Vegetable-tanned · saddle-stitched · finished by hand

Work orders

Cutting lists, hardware counts and bench sequence for every order in the queue — filters below narrow by category and difficulty.

Category
Difficulty

  • 2026-10-14 · Bags & Pouches

    A Boxed Dopp Kit: Five Panels, Four Corners, Two Hands

    A dopp kit is the first order where you build a three-dimensional object rather than a folded one. That means the corners — four of them on the base and four where the end walls meet the sides. Get the corner stitch sequence wrong and the bag will not sit flat; get it right and the whole thing stands up on its own. Fourteen hours, five panels, and roughly 1,400 stitches.

    Bench hours
    14 h
    Stitch pitch
    3.85 mm
    Thickness
    4/5 oz body (1.6–2.0 mm), 2.5/3 oz lining (1.0 mm)
    Level
    Bench lead

  • 2026-10-09 · Cases & Covers

    Wet-Moulded Axe Sheath With a Stitched Welt

    The one rule of an axe sheath is that the blade must never touch the stitch line. That is what the welt is for: a strip of 8/9 oz leather sandwiched between the panels, so the cutting edge sits against leather that is not holding the seam together. Nine hours, three panels, and a moulding step you cannot rush.

    Bench hours
    9 h
    Stitch pitch
    4 mm
    Thickness
    8/9 oz (3.2–3.6 mm)
    Level
    Bench lead

  • 2026-10-03 · Belts & Straps

    A Padded Dog Collar Built From Two Layers

    A collar takes more load than any belt on this bench. A 30 kg dog lunging at the end of a lead puts a shock load through the collar that is several times its own weight, and it does it hundreds of times a week. The answer is not thicker leather — it is two layers bonded and stitched so the load never falls on a single rivet. Six hours for a 30 to 46 cm neck.

    Bench hours
    6 h
    Stitch pitch
    4 mm
    Thickness
    8/9 oz body (3.2–3.6 mm), 3/4 oz lining (1.2 mm)
    Level
    Working bench

  • 2026-09-26 · Cases & Covers

    Passport Cover With Two Card Wings and a Ticket Flap

    A passport is 125 × 88 mm when closed and 125 × 176 mm when open, which is exactly why most covers are made too tight. Cut the cover panel 200 × 140 mm, fold it at 95 mm and 105 mm, and you get a spine that clears the stitched booklet by 4 mm on both sides. Five hours, 0.06 m², three pieces.

    Bench hours
    5 h
    Stitch pitch
    3.38 mm
    Thickness
    3/4 oz (1.2–1.4 mm)
    Level
    Working bench

  • 2026-09-24 · Workshop Gear

    A Chisel Roll: Fifteen Pockets, 420 mm Wide

    Pricking irons are the most expensive tools most people own and the ones most often stored loose in a drawer. This roll holds fifteen chisels in individual pockets sized by tine count, rolls from the right so the flap covers the tips, and closes with a 480 mm tie strap. Seven hours, 0.14 m² of 6/7 oz shoulder, and about 6 m of stitching.

    Bench hours
    7 h
    Stitch pitch
    4 mm
    Thickness
    6/7 oz (2.4–2.8 mm)
    Level
    Working bench

  • 2026-09-18 · Belts & Straps

    A Hand-Stitched Watch Strap at 3.0 mm Pitch

    A watch strap is the smallest object on this bench and the least forgiving. Twenty millimetres of width, a 1.4 mm thick skin, and two spring bars that will be pulled on every time the watch is put on. Cut it at 4 mm pitch and the strap looks like a belt for a hamster; leave the tail at full thickness and it stands up off the wrist like a spade handle. Six hours, 0.02 m² of hide.

    Bench hours
    6 h
    Stitch pitch
    3 mm
    Thickness
    3.5/4 oz (1.4–1.6 mm)
    Level
    Working bench

  • 2026-09-12 · Wallets & Cardholders

    Vertical Bifold: Eight Folds and Why Each One Gets Skived

    This is the first order on the ladder where the arithmetic gets serious. A vertical bifold has eight folds, six pocket mouths and four layers of leather at the spine, and if you do not skive every one of those folds the wallet closes like a wedge and never sits flat. Nine hours, about 0.09 m² of 1.2 mm veg-tan, and roughly 900 stitches at 3.38 mm.

    Bench hours
    9 h
    Stitch pitch
    3.38 mm
    Thickness
    3/4 oz (1.2–1.4 mm)
    Level
    Working bench

  • 2026-09-06 · Small Goods

    A Snap Key Fob in Three Hours From One Offcut

    This is the order I hand out when someone has three hours and wants to finish something. One 135 × 25 mm strip of 5/6 oz, one line snap, one key ring. It teaches snap setting, which is the single most common failure point in small leather goods — a badly set snap tears out of the leather within a month and there is no way to repair it without cutting the piece open.

    Bench hours
    3 h
    Stitch pitch
    4 mm
    Thickness
    5/6 oz (2.0–2.4 mm)
    Level
    Starter bench

  • 2026-08-31 · Wallets & Cardholders

    Two-Pocket Card Wallet: 105 × 75 mm and Three Millimetres of Slip

    A card wallet fails in one of two ways. Either the pockets are cut exactly the width of a credit card and nothing goes in after the first month, or they are cut loose and the cards fan out when you open it. The fix is arithmetic: cut the pocket 3 mm wider than the card, mount it 4 mm above the fold line, and let the outer shell be 2 mm wider again on each side. This order is five hours, one piece of 1.2 mm veg-tan, and 240 stitches.

    Bench hours
    5 h
    Stitch pitch
    3.85 mm
    Thickness
    3/4 oz (1.2–1.6 mm)
    Level
    Starter bench

  • 2026-08-28 · Belts & Straps

    A 38 mm Single-Prong Belt That Starts as a Straight Blank

    The plain belt is the cheapest way to learn the three skills every later order depends on: cutting a strap dead straight, holding a constant distance from the edge, and setting hardware without splitting the hide. This is the order I put in front of a new bench hand — a 1180 mm blank, five holes at 25 mm centres, one buckle fold, four rivets. Four hours and roughly 0.11 m² of 8/9 oz shoulder.

    Bench hours
    4 h
    Stitch pitch
    4 mm
    Thickness
    8/9 oz (3.2–3.6 mm)
    Level
    Starter bench