Leathers gloves and exotics here I come

[Nubs]

Hello everyone, couldn't hold back my excitement! I have been following leather working for about 2 years and recently jumped on board. I love the smell/feel of leather and I love watching others make items out of leather.

 

1. After school my focus is going to be custom gloves, basically those hand stitched gentlemen/ladies ones that were more popular years ago. In my spare time I would like to pursue other exotic leather small goods.

 

My inspirations are: Hestra, Dents, Chester Jefferies, Hungant, Fratelli Orsini, Fort Belvedere, as well as Canadian locals like Hides in hand, Raber gloves, and Shawcross bros (sorry can't list them all). My intention is not to make rip-offs but to learn the craft by using videos and reverse engineering.

 

I have been experimenting with leather samples from companies (Londsdale, Buckskin, Chester Jefferies) to find the leather, thread type, and glove linings I like.

-My top leathers being peccary, deerskin, carpincho and lamb with all being 0.5-1.2mm thick. Sourcing CITES hides from South America may prove a challenge.

-My threads of choice being linen and nylon (undecided size).

-My choice for glove liners being cashmere and alpaca with experimentation of others down the line.

2. How I got interested in all this

Motorcycle gloves and my first briefcase introduced me to leather. Going against my parents wishes, paying for crazy high insurance costs for riding a sport, and becoming consumed with brands like Dainese, Held, Alpinestars, Joe Rocket. Klim, and Icon. I don't know if it's precisely the day I tried on a custom leather track suit, found my favorite pair of racing boots/gloves or just simply discovered the versatility of leather that grabbed my attention. Lastly I recently got a briefcase from an auction at a steal of a price. The briefcase was brand new and made from veg-tan from Italy.

 

My first gloves from a German company called Held. These are Phantom 2 gloves (Cowhide, Kangaroo, Stingray, titanium, kevlar)

 

and my leather briefcase from Piquadro Italy.

 

 I hope to record my process or at least the finished products on here so I may discover other glove makers. No dreams of profiting from my work for a while just having fun with family and friends.

 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Nubs

[toxo]

Personally I've never got hung up on brand names but you seem to have a burning passion going on and that's rare so go to it. I wish you all the luck in the world.

[Nubs]

55 minutes ago, toxo said:

Personally I've never got hung up on brand names but you seem to have a burning passion going on and that's rare so go to it. I wish you all the luck in the world.

I agree, brands are just names. What I am interested in are the legacies and master craftsmen many of those places carry.

[AlexMayer]

It will be a long and difficult path. but very exiting if you manage to do everything. 

if you decided not to go from simple to difficult and start right from "hardcore mode" I hope this will help to start with:

How_To_Make_Gloves_by_Eunice_Close_1950.pdf

https://yadi.sk/i/F_rFHL8tQvyDSA

[zuludog]

You're aiming high, so best wishes with that

If you're keen on good quality items and brand names you've probably heard of Fil au Chinois linen thread and Ritza Tiger thread for synthetic. I've used both of those, but recently I've discovered Yue Fung thread, both linen and synthetic. I think their linen thread is especially good, as good, if not better, than Fil au Chinois

Search Google to find a supplier; or it is sold by Rocky Mountain Leather Supply, but re branded as their 'Twist' thread

A typical size for sewing leather is about 0,5 to 0,6mm diameter; or 532 in the French system, but try a small amount first as you may decide to go thinner

Hmmmm..........  I've just re read your post. You've done a lot of preparation and homework, but have you actually made anything yet? I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but I think you'll find that making gloves is tricky, to put it mildly

Search YouTube for 'making leather gloves'. There are several videos

Edited October 24, 2019 by zuludog

[chrisash]

Remember that skill takes a long time to master, the makers of top quality gloves are experts in choosing the right leather for the job and have had years and years of growing their skills by starting at the bottom of a makers and progressing upwards learning each part of the process before moving up

Remember names do not always mean quality even though its implied from history of the firm, and in the UK many glovers companies  have gone out of business I assume by competition from the third world

[zuludog]

Hmmmm.... again

You say "after school"; which makes me think that you are a teenager Although you say you've been following leatherwork for 2 years you also state that you've only recently 'jumped on board', by which I assume to mean that you have just started; which in turn makes me wonder how much experience you have with leatherwork

I've never made gloves, but I have made overmitts from Goretex, and waxed canvas, and they were fiddly enough, and I was only making them for hiking. I can only imagine that making gloves to the standard that you're planning would be quite difficult. Plus some of the materials you've mentioned are rather expensive - if you're not careful you could end up making some very expensive mistakes

