Thanks Phil! While we will almost certainly come through the other side of this crisis I am skeptical life will ever go back to "normal" or at least not for a very long time. People are going to be more cautious with their behaviour and purchases. I would liken this very much to certain new trends we have seen recently - eat local, buy green, organic etc. Again I am no huckster and if I had a significant interest in making loads of money I probably wouldn't be much interested in handstitched leathercraft, but I think there is a massive opportunity coming for those that can market their products as safe/antiviral etc.

Yes proper cutting and glueing are certainly very important. However it is hard to be absolutely precise all of the time without much practice. Interestingly I was trained by a former Hermes artisan and her method is to use 150 grit sandpaper to get the edges even, hot crease, dye the edge and then sand with 220 grit until the edge is smooth and rounded and then to dye again, add beeswax and polish. This method requires literally hours and hours of sanding to realize an equivalent edge to Philip's method. I have yet to try Uniters but I imagine it might be much better than what I am currently using (Fiebing's). While my teacher was excellent and a true master, I do sometimes believe that more experienced artisans can get stuck in their ways when better products/techniques become available. For example she was a big advocate for Blanchard tools and having purchased many I believe there are currently higher quality and cheaper options now on the market.