Leather Edge Guards - a Blast from the Past.

I love my growing array of nice axes and hatchets. Used for hewing, waste removal and other green woodworking tasks, like all edge tools they need to be very sharp. Edge protection both protects those edges and protects the people handling them. What better way to protect these sharp edges then by making leather edge guards?

Hatchet edge nicely protected by the removable leather guard.

This warms the cockles of my sentimental heart. You see, back in the late 70's and early 80's I was a youthworker and a leatherworker. At that time I was making belts, bags, sandals, hats, book covers, and many other items. Lots of this stuff was tooled to create decorative patterns, etc. I was also teaching leatherwork.

That's a much younger me doing leatherwork back in 1977.

In the late 80's I started making leather campaign chairs, and did this into the 90's.

Throughout the 90's I made leather seat and back components totaling over 900 chairs for another furniture maker! Each chair required a big double shoulder of leather. That's a lot of cows! While I always felt it was an awful design and problematic as a chair, I made them all because but it was work, I had the skills, and it helped pay the bills.

So as you can see, I have done a fair bit of messing with leather in my time...

Fortunately, one of my kids intervened when I was selling off stuff at a garage sale in late 1999 when we were about to move from the country to the city. Thanks to him I still have all that early gear...

A box of leather scraps - bought for $3 at a garage sale!

While I have the gear still, I don't have much leather in stock, as I haven't used any for over a decade. I was pleased to find a box of leather at a garage sale recently. Some of it was rotten, some too thick, but some just right to make a few edge guards for both azes/hatchets and drawknives.

Razor sharp and well protected.

It was fun to refresh my skills. These guards may be rough, but they will do the job well. I have plenty more to do!

It's nice to be playing with leather again...