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| Manufacturing Information -Your assurance of quality. |
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| You can be sure that 'Scratch Made' Products are the best you can get. |
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| Only the finest quality full grain English leather and solid cast metal fittings are used - every item is thoughtfully designed and entirely hand made, using traditional techniques and hand tools. Every stitch is hand stitched, with the craftsmanship and attention to detail that only an apprentice served leatherworker can provide. There are no short cuts to perfection! |
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| All our leather comes from quality English tanneries, which use centuries-old methods to produce the very best leather, with a unique character and beauty and a high tensile strength. This fine leather is comfortable, breathable and non-allergenic and contains no harmful chemicals. (All important qualities in a product which will be in regular contact with your dogs skin) |
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| The tanning process - (the proper way - there are lots of chemical short cuts, all of which result in a weaker, less reliable leather) |
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| Raw hides are treated with lime (to loosen the hairs) and soaked in a weak tanning solution for 2-3 months, while being regularly turned and moved to allow even coverage. Having passed through these 'handler' pits, the leather is then layered flat in a deep pit of stronger tanning solution (made of vegetable, plant and tree bark Liquor - bit of a secret combo - each tannery has it's own recipe) They spend about 9 months in these pits, allowing the weave of natural fibres, which cross each other in every direction, to be slowly penetrated by the tanning liquor. It is this natural weave of fibres that gives leather it's strength, and it is vital that the weave is kept intact, and thoroughly preserved. |
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| After tanning, each hide is carefully and individually dressed by hand, using a traditional mix of oils and mutton tallow, which not only nourish the leather, making it more supple but also improve the water resistance and long lasting qualities of the final product. |
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| How it's made - A hide arrives from the tannery - One side is straightened then cut into strips, using a traditional hand tool called a plough gauge, which simultaneously rolls the leather along with a width gauge, whilst accurately cutting with a very sharp, vertical blade. These strips are then measured, marked out and cut to length, and all the sharp edges are carefully removed. The raw cut edges are stained with a natural vegetable based dye and polished with a linen cloth, sealing them and making them smooth. A 'creasing iron' heated over a flame is then used to score a line down each edge of the strap. The buckle tongue hole (crew hole) is punched with a hand held oblong punch and mallet, the stitches are marked, again with a hand held tool and mallet, and the 'returns' (bits that fold back on themselves) are chamfered down to a slope (skived) using a saddlers round knife, so there are no hard, stepped edges. |
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| Each item is then individually hand stitched, using the traditional saddlers 'double hand' method, where two needles are used, on either end of the thread, and a half knot is actually tied in the centre of every stitch, making it infinitely stronger and more reliable than anything stitched by machine. Our only concession to modern production methods, is the use of an extremely strong, braided and bonded polyester thread, which will never rot - the linen thread traditionally used by saddlers was the only 'weak link' in a traditional leather goods, as it would break down and weaken over 5-10 years. Modern polyester thread will last indefinitely. |
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| Once fully stitched together, the edges are again dressed and polished, and the necessary holes are punched to complete the item. |
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