Tandy Leather Expedition Briefcase Kit

[cjdevito]

I have that one, actually. As well as his 'Small Patterns Pack'. His instructions file in both cases is actually a very good walk through and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either.

I just wish there was more out there.

[Hooper26]

I'd hoped to snap some photos of the kit for you WScott over the weekend but I've been ill and just haven't found the time. I'll try to describe the gussets for you, though....

First, it's a double gusset. From front to back you have the front of the bag, then the first gusset, then a divider, then another gusset, then the back of the bag, then a full size pocket on the back of the bag. Each gusset is three pieces, two sides and a bottom. The sides pieces actually wrap around the bottom corners of the bag and cover a couple of inches of the bottom on either side. Then the bottom piece of the gusset attaches between them, and probably covers about 75% of the length of the bottom (with the reamining 25% being the wrap around ends of the side pieces).

As for an opinion on the overall kit, I'm not sure yet. Just as an FYI, counting straps and tabs there's over 30 pieces of leather in this box. It's a degree of complication far beyond anything else from Tandy I've seen. I think at this point my biggest reservation about the kit is that lots of slots and rivet holes are already cut, locking the purchaser into using the exact arrangement of straps and tabs and anchors that the kit intends (unless they're willing to cut other pieces of leather to duplicate the pattern parts without the slots etc). Most of that arrangement is fairly sensible, but I've noticed a few things I wouldn't have done on my own that I'll have to live with if I make the kit as-is. Chief amongst them is an alternate fastening point under the handle to turn the briefcase into a backpack; not a feature I'd ever use.

It does include a couple of tooling patterns. A fish (that doesn't appear at first glance to actually fit the dimensions of where it's supposed to go), a geometric design and a flaming skull. Because nothing says you're a professional like a flaming skull on your briefcase, I suppose

What's the quality of the leather like?

Here is a inexpensive pattern I found on the Internet via a Google Search:

http://www.bighoused...ttache_case.htm

Hope this helps.

Bob Stelmack

www.pslac.org

Thanks for the link. That bag looks really cool.

[WScott]

Thanks for that link !

[billymac814]

That's a nice looking pattern. I booked marked it in case I ever need it. Maybe there are more people selling patterns than I thought there were, ill have to look a bit more.

[BobOD]

I have a more basic question about this kit. Are the buckles shown on the front of the case actually used to open and close it or is there a different opening/closing mechanism hidden behind them? In other words, do you have to unbuckle two straps every time you want to get into it? I like the look of the case, but I would think that would get tedious quickly....

Bob

P.S. If anyone does have any more photos of this I'd be interested in seeing them. Thanks in advance.

[billymac814]

It sure looks like you have to unbuckle them to get into it. One could mount quick release buckles behind the straps though. This is done on a lot of saddle bags, it looks nice with the buckles but has the advantage of being quick to get into.

[cjdevito]

I have a more basic question about this kit. Are the buckles shown on the front of the case actually used to open and close it or is there a different opening/closing mechanism hidden behind them?

The buckles are actually used to open and close it, although it could be altered. As-is, though, the bag is designed with a sam browne stud in addition to the buckles... you could leave the buckles unfastened and just fasten the stud. There's also a full size pocket on the back you could use for things you want to get at quickly without having to go through the hassle of opening the buckles each time you need to access them.

[BobOD]

Thanks. Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Sam Browne stud? Also, is the pocket in the back big enough (and protected enough) for a notebook?

[cjdevito]

Sam Browne stud:

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/product/sam-browne-buttons-washers-1309-057.aspx

The round stud goes through a slotted hole in a leather strap, slipping it in and out fastens and unfastens. If you look at the briefcase photo, the small middle strap between the two buckle straps is secured with a sam browne stud.

Not sure offhand as to the actual pocket dimensions, but it's big. It runs the full width of the bag and about 2/3rds of it's height. As to how protected it is, it's an open pocket of mid-weight veg tan (the pocket is the same weight as the bag back).

