There is more than one hand that supports Brooklyn's manufacturing.
Many hands are involved in making a single wallet.
That is something that we, the artisans of Brooklyn, cannot accomplish alone.
However, it is also true that the number of "craftsmen" who have accumulated a wealth of skills in their "hands" and "heads" and who have made Japan a manufacturing nation, and who we can be proud of to the world, are decreasing year by year for various reasons.
Here, we would like to convey even a little bit of the "handiwork" of these craftsmen.
First of all, "leather" is necessary for making things in Brooklyn.
This goes without saying.
I have written a separate story about Yamato, which I created through trial and error with a Japanese tanner, so please take a look there as well.
After purchasing the carefully selected leather, we do what we do to make the product.
That is the theme of this time, ``cutting''.
"Cutting" = The process of cutting out the parts of the item you want to make from a piece of leather using a cutting die (mold)
The basic premise is that just as people have different body sizes, so too do leather sizes.
And unlike cloth or fabric, there is absolutely no leather that is uniform in shape and quality.
That's why cutting leather requires a lot of nerve.
This is because even within a single piece of leather, the ``flexibility'' and ``method of aging'' change depending on the part, and the orientation of the fibers also changes the appearance after use.
In particular, the quality of leather that Brooklyn demands is not that large, so the area in which small items can be stored is limited.
Furthermore, there are only a limited number of parts that meet Brooklyn's quality standards, and it is not possible to use everything from end to end. What's more, we divide the areas we use depending on the item or part, such as ``where we want firmness'' or ``where we want to make it as soft as possible.'' Some items have dozens of parts.
This does not mean that you should just cut monotonously.
Perhaps, even with just the explanation up to this point, you may be thinking, "I don't need to worry about that..." In fact, there was a time when a craftsman I asked to cut the fabric refused, saying, ``I don't like working in Brooklyn because it's a hassle.''
The craftsmen make their living based on how much they can cut in a day.
You want to avoid this kind of labor-intensive work as much as possible.
Even so, we continue to convey our belief that ``We want people to use what they like for a long time and have fun with it.That's why we don't want to compromise on any part of the process.''
"It's a lot of work because it's so detailed, but it's so rewarding."
I was able to meet a warm ``hand'' who always did a perfect job, smiling a little bluntly.
Without these craftsmen, we would not even be able to start making products.
This is very important work.
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