Tender Co. Denim

[shinobi2000]

I have a pair of the woad died 130's . i am thinking of buying the purple logwood, but are they different enough to justify the exp ?

anyone who has both can help ?

the woad dyed are not the black ones right?

Here are my purples in the sun:

[Thor]

Wow, very nice man. Thanks

[rodeo bill]

edit- can't work out how to embed video sorry

Edited June 20, 2012 by rodeo bill

[rodeo bill]

so, as promised, i'll put up some making and detail photos of some of the products on the trestle shop. it's been lovely finding out about some very varied crafts and manufacturing. first, socks!

tender's socks are circular knit in england, on old, mechanical machines, which look like this:

they're knitted on drums, which hold an array of needles:

The needles themselves are like little hooks, with an articulated latch:

The hook pushes up to catch a strand of yarn, then pulls back, hooking it down. During this process, the latch is pulled closed:

which holds the yarn in place until it comes back up, unlatching and letting the knitted yarn drop out, to be replaced by a new thread.

This is basically the same type of machine that knits tubular Tshirt fabric (such as Tender's). It's like a flat knitting machine, bent into a circle, so instead of a row running from end to end, backwards and forwards, the whole drum rotates, making a single long run, in a coil- producing a tube:

This tube passes through some rollers underneath the knitting drum, and appears as a long string of socks:

The heel, the rib at the calf, and the tighter knit at the toe are all programmed in to the knitting pattern using punch-chains (like mega-simple early computer programs, it's a continuous punch card, with sprocket holes running down the sides to feed it through the machine in time with the knitting drum.

The calf rib of one sock is connected to the toe of the next by a few lines of thinner knitting, knit from a fine water-soluble material called solvron. When the socks are cut apart, and washed, this washes away, leaving a clean finished edge where the cotton stopped in the knitting. With Tender's hand dyed socks the solvron is washed away in the dyeing, with the 'unborn' ecru socks the solvron is still visible, but it will wash away as the socks shrink to fit with their first wash.

Also visible above is the thick terry sole. This is a different stitch type, where the reverse of the knitting (inside the sock) is left long, in loops, like towelling. It makes the sole softer and thicker.

After the socks are cut apart, the toe needs to be closed, which in this case means linking them onto a second machine by hand. pictures to follow!

Edited June 20, 2012 by rodeo bill

[rodeo bill]

once the chain of socks has been cut apart into individual socks, they're taken upstairs to be linked. (These pictures are no longer of tender socks, they're purple socks for another company- tender's purple socks are hand-dyed with logwood, after they have been completed)

The linking machine takes the edge row of knitting from the upper part of the sock tube, and the edge row of the lower part, and knits them together. Unlike overlocking, where the sock is just cut and sewn together, linked socks are knitted together using the original knitted lines, which means that no seam is formed, and there's no bulk in the toe.

The trick with linking is that every stitch has to be individually fitted on to the needles in the slowly-rotating linking machine:

If you miss a stitch, the join won't sit flat, and the needles are tiny, so it's a really skilled job

After a sock has been slotted onto the correct linking needles, it is pulled round into the linking section, which then cuts off the extra knitted tube. Finally, a rotating brush unravels the last few threads of knitting, and brushes them away

Here's the whole machine, seen from above:

at the back, the socks drop off, into a hopper.

With most socks, they are then taken to be turned inside-out and pressed, on heated steam irons in the shape of legs

however tender's come home with me at this point:

to be transfer printed with the tender logo and packaged as 'unborn', or to be hand dyed with woad, purple logwood, or black logwood, ready to go out.

[rodeo bill]

We've had quite a few questions and nice comments about the sunglasses, so here are some photos of the manufacturing process. These were really fun to develop, and I took a ton of photos, so apologies if this gets over-long/-enthusiastic!

Tender's sunglasses frames are made from cellulose acetate, derived from cotton pulp. This means that as well as being a natural, biodegradable product, they're hypo-allergenic. A lot of cellulose acetate for top-end frames is made from lignin (from wood pulp), but cotton pulp makes a finer material, which can take a very high polish.

The acetate sheets com like this:

there are all sorts of versions, including patterned pieces like this:

the slices are cut off solid blocks, and when the glasses are milled out of these sheets, and depending on the position of the frames shape, different patterns will show up. This is how they make mock-tortoiseshell patterns in glasses.