[Grandpa]

I thought the kit was quite pricey too so I'm embarking upon my first scratch project, that being a shoulder bag and a portfolio to hold a tablet - instead of a briefcase - even though I'm retired<G>. I found two really nice pieces of leather big enough for both projects for $25ea @ my local Tandy, plus plenty left over to make a two piece strap and some other projects. I love oak leaves so I'm using two patterns from Stolhman's Vol 1 design book (by Peter Main) of tracing patterns for oak leaves, flowers, roses & scrolls. One for the portfolio face and the other a larger pattern for the shoulder bag face.

The portfolio will have a large squirrel inside the perimeter pattern (my first wildlife image too) so I've been practicing on wildlife using some really good books on the subject. So far so good! The squirrel came from pics I found searching the Internet. I hesitant to do a basket weave on the backside because my last attempt at basket weave really stunk, but with practice... It will be lined and have a pocket flap for papers to lie under like portfolio's do. I intend to lace its perimeter w/ regular 1/8" or 3/32" contrasting colored lacing material. The portfolio will open 180º to lie flat and I'll thin that using a palm sander instead of grooving it, what was recommended for being a better means for a folding portfolio. I'll thin the perimeter some too so it'll be easier to lace because its thinner and hopefully will make the leaves and squirrel pop out a bit.

The shoulder bags front flap will have another oak leaf surround, but larger, and some wildlife form inside of it, a different squirrel, or an elk, bear or moose - still contemplating. I may make the flap of thinner material than the body of the bag so its flexible and easily lifted, but who knows for sure on that yet. This use a 5/32" contrasting colored latigo on it, probably laced instead of whipped.

Yes, ambitious for sure, especially for me, but I've given it a lot of thought & figure it's time to bite the bullet. I've done enough kits I want to freelance a bit, and I'm getting a lot of encouragement and ideas from my local Tandy guy. I figure when all is said and done my total investment in materials for both the bag and portfolio will be under $100 which is worthwhile IMO.

Just as a point of interest, I have no connection to Tandy. I'm just a Grandpa that really enjoys the hobby, have made all my grand kids several items, purses, belts, wallets, journals etc & now want to try something different before the big dirt nap arrives as I'm for sure not getting any younger.

[WScott]

Make sure you post some pictures of your project for us to see...maybe even some design and work in progress stuff.

It is cool seeing how others attack a project on their own and it sounds great!

[sepharad]

I built a Horizontal Courier bag. The leather was quite good veg tan, not thin or stiff. stitching is wide. The instructions are quite good. What is missing, is a pattern. Tandy does not include one, nor can you buy just a pattern. Also, while it goes together quite well, there are some oddities of design, I believe primarily to use smaller, a more packageable product. The body of the bag is made of 4 short panels instead of 2 longer ones. While I would prefer to build my own from scratch, like many people I am not comfortable with laying out my own pattern.

There is a sad shortage of full sized patterns on the market. I have stolmans volume one and am enjoying it.

Currently I am seeking decent full sized patterns for Central asian, mongol, tatar/turkish quivers.

Sepharad

[FoamerAce]

Hi all. I'm new to leatherworking, and very new to this site. In fact, this is my first (hopefully of many) post. I usually do kits because cutting from whole cow is three times the work with almost no added fun. I just did the expedition briefcase. I customized it with lining and pockets. I think it came out great. Have a look

The leather that came with the kit is the best I've worked with. 3mm and carves like butter. The holes are "big" but that was more of a feature than a bug given the way the gussets are folded and stitched in. I don't think there's any way you could use double needle technique on this.

If there's any interest, I'll tell you more about how I made it, suggestions, and issues with the instructions.

Edited February 22, 2014 by FoamerAce

[VanDutch]

Hey guys.

You can get some patterns cheaply from this Etsy site..

