything. Baelin was pretty damn confident that there was a good technique to get the thread quickly secured on the needle, but he hadn’t a clue what it was. For lack of a better idea, Baelin figured the least he could do was try to tie off the end. His fingers were clumsy with the thin, stiff strand, letting it slip from his attempt to bend it into loops and failing to get it to hook the way he wanted to. Baelin swore under his breath and kept fumbling with the same failed knot, over and over again.

After almost a chime of failure, Baelin was just about ready to hurl the roll of waxed thread at the wall. He was so frustrated that―when he finally managed to loop the thread the way he wanted―he almost jerked it back apart. But years of learning how to still a hammer swing had him trained to freeze his hands. He held the loop for a long tick, almost scared to move. Carefully, Baelin nudged the thread further through the loop until he had enough to pull on. As soon as he could, he yanked it tight. With the knot now complete, Baelin set the needle and thread aside and went back to his kit.

The awl―a spike with a handle―came back out; this time to pierce holes. Baelin picked up the folded leather so that he could pierce all the way through, and lined the awl up with one of the divots he punched earlier. Satisfied that the awl was positioned correctly, Baelin pushed. The awl pierced through the first layer of leather easily enough, but Baelin had to wiggle it to get through the second.

This proved to be yet another mistake. Baelin couldn’t bite back his snarl when he realized that, on the second flap, he poked through above the groove. He was supposed to poke through both grooves. Baelin could pierce it again to get through the groove, and then just leave that hole there as a mark of his failure. But petch this was frustrating. How did Nathaniel do this so quickly? And with so few mistakes? There had to be another step Baelin was missing. Something that would get the two layers of leather to stick together and not slide around so much.

Maybe… Baelin started to rifle through his new kit, pulling out anything that he didn’t recognize. It was when he got to a little tube of thick fluid that he paused. Baelin popped the cap off and squeezed a drop onto his forefinger. He pressed his fingertip together with his thumb, pulled them apart, and then squeezed them back together again. Sticky.

It was glue. Or, at least, Baelin was sixty percent sure it was glue. That made…so much sense. Baelin gritted his teeth and forced himself to breathe deeply again. Calm down, he tried to tell himself, You expected that you’d be bad at this.

Doing his best to shove down his frustration, Baelin unfolded the leather and squeezed a bit of the viscous, probably-glue out onto its backside edge. With his pinky finger, Baelin smeared it down the length of the edge, adding an extra drop to really cover it. That done, he folded the leather back over and pressed the sides down together. He scrubbed his pinky on the seam of his pant leg, then went back to his leather. Carefully, Baelin nudged the sides until the edges of the two layers were once again flush with each other. If it really was glue, it’d likely need time to set. So Baelin spread his fingers, laid them on the edge, and pressed down.

WC: 823

by **Baelin Holt** on December 1st, 2019, 3:19 am

Time moved slowly. It was just Baelin, the steady press of his fingers on leather as glue dried, and the pass of ticks. As those ticks grew into chimes, Baelin let his mind clear. He took in a long breath, counted to five, and then slowly let it back out. Another long breath, another count, and another steady exhale. With each slow, deep breath, Baelin could feel the ever-present tension he held start to ease. A few more deep breaths and the frustrated, fast pump of his heart also seemed to calm and slow.

Baelin continued like that for the chimes it took for the glue to dry, holding steady pressure on the bonding leather. Air brushed past his nostrils as he inhaled deep, pulling them slightly in. And then the opposite on his exhale, as a volumous, long rush of air caused his nostrils to gently flare. Over and over again, in and out, as Baelin lost himself in the steady pull and exhale of his breath.

He liked it like this. When he’d focus on nothing but his breathing. It was certainly better than letting his thoughts take the reins. If he let his mind have the run of things, Baelin would probably just get himself so wound up that he’d rip apart what little bit of work he’d already gotten done.

Hoping that the glue had had enough chimes to get a good bit of a bond going, Baelin pulled his fingers off. He gave the glued leather a little wiggle, and was relieved to see it stay together. He’d perhaps have to be careful with it, but it was at least now better than it had been.

Baelin grabbed his awl and lined it up once again with hole made earlier. The awl’s point settled in the hole, and Baelin pushed it the rest of the way through to pierce the other layer of leather.

This time―when he pulled the awl back out and flipped the leather over to check the other side―Baelin was pleased to see the new hole came out of the groove he’d made earlier. Thank petch. The old, off-centered hole was still there, but it shouldn’t prove to be a problem. Setting aside the awl, Baelin grabbed the waxed thread and needle.

Baelin lined the needle up with the pierced holes, and shoved it through. Grabbing it on the other side, he pulled it the rest of the way. With the thread now through the first hole, Baelin was ready to make the second. Grabbing his awl again, he once again lined up with one of the divots left behind by the over-stitch wheel, and pierced through. This time, the awl punched through both layers of leather right where it was supposed to. Thank you, glue.

Baelin picked up the thread’s needle and poked it through the other side of the hole. This way, the thread would hopefully lay flat in the groove, rather than crisscrossing over the edge of the leather. He continued in this way, punching holes and sticking the thread’s needle through. It wasn’t until he was at the end of the line that he stopped and really looked at the stitch he was making.

It wasn’t quite right… Stitching in leather usually looked continuous, with only small spots where the thread dipped back into leather to break up the line. But what he’d been doing looked like dashed lines on each side, where the broken lines of thread and of exposed groove were about the same length.

