Black and Grey Chevre Bifold Wallet Build Journal

[Krittner]

Album: http://imgur.com/gallery/4xN94/new

Hey folks!

So as opposed to the last build journal I did here, this journal is a tale of the things that went right.  I'm really proud of how this wallet turned out and also, looking back, feeling good about where I'm going with this craft.

This wallet order came from a random Instagram user who emailed me looking for a bifold with an ID window.  We had a really nice, long email exchange consultation and finally landed on a variation of my usual design.  He wanted additional, decorative red stitching on the inner cash pocket and the wings.  I had recently done another Simple Wallet in something of the same scheme so I really liked where he was going.  

My goals for this build were to not repeat some of the mistakes of the last one, and to be more intentional about the application of my skills, specifically:

* Skiving...I wanted this wallet to be much thinner than my previous bifolds so I was going to spend extra time skiving things down.
* Edges...really wanted the edges to be clean, even, polished, and finished looking.
* Stitching.  I wanted to make sure all the stitching was clean and crisp.  

Cutting and basic construction was really quite clean and easy.  The creasing went much faster than usual (not sure why...I've been feeling very confident lately in that department so I may have just creased more intentionally).  The interior pocket edges were very fast, clean, and polished.  I was trying to pay particular attention to where I started and stopped on these edges especially at the bottom of the cash pocket as I would be merging the wax during the final wax polishing.

Once we got to skiving I applied the technique that Terrick over at Chartermade had taught me with his skiving knive.  Basically you flip the knife over, and use the corner edge to "trace" the skiving line away from you, and then slip the round edge into the traced line and pull it back towards you skiving the leather away.  Additionally he showed me how to feather the edges to make them even cleaner but just going back at the edge with the knife at a steeper angle.  I didn't get the edges quite as thin as I'd like (went from 1.2mm to .7mm) except on the pocket insert which I got down to .5mm.

 

We got started stitching the wing panels and the cash pocket and then looked really grand.  The client chose a black foil on black chevre for the logo (my favorite, very subtle in my opinion).  

Once we had all that done we glued the panels together and stitched our way into a wallet!  And it went really clean.  I felt this was some of my best awl work yet, and the extra thinness of the panels really helped.

Finally, the exterior edges, worked like a charm.  I was very focused on making sure the iron, wax, buffing, sandpaper were all going the same direction and, in the end, I'm really pleased with how these turned out.

[MADMAX22]

Looking really good Kritter. Real nice skiving knife ya got there also. 

[bob21804]

Very nice all the way around. Thumbs up!

[Reegesc]

Gorgeous work.

[Wild Bill46]

Great work !

 

[Bob Blea]

Very nice work, and thanks for the details on how you go about it.  Turned out great.