Leatherworking

“ Currying of the Lighter Leathers.—The duty of the currier is not solely directed towards heavier leathers; he is also entrusted with the dressing and fitting of the lighter leathers for the shoemaker, coachbuilder, saddler, &c. He has to pare the leather down and reduce inequalities in thickness, to impregnate it with fatty matter in order to render it soft and pliable, and to give it such a surface dressing, colour and finish as will please the eye and suit the purposes of its consumers. ”

“ Leather can be stiff as bone or supple as silk, nearly as waterproof as rubber or capable of sopping up water like a sponge, tough and unyielding or resilient and stretchy, smooth and translucent as paper, deeply grained in many patterns, or softly napped. ”

“ There is, I am told, far less slop-work in harness-making than in shoemaking or in the other trades, such as tailoring, and “many a lady’s pony harness,” it was said to me by a second-hand dealer, “goes next to a tradesman, and next to a costermonger’s donkey, and if it’s been good leather to begin with—as it will if it was made for a lady—why the traces’ll stand clouting, and patching, and piecing, and mending for a long time, and they’ll do to cobble old boots last of all, for old leather’ll wear just in treading, when it might snap at a pull. ”

“ The corners may be made of linen, vellum, cover paper, or skiver (a prepared leather which has been split by machinery) . Cut them out by the pattern. To give a finish to the edge which is to be free, turn it over about 1⁄4 of an inch. If leather is used, a portion of the under side along the edges should be additionally skived off, before turning over, to make the laps very thin. Cover paper, if used, may be re-enforced by pasting a piece of muslin onto the back.
These corners present an opportunity for applied design. The most satisfactory decoration for leather is “tooling.” ”

“ When we come to add to this the value of the leather for harness-making, for belting and the other purposes for which leather is used, we have over $2,000,000 taken annually from the people of this city for leather, and its fabrics. ”

“ At the same time, it is practicable to prepare, emboss, and gild cheap leather covers by the same processes and machinery adopted for cloth cases, and the bindings of cheap family and pocket Bibles are thus produced. But although the old solid and substantial handiwork of the craft is thus fairly eclipsed, there is still employment—and more employment than ever—for binders in leather, who chiefly rely on manual dexterity for the forwarding of their work, and individual taste and skill for its artistic finishing. ”

“ When a shipment arrives the skins are sorted: the cowhides and those to be tanned in chrome coming here, and the heavy skins and those to be tanned in oak or hemlock being sent on to Elmwood, where all the sole leather is made. The hides vary in weight, ranging from twenty-five to sixty pounds. There are skins of steers, horses, buffaloes, walrus, bulls, and oxen. The strongest and most perfect ones are made into belting to run the machinery of factories. Leather for this purpose, as you can easily see, must be of equal strength in every part to withstand the great strain put upon it. ”

“ The leather should be neatly and sharply cut out for open-work decoration, and placed over a groundwork of leather, stuff or metal: the last material is well adapted by its contrast of colour to show up the ornament laid over it. Open-work leather is a good material for hangings, and when destined for this purpose the design is sewn on the groundwork of leather or stuff with a sewing-machine, or stuck with gutta-percha. ”

“ I must here be understood to confine my approbation to the articles manufactured from leather tanned in a regular manner, and not that paltry brown-paper-like rubbish manufactured in pots and pans by indigent natives, who often work up a skin within the third or fourth day after its being stripped from some starved sheep, or goat; but which leather may always be distinguished by a narrow streak of white, that is, of raw hide, remaining in the middle of its thickness. ”

“ Various finishes are given to leather, such as seal grain, buff, glove grain, oil grain, satin calf, russet, plain shoe, etc.
Upper leathers are blacked by rubbing with a mixture of lampblack and oil or tallow, or with a solution of copperas and logwood.
No tanning process, no matter how good or thorough, can make firm, serviceable, [39] wear-resisting leather out of all portions of any hide, because nature made some parts of every hide porous, spongy, and lacking in fibrous strength. ”

