Briefcase

[Johanna]

Posting this for our dear friend Harvey Lutske...wow

could you add the message below, too, so proper credit is given?? It’s amazing what you can do with good friends and good tools . . . in that order.

- - - - -

I did only the stamping. Construction and assembly was done by Mr. Bruce Johnson, who is a veterinarian by day, saddlemaker by night and, I suspect (although I have not seen it), he dons a cape at midnight. Without his help, I’d be posting another combcase.

I wanted to make a briefcase for my son, who’s going to school back east. He’s not Western-oriented, so I wanted a design that was conservative, smart, and business-like for NYC. This pattern was made with box stamp #123 from Wayne Jueschke. The case is 17" wide, and the backside pattern (11.5" x 15.5") is a solid block of the impression, There are close-ups of the impression in add’l postings, as – to my knowledge – only he makes this stamp: none of the other custom nor commercial toolmakers produce it. And it’s a very classy stamp. The briefcase pattern itself is one of Bruce’s, and inside on the bottom is a cushioned pad, so a laptop won’t receive hard landings. There are 4 feet on the bottom so the case doesn’t make contact directly with a ground surface.

I gotta say, it’s a pure pleasure to watch someone like Bruce in action, just moving from one step to another, as simple as eating chocolate pie. I consider myself lucky to have 3 primary mentors. For those of you out there who might be shy or reluctant, FIND YOURSELF somebody to take you to the next level. (Then, you can buy even MORE tools!!)

Harvey

Los Angeles

[anne newkold]

I have seen this in person, what an awesome job by both.

[Mike Craw]

Holy Crap! I have trouble lining up three consecutive geometric stamp impressions...

Great job.

Mike

[Doug C]

Great job to both Harvey and Bruce.

Anyone would be proud to carry that Brief case.

Oh and thanks for posting those pictures it's nice to see how some of you construct items. It learn alot from looking at pictures like these.

Doug

[rdb]

Just a Beauty to behold.

I love classic construction.

[wildland]

Very nice!!!!!!!!

The stamping must have taken a long time.

[MADMAX22]

Thats really really nice. I tell you all what, if I was tasked with putting that together from someone elses tooling work I would be sweating bullets lol.

[2MadJacks]

Amazing!!

[TinyL]

It's gorgeous!

[Grunt]

That's pretty awesome!

[K-Man]

Awesome work, on both accounts.

[Razz]

That is a stunning effect, beautiful.

My daugther as been asking me for a laptop case, never made a case before.

Will have to attempt, is the front and back just one peace of hide.

Always inspiring to see other peoples results.

Thanks.

Edited April 8, 2009 by Razz

[bruce johnson]

Very nice!!!!!!!!

The stamping must have taken a long time.

Actually the impressive part of this is that Harvey stamped all of this in one evening. He knows this stamp well, and is about as good with it as anyone is with a block stamp. The back is a section of this stamping also, in an area about 15x 11. He did it all using his 4# (yes, 64 oz of Barry King maul). He made anywhere from 2-4 hits per impression to get the corners even of this stamp.

[bigorange]

Man that workmanship is so good I can smell the leather all the way over here on the east coast!

[Rawhide]

Man that workmanship is so good I can smell the leather all the way over here on the east coast!

Bruce, What is the finish on this piece? Is it just oiled, or highligher and/or antique?

What's the topcoat?

[bruce johnson]

Marlon,

It was previously cased about 16 hours with the water/lexol/baby shampoo mix. The leather was oiled with a mix of NF oil and med brown ProDye that night right after stamping. No additional dye, antique, or Hiliter on this. The burnish came from using a stamp with some checkering and hitting a whopper maul. Not only can Harvey line this stamp up, he can swing that maul enough to get good even color and depth. The finish is Fiebings Leathersheen.

[JLincoln]

Nice work. I applied the same mentor theory and adopted a saddlemaker to help me develop my skill. Congratulations on a beautiful project.

[Rawhide]

Marlon,

It was previously cased about 16 hours with the water/lexol/baby shampoo mix. The leather was oiled with a mix of NF oil and med brown ProDye that night right after stamping. No additional dye, antique, or Hiliter on this. The burnish came from using a stamp with some checkering and hitting a whopper maul. Not only can Harvey line this stamp up, he can swing that maul enough to get good even color and depth. The finish is Fiebings Leathersheen.

Thanks Bruce... Your answer does bring up another question for me though...

I've tried to mix dye and nf oil and the dye tends to separate from the oil (kind of like oil and water). Could you elaborate on how you do this, and the roundabout ratio of dye to oil mixture?

Thanks...."drooling"!!!

[esantoro]

Harvey did a great job tooling and Bruce did an awesome job with the construction.

Bruce:

Did you pare the edges of the flap, back panel, and front panel to create an integrated binding? Very nice.

ed

[bruce johnson]

Harvey did a great job tooling and Bruce did an awesome job with the construction.

Bruce:

Did you pare the edges of the flap, back panel, and front panel to create an integrated binding? Very nice.

ed

Ed,

I'm not sure what an integrated binding is. I edge beveled with bisonettes. I applied some Ron's-like edge dressing and then some of my wax blend and slicked them on Norm's wood slicker on the drill press.

[jbird]

Wow amazing whats the middle divider made of just a piece of leather or whats happening there.

josh

[esantoro]

Ed,

I'm not sure what an integrated binding is. I edge beveled with bisonettes. I applied some Ron's-like edge dressing and then some of my wax blend and slicked them on Norm's wood slicker on the drill press.

Bruce,

It looks as if the flap has binding on the edges, but a separate binding leather hasn't been used. Instead, it looks as if you may have added extra width to the flap leather, skived about 1/2" all the way around, tucked in underneath the flap and stitched.

Ed

[bruce johnson]

Josh,

The divider is some oiled and finished 3 oz commercial oak from Siegels that we doubled over, glued, and stitched the bottom edge. That particular leather has some stiffness that I like for the divider and lining for these. The divider doesn't go quite to the bottom of the case inside. It lacks about 1/2" and that flexibilty makes it easier to reach in than if it was fastened firm at the bottom. I normally just put penloops on the divider, but have done custom ones with pockets for other stuff too.

Ed,

These are just simple glued up raw edges I edge beveled and slicked. The edge dressing and wax combo slicks the gusset leather as well.

[SteveBrambley]

That is very nice indeed! I particularly like the buckle/tucktight combination, I never thought of doing that!

Steve

[johnny7]

Beautiful job all the way around!!