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/LZpattern

[Ferdinand]

Hi all. I'm new to leatherworking, and very new to this site. In fact, this is my first (hopefully of many) post. I usually do kits because cutting from whole cow is three times the work with almost no added fun. I just did the expedition briefcase. I customized it with lining and pockets. I think it came out great. Have a look

The leather that came with the kit is the best I've worked with. 3mm and carves like butter. The holes are "big" but that was more of a feature than a bug given the way the gussets are folded and stitched in. I don't think there's any way you could use double needle technique on this.

If there's any interest, I'll tell you more about how I made it, suggestions, and issues with the instructions.

Looks great! Nice work.

[FoamerAce]

Update:

After one month's use, a rivet popped out. When carried by the handle, the full weight is held by only two rivets and one let go. Could be I didn't set it properly. Could also be the rivets aren't quite long enough. But it's definitely the case that it's not designed well. It would be straight forward to add some stitching along side the handle rivets. Those are the only two that are being pulled apart from normal use. Unfortunately my customer is on the other side of the country. Fortunately setting rivets is easy to do, and that one is accessible.

I mailed him an anvil and setter along with a couple rivets and gave him a link to a YouTube. Hopefully all will be well. If it pops loose again he'll have to send it back and I'll add the stitching. On the bright side, he tells me he is otherwise very pleased with the bag. He carries it to work every day and gets frequent complements.

[Redochre]

The Nigel Armitage Messenger Bag is a really good pattern & it comes with a video.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Redochre

[leathervan]

What I do is pound the rivets flat so they sure and catch right. If it is done right there are no marks on the rivet head. Otherwise I am never quite sure wether it will hold or not. In my view a flat headed rivet looks just as good as a domed head on a rivet. But maybe it looks more machine made that way, I don't know. A rivet popping out has happened to me before also and it is frustrating and embarrassing sometimes. Actually a Chicago screw would probably be better in those places where there is a lot of stress.

[leathervan]

How did you attach your lining. Cement? It looks great and I am anxious to try it. My problem with the expedition kit is when I tried to put some stain on it the result was it got all smudgy so I did the whole thing with a smudgy look to it but it doesn't look too bad that way. I wish I had a pic but can't upload one right now.

[FoamerAce]

Yes I used cement to hold the lining. I don't know how well that worked. I put it on the leather and let it get tacky. Then I carefully laid the lining on and pressed it down with a piece of 1" PVC used like a rolling pin. I applied more cement around the edges to be sure they were fixed good and strong. Then I trimmed off the excess. The thing is, in some places it didn't stick at all, and in others it soaked through the fabric. Where it soaked through it got discolored. I rubbed it where it was soaked after a few days to dry, but with only partial results. When the lid is closed the lining crinkles up where it isn't stuck to the leather.

My stain started out looking smudgy, but I kept applying Dr. Jackson's Hide Rejuvenator, especially to the dark areas, and it evened out quite a bit as the oils worked through the leather. The other thing is there's four or five coats of finish on there with a good buffing, which always removed pigment, after each coat. A word about Tandy's Waterstain, it's a good idea to dampen the leather when applying it. I didn't do this for the one piece that gets covered by the rear pocket and it looked like ass.

[sepharad]

The design is great.

The leather is miserable and my top grain is lifting like alligator skin, along stitch stress points.

The instructions are miserable after step 12 and I am having to tear it apart to reassemble. Just a few extra, exploded images could do a lot to fix this. There may be an online video in the future by the designer.

Typical Tandy giant stitch holes, good for beginner.

Basically, buy it, trace the pattern pieces and use good leather, replace the stitching holes with smaller spacing using an iron, replace the giant thread with something quality like Barbour linen or Hungarian linen from Campbell machine.

This is a really Nice design and the fellow who designed it did good job. He needed to give it to 2 or three people to see where they could not follow his directions to iron that part out.

[mtroyalguy]

I made the bag. The picture on the box was more use for the final steps than the instructions were. And the first time I tried to use the bag the rivets popped on the shoulder strap and then on the handle when I tried to use that. But at least I have a nice pattern now.

