Calder & Sons Canvas
Rockland, Maine — canvas work since 1931. The No. 06 Waxed Duffel, cut from sailmakers' cloth on a sail loft floor.
Calder & Sons began as a sail loft, and the duffel is still built like a sail: eighteen-ounce duck laid out on the loft floor, cut in long economical sweeps, seamed to carry load rather than to look seamed. The wax is the loft's own recipe — enough to turn weather, not so much that the bag cracks in the cold — and it is worked in warm, by hand, with what appear to be the original brushes.
The bridle leather comes split and ready from a tannery two towns over; the brass hardware is cast to the loft's patterns and will outlive the canvas, which is saying something, because the canvas is expected to outlive you.
The sons, for the record, have been daughters for two generations now. The sign stays — repainting it was voted down on the grounds that the harbor knows who does the work.
At the bench this quarter
Cutting for Run 8 — ninety duffels — starts July 20. The wax is rendered, the leather is in the loft, and the floor is chalked.