So my suggestion is that you start off with something that is cheaper and easier. I don't mean absolutely dirt cheap rubbish, just something more reasonable and attainable than the top end stuff you've mentioned

Materials - instead of the expensive and exotic, start with something like thin cow leather; calf; pigskin; goat; deerskin. And instead of cashmere or alpaca try microfleece, brushed nylon, and jersey nylon. Don't be afraid of suppliers! Tell them what you want to do. They know their products, and will advise you accordingly

You say you'd like to make small leather goods as well. Wallets/card holders/billfolds are simpler, but can still look impressive. You could hand out simple cardholders to friends & acquaintances to show what you can do. Nigel Armitage has a good video entitled 'how to make a simple hand stitched wallet' or some similar title; though there are others

[Nubs]

On 10/24/2019 at 2:38 AM, AlexMayer said:

It will be a long and difficult path. but very exiting if you manage to do everything. 

if you decided not to go from simple to difficult and start right from "hardcore mode" I hope this will help to start with:

How_To_Make_Gloves_by_Eunice_Close_1950.pdf

https://yadi.sk/i/F_rFHL8tQvyDSA

Thanks for the help. I love good reads.

 

On 10/24/2019 at 5:00 AM, chrisash said:

Remember that skill takes a long time to master, the makers of top quality gloves are experts in choosing the right leather for the job and have had years and years of growing their skills by starting at the bottom of a makers and progressing upwards learning each part of the process before moving up

Remember names do not always mean quality even though its implied from history of the firm, and in the UK many glovers companies  have gone out of business I assume by competition from the third world

Yup I purchased a few gloves from China and besides a few bad stitches, thinner material and questionable qc they come out pretty decent for a fraction of the price of big brands. I mostly want to do this for an ultimate challenge. I don't know of many people pursuing this (if any) in my area so it's exciting to do something different. By no means do I think this will be a walk in the park. Sadly many companies have gone out of business, a good example of the changing times would be Gloversville, New York.

[Nubs]

On 10/24/2019 at 7:02 AM, zuludog said:

So my suggestion is that you start off with something that is cheaper and easier. I don't mean absolutely dirt cheap rubbish, just something more reasonable and attainable than the top end stuff you've mentioned

Materials - instead of the expensive and exotic, start with something like thin cow leather; calf; pigskin; goat; deerskin. And instead of cashmere or alpaca try microfleece, brushed nylon, and jersey nylon. Don't be afraid of suppliers! Tell them what you want to do. They know their products, and will advise you accordingly

You say you'd like to make small leather goods as well. Wallets/card holders/billfolds are simpler, but can still look impressive. You could hand out simple cardholders to friends & acquaintances to show what you can do. Nigel Armitage has a good video entitled 'how to make a simple hand stitched wallet' or some similar title; though there are others

Sorry forgot to mention I am a University student albeit still with limited leather working experience. I enjoy jumping into stuff head first though not under the illusion the task will be easy. The last few years have flown by and I have pursued quite literally nothing until inspiration for this struck me hard. Deerskin is quite honestly my favorite (must be a proud northerner)and it's cheap here. Very good advice on wallet making, fun yet the final product is durable and can have a personal touch.

I think I have watched the entire libraries of Weaver leather, Tandy leather, Stock & Barrel, Little King Goods, Corter Leather, and cosplayers making gloves among others. No such thing as too much knowledge but I am at the point where I just need to practice, I will check out Nigel though. I will start with cheaper materials and I expect lots of errors as I learn. Everyone around me is becoming addicted to vaping and video games so I figured I could spend my money elsewhere.

I will have to check out Yue Fung it seems like quality thread and Fil au Chinois is just gold. I recently got these samples from a company called Maine Thread and will be purchasing some later (not for my gloves). I am also grabbing some threads from China just to play around with (flat, round, colors, sizing, length). 

 

 

 

The only thing that keeps me awake at night is how glove makers source their lining.They probably get wholesale prices for the cashmere/wool blend knit from China and the UK but nobody wants to give their secrets. Oh well... haha

[zuludog]

Best of luck with your progress!

If you want to watch some more videos, those by Ian Atkinson and Nigel Armitage are good. I don't think they have any on gloves, but they are excellent examples of neatness and precise working; and, of course, the same skills can be used on a variety of items

If you're really keen you could subscribe to Nigel's Vimeo channel, where he goes into more detail