Making a bifold wallet (Updates with pictures during progress)

[Danne]

I'm making a bifold wallet with the dimensions to fit up to UK-currency (Maximum bill height 85mm)

I will update with some photos during the construction. I start with some drawings and a couple of photos, and will add a couple of more photos until it's finished. Ask if you have any questions. (Disclaimer: Self taught hobbyist, so construction methods are what works for me)

 

Some information about materials used.

 

Exterior leather: Black vegetable tanned semi-aniline

Interior leather and lining: Goat leather 

Structur material for pocket sections: (sandwished between top and lining) Freudenberg Vildona SH-1220

Edge paint: Fenice

Pricking irons: Ksblade 9spi/3mm

Awl: Modified Seiwa diamond awl

Thread: Xiange Twist #30 (0.38mm) or #35 (0.30mm) I haven't decided yet

Glue: Renia Aquilim 315 / Renia Syntic Total

Creaser: Regad F2, FN2

 

Drawing:

Printed template (Of the finished dimensions):

Card pockets cut:

Card pockets creased and painted:

Exterior lined:

Edited September 1, 2020 by Danne

[noobleather]

Nice work so far.

Looks very clean, thanks for sharing

[Danne]

Just now, noobleather said:

Nice work so far.

Looks very clean, thanks for sharing

Thank you.

[Retswerb]

This will be excellent as always, @Danne! Looking forward to seeing it come together. 

Hoping you show the use of the Freudenberg Vildona which I assume is interfacing, I’ve not used that on any of my own projects.

[RockyAussie]

Excellent planning and execution so far The lining looks maybe a smidgeon short perhaps. The credit card pockets are edged and ironed in to perfection and that is worth noting on those inner corners which would have been quite tricky.

[Danne]

11 minutes ago, Retswerb said:

This will be excellent as always, @Danne! Looking forward to seeing it come together. 

Hoping you show the use of the Freudenberg Vildona which I assume is interfacing, I’ve not used that on any of my own projects.

I think it's mostly used to avoid stretching in straps and belts. I'm not 100% certain but if you look at the Hermès watch straps video on Youtube I think it's the same material, but they call it Velodon. In this construction it's not used for reinforcement, since the construction is strong enough without reinforcement (No grain is skived on the pocket section) The white part you see in the included photo is Vildona (the white part will be trimmed away before assembled to the exterior) and the reason is only to give a little bit of structure to the top of the card sections, since the pocket sections are not connected to each other (Just like in my other versions of this wallet with vertical pockets, you can see them in brown/navy, black/orange in my earlier posts here. 

[Spyros]

Time to start doing videos maybe

[Danne]

13 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

Excellent planning and execution so far The lining looks maybe a smidgeon short perhaps. The credit card pockets are edged and ironed in to perfection and that is worth noting on those inner corners which would have been quite tricky.

Thank you, the lining is only glued at the edges, so making it longer would result in "bubble" in the lining when closed if I would make it longer. If fully glued to the exterior I wouldn't glue it at such a tight curve and the lining would be longer and it would "give" a little bit without creasing. It opens completely "flat" without problem, but I just glued it on that photo and I don't want to open it up more because it would cause stress on the fold before the glue have cured completely. 

Yes creasing with a regular iron is quite tricky on these pockets since I use a regular FN2-iron, but I tilt the iron on both short and long sections of the pocket to get a similar crease over the whole edge. 

And to answer the question why I only glue the edges of the lining. It's because the combination of veg tan with a lining tend to make the exterior very stiff if fully glued. 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Danne

[Danne]

@RockyAussie

Sent you two photos of my daily wallet with the same principe with only the edges glued. (I don't wan't to mix in photos from other wallets in this thread)

 

 

[Danne]

Skived some card pockets. The width is oversized for trimming so the skived ears will start exactly where my stitching holes are, which results in a slimmer edge but doesn't affect durability in this case. Sully have good enough tensile and tear strength to do like this on pocket "ears" 

Why do I make "T-pockets" instead of full "width" pockets? If it was just two pockets I would make them full width. But the weight of leather I use for pockets is 0.9mm and a full "width" pocket add bulk and even if the bottom is skived you will see the transition. If I had access to my own band knife splitter I would make my pockets lined and around 0.7mm thick and full width (and of course skive the transition so the edge stays thin.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Danne