26/04/2025
World Leather Day - and Bellows . . . .
I haven't posted for a while and as Saturday 26th April is World Leather Day, which is to celebrate the beauty, sustainability and longevity of leather as a material, it seemed a good day to post an update on the Hoylandswaine Nail Forge Bellows, which many of you will have seen me working on in the shop for the forge's owners, the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society.
After I'd stripped in excess of 600 nails out of them at the Wortley Top Forge Christmas event to remove the old leather, they were brought to the shop for me to fit new leather to the three large, thick and rather heavy elm boards, so they can once again be used in the nail forge to demonstrate how nails were made - ie forged by hand, one at a time!
Whilst working on them I found the date from the original makers of 1880, so the original leather was over 140 years old, which definitely demonstrates the longevity of leather as a material, and in this case used in a hot and dry environment - not ideal for leather.
Hopefully with care and occasional oiling, the British panel hide I have fitted will still be there in another 140 plus years - and maybe for the next saddler to speculate on the people who have worked on and used them in years gone by.
Just a couple of the before and after pictures - and watch out for them in use when the nail forge is back in action.
