Solo Fine Threading II

[Willis Efram]

Continued 2 Summer 524

Having taken out the damaged piece and taken just about every measurement he could, Willis proceeded by picking out the proper piece of leather to replace it with. First things first he wanted a consistent material, though if it looked a bit different that was not the end of the world. Aesthetics in his mind were important, but second to function and purpose. In this case it was a hardy bag meant to hold things safely and to also in a pinch act as a defense against aggressive beasts. With that in mind finding another piece just as strong and firm came before finding one that looked just like the other piece.

Going through the materials Juli had left him Willis immediately set aside a few of the larger pieces of leather he had been given. Too soft. Too thin. Not proper. Not big enough. Comparing to the stretched out flat measure and marking he had made he knew roughly the size he would needed, though erred on the side of going a bit bigger and trimming down rather than going too small and having to start over and wasting material.

Within a few chimes he was left with a few pieces that seemed large enough and not too thin, all suitable replacements in a pinch. However at that point he was able to focus more on aesthetics and trying to blend in the old and new materials as best he could. Out of the few pieces one was definitely the wrong hue, not looking like the other pieces at all. With the remaining pieces he began to test them in other ways, bending the material and rapping on parts to see how strong it was. Another piece was tossed aside, not seeming to be durable enough to keep up with the rest of the bag.

Of what remained neither looked exactly like the rest of the bag that remained, but seemed up to the material strength that was needed. Finally Willis was just left to go with his instincts and pick the one of the two that seemed a bit closer and less noticeably off. With a large flat piece of leather spread out Willis began marking slowly, erasing and marking again and tracing his earlier measures only to erase it and mark it again. This part seemed to take awhile, and was much trickier than replacing a seam earlier had been. After all once he cut here he would be committed, and he needed to make sure he had enough material and cut it properly to be able to replace the part of the bag that he had removed. Without it one whole side of the bag was open and empty. Before he cut though he double checked the fold of the leather, making sure he would have enough room for this. That fold was important for this type of bag, since it helped block off the seam from being exposed on the outside of the bag while still retaining the overall consistency of it. Measuring again he was fairly certain he had it right and would be able to replace the piece fold and all.

WC: 528

[Willis Efram]

Done at the moment with measuring, Willis finally began preparing to cut out the new piece. Having finished all of the markings and measured so many times it was overkill, the Akontak finally went through his tools and took out a few knives and implements used for cutting. Using a fastener he held the larger piece in place on either side of the wooden board, before finally beginning to cut on another side. Here he roughly traced a bit outside of the line he had marked to give himself some room to prune later. However with the hardy leather not wanting to give in, his cutting knife did not immediately cut through the thickness. That being said, Willis reminded himself, any leather that would do so with a single easy cut would not be good for the task at hand due to lacking durability.

Still he kept at it, scoring a line with the blade, and slowly cutting into the leather. He kept at this as he traced around the surface, until that entire side had been scored. Then he repeated, cutting over the same spot, going a bit deeper. And then again, until finally he felt the blade cut through the last bit of leather and begin to touch the wood beneath. For his size and birth he was stronger than most people his age, but in such tender and careful work a bit of extra strength meant little.

Removing the clamps Willis turned the material, reapplied the clamps, and repeated the process from earlier on another side. He kept at this for awhile, cutting off the main excess material he did not need in slow little bits as he sliced into the material layer by layer. Patiently he worked at the material, cutting one side, another, and so on until the entire traced line - or a bit outside of it for safety- had been cut. This left him with an awkward bit of leather, and the remnants of the larger sheet of leather with the large piece cut out of it. Setting the latter aside Willis focused on the piece he would be using, beginning to work on bending and shaping it as the bag he had been given bent and shaped. Since shaping it would change the length it stretched he wanted to make sure before cutting any more excess he had the measures right as it was now in the corrected shape.

Considering the work bits of this reminded him of making armor, but there were certainly some differences. This leather was much more fluid and flexible for a bag, while bits would be stiffer but also hardier and more able to take a hit in armor. Of course if a large clawed animal did come at the person using it again having a strong piece of leather between them and the threat could not hurt. Since this was a bag bits of it would need to be wetted and formed to keep that shape, but for now Willis focused on just getting the dimensions and framing correct.

WC: 512

[Willis Efram]

If Willis truly wanted to do this properly, more work would need to be done. For a real proper job he would need something to support the leather when molding it, to wet and apply to so that when it dried it was in that fixed shape. However without that he would have to make due with the best he could, doing things a bit simpler and faster and by hand or gradually. He was after all just dealing with a single bag. However it he was doing the same item over and over, or doing larger items like armor he would certainly need to make or acquire some of those. Of course trying at making that would bring into question his lacking woodworking skills which he could perhaps ask around for some help with. The most likely source of aid there would either be a carpenter or perhaps someone who carved wood, but that would be an entirely other skill-set to work on and prepare equipment for which he did not have. Something for him to keep in mind once he had saved up some additional funds and wanted to improve his craft with such things.

In the meantime the Akontak returned his gaze to the piece at hand, temporarily shaping and pushing it to how he needed, before once more measuring. Once he had done this he continued with his markings, erasing and redrawing, until he had it as close to what he needed as he could. Then he went in again, ready for cutting even closer to the line he had drawn, something that would only leave a small margin for possible shrink during molding. With that in mind he slowly spread the leather piece out and began to cut again as he had marked, going a bit easier at it since he was only dealing with a small excess bit rather than nearly sawing and cutting large chunks off. This took time as well, and slowly he shifted and turned the material as he worked at it till he had the final layer close to what he wanted.

