Then a couple of weeks ago I thought again, even to the point of visiting a shop which does repairs in Ewell Village, where the chap would do a job, but he thought that only leather would do. And not shoe leather at that.
Then a couple of days ago, one of the thongs actually broke and I was pushed into action. Did I really want to stump up £400 for a new one when this one was only seven years old? Did I want to stump up £200 for the man in Ewell Village to do a job?
No. I would use the brown cord purchased for the purpose myself, with the result illustrated. With the messy bits on the left being the frayed ends of the cord, both carefully secured with figure of eight knots, just visible. Very soft and supple to the feel, I thought quite possibly silk - used, as I recall - for the ropes intended to be used for the hanging of the aristocracy in the olden days. After use, cut up for sale for use in some superstitious practise in the country - I think Hardy tells of some such thing in one of his stories.
Secured at the back with two buttons - which, whoever put the leather thongs on, had not bothered with, making it a lot harder to remove the old stitching that it would otherwise have been. Not a great job, but serviceable, and I think that I shall persist. And that I shall get better at it as I go along. Maybe I will get the time down from the hour or so it took to do this first one. If I do one from time to time, or when a thong goes, I should get through all eight of them before the end of the coming winter. Buying of new coat deferred for another year.
And I pleased to be able to report that BH was able to lay her hands on two sorts of the packing thread discussed at reference 2 in no time at all.
Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-leather-thongs-which-hold-toggles.html.
Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=packing+thread.
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