JoeSnuffie

She actually came to my man room and handed them to me. Honest! I swear they were freely given. Each one is about 15 feet long so there is a lot to work with.

Sorry, I've been out for a couple weeks. Camerius, that is the seller I have been using. I've ordered 3 times now and am very pleased with my orders. JohnD,I've never used Tiger Thread but someone who has used both mentioned once that the Chinese thread stretches more and they wouldn't use it for things like horse tack where a little stretch would be a big problem. I'm using it for wallets, small bags, sheaths, bracelets, etc., and it's perfect for me.

I use Weldwood contact cement and once applied properly, fabric or another piece of leather is stuck. You need to make sure the flesh side is smooth, though, without a lot of fuzz. Once cured, pulling the pieces apart, more often than not, will tear either the fabric or the leather. It's often a bond that's stronger than the material you're gluing together. There are probably plenty of ways to lay out the fabric lining and taking apart commercial wallets will give you some ideas. I make taco shell like pieces and glue them in place for each pocket. You glue one side above and one below the slot and it hangs down. I glue the 'back' of the pocket first - this is the piece that glues above the cut. After this cures I glue the 'front' of the pocket - this is the piece that glues below the cut and glues on top of the 'back' piece on the slot below it. I do it this way because a cheap Chinese wallet I once bought was assembled in a similar manner. Make sure you use a fabric not prone to fraying. Suit lining material can be found that's really classy looking and I also use sari's that my wife donated to my hobby. She wears these in weddings and never wears them again. This is enough fabric to make thousands of wallet liners I'm sure.

How large a piece do you need to split? I do long strips of soft leather with a belt sander. The safety skiver works and I've used it on wallet shells successfully, but my hands were sore when I finished. I've had a lot better luck with a round knife but I just got a splitter and I won't be wearing out my hands like that again.

I really like how you did the buckle.

I'm not aware of any product like this. All snaps I came across in the Army needed to be blackened from tint to time and all of my holsters with regular use have wear on the snaps as well.

Very nice. I prefer a thicker thread like you used. For wallets I use 7.5 SPI with .8mm flat braided thread. The only thing I'd change is the thread color. I'd use a slightly off white color. Bright white makes me nervous, like I'm going to get something dirty on it and ruin the look. But that's just personal preference and if you and the person paying for it like it, then it's the perfect color. I've used many color combinations that I think are bad but the person with the cash overrides my opinions.

75% of my cuts are straight and the curved cuts I do are pretty mild, consisting of bag and case flaps and and the curve in wallet pockets. I don't think I'd be able to manage sharp curves with it but I'm not a pro and don't have experience.

This is a pretty common style but I've only seen shiny, decorative pieces. I often see then called 'Fold Over' clasp or buckle. I make a lot of bracelets and see these a lot, though I've never used one. https://www.google.com/search?q=fold+over+clasp

I get a bit of a craft glue smell from it. I wonder if there's a study that tells what our impressions of the smell reveals about us. Also, I haven't used super shene as a finish in a few years. However, I use it at least one a week to reinforce the hole for a Sam Browne button. Makes it snap it pretty securely and lasts a long time, more than a year on a daily use bracelet.

I've been using 0.8mm from China that's similar to Tiger. Less than $10 shipped per 250m spool and discounts for buying more. It just takes a couple weeks for delivery.

I just got my splitter and have only had to sharpen it twice. I haven't had to hone it yet but if you do, just be careful to keep the same angle if you can. I just drag it over my strop a few times until it easily cuts hair again. Unless you hit it with a hammer the blade can be made sharp. I treat the blade like I do my straight razor.

I'm certainly no pro but this thing is perfect for me. It's the right length, width and the handle fits my hand. Might not be pretty, but it does the job well.

