Lost Art Press

Hand Stitching for Your Next Campaign

Posted on by Lost Art Press

We were supposed to have finished this three-legged campaign stool more than a week ago. Then our kids got sick, and “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” raised its perfectly ferocious head.

So today, Ty Black and I started tying up the loose ends. He started hand-stitching the seat for the stool – instead of doing it by machine. Because that is a cool thing, I shot a short video of the process that should convince you that it’s pretty darn easy to do.

stool_legs_IMG_4902Me? I chucked the legs back in the lathe and turned a dome shape on their ends so that the legs wouldn’t rip the “sex machine” leather. Plus I added a couple more coats of wax while the legs were on the lathe. I then stripped the zinc off the steel hardware (see a video on this process here) and aged the brass bits that tie the whole stool together and allow the legs to rotate and splay without giving you an amateur enema.

Anyway, we should have photos up tomorrow of the finished stool. The prototype sits quite nicely.

— Christopher Schwarz

15 thoughts on “Hand Stitching for Your Next Campaign”

  1. We used to have one of these around the house when I was a kid—my step-mom’s dad had run a tannery, so we had a bunch of weird cow-hide items. I remember that the seat of the stool was emblazoned with a steer’s head, and I would ride it around the living room. Oh, and it was incredibly comfortable to sit on. I can still recall how it perfectly molded to my nether regions, even as I got older and bigger. Nice work, Ty.

  3. this has nothing to do with the post although, I have always wanted to build a nice version of the crappy 3 legged fold out stools at the flea market which is pretty much what you’ve done, stealing my ideas again I see, but any ways I noticed your reading World War Z, is that any good ? I think they’re making it into a movie that’s coming out soon but I could be wrong, anyway glad to know your a zombie fan I have a 64th of an inch more respect for you now and I barley even go up to 32nds, nah I’m just pullin’ your chain

    1. “the walking dead” seems loosely based on it. I find that when reading a book of fiction, my imagination spins a tale that movies can never compare.(stephan jackson comes awfully close, though)

      1. TWD is actually based off a comic book named….TWD. The comic is still being written, and I think they’re up around 100 issues or so.

  5. This sounds almost exactly like the basic process described in a book called The Art Of Hand Sewing Leather by Al Stolhman. I really liked the video. It was nice to see steps being demonstrated so I have some reference to what I had previously read, but not yet attempted myself.

    1. That’s the book I read. I cant even imagine a better book on hand stitching short of a Harry Potter style book where the pictures move.

  7. Hey Ty,
    Nice work. But I gotta ask, do you ever get in heated arguments with people about sewing with hand tools vs. sewing with a machine? (Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk)

    Also, unrelated, how did the desk you were building for your wife turn out?

  8. Nice little video. looks like I need to make a stitching clam. How thick of a stack of leather can you do with the awl? I frequently use the drill press when sewing knife sheaths with a heavy welt.

  9. Great video! The tips and techniques for hand-stitching leather will help me when I stitch the leather on the masts and spars for my boat. The plan calls for leather on the masts where they meet the mast-partners, and the spars call for leather where they rub against the masts. I already have leather sewn around my oars where they meet the oarlocks. These have a special technical name when applied to oars, interestingly enough they are called “leathers”.

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