First Leatherpiece Ever

[Kaff]

Hi!

So I just ordered a set of tools to start leathercrafting. For ages I've been wanting to try and make a leather wallet and to some it may seem like a difficult first project, but I'm all about learning by doing and I don't feel like practicing on something pointless. If this doesn't come out the way I want, I'll take it as a learning experience (+ I got the materials cheap).

My goal is to make a trifold wallet, featuring one bill pocket, one coin pocket with a button, 3-4 card slots and a random slot behind the coin pocket. The only material I have for this is about 2mm thick (I think that's 5oz..?) veg tanned leather, I've noticed that wallets are usually made out of different weight pieces, but I'll just go with this. First few (dumb) questions for you with more experience:

1. If I'm making a foldable piece out of two sewn together layers, can I just sew them flat and the leather will form to the folds over time, or do the folds need wetforming, stitching folded or anything like that?

2. Can I use a grooving tool on my stitches with 5oz leather, or will the groove make the material too thin? are there alternatives for protecting the thread with thinner leathers?

3. I didn't order glue since (and this might sound silly) the more "natural" the product will be, the more pleased I am with it. Do you think stitching a wallet without gluing the seams is just plain dumb?

4. When stitching the card-slots, how mutch space should there be between the card edge and the stitch in order for the card to have a good fit (not too loose, but not so tight the missus will break fingernails trying to rip the Visa out)

That's it for now, hope you'll answer some of these. I'll post my progress here as soon as I get something done..

Edited November 9, 2011 by Kaff

[Kaff]

Since I didn't recieve any answers to my previous post, I decided to try the "trial and error"-method .

I spend a good day designing the wallet, since I didn't have any schematics nor did I wan't to use anyone elses, to make sure all the necessary items would actually fit in. As a mechanical engineer, I naturally made accurate CAD-drawings of each piece so I can print more templates or make modifications to them if the prototype sucks. I tried to make it as simple as possible, it now consists of 7 pieces of leather. I've now cut the pieces using a cheap ex-act-o -knife, which was a task in itself (note: shopping list) and made a few seams also. I have a hole-marker, that makes the holes about 3mm apart from each other.

The first issue seems to be the thread (note: shopping list), I have bought waxed thread but I think it's too thick for my purpose - I took a piece of it apart, and it seems to be braided from 5 strands (twisted 2 + twisted 3) - I think I'll try to to separate the bundle of three strands from it and try how that goes. The thread thickness made the holes dangerously close to each other with 3mm spacing. I did one seam with 6mm spacing and that seemed to work better with the 5-strand thread, althogh started to "pull" the 4,25 oz leather. My conclusion : thick thread with 6mm spacing might work with more heavy leather, for this leather, I need thinner thread and 3mm spacing.

The second issue is with my owl (note: shopping list), which is round (and cheap). I have now had to make the holes large enough for the thick thread to go through, and thay look awful on the finished stitch. A diamond shape owl might work better.

So it seems this first piece is going to be somewhat a frankenstein, with all the different methods and equipment I'm testing but hopefully, I'll learn a bit in the process. I'm also going to finish this wallet to see if I need to make adjustments to version two. The whole wallet takes about a squarefeet of 4,25oz leather so it's not a too expencive prototype.

Shopping list:

- A diamond shaped owl

- Thinner thread

- MATERIALS FOR A STITCHING PONY!!

[reddevil76]

Hi Kaff, you are right. You do need thinner thread. I can't point you in the right direction as I buy mine from a local cobbler, and he calls it 0.8mm waxed thread. But in US based online stores, they all use different references for sizing, so I have no idea what size (in US terms) to advise you.

Since you are making a wallet, there is no "strength" issues as opposed to say, a saddle. So you might consider skipping the traditional awl method and use a stitching chisel to speed things up. Tandy has a new line of Pro-line stitching chisels. If you wish to go for better ones from Japan, try www.goodsjapan.jp

5 oz is abit thick. I use 3-4oz for wallets, and still have a good 0.5 inch thick wallet end of the day. Luckily I only make biker wallets and not ladies wallets. I am still trying to see how to make ladies wallets without modern machinery. For factories, they have machines to fold very thin leather over cloth linings, so they can keep the wallets thin. If I try doing that with hands, I'm sure I will end up with very skewed pieces that are difficult to assemble.

One more thing is the card slots. On areas where the pieces of leather overlaps, you need them very thin. When I first started, I used a safety beveler from Tandy to get them down to about 2 oz. But it is very hard work. I have since bought a splitter.

If you don't thin it down, it will be a mammoth. Try taking 4 pieces of 5 oz leather, stack them up with 4 cards and see how thick the whole thing is and you get the idea. In commercial wallets, overlap areas are actually made from cloth.

[Kaff]

Thanks for your comment reddevil76, I've seen your work and it's very similar to the style I'm aiming for. You're right about the cardslots, however the leather I'm working with is not exactly 5 oz but closer to 4 oz (1,5mm-18mm) and I don't feel like it's too thick with three cards - I like bulky heavyweight wallets, just a personal preference but not everyones cup of tea. With longwallets the thickness might become an issue.

Anyways, I finished the prototype, and while the design will go back to the drawing board, it's not a complete failure. The stitching isn't all that bad as I foind some thinner (and sadly, synthetic) thread which is much easier to work with. Also all the things I designed it for fit inside, though they could use more room. I tried burnishing the edges with beeswax and a wooden axle I found, but can't seem to get that glossy finish. There's no glue on the seams so some of them do not burnish properly as they "crack" when opening/closing the wallet.

Some pictures of my first leatherwork ever, not bad for a fist try but there's still plenty to learn.

[reddevil76]

Looking good.