“ I am journeying far to find a certain kind of leather. This morning I shot my arrow at a tree, but it glanced, and tore a big hole in the wizard shoemaker’s leather apron. I must mend this, or he will do me harm, and to do it I must have a certain kind of leather which neither man can give me, nor woman can give me ”

“ But if we are determined to wear leather, if we set ourselves to the work with a will, we can produce as fine leather of every variety, and as fine shoes and almost every other necessary within ourselves as we import, and a great deal better. But we must stop sending away our hides by the car load and must tan them ourselves. We have plenty of workmen who understand the business, and more can be trained, and we shall then not be compelled to ship car-loads of hair from the States for the use of our plasterers, in mixing the lime to finish our walls. ”

“ Leather, on the other hand, is a product of the hypodermic part of the body and, as such, belongs to those parts of the organism which are filled with blood, and, therefore, permeated with life. (Note as a characteristic of leather that it requires a special treatment, tanning, to make it as immune from decay as hair is by nature.) Hair and leather, therefore, represent in themselves a salt-sulphur polarity, and thus fulfil the corresponding function when brought together with resin or glass respectively. ”

“ The Spaniards were, for a great many centuries, the best leather makers. The term is applied to a grain leather from the best and strongest part of a horsehide.
Counter. The stiffening in the back part of a shoe, often called stiffening, to support the outer leather and prevent the shoe from “running over” at the heel. It is made either of sole leather, shaved thin [187] on the edge and shaped by machinery, as in the best shoes, or composition or paper, in cheap shoes. Metal is occasionally used on the outside of the shoes in heavy goods for miners and furnacemen. ”

“ Patent leathers must be creamed and rubbed with a chamois cloth or linen or flannel rag after all mud and dust have first been removed. This operation should be repeated daily. Some men maintain that patent leathers should be varnished as soon as they come home from the bootmaker, but I disagree with them. A varnished patent leather has always a cheap look, and the coat of veneer is only applied as a last resort, to hide the cracks. Russet boots and shoes are treated daily with the special cream sold for them, which can be obtained at any bootmaker's or shoe shop. ”

“ This leather, in the hands of an ordinary workman, would make a clumsy covering upon account of its great thickness; for it cannot be shaved down by a skin-dresser without destroying the natural grain of the leather, and, with it, its velvet-like richness and beauty; and yet, under the manipulations of these French artists, it becomes one of the most plastic of materials; rare volumes of the smallest dimensions, containing but one or two sheets, are not only covered on the exterior, but the interior of the boards, and even the joints are of Levant morocco. ”

“ The treatment of such skins to fit them for useful purposes comprises the light leather trade. Whilst this branch of the leather industry is certainly utilitarian, the artistic element is a great deal more prominent in it than in the heavy leather branch. Thus the light leathers are often dyed and artistically finished, and their final purposes (such as fancy goods, upholstery, bookbinding, slippers, etc.) have rather more of the element of luxury than of essential utility. ”

“ For all leatherwork requires constant feeding with oil in order to keep it fit and pliant, while the “fake” dries the fibres of the leather and starves it, rendering it liable to cracking and perishing. ”

“ Leather substitutes, or so-called artificial leather, is well adapted for beginners in upholstery, and is inexpensive. It is manufactured in 50 and 54-inch widths, and costs from 60 cents to $1.75 per yard. Trade names of leather substitute are Marokene, Chase Leather, Hercules, Victor Leather, Pantasote, Mole Skin, Mule Skin, etc. The better varieties are very durable and very closely resemble leather. Genuine leather costs from 16 to 36 cents per square foot in the whole hide or full skin, and up to 75 cents per foot cut to size. ”

