Skald

That's some pretty slick edges, looks like they are cut from wood. Great thanks, I hardly thought of an alternative glue compound, for some odd reason. I got this quite worthless glue for thin leather, which most certainly won't do. But beyond that there must be others that leaves a thinner "weld". I'll look up the Weldwood thing, and see if I can get hold of it. I live in Sweden, and many products can't be shipped because they are considered dangerous as they are flammable. Again, thanks.

Can't seem to view the images, not even the domain lowes.com at the moment, so it might be temporary. Will again check later. I have these "disposable" (that I don't dispose so often, but clean and re-use) sponge swabs with plastic handles, that I got from work (used to clean print heads on large format printers). It's really easy to apply different kinds of coatings without getting these darn bubbles etc. Next best thing to airbrushing I've tried. There's a certain amount of drama otherwise, if you get more and more bubbles occurring the more you try getting them out, and notice how the coating starts to cure. :D And yeah, I think that if you dye first - "work it" - and re-dye, you'll have a deeper gone and more worked in dye, that will sit a bit better. Of course depending on what dye you use. These undyed hides are always a little difficult to get properly dyed. Unless of course if you "groon" them. But doing so seems to render the hides virtually "unchangeable", I think it makes like any other step more or less impossible (forming/burnishing/glueing/surface treating etc.).

Oookay, I've done some experimenting again. And I am "sort of" pleased with the outcome. I didn't completely get rid of "glue lines", but I got a pretty nice result anyway. Here's what I did. - Rough up flesh side of leather with quite coarse sanding paper (or I have this "pads", but anyway). - Apply Barge All purpose cement, rub it in a little, and sort of "scrape off" excess and get an even surface. Let dry for an hour or so. - Put pieces together, press firmly. Smack the glued parts with wooden mallet, put between two "protective layers" or aluminum, mount in vice and let sit at quite hard pressure for an hour or so. *sewing part left out* - Sand edges carefully, using coarse sanding paper. Try to achieve the shape you want, sand both across and along the edge, to sort of "kill off" fibers that won't budge otherwise. - Wet edge with fingertip, and sort of "rub it in" a little with fingertip. Leave to dry. - Dye edge now if you intend to, let dry for a moment (I used Fiebings Oil Dye). Then sand it again with a fine sanding paper, and just add a little water to the edge again, and let dry. - When dry, burnish with this wooden Dremel tool (bought mine from leatherburnishers.com), just go rather gently with it. Add a little water now and then, to avoid burNING instead of burNISHING. - Dye again, if you feel it have become too "washed out" due to sanding and burnishing. - Now you can buff a little more with a few drops of water, and a medium rough canvas cloth, to get it a little more even and smooth. AND... I haven't used any "compounds" at all as of yet, except for dye on one of the two test pieces I did (i.e. the other one left natural). But there are two I will use now. I guess usual "gum trag" might do, but I used this other alternative offered by Seiwa Leather (goodsjapan.jp), smells like wood glue, and is supposed to be all natural. And it's great, much better than the gum trag I had earlier. - Apply gum trag to edge with fingertip, sort of "work it in". Let it sit for a minute or so, then lightly rub it in even more. You might add a drop or two of water with your finger, and work it in even more. Add a second layer and to the same, let dry. - Rub the edge lightly with a bone creaser (I used one I made out of reindeer horn), rub untill you get the level of "polish" you want. Then you can rub it a little more with a cloth, doesn't need to be very rough (used an old T-shirt myself). - Treat the edge with a diluted "Mop'n Glo" compound. Don't have that brand here in Sweden, but I just what I had, and I was very pleased with the result. I simply dilute it a little to get a more sublime shine, not that mega glossy plastic feel, which might even rub off as some old snake skin. It seems to be absorbed better with a little water in it. I add a second layer right before the first one has really dried in. If you wish, you can of course coat the whole piece at this stage, but I didn't. Afterwards, you might wanna gently hand polish the piece, of course. I was really pleased with the result of this. And I will make some sort of small bifold and use for a while, and see how this edge "sits in" after a month or so of usage. As with most leather, I guess it might look even better after a while. So! I asked a question, got good answers, and returned a "status report" I hope might come in handy for some others too! My idea generally is: As few zippers, buttons, plastic finishes, chemicals and so forth as possible - just to produce "unbreakable" stuff that will last until you grow tired of them and buy new. So this one do follow that principle quite well...

Thank you all for fast and really serious answers! So I've thought a little, and: I'll try to "work in" the Barge Cement a little more, and make sure there ain't too much of it. I guess that's a good start hehe... Then due to your suggestions, I'll put some extra efforts into making sure the surface is as "level" as possible and not only looking so at a first glance. I doubt a little that the later part is the problem for me, as suggested by Red Cent. I think it's more that the rubber is "first to go" because it's softer, and that leaves a visible level difference. I have seen the same thing in working with wood and metals, if you have a harder and a softer material - and apply a little too much force when you work it. I'll also try to use less "stuff" as suggested by Red Cent, and at least try working with water and elbow grease instead, at least as a test. I might add, that I am quite positive that I suffer from this "OCD" thing which makes me quite over judgmental. At least by western standards, had I been Japanese it would have been seen as fully normal. I'm not like "If nobody can see it's not 100% you are okay to roll", but rather "Things never should roll unless 100% perfect - no matter what people see". <

Not bad at all, don't know if you came up with the concept yourself, but a smart way to make a bifold less "bulky" if you use a little thicker leather. *thumbs up*

