Edging Iron. Seat Awl. Packing Awl. Sewing Awl. Double Crease. Single Crease. Nail Claw.
The seat awl and packing awl are used in the padding and making of saddles and collars; the nail claw for removing nails by which the leather has been fastened down.
The various kinds of creases are for the purpose of making channels in the leather along the edges which have to be sewn, so that the stitches are sunk below the surface, and the thread will not so easily wear out. The edging iron is for a similar purpose. In common saddlery some of the comparatively unimportant straps, or the smaller gear, are not sewn at the edges, and indeed do not require it, although a great deal of the Saddler’s sewing is for ornamental purposes. In order to make the whole look uniform, however, these straps are not left plain, but are creased at the edges, and the channels thus made are marked with the pricking iron, to give them the appearance of having been stitched. The Saddler is better off than the shoemaker, inasmuch as he generally sits to work at a bench, and need not occupy such a constrained and unhealthy position.
Some account has already been given of the preparation of leather, but it will be desirable here to mention other sorts, some of which particularly belong to the business of harness making.
Screw Crease. Varnish Pot. Sponge.
Sheep-skins, when simply tanned, are employed for inferior bookbinding, for leathering bellows, and for various other purposes for which a cheap leather is required. All the whit-leather, as it is termed, which is used for whip-lashes, bags, aprons, &c. is of sheep-skin; as are also the cheaper kinds of wash-leather, of which gloves, under-waistcoats, and other articles of dress, are made. Mock, or imitation morocco, and most of the other coloured and dyed leathers used for women’s and children’s shoes, carriage-linings, and the covering of stools, chairs, sofas, writing-tables, &c. are also made of sheep-skin.
Lamb-skins are mostly dressed white or coloured for gloves; and those of goats and kids supply the best qualities of light leather, the former being the material of the best morocco, while kid leather affords the finest material for gloves and ladies’ shoes. Leather from goat-skins, ornamented and sometimes gilt, was formerly used as a hanging or covering for walls.