Tender's however, are plain black. We picked out a nice sheet, to take with the box of protos and my design specifications.

The first job is to make a pilot hole in the centre of where each lens will be:

This will be the centre point from which the front of the frames will be oriented

[rodeo bill]

now the fun starts! matt (photographed above, who made the glasses from start to finish), made an original pattern for the frames by sticking a paper print-out of my drawing onto a sheet of acetate, and cutting around the lines freehand. He mounted this pattern onto a block, and it goes into a machine that allows him to copy a shape with the router. This is still a very skilled job, and is done one at a time, controlled entirely by hand. One slip and the frames would be ruined:

the pink pair, below, is the pattern, held in place by screws through the guide holes. The black block is in the process of being routed out?

The router bit in the black pair is spinning very fast, cutting into the black acetate. The bit on the pink pair is just a smooth static pin, but in the relative same place as the router bit in the 'live' black pair. By tracing round the contours of the finished pink pattern with the static bit, a perfect copy is routed out of the black acetate by the spinning router.

The bed holding both blocks is on a track, and can be moved around by two handles on the front:

As the router cuts through the black acetate, it shaves off long spirals, which have to be removed, or the whole apparatus would get too hot and the frame would melt.

Eventually (it's quite a slow process), we end up with what looks pretty much like the front of the finished glasses:

The centres are popped out:

[rodeo bill]

Now starts a very long process of tidying them up, entirely by hand, with small, specially-shaped, files, and fine sandpaper:

The next job is to route out the groove which the lenses will snap into:

[rodeo bill]

Now the front are clean and neat, and ready to take lenses, they have to be made a bit more face-shaped. The first job is to make the nose bridge bump. This is done by heating up the frames over a line-bender:

and then pressing the heated part into a mould:

which bumps them out like this:

this looks rather extreme, but most of it will be polished out (as you will see....!)

the next job is to apply the pre-made nose pieces:

and the fronts are pretty much ready for the big job, of hand filing, sanding, and polishing into their final shape. here's a photo of some fronts which are only slightly ahead of this, having been lightly filed and sanded, to give some shape to the backs:

note the groove inside each rim, where the lenses will go.

[rodeo bill]

the sides (temples) of the glasses, are made in a similar way, but first they need to be reinforced with a wire core. This is shot into the solid block of acetate with this machine:

The block is warmed up, and then the sharpened wire is shot through it:

This block is then routed out in the same way as the fronts:

With some (cheaper) frames, the hinge is incorporated into the wire, as you can see above. However this is a very small hinge, and rather flimsy. For tender's glasses this isn't appropriate, so the end of the temples with the wired-hinge sticking out is sawn off, to make way for a much bigger, stronger, riveted hinge:

After cleaning and filing the temples, again by hand:

they have the hinges riveted on:

These hinges are much deeper, and more robust, than the standard ones attached to the temple wires. In fact, they are so wide that they were really difficult to attach (there's only a millimetre or so of space between the edge of the hinge and the edge of the temple). The solution that Matt came up with was to leave an 'ear' of acetate either side of the hinge, to give him something to hold onto while positioning the hinge. Then after it's riveted on he removes the ear with a file, leaving the hinge perfectly in place.

[rodeo bill]

the final job, and probably the most skilled, is polishing. This not only makes the frames shiny, it also shapes them to a large extent. polishing takes a long time, about 10 minutes per frame section, on each grade of polish, and there are 3 frame sections to a pair of glasses, and 4 grades of polishing!

this is one of the abrasive blocks, which are rubbed through the cotton mop on the polishing head:

here are the fronts after the first stage of polishing, with a relatively coarse abrasive. This is mainly to smooth and shape the frames:

now a finer abrasive goes on to the mop:

and they go on for a finer polish:

the final polish is done with a very soft cloth, to bring out a real glassy gloss in the acetate:

the fronts are done! the same polishing process is carried out on each temple, and the three pieces are riveted together:

finally the UV protective grey-brown lenses are popped in, and a leather thong is tied through the holes at the ends of the temples. Then the glasses are wrapped in an english-made handkerchief of english-woven cotton satin, and they're ready to go! photos of the finished product, and a bit more about the design, over at the trestle shop

[shinobi2000]

jesus, i got tired just reading that, and it was just for one frame! hat's off to handmade goods!

