YinTx

10 down, a few to go. Was happy to make a couple with fun thread colors, including the purple on chocolate. Enjoy! And, much thanks for the link, Rocky, I'll be checking them out... YinTx

Rocky, yes I agree, after I made this run of wallets, I knew the full width pockets were causing some issues, particularly with inconsistencies in edge thickness and having to stitch through the cement and lining for the periphery stitch, making it very difficult to keep even and nice. I had already decided to do a partial width version for the next go round, so nice to know I won't be creating problems when I do that. I had been contemplating cloth pockets as I mentioned earlier, but have not. I will check out the ribbon pockets, thanks for the search pointer, Bill. And yes, Biker, the lowest pocket does use the body for the front of the pocket. Also I had an idea for the "T-Pocket" design last night as I was drifting off to sleep, so I may try it in the very near future. Likely not very different from the current "T-pocket" design, just a very slight variation. YinTx

Probably John Lobb shoes, YinTx They mentioned there were about 15,000 lasts there. Including Royalty.

Don't mind teh crooked stitching on the pocket liner.. that was a reject pile item, but it shows the layout anyhow. imagine it flipped over, and glued and stitched to the back of the slotted leather piece, then one more piece to cover the whole back, the skived section is folded over it and stitched. YinTx

Biker, Thanks for that. I think it was a bit of luck happening with the cell phone camera, but as they say, I'll take luck over skill every day. Here are a couple of shots of the credit card pockets in construction. pretty basic, I think some others have done similar styles here before. But a lot of skiving, gluing and stitching. I think I'd prefer the "T-Pocket" design for simplicity and clean looks. However, paying folks seem to want this style, so this style it is for now. The slots are just two holes punched and then connect the dot with a sharp knife, and burnish the resulting inside edges. 10spi on the pocket liners with a really fine linen thread to keep the bulk down. skive all edges to keep thin. Glue to main leather of pocket and stitch one at a time. TBC.. not letting me upload images... YinTx

Biker, I'll try to get some photos of the construction of the pockets. meanwhile... Work in progress... YinTx

Heh, yah first thing that came to my mind was, "huh, been a while since you've sharpened something, yah?" Occurred to me that using the backside of the shoe box lid he was working off of would have been a better strop, but the technique would not have sufficed. I did really enjoy the Paul Parkman video, I've been fascinated by shoe making lately. I can see how this has become a lost art, and dying business, with machines largely taking over and making similar styled shoes in way less time. I am surprised there are still individuals out there making them by hand, watching the factory work it seems they can be fabricated with nearly equivalent levels of quality as well with the right operators. There's another video on John Lobb shoes, they sell for British Sterling 4,000, and take six months to make, using same tools they used 100 years ago. Amazing. Half of the work is in making shoe lasts, they have a collection of 15,000 of them from their customers over the years. I have to wonder how many shoes you can make on a last before the nail holes destroy them? YinTx

Ray, Any idea what size pistol fits in there? YinTx

Wow, so I was watching some amazing work on making shoes, such as these, which are nice enough to make me want a pair: when I came across this other little ditty, showing a representative artisan from a world renowned fashion house making high end women's shoes.. jump to about 5:38 in the video to see how he maintains the fine edge on his blades... and then continue watching as he struggles to get it to cut anything! He resorts to using it like a saw, hacking away at the leather. Count me floored. YinTx

A bit more progress... sorry bout the 'blurry, my camera has decided to go on the fritz. YinTx

Thank you. This is about a 4oz leather, I used Horween on this one. The others I am making with the W&C leather are done with 2 oz leather (bridle), and a 1 oz liner (veg tan). YinTx

Venator, I used pigskin for the pockets... wanted to use duck cloth, but ended up here for now. Gets pretty thick with up to 8 layers of leather in certain places, and makes controlling the awl really difficult. Last one I stitched the other day came out horrible, so depressing, the last line of stitching and pretty well ruined 2 weeks of work on one of them. That set me back mentally, so I'm trying to regather my nerve to attempt again so I can get better results. Thanks for the complement, hopefully I can get that last line of stitching nice enough to warrant it. YinTx

I think I get it with the controlled wrinkle thing. And I did give it a partial bend when I glued it, which just meant it stays partially bent now, and when I fold it the rest of the way... wrinkles. The 1 oz liner is really working much better. I will try to give one of the error versions some controlled wrinkles to see if I can rescue them. Thanks for the congrats, Alex. To be clear, this isn't my first order, I have sold some belts and purses and such in the past. Just that this is the first time I have sold more than one of a particular item, and to more than two people! Almost everything has been custom one off's, except for belts, up to now. So finally get to make a "run" of a single design. Still some customizing, with leather types and thread colors, etc. I know some folks sell 3 an hour or day or even a week, I don't typically get that kind of traction. More of the 1 every month or two, so I am happy folks are voting with their wallets and saying they like my work well enough to carry it instead of a cheap Wally world item or a more expensive Coach or Louis Vuitton, when they could more easily do either without waiting for me to build and deliver. The "windfall" may go into a new round knife since I've discovered its the quality causing me to have to strop every 30 seconds, not my sharpening skills. Not a big enough windfall for a clicker just yet, maybe down the road! If a 100+ folks call with orders, I'll be lookin for one for sure! not holding my breath just yet... plus I'd have to quit my day job to do that many orders! YinTx