Since I can't afford to buy 15 sides of chrome and oil tanned leather, I buy scraps that yield 3 - 6 wallet shells each that only cost me $2 - $3 sqft. They're often too thick and I've been skiving them down to a good thickness by hand, and that isn't fun for anyone. I bought the Cowboy splitter knowing I'd have to tweak it, but I wasn't expecting it to be so easy. The first modification was a super high tech tension device that's fully adjustable and allows me to grip the leather with both hands. It's a bungee cord wrapped around the handle and attached to the bench with a screw. To tighten it, I just give it another wrap around the handle and I can pull it towards me to release the pressure and insert the leather. The second modification was brass shims that allow the steel roller to move a little more freely. I made the shims from 2 pieces of .45 Colt brass (seriously, is there any better way to shim a 'Cowboy' splitter?) The biggest problem when splitting the oil and chrome tanned leather is the grain side. It sticks to the roller and the roller shaft isn't free spinning. In less than a minute I had split about 1mm off of a 9x4 inch wallet shell. The picture shows the 'before' leather on top of the 'after' leather with the portion that was split off resting next to the 'before' piece.

I make long strips for wallet ID window borders by running calf skin over a belt sander with 120 grit belts. It goes pretty fast and it's easy to get a nice even thickness. I'm making them around 1/3 mm. The company where I buy my calf splits it to about .75mm and it's very consistent. I believe he uses the band saw style splitter.

I was going to buy one but I hate buying something I can make. My first try was with a stainless paint scraping knife but it didn't hold an edge for long. I ordered a 5.25" round industrial fabric cutting wheel made of high speed steel. With my dremel, belt sander, piece of steel and wood for a handle and tin solder to hold it together, I made a great round knife. It's perfect for me and that high speed steel blade gets as sharp as the straight razor I shave with and holds an edge for a long time. The fabric cutting wheel cost me $16 shipped and will make 2 or 3 round knives depending on the style you need.

You're right. I don't know why, but they don't list the goat as 'goat'. This is a link to one of the goat hides they sell.http://www.ebay.com/itm/310935126425

When I first made my knife I sliced the tips of my fingers a lot as I got used to it. I'm happy to report that there hasn't been any blood spilled in over a week.

I prefer mine because I can skive very easily with it and it's perfect for cutting out smaller thin pieces with straight lines, like wallet pieces. I mark the cut lines on the flesh side then place rock the round knife from one end to the other. This produces a straight cut without the dragging you sometimes get when dragging a blade.

Well I've never seen this site. I guess I was looking at the wrong book binding sites because these prices are really good. Thanks for the link!

I've bought a few hides from this seller http://www.ebay.com/usr/distantdrums. Considering the price of leather from book binding sources, this isn't too bad. I can usually get 4 - 5 wallets out of the sizes they sell after I work around the unusable parts, so it more than pays for itself. Even bad scars and marks can be hidden easily because most of the pieces are covered by another piece. You just have to make sure you plan ahead to hide scars. The other hides I've bought from ebay were never from the same seller twice. I just search and if it looks good I'd get it.

I use veg tanned goat and calf split to 1.25oz to 1.75oz fir interiors. I airbrush on the dye and it seems to often soak through the thin leather. The goat is pretty firm even that thin and will be a lot stronger than calf of the same thickness. The calf, while soft, isn't like garment leather and can hold some stamping, makers mark, creasing, etc. I get the goat from a variety of places but have settled on waterhouse leather for the calf skin because they split it at no cost and the price is fair. Not only does this give me the perfect thickness for the wallets I am making, but it makes the flesh side nice and clean.

It looks similar to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRh7Z5my2iQ

What you're describing sounds like it will work. For new designs, I usually end up trying and failing at least once before I get it right.

Thanks! The window is a material that's made for reports, proposals, documentation, etc. The kind you use with one of those binding machines that takes all the papers and puts them on plastic or metal rings. My company hasn't published paper documentation in a few years and we have stacks of this stuff. It's thicker than transparency sheets and seems to wear pretty well. The wallet I carry has an ID pocket on the outside made with this stuff and it's doing fine.