First Hunting Pouch

[Dwshotwell]

Here’s my first attempt at a hunting pouch. First leather work ever, actually. It’s a simplified version of the basic pouch in T.C. Albert’s “Recreating the 18th Century Hunting Pouch.” I know Mr. Albert is a contributor here, so thank you for great instructions. I made a few mistakes and learned a lot on the way, and there’ll be a few more of these in my future for sure.

[Mike from OK]

Well done!

Mike

[alyce-james]

Dwshotwell. Good morning Sir. Very nice work, first attempt wow. look forward to see some of your future work. Have a great week end. Thanks for sharing. AJ.

[T.C.Albert]

It looks great to me. Good job!
TC Albert

[Marcruger]

Looking good David.  My first one didn't look that nice. 

It appears that you sewed the strap in with the same line of stitching as the top of your bag?  Old hands shared with me early on to not stitch perpendicular across a strap.  It makes a "tear off" perforation for your strap to fail. 

I think it was either TC or James that said many old bags are found with a "tear off" failure of the strap.  Old saddle and harness makers were not stupid.  They knew what worked and didn't.  Therefore, the guess was that the stitching perpendicular to the strap was intentional, so it would fail and the customer would have to come back for a new strap.  More business.  This again was just a supposition, but it makes sense. 

Sewing lengthwise should make for a strap that lasts longer. 

Yes, I sewed across my first strap.  Ooops.

I hope this helps.   Now that you have made one bag, you have to make more.   :-)   Like potato chips. 

God Bless,   Marc

[T.C.Albert]

No disrespect intended, but that's not necessarily an "oops" in my opinion, but rather it may be intentionally built in good design from days gone by. I believe in the old days the sewing across the top of the strap was done on purpose for sure, but not to get extra return business, I honestly never heard that one before and it didn't start with me.  Over time it seems most straps will fail where sewn to the pouch from rot and wear no matter how they are sewn on. A repair to a strap sewn across the top is easy and can be done in a few minutes with no damage to the pouch. If a perpendicularly sewn strap fails it seems like it often tears the back of the bag too, making repairs very difficult at best. At least this is what I  have observed when restoring old bags, and even mending a few new ones.

Now many of us today may not use our bags enough to observe this, but some still do and as mentioned I have repaired some of those bags for them when the strap fails. This work is actually some of what caused me to start thinking along these lines to begin with. To me its kind of like engineering in a shear pin on machinery gears or pulleys so you don't destroy everything if there's a failure. It seemed funny that I may be ignoring original designs and what it may be telling me on leather work like this but I'd strive to copy every minute detail on other artifacts. For myself, I'm afraid I could really miss understanding something important with generalities like saying sewing across the top just isn't  a good way to do it. That would never help me to understand why they did.

It kind of reminds me of the guys that not too long ago said you should never pin or glue in a powder horn end plug because it makes a grenade. Anyway, these are just my own observations and ideas on strap attachment and why some of the old time makers did what they did. Not all of them sewed across the top by any means and some attachments were quite creative, so of course in the end, to each their own. And most importantly, again, I mean no offense or disrespect to anyone's opinions on this topic, and thanks for indulging my ramblings. 

TC

[James Rogers]

In my observance of 19th century professionally made shot bags of American provenance, I have found a large number have the straps sewn as mentioned above. What you will usually not find in those same professional pieces are ring and buckle turns sewn across like that. I would turn the inquisitive to extant saddlebags of the same period for construction comparison. 
I believe it was TC Albert who in the past first pointed out this feature on old bags as a possible means of speedy repair.  If I ever made the comment concerning return business for the maker to sell another strap it would have been intended as tongue and cheek. It IS historical fact though that the harness maker and saddler spent a large part of their business doing repairs just due to the nature and regular, hard use of their products. As professionals, having construction features to allow easier repair to a part that WILL fail at some point is just good business.  If I ever did make comment concerning repair work and return business, it would have been in this context.
I do believe the feature is a fail point and TC's comparison to a shear pin is a good one. It can certainly allow an easier repair. I have made bags this way to be true in a reproduction of an original and have made many without this feature.  In the period, as previously stated, equipment repair in harness and saddle shops was commonplace and expected. The same is true today with equine related items not intended to be tossed when worn and a new one purchased.  The current temperature of customer opinion to craftsmanship these days (as it relates to hunting bags and hobby items) does not lean to that mindset IMO.

[Marcruger]

My sincere apologies to James and TC for misreading and misunderstanding past discussions.  I was trying to be helpful. 

I think I will continue to sew my straps on the reverse, as I am not planning for my modern bags to get the pounding, rot and mistreatment the old bags got.  I think the straps I make are unlikely to need an easier replacement versus the old days.  Many of my bags have a stiffener/bag anchor panel inside the top back to prevent the bag tearing there.

I agree it is plausible that easy replacement was the reason for stitching the straps on crosswise at the top. 

Again, my apologies for leading the conversation astray.  I definitely bow to TC's and James' vast knowledge of bags new and old. 

Best wishes, and God Bless,   Marc

[Dwshotwell]

This has been a very interesting discussion. I'm new to all this stuff and have only seen pictures.

My GOAL now is to use my pouch enough to truly test the straps!

I appreciate the kind words.

DS

[T.C.Albert]

Thanks for the dialog James. Your thoughts and experience are most appreciated. Marc, no need to apologize, your work speaks for itself and the exchange of ideas and knowledge is what the ALR is all about.

I’ve long felt that many of the more professionally made bags had straps attached with stitches across the top just because of a “that’s the way its done “ old school mentality, even if the maker never much thought about it. Capturing the strap between the flap and back panel when the strap is sewn on means there are no sewing holes at all in the back of the bag. Great, but then the flap is a bugger to open, especially when an extra layer of leather is applied to include decorative piercings or otherwise unnecessary stitching holes! Truthfully I don’t get it but only know that’s what they often did. I am still trying to reason and experiment it out as I learn more but so far I know way less than I would like to.
Thanks again for indulging my opinions.
TC

[Marcruger]

Amen TC.  I cannot disagree with anything you stated below. 

I will say that my LEAST favorite part about bag making is sewing on the strap to the bag back, with half of the saddle stitching going in from the inside.  Egads.  What an annoyance.  I have found tricks to help, like dropping an LED flashlight inside for light, and using magnifying reading glasses.  All of that said, maybe the ancient makers hated it too.....even more than me.   ;-)   LOL.   

"I’ve long felt that many of the more professionally made bags had straps attached with stitches across the top just because of a “that’s the way its done “ old school mentality, even if the maker never much thought about it. Capturing the strap between the flap and back panel when the strap is sewn on means there are no sewing holes at all in the back of the bag. Great, but then the flap is a bugger to open, especially when an extra layer of leather is applied to include decorative piercings or otherwise unnecessary stitching holes! Truthfully I don’t get it but only know that’s what they often did. I am still trying to reason and experiment it out as I learn more but so far I know way less than I would like to.
Thanks again for indulging my opinions."

[thecapgunkid]

Make some more.  You will find that with every project your solid talents and skill base will grow.