Gaff jaw/saddle, bowsprit traveler and old sweeps/oars

[NUTMEG]

Apologies, as I have posted on the Wanted and East Coast forum with no luck, thought I would ask here just in case someone can help or point me to someone that might.

I recently started a small business doing marine leatherwork and phone cases etc. business is slow but I am not giving up just yet! My wife thinks my cases and things would do well in craft fairs and farmers markets. She may have a point.

I would like to put on a nautical display on the stall, showing examples of leatherwork in a marine setting. So I am trying to locate old gaff saddles, travellers and sweeps that I can re leather and label etc.

So can anyone point me to any such items that will not break the bank?

Size and condition really not important as any such artefacts will be for display only.

All suggestions welcome.

 

[prv]

Can't point you to any of those things, but bear in mind that lots of other bits of rigging can need leathering. On Stavros I've made leather covers for blocks, for hard eyes (in fact these were made of wire wormed, parcelled and served, then made into an eye round a thimble with racking seizings, then leather over the seizings and the top part of the eye) and simply around a wire (again first wormed parcelled and served) where a line ran past it and might chafe. There were even leather guards around the railings that we habitually made the signal halyards off on (no cleats for some reason) as otherwise the paint got worn through surprisingly fast. On Kindred Spirit I made a leather lining for the gammon iron, and kept meaning to do a bit where the gaff chafed on the shrouds.

Basically almost anything might need a leather cover if something else chafes on it, so if the purpose is simply to demonstrate your skill in a tabletop display then you could cover any suitably nautical-looking item you can find.

(As well as the "ship's" leatherwork done in the rig by the deckhands, I also sailed a couple of times with a lady who did leatherwork on her own account in her off-watches as a pastime. Sheaths for knife and spike sets were a common request - I assume you have a couple of those to display?)

Pete

 

[NUTMEG]

Pete that's brilliant! Thank you. I could easily make up a board with bits of rigging, bottle screw covers etc. thank you again, I have lots of ideas buzzing around now!

Yes, I have knife holders and so on to display.

Steve