Restoration and Modification of An Old Stitching Clam

Some time ago I managed to rescue an old sewing clam, which was being used as display in an suburban clothing store. A sewing clam, you ask, is something you use, when you sew leather by hand. The clam sits between your legs and holds the object for you, so you can use both hands freely for sewing. 

The condition of the clam was rather good, but it still needed a bit of restoration. However the length wasn't ideal for the way I sew leather, as I rarely use an awl for making holes, when I sew. Therefore I needed to modify it slightly by making it shorter, so it would sit in front of me. Therefore I brought it with me to my parent's place, as my dad has more tools and much more experience with woodwork, than I have.

This is how the sewing clam looked before it. It was quite hard for me to alter this old piece of genuine craftsmanship, but I wouldn't be using as much, as I will now. So I felt like, I had to do it in order to bring it back to use and back to life.

First we sanded it down. 

The length was shortened. Nerve wrecking procedure.

Then we drilled some holes in order to add a screw, that would secure the jaws without causing leg fatigue.

I gave it some shellac in order make it a bit harder - although the wood was extremely hard and dry.

After the shellac had dried I glued on some leather at the tip of the jaws. This was added so the object, that you're holding, doesn't get scratched.

Lastly a hinge were attached, so it can still be used the way it was intended.

The final result.

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A Broken Bag

Mathias Kokholm, is a young and very interesting editor and publisher. He is a bookworm and he carries a ton of books in his leather messenger bag from Works Unltd. This has resulted in a bunch of busted seams, broken rivets and a bag that would have been ready for the garbage bin, if he hadn't returned to the shop to have it fixed. The job later got passed on to me, and I did it as a favour.

This is a small pictorial of what I had to do in order to fix the bag. Actually, I didn't fix the bag, so to speak. I improved it basically because a hand stitch (saddle stitch) is way stronger and longer lasting that a machine stitch (lock stitch). I'll find an illustration at some point to show this. I did a lot of hand sewing on the bag, and I just used the same hole that were already present from the machine stitching, which wasn't all straight.

Then I hand punched a solid brass rivet and made a leather washer as backing, to exchange the jiffy rivets that had fallen off. And finally I gave it some - you guessed it - pure Neatsfoot oil, as it looked a bit neglected.

None of the repairs were done to make it look like it when it was new. No, the repairs were indeed made to make it last even longer.

Had I known, how time consuming this was, I would probably have thought twice about accepting the gig, but every stitch made is a learning experience for me. On top of this, Mathias is a great guy, and I like the idea of him carrying around too many books in his bag.

BEFORE

AFTER

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