[CyLee]

The kits are great jumping off points for newbies. I bought half a dozen of those expedition bags when they were on sale for 99.00 last year or earlier this year. I figure they will be great gifts for foster kids or college students with financial hardships. I love teaching others leather crafting despite having plenty more to learn myself. Having these kits allows some to be inspired to create their own design or simply have something hand made that is precious to them. The giant holes though... I loathe those.

[robertmeco]

The kits are great jumping off points for newbies. I bought half a dozen of those expedition bags when they were on sale for 99.00 last year or earlier this year. I figure they will be great gifts for foster kids or college students with financial hardships. I love teaching others leather crafting despite having plenty more to learn myself. Having these kits allows some to be inspired to create their own design or simply have something hand made that is precious to them. The giant holes though... I loathe those.

They are also great to copy and use for patterns

[Musa1989]

Awesome thread,

I definitely joined the right sight when it comes to answers and opinions of people who have actual experience in this field.  I built one of these bags recently as an exercise with the plans on copying the pattern pieces and warping them into something I like better.  To be honest I am not happy with how mine came out.  The fish stencil they provide looked like a good idea, but now I have a massive fish I didn't tool well on the front leather panel.  Otherwise, I am not fond of the simple two pocket interior which I find rather narrow.  I will post pictures when i figure that out.

For those of you looking to buy this pack, I think it is a good starting point as many have said, but I would like to point out a few issues that everyone has touched on but no one really discussed in detail.  

1) the rivets are one size, medium apparently, and the manager at a nearby Tandy even mentioned they are kind of a generic item with little thought being put into the variation of leather thicknesses and the effect that has on rivets.  and thus the rivets pop out all over the place.  She alluded this was a poor kit design flaw that I went through as did many others, popped rivets on a finished product.

2) have some curved needles on hand, or heat and bend some like I did to my Osborne saddlers /harness needles.  Well worth it for the gussets.  Also this ties into how much attention you need to pay to what you are doing in sections 12 and 13.  These sections should have instructed you to hold the interior panel over the back or front and count how many holes it will sit bellow the tops of either.  6 not including the rivet hole or the start of the thread.

3) The holes in this project are large, enough so for a saddle stitch and then some.  When coupled with the absurdly thick Tandy thread this isn't a problem.  I also ran out of thread which came in this project which I thought was maybe my doing but I am doubting that.  I wound up using some black tiger thread in 1mm I just got offline.  stuff lays out amazingly as usual.  

4) several of the members mentioned the handle is a weak point.  I noticed that from the get-go and reinforced mine with my own large rivets and some .080" thick Kydex at 1" wide by long enough for about 1/2" over hang on both ends beyond the last rivets.  I tested the bag out with heavy books first and the handle feels like any professional bag I have carried with no sag and complete load share.  just my two cents on that.

 

I really like what a few of the members here have done with this kit, or the basic Idea that was this kit.  @ FoamerAce, I really like your interior.  How did you do the pockets on the inside?  I was thinking about doing something like that and making one of the compartments larger by another half of their original depth but thought to construct the basic bag first.  I actually have some nice harness leather from Wickett and Craig that I decided to use for the next bag.   Really would like to do something like FoamerAce did and line it + add pockets inside and out side on the front with a second panel.   I plan to use some Kydex as stiffeners and protectors for key items.  Any thoughts you guys have would be appreciated.

 

I am especially interested in the lining techniques used; FoamerAce did you use some fabric textile cloth for yours?  how does that hold up over time?  I really like the idea of an inside sleeve for an Ipad/ macbook.  

 

Overall I like the general aethetic of the bag, but feel it needs some updates to be competitive with it's modern enviorment.  I like some functions but at the same time dislike it's limitations.  Tandy, as usual, has a great idea that they executed on a level maybe not as great as the idea itself.