Hello from Viet Nam

Hi Cristian,

Yes I know some of the good artisans after I got into this craft. Most are very talented, with shop quality leathergoods, but sadly its too late for me to go back, my budget is for tools now :))).

I was wondering your first question as well, and in my opinion it has several reasons for it : (1) background : most Asia countries, especially South East Asia are developing countries, a big portion of our population are working with agriculture, or manual labor works, so handcraft just fit right in naturally, ( 2 ) handsize : it is just easier for us to working with little parts and all the tiny details, (3) working ethnic & income : in general, handcrafts are time-consuming with little gain, but Asians' pricing can be much better for similar product with the same working hours of Americans or Europeans, so people don't find it tedious patiently crafting handmade goods. Therefore some copied product are even better than the original brand product because it was made by hands with lots of efforts ( for example : I had LV and a few other brand leathergoods but the edge paint was never glass-like pretty, I think it is simply not worth it for them brands to spend that much time on an edge, but the artisan can ), (4) easy access to China goods : you have to tip your hat to them, they can make anything or copy anything with competitive price, lots of jigs came from them to make our work easier.

The fours above just came up top of my head, I would love to discuss further about it if anyone have more insights on the matter.

There isn't any leatherwork school here as I know of. If one is interested, one can apply at some specific workshops and get trained.

How are things working there? I am afraid I would need more details on the subject before I can share my view.

And I fancied a Peter James case for my cigars, now I know it is not that difficult to make, I just need to design mine 😅 :

@james.hoang2010 thanks for the input, it really makes sense.

Regarding the cigar case it surprises me it is just leather there as usually cigars spend most of their time into special containers under controlled humidity conditions.

I recently finished a cigar travel humidor for someone who's in this trade. I'll make a post about it soon, maybe it will help you somehow.

@Cristian h-less Great, I'll follow your post then. I'm also studying the humidor for travel, the one you have mind. This one I wanted for outdoor activities .

Thanks you for sharing it.