Leather handles
I'm sure I'm not alone in having beautiful objects in wooden cases let down by frayed and broken handles. In some cases they let themselves down in use.
I found it reasonably easy to replace this handle which had cracked through at the D-rings. Leather of a similar thickness was supplied by my brother who had ordered some for another project. It's not the same colour, but needs must. As my sailmakers' palm was not accessible, I ended up copying the stitching holes by using a triangular needle and a small hammer to punch through the leather, making a lot of nice triangular holes in the table so I knew it had penetrated sufficiently.
This handle is made from a single length, folded through the D-rings and sewn together, over a central spine and two spacers (presumably to give the handle some bulk). This central piece was reusable, so I stitched it through its original holes.
It's important to stitch from both ends of the thread. I used linen thread passed over a block of beeswax for lubrication. The first go is a running stitch down through the top layer, central reinforcer and bottom piece, and back up through the next hole in line. The other end of the thread goes through the same holes in the other direction, so the finished article has thread spanning between each hole, with the whole looking like a succession of figures of eight from the side if the leather were to be invisible.
The D-rings are held to the wooden case by further leather straps and screws. I simply drew round the straps and their holes with a pencil, and cut the outline with a scalpel. The holes were punched.
A few coats of leather dye and some various polishes and it looks much more the part. I also won't drop it when absent-mindedly using the handle to pick it up...
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