He was missing something. How was he supposed to get a more continuous line if he had to keep switching the leather over to the other side? Do two lengths of thread, and alternate them? No, that probably wouldn’t look as clean as the leather stitching he usually saw. Shyke, he was missing something.

Baelin hissed through clenched teeth and glared at the stitched leather; as if it would offer up its secrets if only he glared at it enough. But the leather lay unmoving, offering no guidance. With a snarl, Baelin took a step away to regroup before he did something even more stupid with it.

WC: 696

by **Baelin Holt** on December 1st, 2019, 3:33 am

What to do…what to do… Baelin traced the length of waxed thread with his eyes, all the way from where it was knotted to the needle, looped through each pierced hole, and came out again on the other side and hung loose. Wait… Oh.

Baelin stepped back and picked up the loose end. He lined it up with the first pierced hole―on the opposite side of where he’d pushed the needle through earlier―and tried to fit it into the hole. The thread resisted, bending and slipping away from the hole rather than pushing through. Baelin grabbed his awl and tried to use that to push the thread through, but it still resisted. Hissing in frustration, Baelin pulled the thread taught and pierced it with the awl. With the thread now stuck on the awl’s tip, Baelin was able to push it through and pull it out tight on the other side.

There. Now that looked right. But if he was going to go ahead and do that for each hole, he should probably get this side of the thread on a needle as well. Baelin only barely managed not to groan. That had been such a hassle the first time around, he didn’t want to have to do it again.

Pulling in a deep breath, Baelin went to get another needle. The thread wasn’t going to get on the needle by itself, and the stitch would be even harder to do without anything on the thread, so… needs must. Baelin pushed the thread through the needle’s eye, only taking a few ticks to get it through.

Now time for the knot. Baelin took in a deep breath, steadied his hands, and tried to make the loop. After a several frustrating ticks of wrestling with it to no avail, he was almost ready to toss it across the room. There had to be an easier way to do this. Like when he’d pierced it with the―oh! Like when he’d pierced it with the awl earlier. Fingers a bit too quick in his excitement, Baelin tugged the thread down to the end of the needle and tried to poke it through the thread’s width. He missed―poking past the thread’s side―and then froze, taking a moment to steady himself. Trying again, Baelin lined up needle against thread, and poked it. This time, the thread split in its middle under the needle tip, and Baelin pulled the thread down the rest of the way on the needle. Now that was much better than trying to tie that knot.

With needles now secure on both ends of the waxed thread, Baelin looped this end of the thread through the holes as he had the first. As he continued down the length of the groove, Baelin slowly filled in the dashed line of thread until it was more or less continuous, with just the points where the thread dipped into holes to break up the line. It wasn’t exactly as even looking as Baelin was used to seeing, but it at least looked better.

Baelin took a step back from his work again, and tried to survey what he was doing. He had one side glued and stitched, and the rest still open. He had to get the other two sides stitched for it to hold mizas, and then make some way for it to fasten to his waist.

For the stitching, Baelin felt a bit more comfortable with it now than he had a bell or so ago. He’d run a stitching groover along the edge to cut a groove. Then lay evenly spaced divots in that groove with the over-stitch wheel. And finally pierce holes with the awl and work thread through on both sides. Things to look out for: the edges of the two layers not being flush, and not having it glued. Oh yeah, Baelin had this.

And so he did just that. He sliced off a bit of excess from where the edges of the two layers met, then cut grooves into both side. He glued the two layers together―waiting a few chimes for them to stick―and then pulled the over-stitch wheel down the grooves for divots. With everything in place, he took one of the thread’s needles―still dangling from the last hole of the stitch finished earlier―and brought it to the first divot. Using an awl to pierce the hole, he then pushed the thread through. And so the stitch began. He poked needles through on both sides this time, working his way along the leather’s long end.

Baelin didn’t stop his stitch until he was to the other side. He figured it’d be easiest to make the entire thing enclosed, then cut a slit on the folded-over end of the pouch to put coins in. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about breaking up the stitch.

He repeated the stitching steps on the last end, and finally pulled the two ends of the thread through the very last hole. Baelin yanks the thread ends taut, and then tied them together over the leather’s edge to finish it. He was positive that there must be a better way to finish a stitch, but he didn’t particularly care at the moment. He just wanted it done.

Baelin cut off the excess thread and set the two needles to the side. Now was left? He just had to cut an opening into the last edge―the one that was folded over rather than stitched―and somehow find a way to get it to easily fasten around his waist. Baelin didn’t need anything fancy; just a string through both ends and tied tight should do the trick. But what kind of string to use…

Baelin glanced back at his supplies and saw the strips of leather that he’d cut off the edges earlier. One in particular was long and thing, and he figured it’d tie pretty nicely. Baelin grabbed a thicker awl from the kit, and punched holes on both ends of the pouch. He then looped the leather strip through one of the holes, and picked up the whole thing and wrapped it around his waist. Threading the strip through the other side, Baelin tried to pull it tight.

It wasn’t the best, but it’d hold. And―for now―that was all that Baelin really wanted. He pulled the leather strip back out of one of the holes and took the pouch off. Laying it back down on the table, Baelin grabbed a knife and sliced an opening in the top.

With that, he had a prototype coin pouch. It wasn’t pretty, and Baelin imagined that he’d think of plenty of ways to improve it in the future. But for now? It was just what he wanted.

WC: 1122

by **Baelin Holt** on December 27th, 2019, 3:09 pm

Baelin Holt :

Completed Adapt and Prepare