My old Roberts bag seems to be now at it’s end, new bag is needed.
I think that it could be made by myself, so good advice/hints needed for the job.
I just recently finished making a bag and I found the links below quite useful…
http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/~bdaye/makepipe/pc_up_parts.html
http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/~bdaye/makepipe/bagmake.html
http://www3.telus.net/ereiswig/ssp_make.htm
http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/pipebag.htm
http://www.millennia.demon.co.uk/ravens/saddlestitch.htm
For the leather I used what was called “light chap leather.” I believe it was about 4 oz in weight and it is somewhat stiff. I used the “welt seam” type of bag… except I saddle stitched through the welt. If I had to do it over again, I would have used a thicker thread and a slimmer needle… you want the thread to be considerably larger than the hole left by the needle to prevent leaks.
I made the bag finished side on the inside of the bag (suede side out). After cutting the pattern (remember to make it about an inch larger all the way around) I had to rough up the leather to glue it. I used 180 grit sandpaper. I should have used a larger grit. The leather store i bought the leather from also suggested that a fine wire brush would work as well. I used contact cement to glue the sides together.
I also used contact cement to glue the welt overtop of the seam… you will go crazy trying to hold the welt in place while stitching otherwise.
The only (somewhat) unusual tool I needed was a stitching awl to make small holes in the seam (to guide the needle). You may want to wear some sort of glove when stitching… I wore two large blisters on my right index finger that are just now healing up (3 weeks later).
I tied my stocks in using zip ties.
If you have any other questions, please ask!
Peace!
Reepicheep
Hei Mikko!
There is one company in Finland selling very nice moose/elk leather. Wasn’t expensive at all. Elk/moose leather should be air-tight by nature ?!?
I will see if I can dig our their address. Otherwise you might know the Finnish words to google for. They send me samples.
Hejdå from the other side,
Thies
I use jean rivets for my bags. They are a little pricey, but I trust them a lot more than my sewing abilities. They’ve held up well over a year on my first bag for mouthblown small pipes. 'Still airtight after being played almost every day for a year.
I made the mistake of trying deer leather for one bag. Thank God I didn’t waste the rivets before trying to inflate it a bit. Deer leather seems to be porous all the way through. It’s elk or cow hide from now on.
Marc
It’s not that hard to do, about an afternoon’s work for a stitched bag. You can save yourself a lot of hassle by making up your own wax ends from hemp thread, they look a lot nicer and are a lot cheaper than bought ones and I feel that they work better, I can give details if you need them. I have mixed feelings about gluing, whilst it can stabilise things when you are stitching it is a messy process and gluing on the binding strip can be really awkward; I think that it is easier to simply stitch it. The gloves are a good idea, the blisters get me on the right hand little finger!
Cheers
Charlie.