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

[Danne]

Card pockets assembled:

Edited September 2, 2020 by Danne

[Spyros]

perfect.

[Danne]

2 minutes ago, Spyros said:

perfect.

Thanks. Did a typo. Card pockets are not finished yet, next step is to crease and paint edges. But they are assembled

[Spyros]

your unpainted edges probably look better than my painted ones LOL

[Danne]

2 minutes ago, Spyros said:

your unpainted edges probably look better than my painted ones LOL

Your edges would probably look just as good or better if you spent the time i've spent practice edge painting

[RockyAussie]

That is some unbelievably great skiving shown here and I hope one day you can show the technique to all here.

[Danne]

5 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

That is some unbelievably great skiving shown here and I hope one day you can show the technique to all here.

I don't think I use any special technique, I skive with the bevel down so it works like a "fulcrum point", if I want to skive feather thin, I first skive from let's say 1mm to 0.5mm, and I increase the angle so it's close to feather thin, and finish with a small skive to take the rest.

The problem here is with medium soft leather like sully, it really requires the knife to be RAZOR sharp. So sharpening and I can strop my knife through a project like this. If I would do this professionaly I might need skiving knives with better knife retention when working with softer leather. for veg tan I can skive a lot of leather before it needs to be resharpened, and the reason is because when I do the sawing motion in veg tan (Not really soft veg tan though) I can put a little bit of pressure on the knife, which I can't on softer leather, then it stretches and the result is either skiving through or uneven skiving or not a clean edge of the skive.

[Danne]

Pockets stitched, and final? coat of edge paint is drying:

[paloma]

very clean work!

[Danne]

9 minutes ago, paloma said:

very clean work!

Thank you,

Soon finished, top stitched and pockets glued in place. Always a nervous moment to glue pockets in place since I have planned very well how much need to be trimmed off the bottom and edge. 

Top edge stitched:

The white in the right upper corner transition is just some glue I haven't cleaned up yet. 

[Danne]

Stitched and ready for creasing and edge finish, I never get really satisfied when stitching with black thread on bright colors. Slightly misalign the awl and it shows so well, and also "double loops" around stress points stick out so much.

Edited September 3, 2020 by Danne

[LatigoAmigo]

Speechless! 

[Danne]

Wallet is finished, I will try to take some better photos after it's cleaned (A little dirty from sanding and such on these photos)

[billybopp]

Very nice indeed.  Love the color combo and edges are fantastic!  Thanks for posting progress pics.

- Bill

[Danne]

1 hour ago, billybopp said:

Very nice indeed.  Love the color combo and edges are fantastic!  Thanks for posting progress pics.

- Bill

Thank you Bill