First project - a wallet. Leather suggestions please.

[clivel]

I completed my first project a few weeks ago, a small wallet I could slip into my front pocket. I am fairly pleased with how it turned out, although the stitching did go a little funny in a few places.

As this was mainly to be a learning experience I  used the cheapest leather I could find at a local store - veg tan bellies. For the outside I used 1.6mm and 1.2mm for the inner card holder sleeves.
I dyed the leather with fiebing's light brown diluted 5 to 1 with rubbing alcohol, rubbed in using a piece of an old t-shirt. It took a couple of coats to get the depth of colour I wanted.  I then followed up by polishing with a few coats of a wax/oil mixture.

To me the finish looks quite good, even though the leather was described as low quality by the store clerk, and other than the rather furry flesh side, I am not too sure why he it is low quality. Which brings me to a question, I am ready for my next project, a more complicated wallet for a family member, bearing in mind that I am not going to tool it, what reason would there be for me not to continue with the belly and if not, what leather should I try instead.

Thanks,
Clive

 

 

[Mattsbagger]

The reason people don't like to use belly is that it is stretchy. The dye job looks nice. If it were me I would do a few more of the wallets just the same. And practice stitching and burnishing to nail down stitching and edges.  Then start with using a better leather. Better leather makes for better end projects. And it looks like your off to a real good start. Other people can give you better idea of "best" leathers to use.

[bland]

There are a couple of places on a belly that will stretch and become deformed on a project.  It is fine for many projects and doesn't break the bank to start out.  If you are not tooling the leather it opens up a lot of possibilities on what leather for you to use.  The sky is the limit on what to use.  Find the weight and temper you want and go to work.  

[clivel]

Thanks for the great advice Mattsbagger and bland. I think that I'll stick with belly until I have more experience.
Clive

 

[bikermutt07]

Last week Maverick had horween cxl bellies in black for 10 bucks a piece. You would have to do some splitting but that's a heck of a deal.

Edited February 21, 2017 by bikermutt07

[OLDNSLOW]

there is nothing wrong with the belly specially if a guy has a bunch of cash it'll stretch out to carry it and when its all gone it'll pull back in, but on the serious side it is because of the stretching that workers wont use it, except maybe a few saddle makers as there is a few spots where the leather needs to stretch when making a saddle.  but when you dye the belly section it will harden up like any other leather because you have drawn out more oils from it, so if you don't over oil after dyeing it might not return to a soft mushy state.  That's my take on it anyway and I am gonna stick to it.