Green And Taupe Bifold Wallet

[Petewon]

Yeah Im in the UK.

[Django57]

Same here , up in the cold north Lancashire , just wondered where if anywhere in UK you've been sourcing your leather ? they all seem to be based round Northampton , i went to A & A Crack amazing amount of hides of all types worth a look at their website if you haven't already.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Django57

[Petewon]

Haha even colder up here in Newcastle

Yeah I've had a few samples from AAcrack but never placed and order. I wasn't sure on the prices.

I live about 3 mile from LePrevo so can get in and look at the leather in person, which is allways nice. I got a nice black calf hide from there yesterday for £20.

Have you been to Neumanns in Bury? I popped in last year to see what they had and it's definatly worth a look depending on what you are after.

http://www.neumannleathers.com/

[DavidL]

what grit paper do you use on edges? Does your sandpaper grit get higher after each coat?

[Django57]

That's handy being near Le Prevo i bought my first lot of tools from them , i've had a few samples from different places the one i'm going to try is Dickens Bros they have some nice leather and good prices worth a look also quite thin 0.8mm upwards , also when i feel confident i might get some Horween from Clayton , i have bought some Goat hide from Alran but i've struggled with the stitching as it's very pliable and i cant bare to look at my stitching if it's not straight.

http://www.dickensbrothers.co.uk/index.php?webpage=standardproducts

PS I thought Neumanns was mainly upholstery leather ?

Edited August 1, 2015 by Django57

[Petewon]

Hi Dave, If the edge is really rough I'll start with a P240 and move down to a P400. Ninety nine percent of the time though I don't need anything too coarse so will just go straight for the P400.

[Petewon]

That's handy being near Le Prevo i bought my first lot of tools from them , i've had a few samples from different places the one i'm going to try is Dickens Bros they have some nice leather and good prices worth a look also quite thin 0.8mm upwards , also when i feel confident i might get some Horween from Clayton , i have bought some Goat hide from Alran but i've struggled with the stitching as it's very pliable and i cant bare to look at my stitching if it's not straight.

http://www.dickensbrothers.co.uk/index.php?webpage=standardproducts

PS I thought Neumanns was mainly upholstery leather ?

Yeah I found it to be a lot of upholstery stuff but I did manage to get a few bits and bobs. I was more interested in natural looking thicker leathers at the time so wouldnt mind popping back down to see if they have anything thinner for wallets.

Cheers for the link, I've been meaning to get down to Northampton for a while.

I'd be intersted to see some pics of your stitching. Might be able to lend a few pointers, not that mines great but it's allways good to get some input.

[Django57]

My apologies for hijacking your great post but it does link to the same goat leather stretching it a bit i now .

Edited August 1, 2015 by Django57

[Petewon]

I dont see a problem with that. What thread is it? Are you punching all the way through or using an awl?

[Django57]

I've used Fil Au Chinois 632 as at the moment it's all i have but i intend getting the Retors you recommended thanks by the way for the link to the ebay site . I did punch all the way through and used awl if necessary but i seemed to have drifted of line on the back side no photos as it winds me up too much , i must not be having the pricking iron vertical on every punch more practice i know but as this thread isn't cheap i need to be more careful .

[Petewon]

Yeah the back stitch can be a propblem if you dont punch perfectly vertical. You also need to make sure the edge is perfectly verticle, if its not verticle and your punch is, your stitch it will not be parralell with the edge. I use either a 45mm roller cutter or Olfa BTC1 to cut my edges now. I find it easier to get 90 degree edge with these.

[Django57]

Good tip on the Olfa i'll look into that, appreciate that info .

[DR80]

Thanks. I dont turn the top, I just skive the back layer towards the top a little and attach a second strip to give the appearance of it being turned. Although I probably should be turning it I just find it much easier this way. I like to be able to trim the top edge after it is attached to get it as straight as possible and I also find it easier to edge paint on a flat/square edge.

The front panel is one layer but its actually facing backwards, I use a narrower strip of leather, skived down which overlaps (sits behind) the pockets by about an inch. This adds strength to the centre section (between the pockets) and also looks a lot better when looking inside the wallet. Quite hard to explain but I've added some pictures below. Funny enough I just worked this out myeslf and it seemed an odd way to do it but looked good. I've just picked up a few books on wallet making and they used exactly the same process. I was quite pleased with myself

Here is a link to the Au Chinois, this is UK based so not sure if they ship US.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sajou-Vintage-Style-Fil-au-Chinoise-Waxed-Linen-Thread-Capsules-Modern-Colours-/281259776112?var=&hash=item417c639870

Thnak you Thor.

I've had a few people ask 'why the gap?'. No real reason except for it gives me larger scope for error.

I've not been doing this very long and still learning, I dont use any templates for my work, everything is measured and cut as I'm doing it so I tend to cut things bigger (so I can trim down) or leave a few gaps where stitches should join to give me that buffer for error.

I really need to spend a bit time drawing up some tempates, I think it would speed things up a lot.

Do you mind sharing what books you bought?

[Petewon]

Do you mind sharing what books you bought?

Sure, I picked a few books from Goods Japan. There are printed in Jpanese but easily understood from the pictures if you dont read Japanese. They have patterns too but they are not to scale, you can translate to scale with some easy maths.