There must be more threads about finishing edges, than the number of times I have stuck or cut myself working with leather (i.e. many). I haven't done much that have been "two piece glued together", where I have needed to make nice and shiny edges. But now when I try, I can't float my boat. So to speak. I have no real problem to make the leather itself "Hideponder'esque" in smoothness and so forth. BUT... If I don't glue the two pieces together, they are merciless at splitting. Just a little twist and bend, or whatever "deforming", and the two parts split up. If I do glue both parts together (using Barge's "All Purpose Cement", a red jar), I will get this thin glue line. Perhaps 0,5 mm's thick. And it doesn't really matter how much I burnish, it will still always be visible - even though I dye it. Simply because the rubber compound is softer than the leather, and will "wear down" and form a shallow sort of ditch between the two parts. You do notice small "turds" of rubber going off as you burnish. I can't say I think I add very much glue, really. I apply to both parts, let them dry, put them together and squeeze, then hammer them a little with a mallet - and then even press them in a vice for a period of time. I do all other parts, and "clear off" any residue of rubber on top of the edge. But we have this cursed sad visible line. So how do I come to terms with this? Simply less rubber cement? I feel it's difficult to actually add any less, unless I try experiment and thin it out before I use it. And less cement could perhaps not be enough? I don't know really. I made a few experiments on scrap bits today, but all of them have this "glue-line-ditch", despite looking great otherwise. And I need the edges to hold up, not just look pretty until you bend or do whatever with them. :-/

I have a real problem finding some quality round leather cord (all from these 0,5-1 mm's, up to the real "fleshy" ones on several mm's), both natural and colored. All I find is this glossy looking Asian made leather cords, which look more like plastic than leather. It has some thin finish layer which indeed is quite plastic, after a few days or use that finish is like worn off, and the cord becomes all fuzzy and dull looking. The strength of these are quite dubious too, and at places you can easily snap them off.' Years ago, you often found these more "fatty"/"waxy" looking cords, which was way more durable. They didn't look that sad-excuse-of-a-cord after a little use, and the strength was way more reliable. Another problem of cheap'o cords, is the dye of them. They shouldn't literally BLEED dye if they get wet, and then end up gray and stiff. So the "waxy" ones, if you get my point. I would like to know of flat cord too (for lacing), that doesn't have this horrible plastic looking finish. If anybody know of any. I am pretty sure I could start make some cord/lace, but at the moment I feel my precious time is better used for more productive work.

Been in the same situation. I got a more solid table, a 2 inch granite slab ("stolen" from scrap bits where they make tombstones) and a rubber mat beneath it. It makes almost no noise at all, at least not so that it's being heard very well outside the room where I work. I got another tip, which till make it almost dead silent. Get a massive tree trunk (yes), which is wide enough to work on top of. Get it properly plain and straight on top, and just put a slab (and maybe a rubber mat) beneath it. It's probably as silent as it will ever get. I tried that in my father's garage when there's was no proper table around.

Is there a chance to get a proper view of that? Feels kind of "chopped off" at places, and it seems really good!

I have a Pfaff System 133. It chews through anything, as much goods you can manage to fit into it at least. Problems occur when the thread starts to snap when things are all too thick, but I've never experienced that with normal use. Only real problem is that it sews too damn fast, like many industrial machines do. I need to change some parts to slow it down a little, it's a real problem to maintain any civilized speed with it. There are not many settings available, and therefore not much that can fail either. it's quite old, and you ca find them really cheap.

Never seen that kind of plastic, but it seems interesting. I don't know the definition of "mil" really, but I'll try to find out what it equals in millimeters. The kind of plastic that I got, is what covers these large posters outside supermarkets etc. It withstands bending and tearing without cracking up, but is quite easy to cut anyway. But I suppose I'll run out of it sooner or later, so it's good to know a new source of good plastic for patterns. I started making the whole pattern in Illustrator yesterday however, because the pieces I got from the wallet will be quite hard to trace on plastic if I want to make it good. So when I am done, I think I'll print them and stick them to the plastic sheets I got with this "temporary glue spray" I got, and cut the pieces out carefully.

That sounds like some sort of hardware stores? There ain't none of these around here, those particular stores I mean. But I'll look around at the ones we got here, there ought to be mosquito nets "on-the-roll" for purchase here as these parts of the land are infamous for all the mosquitoes. I am not all 100% sure those nets will do, but they do look much the same from what I remember. Strange that none of the leathercraft stores sells these nets, they are probably more usual than the acetate sort of windows these days. I like the nets a little better, because I am used to these clear windows getting miscoloured (yellowish, or some color rub-off from something) or scratched/fuzzy sooner or later.

I have a problem finding not the clear acetate or other kinds of "see-throgh" plastic, instead I am looking for the mesh sort of wallet ID window material, the "net" sort of material. it's usually quite stiff, a little like some sort of mosquito net for windows, but still not quite the same. Anyone seen anything like it, and know where to get it?

So. I "reverse engineered" a Timberland wallet, that I had actually never used - so it was a quite big step to do so with a quite expensive accessory like this one. I did so because it's a wallet without "coin purse", and I have a problem using those. The idea is however to make some small adjustments, and include a coin purse from another pattern I have. But that's another story. So, I have all these little nice pieces of the wallet I took apart, but I am not sure really how to deal with it the best way possible. I am thinking of laying them on top of a large piece of quite thin but sturdy plastic, draw them up and simply cut them out. I can't really think of any problem in doing so, and it seems to be the best way to do it IMHO. Have you done anything similar? or do you have any better suggestions? I first thought of making a "copy" of the whole thing in Illustrator, simply measuring every piece and drawing them as paths. But it might be a lot of work for something less usable? Given that I'd have to print and cut each piece every time I was about to make a new wallet, or at least as soon as the paper pieces were worn out.

One of the most stunning things I have ever seen made of leather, simply totally whack. :D Did you wet form if over some dragons head?