Goodbye, Old Friend
Pronghorn Hide Tobacco Pouch
The older kids (and Shelley) purchased it for me on Father's Day at Wallowa Lake, OR many years ago. Jordan was about two or three, as I recall. It went everywhere with me. It has been on hundreds of outings; to several states and even other countries! It has drunk deep from the waters of Alaska in North America down to Chile in the South. Baptized numerous times by zealous wading and slippery footing!
Sadly, it is time to put my old tobacco pouch to rest. Though many would have their doubts, I out-lived my old companion. After years of Shoe Goo to repair small rips - adding years to its longevity - the thin, split-leather finally gave out in one large seam blow-out during a bear hunt this spring. I was beside myself in anguish, as you can imagine. Then, I had an epiphany! I had all that antelope leather I had tanned to make myself a set of moccasins. I thought, "Hey! - This would make a good warm-up project"!
You know you are comfortably married when your spouse allows you to use her thread cutting tool on your smelly tobacco pouch - in bed! Yup! - marriage secure - I took the pouch apart to see how it went together, to make a pattern and for the zippers. I generously cut the patterns so that any mistakes would only end in a larger pouch - not one that was too small. Besides, I wanted one with a little extra room so that the pipe would fit more easily into the tobacco compartment, (you can see the extra 3/4" or so on the left side of the pouch).
Make no mistake, this was critical! Too small, and it is not useful. Too large, and you are accused of carrying a woman's handbag by your hunting buddies around the campfire. Very critical indeed! I couldn't find any leather needles in the whole Lewiston-Clarkston valley - go figure? So, I sharpened a larger sized thread needle with a stone and used wax lip-balm as a lubricant when several layers were sewn. As for thread, I used 12-pound test monofilament fishing line because I had a bunch left over from our Alaskan fishing trip back in 2005. Using a scrap of hide to protect my thumb while pushing the needle through the leather, I was able to thread my way 'round the leather bag with very little blood-loss.
During the course of a day I sat and threaded my leather pieces together. These projects allow you to press-on and ponder life’s wonders all at the same time. Kind of like fly tying, reloading or lawn mowing. I must have pondered a ton with all the time it took sewing like a mad-man. One thing that I pondered was, "How could anyone make a living doing this"?! Seriously! Anyway, with one broken needle and several sore fingers, it was complete! Zippers in place, it was time to add the final ingredients...my pipe stuff.
The zip-lock bag of tobacco, Lochsa River Blend, lighter, a few pipe cleaners and my largest pipe; all with room to spare! The leather was very supple yet much thicker than the original and should last the life-time of its owner.
Many of you had known my tobacco pouch and I thought you might want to know that I had sought a unique and imaginative way to put the old pouch to rest. There, along the river, at the end of a fine day of fishing, I tossed the old pouch into the campfire. “A fitting end” I thought. “It would have wanted it that way”.
