Of Wallets And Paints. Help?

[RNicholas]

Hello all!

This is my first post (how exciting)!

I've just started out with leather working and have done some Tandy kits. I'm fairly happy with the quality of the work so far (no pics yet, sorry), a few rookie mistakes. A small splash of die in the wrong place on one wallet and tiny little tooling imperfections. Anyway! I don't really like the Tandy wallet designs. Might be because I'm from Australia and we have different wallet culture... or it could be that Tandy kits are weird. So, I want to start making them from scratch so I can make what I want and feel some real pride in my work. I'm trying to find a pattern to use and/or learn from but I'm having a really hard time finding any decent ones. I'm happy to pay for one, I just can't find one. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm looking to make a bi-fold in the same vein as the pic I've attached (ignore the red arrow, not relevant).

The second part of my enquiry is about acrylic paints. I want to make a wallet that has a design painted on the front part (not near any bends) but I've heard that the paint can wear off pretty badly... On the other hand the paint manufacturers claim that their paints are fine on wallets. Does anyone have any advice about this? Should I just avoid it entirely or will it go fine if I put some finish over it?

Thanks in advance for your help,

R

[Ferg]

Years ago I painted on wallets etc. Haven't done it for a long time. The old paints Tandy sold for years, held up really well. Several on this forum do painting on their leather with great results. I will leave that part to them.

There are a number of You Tube videos on wallet making. View them, save them and view several times, think about it and view again. Access web sites Gucci, Cabela's, Coach, and many others. Study the way they made their product. I am not advocating copying per se. You can learn a lot about making leather goods from these folks without ever talking to anyone of them.

You need to use leather that doesn't exceed 1.5oz for the interiors. Edges need to be skived, preferably with a skiving machine but you can do it by hand.

Roll the edges of interior parts, stitch with #69 thread, #92 is too heavy. The outside of the wallets need to be about 3/8" to 1/2" longer than your interior.

Since you mentioned you are from Down Under, study the form wallets take in your area you wish to sell to. That doesn't mean what you prefer but what your potential buyers may want. There is often times considerable difference.

You should have access to some great Kangaroo leather. One of the finest leathers for wallets.

You will get other ideas from the folks on here.

ferg

[RNicholas]

Hello 50 years

Thanks so much for the quick and informative reply! Yes, I have a store called Packers Leather fairly nearby that are supposedly pretty famous for their kangaroo leather apparently (Used in all the indiana jones movies, according to their spiel). I only have 6-7 oz veg tanned tooling leather for the back and 1 - 1.5 oz pigskin lining leather for the lining (hence... lining leather... nevermind).

Also, I only have a stanley knife or a hobby knife for the purposes of skiving... will these work acceptibly? I've looked at the safety beveller from Tandy that is for skiving apparently (go figure from the name), would this work for skiving off the edges for a wallet?

Thanks again!

R

Edited April 5, 2013 by RNicholas

[Ferg]

A small round knife will work really well for skiving. I am afraid the knife/knives you have will make it difficult to skive.

Tandy has some skiving knives. They aren't great but are better than nothing. If you get one of them make it the angle blade.

The edge is ground so the "back" of the knife is flat, that goes next to the leather. If you don't have any scrap to practice on, get some or cut some of the rough edges from the veg tanned you have. Skiving by hand definitely takes practice.

Some of the pig skin is fairly stiff, make sure you use what is nice and soft for your lining. For a first try wallet use the pigskin as is. It will give you many ideas for the next one.

ferg