It awl depends on what you are stitching. Out of awl of these, my go to is usually the medium Vergez Blanchard, about 90% or more of the work I do. And at $20, pretty inexpensive in the world of leatherworking tools. My favorite steel is the Pre-WWI era awl blade, so easy to polish up shiny and smooth, with a mirror finish. Makes a hole in sole bend leather like a hot knife in butter. From the bottom left, two Seiwas, then three Vergez Blanchards (small, medium, large), then three Pre-WW1 German steel awls, a scratch awl, cheapo Tandy blade, Pre-WW1 round awl, C.S. Osborne diamond shaped curved blade (anyone know how to sharpen this bad boy?) then the two really large Pre-WW1 German steel blades, not sharpened. They all make different shapes and sizes of holes, giving different stitch looks. YinTx

Some more progress today: got them glued up, started to get the edges burnished..and managed to get one to the completed stage. Using Horween Leather (light brown) and Wickett and Craig leather (dark brown). Comments/critiques welcome, and thanks for the tips. I don't have any clicking presses or edging machines, or staff for that matter, so all handwork. A bit slow going due to that. Maybe if I get orders for hundreds of these things, I'd go that route, but not just yet. have to walk before I can sprint in the Olympics. The Wickett and Craig didn't wrinkle when I folded it backwards, until I contact cemented two pieces together, then the results that you see occured. I think you are on to something that could help me out, but I'm not quite sure I'm clear on your description. What do you mean by putting several slicker lines top to bottom? And finally, just some shots of today's work.... Played around with some orange thread, I think its an ok color combo... YinTx

And all this time I thought it was me, have to strop that thing every 5 inches. Well, great, now I need another knife. lol. Thanks for the info, probably saving me a lot of frustration in the long run! YinTx

Yes, haha. took me two weeks to get to that point in the photo. Didn't even get to touch them today. Maybe tomorrow.... I was assuming making more than one thing at a time would speed things up.. the last one I made took me a little over a week to complete, so to get this many to this stage in 2 weeks seems to be a faster way to go. It is also a faster way to screw up more leather.... I had made two layer W&C bodies (for lack of a better term... the large back piece of leather that becomes the outside cover...) only to discover I didn't like the way they folded in half. So a lot of leather to waste. Ended up using 2oz W&C on the outside of the cover, and 1 oz Hermann Oak with black dye on the interior side, bonded with contact cement. looks much nicer, but sadly I have 2 square feet of W&C leather wasted.. not sure what I will use it for. Right now it's in the "Awwww dangit!!!! not again!! " pile. I have finished these, tho, Aussie... including the dark one on the left with the double layer of W&C for the outside of the wallet. You can see the wrinkles in the center. I want to make "T" pocket style card holders, but everyone wants this style.. drives me nuts. These are hard to make in comparison! YinTx

BTW, nothing to show off, just happy to have orders! YinTx

Finally seem to have hit on something folks like, so I have a couple of orders! Hooray..... now to get them made... YinTx

Well, anyhow, I got it in the right century. Ford and Toyota guy here, so 'course I wouldna picked it as a Chevy. Shoulda noted the rust. And I did like the wallet and write up, would like to see a less blurry image if you have it. YinTx

nice write up. enjoy the wallet. Looks distinctly like a '68 Ford pickup.

Thank you Skylark. Also, Capt., the black belt was done with Vinegaroon. No bleeding issues to be concerned with. I did a red belt, it has not bled at all. Or you could do the lining leather without dye, again no worries with bleeding. But I suspect it would discolor over time. YinTx

Thank you for that. I have seen folks learn how to get that look after stitching for a few weeks/months, me, it took nearly a year to figure out what made that look happen! In the interest of saving anyone else time, the essence is using the right type of pricking iron (European Slanted) and appropriately sized thread - if it's too big, the slant seems to go away. Of course, which needle in first/second, etc has an impact. I won't carry on, lots of folks have done videos, and tutorials, so I won't bore you with the finer details. Just sayin, took me long enough to figure it out, so don't feel bad. YinTx

Heh. No way I can finish a belt in one day. For me it is more like this: Cut blanks. Clean leather. Dye leather. set aside, go to sleep, go to work. Come home, put neatsfoot oil on leather. do other work, leave overnight while sleeping. Go to work. Come home, put leather conditioner/sealer on leather. do other work, leave overnight while sleeping. Go to work. Come home, punch buckle hole in leather. Skive ends. Dye buckle hole. do other work, leave overnight while sleeping. Go to work. Come home, mark stitch lines in keeper. Edge, sand and burnish keeper. Stitch keeper. Go to bed. Go to work. Come home, mark stitch lines in belt. Contact cement keeper into belt, contact cement back layer to belt. Leave overnight while sleeping. Its Saturday. Edge belt, sand, dye edges, burnish. Now, start stitching, 12-14 inches per hour hand stitching. Which, for a 44 inch belt is 88 inches of stitching, so 6-8 hours of uninterrupted work, which means usually Tuesday or so to be finished. I like the end result, but they do take a long time, and hard to sell one to make it worth my while. Maybe with practice and retirement I could make one in a couple of days! YinTx

Really informative and very detailed. Thank you for making this, I've been wanting to make a strap for some time, even have the buckles and all, but haven't had the nerve to start yet. Your video helped me think through some of the details. Much appreciated! YinTx