How to make a brooks saddle

recently i got to visit the brooks factory in birmingham to see how they made a brooks saddle. i guess the most amazing thing is seeing that the entire process is done by hand, on machines that look like they're as old as time.

so a brooks saddle starts life as a chunk of leather. they only use the thickest part of the cow (the ass).

all the leather is cut out by hand using heavy dies

then the leather is soaked in a bath to soften it

and then meets its first press that gives it shape

it's trimmed afterwards

then it meets its second press

it then gets branded with it's model number

and of course the brooks badge

then the saddle gets its first good polish

meanwhile in another part of the factory, the metalwork is made (by hand, of course). the saddle skeleton is stamped out

and then punched into shape

titanium ones are harder, so they need to be heated to red hot first. brooks does this by putting them on the bricks, under two acetylene torches.