Talking about leather
Most of our products are made from quality tanned cowhide, or water buffalo or goatskin. At a minimum, we use split leather and only in exceptional cases chrome tanned leather.
Why do we use tanned leather? Tanning is a technology that is thousands of years old and is a more natural process than the massive chrome tanning done today. This is why tanned leather is suitable for products destined for reenactories. Tanning is more environmentally friendly, it can be additionally dyed and shaded, which is often not possible with chrome tanned leather.
The tanned leather naturally ages over time and acquires a patina. This leather can be well cared for and, with proper maintenance, will last much longer than chrome-tanned leather. Suitable care for leather can be found here.
Because it is a more difficult and lengthy tanning process, this leather is often twice as expensive in base material as chrome tanned leather.
And now that I mentioned additional dyeing, in our workshop we dye almost all the products ourselves. Due to many factors, we would like to point out that the colour shade may differ slightly from the presented photos. One of the main factors is the effect of the sun, which causes the colour to change over time. This is one of the natural characteristics of this leather.
Another attribute of the leather is its natural defects. The life of the animal from which this material comes is inscribed in the leather. We find stretch marks or healed scars, for example. If these "defects" are only cosmetic and would not affect the functionality of the product, we will use this part of the material. We believe that such a scar or stretch mark adds to the uniqueness and originality of the product.
Talking about craft:
Traditional handmade products are presented by many craftsmen today, but the big BUT comes when it comes to sewing. Many manufacturers no longer state whether they sew their products by machine or, as they say, by hand. Yet it is the sewing that makes all the difference. The vast majority of manufacturers sew their products by machine.
How is it in our workshop? Most of our products are sewn by hand and made using traditional methods. It's much more labour intensive and time consuming, but this is the principle our brand is based on.
So what do we sew in the hand? It is easier to write what we sew on the machine. At the moment, only modern belts and pipe stands. The rest of the products we sew by hand. So you will never buy a satchel, a flask, a canteen or other things sewn by machine from us.
What are the advantages of hand sewing? Firstly, a stronger and thicker thread, called wire, is used. Secondly, the stitch looks aesthetically better, avoiding possible sewing errors that sometimes happen with machines. The stitching lasts longer and is more durable. Thanks to the correct sewing technique, there is a knot in each stitch that prevents further unravelling if the wire is damaged. This is not the case with machine sewing.
Thirdly, it is a suitable production technology that can be applied to historical replicas for reenactories. Hand stitching is like a bonus to the original leather accessory.
And what are the disadvantages? Perhaps only that hand sewing is many times more time-consuming, which affects the final price, production size and delivery times.
