Hasta La Ideas

The American cowboy has a lot of gear to wrangle, from horse harnesses and saddles to pistol holsters and belts. All of that stuff needs to be tough, which is why leather is the material of choice. And stitching up the thicknesses required calls for a particularly bad-ass machine, one that uses mechanical principles different from the standard needle-pierce sewing machine.

Thus we have the Campbell Lockstitch Sewing Machine, a “needle & awl” machine designed in the 1880s and still in use today (albeit with an electric motor added) to process heavy leather:

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