LeatherCritic Report post Posted February 5, 2019 I was curious if anyone had any input on weights for a laptop bag / briefcase. I have a decent amount of 4/5oz shoulders and double shoulders on hand and a limited amount of 6/7oz usable material. This left me curious about a few different options: Would a 4/5oz 15" laptop back be sturdy enough alone? What if the gussets were semi-hardened? And is it possible to do so without leather stiffener? For instance, would a wet wash be enough? What about a combination of 6/7oz for the gussets and 4/5oz for the front/rear panels? How about doubling up 4/5oz (back-to-back) to make 8/10oz? — sounds thick and like it might require a lot of stitching Anyhow, I'm interested to see the responses as I've been watching YouTube videos and reading these forums for months, but haven't taken on a project this big yet. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VYO Report post Posted February 5, 2019 I'm not an expert on this topic for sure but one thing I think will make a difference is the firmness of the leather. I personally wouldn't do 4oz for a laptop bag. A very firm 5 - 5.5 ounce I might try. An expert will probably come along soon enough to help more with this question. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LeatherCritic Report post Posted February 5, 2019 Yeah As I understand it, even 6/7oz might be a little weak, but plenty of people are making messenger bags or laptop bags out of it that seem fairly firm. I was thinking the shoulder pieces have a little less "give" , so I might be able to get away with it at 4/5oz, using water for a little hardening of the gussets and then adding more denatured alcohol to the dye to stiffen it up even more. And it'd be a 3-piece gussets, not a unibody. I thought the gussets would be my main concern, since they seem like they're more of the backbone of the bag and the panels just need to attach to them, but I don't know. Matching a 6/7oz gusset to a 4/5oz panel seemed like an interesting experiment too and perhaps one that might reduce the overall weight of the bag without sacrificing much else (and also reducing costs). Thanks for your feedback! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Retswerb Report post Posted February 5, 2019 Subscribing to hear others’ feedback too. I know I always tend to mistrust the leather and think it needs to be thicker than it actually does. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
