Every leather good is handmade using absolutely no machines. I’ve found that a lot of people don’t completely understand how “by hand” we do things , so I’m gonna describe it:
-You take the half of the buffalo and cut out with a knife, 3 main pieces. The of the bag, and both side panels. Then the little stuff like D-ring and belt holders and handles and such.
-After I cut out the primary 3 pieces, I punch out each stitch hole with a hole punch and a mallet. I punch every hole on the body and the side panels to line up perfectly.
-Then I gather the hardware like the buckles and the rivets and d-rings. I fasten the d-ring holders, belt buckle, and handles with the solid brass double cap rivets with a mallet.
-At this point, The Doctor Bag looks like what you saw in the picture under a work bench. So the next step is to make the divider insert that you see in the second picture. I make it slightly shorter than the height of the bag and I punch the same stitch holes to line up with the body and the side panels so my needles can slide through and everything will be straight and flat when I pull the stitching tight.
-The last step is to stitch the bag and stitch it TIGHT. My hands are usually left very raw after stitching one of these bags from pulling the heavy waxed thread as tight as I can after every single hole.
