RomanArmyTalk

Hey guys,

just wondering what your opinions of my loculus are.. its a first attempt, i'm planning to do another this week, with neater stitching, was quite impressed by how much cheaper it was to make my own!

Nice work!

nice work, just fix the thong so you dont loose it.
salve

I second the "good job" encouragement. Sure is a lot of stitching, isn't it?

Thanks alot guys!! i plan on starting another next week, but actually mark the space between stitches so its nice and even between stitchs hehe.

David, yes there are heaps of bloody stitches!! and i counted 3 cuts and 2 stabbings on my hand with my awl in the construction of this bag! haha, the two stabbings were in the same part of my thumb, which thankfully has now healed over just nicely but it was a pain!! while awling is easy, its not a good idea to watch telly and do that at the same time, as your not paying attention, and skin is softer than leather!! :S

If you get a marking wheel, it will put regularly spaced marks along the line you want to sew. You can get them in a variety of sizes for Le Prevo.
Also get a hand/palm guard. Then you can poke the holes with better certainty with the awl.

Quote:If you get a marking wheel, it will put regularly spaced marks along the line you want to sew. You can get them in a variety of sizes for Le Prevo.
Also get a hand/palm guard. Then you can poke the holes with better certainty with the awl.

by "better certainty" i'm still going to hit my hand but not make myself bleed! is what you mean! thanks for the advice tho!!

Byron, Just added that to my "HUGE" Le Prevo order... I got £500 back from SAAS (student loan folk) since i'd over paid them (alot!) so i spent £230 on Le Prevo! haha, oops! but anyway... £5 for the marking wheel, i'm thinking 5 stitches to the inch is enough?l!

You can get different sizes, and then also decide if you need to stitch every mark, or skip to have different size stiches.
A useful device.

I never bought a marking wheel, my friend Dai taught me to use a normal (cutlery) fork, pricking very gently, the leather in nice straight lines of 5 or 6. Cheap and simple!

Quote:I never bought a marking wheel, my friend Dai taught me to use a normal (cutlery) fork, pricking very gently, the leather in nice straight lines of 5 or 6. Cheap and simple!

your friend is a genius...

That is all

re marking stitches with a wheel, fork, trident ;-) ) or anything else - I think you needn't do that. Stitch marks on originals show that the Romans didn't either. Actually IMHO overly regular (as well as rectangular) work just doesn't have the right feel anymore for me. As you gain experience your free hand stitching will become more and more even anyway.

The big temptation is to make the stitches longer, increasingly, so as to "get this thing finished". At least that's the idea of many folks, sometimes (sadly) myself included. Stitching isn't really fun, and stitching leather requires pretty close attention, else the fingers, thumbs, or other parts get pierced with those wicked little needles. Just about every project I've made, from shoes to bags, has a spot of blood somewhere on it. I guess I lack patience for the tiny details, and that's an issue I have to overcome.

I use a modified lacing punch (modified by making the tines narrower with a file--necessarily making the stiches a little longer) most of the time. That way, I can use a blunt needle. I admit that usually means I use leather glue to hold the holes together. In the end, it doesn't show, but it's still there between the layers.

Quote:re marking stitches with a wheel, fork, trident ;-) ) or anything else - I think you needn't do that. Stitch marks on originals show that the Romans didn't either. Actually IMHO overly regular (as well as rectangular) work just doesn't have the right feel anymore for me. As you gain experience your free hand stitching will become more and more even anyway.

I think I used mine once.... :lol:

I have never bothered with any method of measuring or marking my stitches. I just make a line of holes through the leather with my awl (normally eight at a time) which is more or less straight and with the holes more or less evenly spaced, and then stitch through these. Having done this I then make another eight holes and so on.

Here is my impedimenta (well, most of it anyway). I made the loculus a number of years ago. If I was doing it now I would probably secure it with leather thonging which passed through a pair of holes in the flap, rather than the ring and button. I should probably note here too that I made mine from cow rather than goat leather.


Here is a detail, where you can see my stitching a bit better.


Crispvs