“ The process of making leather by soaking hides in a solution of salt and alum, or by packing them down with dry salt and powdered alum. Used to prepare skin rugs and furs.
Tempering. The operation of wetting the leather in water to take hardness out and make leather “mull,” so that it may be worked easier.
Tip. The toe piece which is stitched to the vamp and outside of it. Stock tip is a tip of the same material as the vamp. Patent tip is a patent leather tip. Diamond tip refers to the shape extending back to a point. Imitation tip-stitching across the vamp is imitation of a tip. ”

“ Those who would prefer to have an entire piece of leather work can paint landscapes or flowers upon white leather, using the same medium as is used in body colour painting at the School of Design, mixed with finely powdered colours. ”

“ Many artificial grains and patterns are also given to leather by printing and embossing, these processes being carried out by passing the leather between two rollers, the top one upon which the pattern is engraved being generally steam heated. ”

“ Gambier and myrobalans form the main body of the tannage, together with a little quebracho extract, mimosa bark, sumach and extracts.
Upper Leather.—Under the head of upper leather are included the thin, soft and pliable leathers, which find their principal, but by no means exclusive, application in making the uppers of boots and shoes, which may be taken as a type of a class of leathers. They are made from such skins as East Indian kips, light cow and horse hides, thin split hides, such as those described under dressing leather, but split rather thinner, and calf. ”

“ Every example given has been practically tested, and, in most instances, the drawings have been copied from the models executed in leather, and will be found to combine durability with beauty of design. In order to make the leather modelling as durable as possible, we have not departed from nature in the finished form, but in the mode of construction; for example, we make several portions of a flower in one piece of leather. The Narcissus and the beautiful White Lily have each six petals; in both instances, we make the entire corolla of the flowers in one piece ”

“ It is very simple, just two round pieces of leather and three of chamois. The top piece of leather has the design shown in Fig. 80 worked on it in beads of a colour that will look well with the leather you have chosen. Black and crystal beads will harmonise [170] with red leather or dark-green crystal and opaque white. If the leather is not so bright a colour, the beads may be more gay. Work the design with the stitch described in the directions for making an Indian beaded shirt in Chapter V., bringing the strings of beads farther apart at the outer edge of the circle than on the inside. ”

“ Leather never lies. Not good leather. An’ poor leather’s a dead give-away. My museum of soles.” He waved a showman’s hand toward the rows of shoes suspended neatly in brackets of his own devising against the walls. ”

“ About the time of the invention of printing, leather bindings began to be decorated with gold tooling. Tooling is the name given to the designs impressed upon the leather with various small dies so manipulated as to make a connected pattern. When the impressions are gilded the dull leather is brightened and beautified in proportion to the skill and taste expended by the workman. ”

“ A castor kid is a Persian lambskin finished the same as a suede, and is used in making very soft, fine-appearing leather—like glove leather. The skin is of such a very light weight that it has to be “backed up” before being made into shoes.
Fancy leathers are used extensively for toppings of shoes having patent leather vamps. Facings are selected from fancy leathers to make the inside of a shoe attractive and to increase its wearing quality. [52] Leathers of dull or glazed finish are used in typical shoe colors. ”

“ Stuart continued, “follow the many methods for getting certain varieties of finish on the leather. Here, for instance, you will see [Pg 108] men graining tan stock by working it by hand into tiny wrinkles; they use heavy pieces of cork with which they knead the material until the leather is checked in minute squares. It looks like an easy thing to do, but it isn’t. It requires skilled workmen in order to get satisfactory results. Over here,” and he beckoned to Peter, “men are making ‘boarded calf’ by beating and pounding it as you see, that they may get fine, soft stock. ”

“ Clothing for men and women was made from coarse wool, silk, and linen and was usually brown in color. Only the wealthy could afford to wear linen or silk. Men also wore leather clothing, such as neckpieces, breeches, ankle leathers, shoes, and boots. Boots were worn when fighting. They carried knives or axes under metal belts. They could carry items by tying leather pouches onto their belts with their drawstrings. They wore leather gloves for warmth and for heavy working with their hands. ”