Last week a reader asked about pointers for spacing out the middle leathers on a Pita Pocket. I am sure there is a long list of strategies for adding space to the middle leathers, and with a little creativity, I tried to test out a few.
Below are a few pictures of my process with a few comments about my strategy. I’m not quite sure if this is as much space as our reader was hoping for, but it’s further spread out than I normally aim for. Typically I like to keep my middle leathers tight together and then use my outer two leathers to create the channel that I like in my stick.
That said, I am liking how this pocket feels in the wider, college legal CEO head.
The first strategy that I tried out was a barrel at the top. The barrel will keep the leathers spread out as it creates a desired width at the top of the middle leathers.
The barrel in a Pita sparked my creativity a bit so keep your eyes peeled for a future Traditional Thursday post.
After adding the barrel at the top I really concentrated on leaving enough slack in my knots to keep the space that was created by the barrel.
I used 3 twists between each set of knots as I like more diamonds in my pocket.
When my middle leathers were all laced up I strung my middle cross section. I like to string both sections at the same time to make sure my knots and diamonds are even and equally tight.
I tried to pull this section fairly tight so that the middle leathers pulled outward toward the outside leathers.
After the mid cross sections were complete, I added my outer sections, again pulling them tight to the sidewall to really stretch out my middle leathers.
I tend to string my Pita pockets fairly flat and then use a ball to shape the pocket and adjust my knots as needed.
Here’s what I came up with:
Mid pocket, mid whip. Two straight shooters and a nylon.
Pretty clean and I love the way it throws.
How would you add width to your middle leathers?