Over the course of the last few years I have hand many enquiries about repairs to leather goods and accessories.
New BOA tightening mech on a cycling shoe
Many are straightforward – bag straps break, fittings need replacing, stitching comes apart, and occasionally leather does wear out and needs replacing.
Some repairs are not as straightforward, or are outside of my skill set.
The world of leather work is wide and varied. Leather can be tanned in a variety of ways, and each tanning method has it’s own properties, so is suited to different uses.
Having trained as a saddler my skills are mainly in using English bridle leather. This is vegetable tanned, and is firm and usually quite thick. It can be thinned down, but is usually 3.5-4mm thick. However it is beautiful to stitch by hand, and this is what I specialise in. I don’t tend to use rivets unless they are part of the design.
Re conditioned hat box
Common Repairs
Most common repair requests are:
- bag straps especially when they have been stitched across the strap
- buckle chaps split where the leather is turned around the buckle
- leather belts and straps delaminating
- broken fittings
- stitching wearing on older items
- older items may need conditioning
- leather worn or torn
- belts shortening
Occassional Requests
Cymbal case with damaged original strap and new replacement
Some of the more interesting items I have been asked to take on are:
- replacing the tightening mechanism of a cycling shoe
- conditioning and re-stitching a top hat box
- replacing straps on a picnic hamper
- re-stitching rolleiflex camera cases
- re-stitching WW1 binocular cases
- leather tabs on a building awning – with the awning in situ
- reconditioning the leather part of some bellows
- punching ball
- cymbal case straps
- classic car straps
- old english pram straps
- oxen yoke straps
Two repairs in one photo – Oxen yoke sitting on a chair in for new seating webbing
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