I've been working on my bifold wallets for the past month to try and achieve the following build: - 6/8 Card slots - Use of softer chrome tanned leather + edge paint - Fully lined with leather/fabric
- Slimness (~< 3.0mm thickness MAX)
These might sound like silly standards to uphold especially for a beginner like myself but I've always had a strong fantasy of creating this perfect elegant dream bifold wallet when I started leathercraft 😉.
After doing tons of homework and "prototype" wallets I'm pretty comfortable up the the point in how I make and line the interior and assemble the card slots. I mostly struggle when it comes to make the stitching holes for all the combined layers.
In order to keep the edges thin I usually end up having a deep slope towards the edges caused by thinning out different layers within the wallet. This makes it difficult to make my stitching holes parallel without proper use of an awl which I'm not too comfortable with at the moment. Is the solution here to keep my build flatter overall or is this just unavoidable and I need to apply stitching holes better with the use of an awl? You can see the big curve towards the edge of the pockets in the pictures and the awkward stitching as a result of the poor stitching holes.
I'm also struggling with gluing components perfectly. I feel like half the battle with bifolds is precise cutting and bonding. Is there some magic technique or jig that people use for this?
Hey Grant.
Since you're open to fabric use, have you watched the video course 'The Slimline Coat Wallet'?
Hello,
I have a few tricks i do on my bifolds, because like you, I skive every possible part to be skived.
- Regarding precise gluing, you can print on a paper a guide for the spacing between the pockets and then have this guide underneath your main leather piece when you glue.
- Another solution, which i use the most, it to always have your pockets longer by a few mm than the back on which they are stitched, glue them, and then trim to size.
- For the slanted holes on the edges because of the stacked layers. You can prepunch the slots before the final assembly, and then repunch everytime you glue in an extra layer. That way, the teeth will only have to go through one layer and there will be less deviation.
- My way of doing it is by considering every part that will not be visible after assembly as a part that should not arrive to the final edge. Basically, the back piece that assembles the pockets and the main large piece that holds both sides of the wallet, I treat them and construct them as I would a V shape pocket. Well, mostly in a U shape to be more precise that ends literally 1mm before the edge. And I feather skive the last 3mm from it. Like super feather skive.