Some Recent Stuff From the Workshop

I have this annoying ability of not being able to wait until the product is totally finished before I start taking pictures. I'm rather impatient for some reason.

The reason for me saying this is, that I just finished some gifts for some members in my family, and I took the pictures shortly after, I had just given them some neatsfoot oil. Hence the small markings on the leather, where the oil hadn't dried completely.

The recipe is like it usually is: Vegetable tanned leather and waxed linen.

Pictures turned out quite terrible even, but in case you were wondering, it's a double sided cardholder and a case for business cards.

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Crafts - Mil-Spec Lanyard

Here's a small piece of custom leatherwork, that I did for my good friend, Rasmus. He requested a new key hanger or lanyard, as his old (shitty) one finally gave up.

I know, that Rasmus is quite into jeans, so I made him a lanyard with some very nice details, that would go well with a pair of jeans. I'm actually quite satisfied with it. So much I'm making one for myself now.

These pictures were taken after a couple of weeks of use and it looks like it is evolving quite nicely. The leather I used is a 3mm thick vegetable tanned leather from Germany. I oiled it quite a few times with Neatsfoot oil, just to get the process going.

The hardware is a bit more interesting. It's from the Danish military and it is made of steel/nickel, that has been enameled. The buckle is deadstock, so there is no chipping whatsoever, but the snap has been used - heavily - so it has plenty patina. I'm hoping, that they resemble each other a bit more with wear. 

I secured the snap using a 6 ply waxed Irish linen thread. Sewn by hand, of course. And here you can see my custom maker's stamp. I've come to the conclusion, that it's too hard getting it perfectly centred, so now I'm just quickly punching it. So it always gets a bit crooked, but that's just charming, I think.

All edges have been rounded slightly and burnished using beeswax and good, old elbow grease. What you can't seen from these pictures, is that the buckle has been set using two solid copper rivets. This is a very rugged solution, and it adds to the character, once the ageing process really kicks in. Nothing goes as well with vegetable tanner leather as solid copper rivets. 

All photos by Rasmus Jakobsen and all words (and work) by Simon Tuntelder

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