[EdwardBear]

Hi all, I'm a long time SuFu lurker, so this is my very first post, prompted by a purchase of woad dyed 130s from my mate's shop- Peggs and Son in Brighton.

I really didn't need any more jeans but I'm so glad I pulled the trigger on these. Such wonderful detail and the fit is perfect- knocks socks off my Samurai, Eternal, MiJ Evisu and Studio Darts! Will post fit pics and evolution as soon as I get new camera sorted- the missus accidentally broke the last one.

My Tender obsession starts now- I'm already eyeing up the woad dyed twill Guards jacket...

[swixo]

Just got my Hill Side henlys the other day - Ordered one of the tan and one of the dark grey.

Love them - they look and fit great!

s

[crip_pierre]

really liking the work in progress posts... hope to see some woodworking next!

[rodeo bill]

^^thanks for the nice comments! as i've said before, it's really a pleasure to hear from people who are enjoying my things. Crip Pierre, thank you, woodworking to come....

I've had a few queries about the watch, so i thought I should put up some pictures and a bit about it. unfortunately i don't have any making photos of this one, the watchmaker wasn't keen on me taking pictures. I can, however, show some pictures of my own, with it's worn-in strap:

To start with the dial design (which is a really fun project to work on, and much harder, graphically, than I'd expected), it's a combination of various elements from classic watches. First, giving the watch it's name, is the 'hands-on' rotated dial. This was used on a few early wristwatches (as opposed to pocket watches), marketed to drivers. Notably a Vacheron & Constantin (sic, at the time) made in 1921, but designed in 1919:

The angled dial means that you don't have to lift your arm to a right-angle in order to read the time, rather the watch is straight with your hand at a more natural position. It took me a couple of days to get used to, but I've been wearing mine almost every day for a few months now, and if I switch back to my 'regular' watch it seems really unnatural.

The numbers at 3,6, and 9 make this an 'explorer dial', named after the rolex explorer, which is a lovely watch in my opinion, with not many changes made through its production. It's often claimed that the explorer was the first watch to the summit of mount everest- there's a lot of disagreement about this, and in fact I believe the rolex worn was a regular oyster, while it's possible that another watch entirely made it up first. Of this (hopefully) more later

The outer train-tracks register is I hope self-explanatory for Tender. The case is a solid stainless steel oyster-style, and wears fairly small (as a 1950s-60s watch does) thanks to the high-domes acrylic crystal, which slightly magnifies the dial, as well as concentrating, visually, on the centre. The hands are blued and lumed pencil shape.

The movement is a swiss 17-jewelled (ruby) manual wind, decorated on the bridges with little pits similar to pearlage. The power reserve is about 48 hours, and mine's keeping excellent time.

The strap is a NATO made in England from Tender's English wattle-tanned leather, with an English cast solid brass buckle:

NATO straps are cut in a single piece, and were originally designed to be worn with watches with fixed wire lugs, and to be extendable to be worn over uniform sleeve. This strap, however, is cut to a standard length to be worn next to the skin. The watch itself is mounted on spring bars, so it could be worn with a regular strap or bracelet, as well.

Here are some pictures of the worn-in leather, which speak for themselves, I hope!

Edited June 30, 2012 by rodeo bill

[apba1166]

Bill (or anyone), I am trying to figure out the 130 line. Are there 4 finishes: Plain, Logwood OD, Woad OD, and Logwood Purple OD? All size out the same? As a 34W, am I best with a #4?

Thank you.....

[Chriszgordon]

hi, are you ever likely to do the watch straps separately?

[rodeo bill]

Bill (or anyone), I am trying to figure out the 130 line. Are there 4 finishes: Plain, Logwood OD, Woad OD, and Logwood Purple OD? All size out the same? As a 34W, am I best with a #4?

thanks for asking- anything marked type 130 starts off as exactly the same jeans. There are various different finishes- to date rinsed, black logwood dyed, purple logwood dyed, yellow weld, blue woad, blue natural indigo, and unborn. All of the dyed jeans and the rinsed jeans are fully shrunk. 'Unborn' or raw will shrink down to size, as the fabric is unsanforized. If you normally wear 34"W you should go for a size 4 in any of the finishes.

I hope this helps!

