borjaider Report post Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Hello everyone! I'm rather new around here, and after reading a bit and getting some practice with spare leather pieces I decided to begin the real work by making a simple wallet. I'd like to show all the steps here to help other beginners like me and, more importantly, ask doubts to all the kind, handsome, wise and experienced craftsmen around :-) 1 - Choices, choices... I found a simple and nice folding wallet that I liked at a shop in my neighborhood. After silently staring at it like a lunatic for about 45 minutes I made a little sketch : 1.1-Material I'm on a mariana-trench-level budget but I got some ok scraps from a tanner (Is that how it's called?? Where they sell leather hides?? :-S ), some black ones and a big beige piece. No idea of the animal or type, but they'll do right now :-) It's not a very thick material so I won't be sewing by hand, but by machine. I'll try to follow this type of process: That means skiving the leather to finish the sides, either with a hand tool or using a dremel. QUESTION: In the video they use "water based glue". Any idea of which could that be? I'll be using a regular one that I can find easily, anyway. FABRIC: Should I use cotton, nylon, polyester...? All the wallets I've looked into seem to have some kind of nylon fabric. Next steps: drawing the pattern (using autocad), uploading some photos of the leather. Edited January 23, 2015 by borjaider Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littlewalnut Report post Posted January 24, 2015 As a newbie who just bought a piece of leather far beyond my true abilities, I would also like to know the answer to this! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
borjaider Report post Posted January 26, 2015 I found a very nice video about this. The leather looks too thick to me, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mHnZE-8d9o Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Blea Report post Posted February 4, 2015 Hello and welcome, I will try to answer your questions as best I can. I wouldn't recommend trying to skive leather with a Dremel tool, especially if it's very thin leather. Too easy for it to catch on the bit and get torn up. I would recommend using a knife and for thin leather even that takes some patience, skill and a very sharp knife. Best to practice on some scrap first. For water based glues, there is an advertiser here, Lisa Sorrell, who sells a line of water based glue but I've never used them. She is a very well known boot maker so if she uses them they must be good. For a fabric Nylon would be a good choice. It would handle wear well. And I agree with you, the Horween wallet looks kind of thick compared to the wallet in your first video. It's just a different style and some people prefer this kind of wallet. Hope this helps, Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
borjaider Report post Posted February 6, 2015 Thank you Bob! It's a bit help. I'll ditch the dremel idea by now then... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
