Every bag goes through the same seven stages. None of them are automated, which is both why they take four to six hours of work each and why we make them in small runs.

1. Hide selection

Hides arrive whole and are graded by hand. The back and rump give the firmest, most even leather and that is where structured panels come from. The belly is looser and stretchier and goes to linings and smaller components, or to nothing. About fifteen per cent of a typical hide does not make it into a bag.

2. Cutting

Panels are cut by hand with a round knife against templates, oriented so the stretch direction runs the right way for each part. A strap cut across the stretch will elongate in a year. This is the stage that is easiest to rush and hardest to fix later.

3. Skiving and edge preparation

Where panels overlap, the leather is skived, thinned on the underside, so the seam does not double in thickness. This is why a well made bag has flat seams rather than ridges.

4. Saddle stitching

Two needles, one thread, passed through each hole from both sides so the stitches lock against each other. It is slower than machine stitching by a factor of about ten. The reason we do it is failure behaviour: a machine lockstitch that breaks unravels along the seam, while a saddle stitch that breaks stays put because each stitch is independent. Stress points get a backstitch and, on handles and strap anchors, copper rivets behind a reinforcing patch.

5. Edge burnishing

Edges are sanded flush, dampened, compressed with a hardwood slicker and waxed, several times. The fibres fuse into a smooth sealed edge that wears down gradually. The alternative, edge paint, is about twenty times faster and chips off in a couple of years, taking the look of the bag with it.

6. Hardware and lining

Solid brass or stainless fittings, YKK Excella zips, heavy cotton twill lining with doubled base corners. Hardware is set after the lining so the rivets pass through every layer rather than just the outer panel.

7. Check, monogram, box

Every bag is checked against a fixed list: stitch count consistency, edge finish, hardware alignment, zip run, lining seams, and that the base sits flat on a table. Then the monogram is pressed, the bag goes into a cotton dust bag and a rigid box, and it ships.