[rodeo bill]

hi, are you ever likely to do the watch straps separately?

could well be- i currently only have enough straps for the watches going to stores, and the single watch left on the trestle shop(!), so there are none spare to sell separately. There might well be some if and when there's a future production, but probably not for a little while. sorry not to be able to help for now

[rodeo bill]

I've been wearing my pair of Tender boots for coming on for a year now, and they've treated me very nicely! They recently had a resole, and to celebrate they got taken on a weekend in the woods, and weren't treated especially well.

before:

the leather's a bit dry and scuffed, especially around the toe, so it's a good time for a bit of Tender Co. Boot Grease!

this is pure mutton tallow, and is the exact stuff used in the final greasing of tender's leather at the tannery. here it is in use at the tannery:

but here it is nicely potted up...:

I applied a generous amount all over:

half way:

and here they are now!:

[shinobi2000]

is that messy to work with?

[rodeo bill]

^^melting it down to pour into tins, was, a bit but using it's fine. You could also apply it with a cloth, but i find that because the tallow is absorbed quite readily into the leather you don't end up with much on your hands. It certainly compares favourably to the other leather conditioners I've used, not least because it doesn't get at all sticky

[Aries]

When will the watches be available in shops Bill? Fantastic work as per usual.

[rodeo bill]

^thank you! there's one watch available now on the trestle shop. A couple more will be going out to peggs & son in brighton, and unionmade in San francisco, with their autumn/winter orders, probably around end-August. I hope that helps

[Aries]

Awesome, thanks Bill.

[rodeo bill]

In some ways these come a bit late, but some people may have seen the printed Ts from tender SS12 (there are still a few around and available). They were done with illustrations by this man:

Chris Brown was one of my tutors when I was a student at Central St Martins doing menswear. His day job, though is as an illustrator, mainly with linocuts. I had a few bandanas printed up with the graphics which we did for Tshirts, and I went over to Chris' house a few weeks ago for tea and for him to sign the artists' proof bandanas, one of each for sale at the trestle shop. Here are a few pics of Chris, his studio, and signing the bandanas :

Chris has a lovely book out, an alphabet of London, which is well worth a look. There's also a very nice interview with him from a couple of months back over at llustre, which is a great site worth a click around anyway.

Edited July 6, 2012 by rodeo bill

[rodeo bill]

Another new project for the Trestle Shop, and also for the main collection (things will start appearing in stores over the next few weeks), has been ceramics. I've been interested in pots for a while, and this seemed like a good opportunity to bring a new hand-making technique into the mix. Tender's mugs, beakers, jugs, and bowls are hand thrown in england from natural uncoloured clays: Red from the North and white from the south!

Here's the pottery:

and here's the Master Potter, Nick, at his wheel:

These pictures are from the first time I visited Nick, and he showed me how he would throw my mugs. The photos are pretty self explanatory, and show what a personal and hands-on (literally!) process it is:

One of the things which i wanted with these pots was to have a flat, unglazed, base, with a tender 'plautus' mark stamped into it. this means that the base has to be quite thick, strong enough to take a stamp into the semi-dry clay, but not so thick that it might have air bubbles in it, which would explode in the kiln. Here;s the test pot cut in half, showing the section:

[rodeo bill]

The handles are 'hung' by hand, which is the traditional way to construct a mug. Nick showed me how he squeezes a lump of clay between his fingers, and lets it flop over naturally, into the shape of a handle. The ridges from where it was squeezed between his fingers will remain in the finished mug, as will the thumb print at the bottom of the handle, where he pushes it into the clay of the mug.

The next time I visited the pottery was to pick up some finished articles. Here are some coffee pots, mugs, and a beaker in situ:

The thing I like most about them is the human unevenness- where there are slight ridges in the red clay, the white slip clay is thinner, revealing darker streaks. The textures too, are lovely- there are smooth glossy areas where the glaze has gone on thicker, but there are also slightly rougher, grittier areas where the texture of the clay comes through. The undersides of the pieces are unglazed, revealing the natural, terracotta, texture:

I realize that this sort of thing is getting quite far away from superdenim, so I hope people are still interested- I feel like all of these types of skill and craft can be enjoyed on their own merits, by people who like the details and stories that go into their jeans

there are more pictures, and more information on coffee pots, mugs, and jugs, at the trestle shop.

[crip_pierre]

any chance of getting some pictures of those glasses on someone?