With that done Willis got the dimensions down one last time, compared the leather he had to the final shape and dimensions he had marked out on his first marking, and began to wet the leather in places. Rather than soaking it or wetting it all at once though he did it carefully and in steps. Willis would wet the leather, bend it, wet it a bit more, and shape it. Then he would hold it in place, keeping it bent and shaped for awhile and letting it slowly dry. Then he would wet it once more, bend it a bit more in the same or a new place that needed shaping, and then let it dry. Over and over he repeated this, taking several bells in all. At the end he knew he would not finish this all today, and instead went to tell Juli of his progress and that he would need to return tomorrow to finish oiling the first piece and to work on the other piece once it had finished drying in shape.

WC: 529

[Willis Efram]

3 Summer 524

After taking a break to let all of the work he had done dry, stored safely in his new room to avoid the rain overnight, Willis returned to the Mercantile to see Juli and to show her the work he had done so far. Entering during a dry spell without rain, something he could keenly sense and predict, he entered and smiled at the woman while almost without thought mentally damping down Efram's words about asking her to sire their children. At this point the two had been together so long he knew it was coming and successfully preempted it.

"Hello Juli, nice to see you again. I wanted to show you my progress. Also on this one... I have to say, I think it is beyond my skill to save, I think it would just need to be rebuilt from scratch. I mean, I cannot even tell what it was so... Outside of my skills."

A smile on her face in turn at seeing the Akontak, perhaps because of his own infectious smile or perhaps because he seemed quite cheery and she had a slow moment at work. "Yes, hello Willis. As for that one... Yeah, not surprising, but I figured I would give it a shot." Clearly not seeming surprised to hear he could not fix that ruined piece Willis was left to wonder if she had not been trying to test him as he set that ruined piece down before her.

"Well, for the others... On this one, I was able to redo the seam, I just need to oil it properly today now that its dried. As for this one, I will need at least another day on it. I believe it was beyond patching, so I had to replace this section here. I cut out the replacement piece, and it is close to shaped as I need, but I will also need to add new holes for threading into. With leather this thick I cannot just force it through, so will need to make proper openings with a blade rather than the needle. Once I add a new seam to attach this new piece, cut off any excess, and trim it all, I will need to do one final cleaning and then will be able to oil it tomorrow. The pouch though I should have back today."

Nodding along at his words Juli seemed to agree with his assessment and found it to be reasonable. "Sure. From what I can see you are not a total novice, so this does give me a better idea of what you can do. Finish these up, and then I will see about what else work I can get for you. Oh and I guess you can keep using that piece of wood, its just a random piece cut off something so no need to return it. I'm sure you'll go through several when cutting."

With a nod and a smile Willis thanked the shopkeeper one last time before heading back outside. There he began taking out his equipment to continue his work, setting the small pouch in front of him and taking out the oiling equipment and materials he had for these first jobs. And then with a small sigh Willis began, adding some oil to a cloth and slowly rubbing it into the small pouch's leather surface.

WC: 560

[Willis Efram]

Working on the items he had to fix today, Willis slowly wiped down the entire surface of the pouch. While it had been the simplest item to fix, not all of the time could have been used on fixing it since time was needed to let them dry and shape and mold in between sessions. This meant he could get quite a few items worked in one session, but then left waiting for others to dry and air out before he could continue them. A lot of this time was spent doing nothing, which likely explained why Juli was planning to pay him for finished item rather than time spent.

Considering this Willis kept at his slow work, rubbing the oil into each crease and seam and bit of the pouch before turning it inside out and doing the same with the other side. Once that was done once more he was left to do what he had been considering earlier, wait.

With that in mind and letting the newly oiled surface air dry Willis set it aside and picked up what he would need for the other more difficult piece. While he was only doing this one he had been forced to slowly shape it by hand, and then in the end left it to dry out fulling overnight. Now it was much more in the shape of how he had molded it, though it had taken much longer than if he had a proper mold or bust to place it upon. Now though he had the trickiest part of the job, working the folded bit of leather back which would cover the seam, while also punching out the holes that would be used for said seam. Using a few fasteners he held the piece on his wooden plank, while also holding the fold of leather back temporarily. With that done Willis maneuvered the place he wanted to punch holes into where he wanted it, got out the gouger or whatever the thing was called that let him punch holes in leather, and began using it.

This, as with many steps of this process, was a slow but methodical thing that had to be done just right at each step and without any being missed. Bearing down with the gouger he pushed in and cut a single hole through the tough leather. Then measuring out the space he carefully moved over a bit and repeated this action again. And after that he kept this up, slow and measured he opened up the holes he would later thread through with a seam for stitching it all together. Not yet though, as he had quite a few holes to open on several places where each part of the leather would be stitched together and fastened to another piece. Once he was done the actual stitching would be on the inside, with the flush side on the outside covered by a flap of leather.

Checking on this once he had a single seam prepared by punching holes Willis undid the fasteners and checks the motion of the fold, making sure once he was done it would indeed cover the outside of the seam. While the motion did seem to cover the needed space placing it flush with the rest of the bag did show that more of the excess layer needed to be cut back a bit in a few spots, and so Willis prepared to go back and carve a bit more of the edge before continuing forming the new seem.

WC: 590