A Butt Seam is a seam where the edges of the two pieces of leather meet and are tightly closed. . On the face of the leather in a butt seam, it looks like two parallel tracks near where the edges meet. Some guys will make flask covers or Jar and Mug covers with this kind of seam to get a tighter and neater seam. . Because the awl stabbing it is a curved one, the holes are stabbed into the face and out the edge of both pieces of leather used. Tightening the stitch pulls the edges right up against each other…yup…they butt. This keeps the stitches isolated from the inside of the project
Here's an unfinished sheath where I put the seam on the side of the sheath rather than on the edge of the blade to protect the sheath from the edge of a blade. It’ll get dyed brown. I left some red ink on the edges so as to see them. Red ink all but disappears with brown dye. I also wetted the flower side so the awl indentations and path would be visible. They will flatten when the seam is pounded.
The curved awl is necessary in stiff leather such as cowhide, not so much so in softer leathers such as Elk...as long as you get the hole in the face of the leather and out the edge.
My Master could match the curve of his awl with the thickness of the leather so as to be able to stab through both pieces of leather in one shot where the face holes on the leather were even every time. He used a block to rest his heel. With the ball of his foot in a strap to pin the work to his thigh he could adjust tension. He slipped a small shaped piece of wood under the work on his thigh to help the stab. One pass. Even every time. Hate him. A Spanish Cordwainer on YouTube heats the tips of his needles with a cigarette lighter to bend them….I suppose that helps on stiff leather or a box seam on a corner but is not necessary on something like Elk. Even with my own block and stirrup, when I did it the way my Master did I would always slip a stitch somewhere in the seam. Witness this sinful short starter sheath that never made it to my bag.
It’s use in footwear is chiefly where you don’t want the thread or edge of a turned seam rubbing against something inside such as the waist of the foot. It is also handy where you don’t want a seam anywhere near the ground. .
The best use of the butt seam I’ve ever worked is, of all things, a pair of center seam moccasins. Y’know that part of the seam that sits under your toes up front and always breaks after bothering your foot all season? The sometimes painful seam ridge under the toes goes away with this stitch. A First American Re-enactor also showed me a trick to eliminate that awful bulge on the top of the moccasin between the toes and the instep…the one that makes the poor fit where the vamp slides around when you’re wearing them in the field and you have this elvan point at the tip of your foot.
For Starters, get your grimies on this book;
Following these directions for the different types of First American Footwear will assist you greatly.
Here we will use this bad boy…The center seam woodland ( Oneida)
I marked the picture up a little. Zone One is the part of the moccasin that will come up from under your foot to the TIPS OF YOUR TOES. That’s where the butt seam will keep it more comfortable. Zone Two is the seam that will cover the front of your foot.
Whether or not you use my earlier posts about threads and waxes, you’ll need two needles here. I used artificial sinew here because it is very durable when footsies get wet out in the forest and the seam can’t be seen anyway..
All stitching is done with the MOC INSIDE OUT. Your turn it right side out when all is finished.
Look closely at the path the needles and thread pass through each set of holes. That’s all done in Zone One. YOU WANNA TAKE THAT SEAM TO THE MIDPOINT OF THE CURVE AROUND THE TOES. It has to be a tight seam, so work carefully.
Still working inside out on the moccasin close the butt tightly. Knot the thread with a simple square knot at the last stitch. Then begin passing both needles, in and out, through the same side of each hole on the top seam. That’s Zone Two.
The woman at Ticonderoga, so many years ago, showed me that you pull the top seam so as to make a pucker the entire length of the seam, then turn the work inside out..
Now, look closely at the seam on the outside sole of the moc after it has been turned. I left that gap in there to show how the threads never hit the ground. It gets eliminated when you turn the moccasin inside out… if you pulled each stitch tight.
I don’t even know why that top seam eliminates the bulge at the top of the foot.
These bad boys have been with me everytime I went into the woods up at Lake George, from Dieskau’s Path to Rogers battle sites to the tacticals along that great trail up the east side of the lake. Some fading, but Same thread, same seams.
Tight Stitches
Capgun
