Making a leather mug. A tutorial

Well, it's more of a "how I did mine" than a tutorial, but I wanted to show the steps I took to make mine.


This is the fully stitched finished mug, wet formed to a nice round shape, before the beeswax is applied.





 
The parts and the tools I used . The base was moulded on a piece of soft wood. The leather piece next to the awl is inserted in the handle to thicken it. I am not using any glue. I am not using a stitch wheel either, the spacing is done by eye, about 5mm. The leather side looks curved but it is actually straight.




The first stitches. I use some coarse waxed hemp thread, two needles and saddle stitch.



                       

Stitching around the handle is done first. That's quite straightforward.


 


 



The stitched handle and the base.


Stitching the base. I inserted the base into the side then held then together between thumb and index. Each hole is punched individually with the awl, and then stitched. The start of the stitching around the base is a bit tricky, because this leather is a bit soft, but it becomes easier as you proceed around the base.


The base stitching done. I did not use a welt on the base of this mug.


The mug is not yet waxed. I'll post some pictures when I do it.

Mocotaugans, or crooked knives.

The Native People of North America seemed to have thought the Crooked Knife, or to use one of  their names for the tool, Mocotaugan, was, alongside an axe and a knife, an absolutely indispensable tool they could use to make everything they needed, from working on a birchbark canoe, to making snow shoes and all sorts of things.

I have to say I like the crooked knives myself, and have made quite a few over the past 2/3 years. For some reason, it does not seem to interest people involved in Bushcraft that much, which I found surprising considering how indispensable it was to people who relied on "bushcraft" skills and tools for their survival. Anyway, I consider if the crooked knives were good enough for them, it's definitely good enough for me.

I am not talking about the Scandinavian hook knife which is a different tool.

A few pictures of some Mocotaugans I have made:











The first one I made had a straight out blade. I didn't use it much because it didn't work that well for me.

The second had a swept back blade, better but not quite right yet.It is still a favourite, I like the antler handle, it's was just the right shape for my hand. The spoon was made entirely with it, although the curve is a bit flatter that it would need to be for hollowing the bowl of the spoon. Easily cured by making another crooked knife with a tighter curve!

It does take a little effort to get used to the hand position (palm up) but once you get the hang of it it's a really good tool. These all have 2mm thick blades and work well, but I think that for a all purpose work-horse, I would make the blade slightly thicker, 2.5 to 3mm at the base reducing the thickness at the tip.