BWeiss

That was the day he took possession of the bag, he took the bag on a weekend trip completely packed with clothing and strapped down. I am trying to track down photos of it but having a hard time.

Owner is pictured with his 1939 Indian that he rebuilt from a complete strip down. The bag was in very poor shape, the stitching was cotton based and snapped from dry rot and the leather was crumbling at the edges, so I could not stitch it back up without it just failing again. long story short, I tracked down a very special distressed pig hide made in the USA to match his leather on the bike and riding gear. I tore the bag down completely and reconstructed it right down to producing my own brass rivets and canvas liner. The bag is COMPLETELY hand stitched!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is over 1,500 single passes throughout the construction, the ends are rounded to allow the material to naturally bend inward. Bag took about 15hrs from tearing down old bag to get the pattern and closure bracket to reconstructing to what you see before you. There is also a hammered copper label inside the bend and a hand painted maple leaf on the interior canvas. Thread: Julius Koch Ritza 25 dark green 1mm Photoshoot was done by me with a Nikon D3200. [

I think Tandy carries something along the lines of this, my friend said he wanted a trucker wallet, well I had already designed one last year and took my old design and built it around the specs he desired. I carry a note book and sketch designs and new patterns daily, it is just getting the time OR the customer lined up to buy one so that I can put it into production. I have my normal pieces that I make for my website, but mostly what I deal with it bespoke designs or ideas, it is my talent to design and produce one offs for customers.

Well...this is my design that I sell, so maybe make your own design?

My first plan was to do a suede binding, but it looked all wrong being one side was thicker and the transition had a flap that had to be skipped over. Cutting the binding would have looked halfassed, so I got it almost perfect without ruining the edging bevel, that bevel shows a few leather tuffs.

You have no idea how long I burnished those edges!!! It was a let down since chromexcel and suede do not form a clean edge. I ran the wallet on a sander and leveled the edges perfect, then used beeswax and finished with a wood grooved hand burnishing with mink oil paste. I'm not worried about it to be perfectly honest, there is no visible gaping from the 6 layers and it is smooth, it just would not produce that hard edge finished look I get with burnishing vegtanned. Personally, I love how the edges came out...I know typically they should be shiny and smooth but it has this awesome rustic feel to go with the gorgeous red chromexcel. If you notice almost all of my work has a rustic finish with clean stitching and design I just love that character.

The pocket side was a challenge to get the holes perfect...that is SIX layers of 2.5-3oz

Friend of mine asked me to make a fancy trucker wallet for his new daily carry, I built him a solid wallet from chromexcel and used chocolate tiger thread. Interior has 3 billfolds a flap pocket and an opposing card slot. Interior is lined with smooth side up black pig suede, you can see the suede on the front through the leaf. 1pc hand flared copper eyelet and a 4 strand braided lanyard. Snaps are vintage CS Osborne in a blackened brass patina.

3 pieces finished on it, no issues holding leather in the clamp OR loosening/tightening the wing nut clamp. Gets removed from the bench with a single rear pin now, pull it out and the whole clamp drops free from the bench. I have to damage leather to remove it once it is tightened down(tested scrap piece). It will never drop any work, plus it is really nice with the wing nut, grip the clam mid section and give a squeeze then flick the wing and it spins all the way down in a couple flicks. If I wanted I could drill out a piece of wood to make a longer lever, but it works so well already that I am not going to put one on. I think you just have to use it and see how nicely it tightens, or maybe it is from being a mechanic and removing thousands of nuts with my fingers? Anyways, did a few wallets on it and I'm very pleased; perfectly set to desired height on the bench and easy to get up close to it with how tall my bench is.

To tighten it to the bench or to tighten the clam to hold the piece? Because both hold solid as the desired function intends.

Did not feel like spending good money on something I can do in a few hours, plus I wanted it to attach to my bench for easy stitching. My bench is also custom made to suit my height of 6'6''(bench is 41" tall). I made mine from a solid chunk of 3x3" Oak, I need to get smaller bolts thought I needed a longer one for the center...other than that it works AMAZING! My bench is made from 2x4s, so the backing step attaches flush to the backside of the table and right to the top of the underside tabletop, that keeps the mounting bracket square and tight with just a single bolt. If anyone wants one, I would be more than happy to make a few. Send me a message!

Your tooling is badass and those buckles scream 'MERICA! Just a quick note, are those two layers of leather on the belts? looks SUPER heavy! the second photo I can see a seam from the burnishing?

I sent you a message about the buckles. Also, I think I mentioned and I am contractor...yeah I LOVE infusing wood elements into my bags Hard maple spines are in my messenger bag and on BOTH in internals of the tote bag. I had this messenger bag sold THEN the local customer backed out once it was half way completed...that is why I now take full payments on custom bag orders haha.

Here is my third ever satchel, both this one and the second one have internal pockets. Here is some bonded T69 thread and tiger thread with over locking knots. Two tone green with black rub layering, finished in silver bonded T69 1mm Tiger thread using an over locking knot: Red chromexcel with natural card slots. My sister LOVES wide and chunky style, I picked up this solid brass owl head buckle and went with a 8oz strap to make it easy to pass through loops.*She LOVES copper rivets, she handed out a stack of my business cards from all the attention she got with it on a single weekend. The floating keeper has copper folded and passed through the oil-tanned body, did I mention she loves copper? haha

Thanks, I got the buckle from a leather shop close out; they repaired/made horse harnesses and those buckles were used for show on large pulling setups or something(seller told what they were used for, but forgot). They are HEAVY solid brass, I have a bunch left over if you want to grab one for yourself Good point on the stitching, I'll switch to a smaller count of holes to stitch the buckles in place. Personally, I can only see them ever failing from poor care of the leather(drying out), I included care instructions and have seen updates from them and they have been following my instructions well. As you can see on my new satchel, I did not stitch the supports because of that, I never thought otherwise with belts due to how thick they are(15oz). I use a 4 hole 3mm spacing pricking fork. As for the wallet stitching; I JUST found out about tiger thread a bit ago, I am really loving it! My goods are COMPLETELY custom order to customer's desires! They pick color stain and thread! So if you see that it is from the customer picking it, I have over 13 colors of bonded t69 nylon and now two colors of tiger thread and time and time again the less professional chunky thread is requested. I am not sure how it looks unprofessional, stitching is straight and none of the threads are passed over or split, YES they are chunky right now, but once broken in they lay flat and turn a silver color due to the wax being rubbed off. Here is another satchel that came after the one you liked, it was designed for a male customer and built to his personal desires: