Advice Needed for Baseball Glove Wallets

[NeilMott]

Hey all.

I mainly make watch straps from baseball gloves.  Lately I've bought some really old gloves with logos of baseball players in action.  The logos are too big for a strap, so I thought about making wallets.  Unfortunately, I'm new to wallets.  So, after a lot of google'ing of designs, I tried to make a 3 pocket wallet.  I used some beat up glove parts from a catcher's mitt and some red Horween baseball glove leather.  I kinda threw it together to get a feel for it.  I did some things out of order and forgot a few things.  I was going to finish the edges with Tokonole after stitching, but I couldn't get my irons through the wallet since it was so thick (10mm).  

After looking at a number of designs, it seems the big issue is how thick glove leather is, which I found to be the case on my sample wallet.  I find glove leather to be 2-2.5mm thick.  So, either the wallet will be made of entirely glove and be small, or the wallet has a shell of baseball glove and the lining and other bits being new/normal leather.  

Recognizing that gloves don't provide a lot of leather, I'm hoping to have a small card wallet and one that's a bit bigger.  For both, I'd like to have some place to store bills.  For a money clip, I'd prefer to use this style:

Here are a couple designs that I like. 

http://www.leathercove.com/bifold-card-wallet-pattern-pdf/

https://fcgoods.com/collections/wallets/products/bifold-card-case-money-clip

Thanks in advance for your thoughts,

Neil

[NeilMott]

Hi again.

Hoping to gain some traction with some different questions. 

As I look more and more about how to put these together from small gloves, I'll probably need to do a french seam (felled seam) on some to piece parts together, and so a lining leather would look the best.  Plus, it's hard to get the flesh part of a glove really clean.  As far as thickness, what do you recommend?  One maker said 1 ounce leather, Walpier Buttero.  1 ounce seems pretty thin, but this guy makes a lot of them. 

As far as type of leather, some makers are using Steerhide.  I've got a few smaller sides of oil tan leather from Springfield in tan that may look the part as well.  Not sure if it'd be too stiff.  

Thanks,
Neil

[Tugadude]

I've made both straps and a card wallet from baseball gloves, so I do have some experience with this.  First of all, a catcher's mitt is probably going to have the thickest leather of all gloves for obvious reasons.  

Your wallet is way too thick.  As far as the irons penetrating through, one thing to try is to punch the pieces individually.  This takes patience, but is definitely doable.  In fact, Nigel Armitage did a video detailing his technique.

One alternative is to have the leather split so that it can be made thinner while still keeping the outer patina.  I don't know how practical that is for you in your situation, if you own a splitter or have access to someone that can do it for you, etc.  But it might be worth pursuing.  I'd hate to try and skive that leather given its flexibility.  Would seem to be a chore.

The card wallet I made used leather from a fielder's glove featuring Ken Griffey, Jr.'s signature.  I gifted it to my son-in-law who admired Junior.  It turned out very nice but I don't have any pictures to show of it unfortunately.  Maybe I can get some next time we're together.  If I remember correctly I used red 1.0mm thread on it and it worked really good with the tan color of the wallet.

[Tugadude]

9 hours ago, NeilMott said:

Hi again.

Hoping to gain some traction with some different questions. 

As I look more and more about how to put these together from small gloves, I'll probably need to do a french seam (felled seam) on some to piece parts together, and so a lining leather would look the best.  Plus, it's hard to get the flesh part of a glove really clean.  As far as thickness, what do you recommend?  One maker said 1 ounce leather, Walpier Buttero.  1 ounce seems pretty thin, but this guy makes a lot of them. 

As far as type of leather, some makers are using Steerhide.  I've got a few smaller sides of oil tan leather from Springfield in tan that may look the part as well.  Not sure if it'd be too stiff.  

Thanks,
Neil

I purchased some oil tan from Springfield years ago that I still have, waiting for the "right" project.  I bought it because it reminded me of baseball glove leather.  Same basic hand and a popular shade of tan.  You might call them and ask if they currently have anything similar to that.  And while you are at it, ask if they split leather for a price, I've never asked them.  I understand that Weaver and other vendors do.

1.0mm would be for lining and perhaps pockets, but I wouldn't use anything that thin for the outer shell.  There is no right or wrong and everybody has an opinion, but to me the goal should be to make the wallet as thin as possible while still maintaining strength and durability.  When you are going to fill something, why make it thick to begin with?  Just seems sensible to me that you'd want it to start out skinny and then get fatter as it is loaded.  But again, that's just me, you may have a different opinion.

Some skive just the outer edges of the wallet, giving it the appearance of being thinner than it actually is as a whole.  That's not a bad strategy and improves the appearance of the edges, makes it easier to stitch, etc.  But I found skiving easier said than done when it comes to used glove leather.  As you pointed out, the interior side is soft and fuzzy.  

In the end I think it comes down to balance.  Experiment until you find the right thicknesses to create the product you envision.  And when you have to compromise, err on the side of quality and durability.  That's what I'd do.

[NeilMott]

I think you hit on a couple great ideas to fall back on.  Glove leather makes a thick wallet.  I'd want to really be mindful of that.  I'd plan on using the glove for the outer shell, of a bifold wallet for instance, then line it with normal thin leather.  

As for skiving the edges and also for the french seam, I saw a baseball glove wallet maker use this type of skiver.  It is a pain to skive used glove leather to be sure!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/294552741372?epid=17019894518&hash=item4494b625fc:g:XncAAOSwXoRhk2PZ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8N88rBVyUSTaZveVBzGZQe7qJG7iKd%2BdRX3KJRlSmK%2BF99WD3f63P4jKKpxdEsKE5kPhfh7rDdbEMxFh9S7zFvnjP%2F4fUuYJo7ZZ8IuGrH6Ny1hDtIpbLknrrrCw300BEMv%2BVcnBiljvZgpddSza6214wLD97%2FkNP9uJl3vjXnwxpSzKdh653StLxTCBlPCj5NouuBX2ElW52yDJggREnEmFa6qsL2XVh8HbcSoc2p4UFSURyGPL%2FRMr9YwzRqN0k1hY1jMQbRaHtcR4js6%2F7HYcqfxfqa7uVbc2wN8DXod39%2B3WORBCwouXLs2BOT56BQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM-oS7oONg

I think this is a knock off the original Scharffix, which I think is around $300.  

Neil