A week in the Dubai workshop, cut by cut

Cutting: the decision that cannot be taken back

Hides arrive folded and stacked. We sort them by temper and colour across the spine, mark out the pattern pieces with a scratch awl, and cut with a half-moon knife held against the edge of the table. A cut across the grain instead of along it cannot be sanded out, so the whole piece is lost.

• Every panel is cut from the same zone of the hide so that colour and firmness match across the finished piece.
• Offcuts too small for a pattern are kept for card holders, loops and repair stock.
• Nothing is cut until the order is confirmed. There is no speculative stock on the shelf.

Saddle stitch: two needles, one thread

Each stitch is a pair of holes, one from each side, and the thread runs through both in opposite directions. If one stitch is cut, the row does not unravel — it is the reason leather goods have used this method for centuries and the reason we have not moved to a machine.

Waxed linen thread at roughly seven stitches to the centimetre, pricked first with a two-prong chisel so the holes stay even. A four-minute rhythm per row, and you feel every millimetre.

Finishing: skiving, beveling, burnishing

Edges are thinned with a skiving knife so the panels can fold without a bulge, then beveled with a grooving tool. The raw edge is burnished with a wooden slicker and beeswax until it closes and darkens.

A painted edge hides the work. A burnished edge is the work.

Hardware is set, the piece is folded, and every thread tail is trimmed and re-waxed. Then it goes into the box with the maker who finished it signed inside the fold. That is the whole process. There is no shorter version that produces this.