Share Your Projects

Just finished my first run through of the bifold wallet build. Really loved this one given how surprisingly challenging it was. First a question (so you don't have to read through my "post build" notes).

Given buttero's stiffness, I'm wondering if I could do away with some of the reinforcement particularly the canvas on the exterior lining and the thinner reinforcement used on the folded double partition? Not sure it matters since it's not adding much thickness but curious anyway.

Here's a few notes from this build The center partition was supposed to be the same color but I sliced it while attempting to thin it down a bit. I didn't have enough Burgundy colored leather left so my only option was a piece of 1.2mm chestnut.

Getting this piece thin enough was tricky until I realized I could use my woodworking block plane to do most of the heavy lifting. This required a "shave-sharp" blade and some patience but ultimately got it down to between .5 and .7 (edges were a little thinner than the center), It was still a little too thick causing some creasing when folding. I later used this same approach for making some of my edge binding strips removing a good bit of thickness from a piece of .5mm leather. I resharpened the plane blade a couple times during this process to make sure I was making clean cuts. Ensuring the plane is making a level cut and keeping pressure near the heel (back) of the plane rather than toe produced the best results.

I ended up making a mistake with the exterior by trimming it too narrow making folding over the right and left edges difficult. I also had some difficulty trimming the binding after it was folded over (definitely got too close to the pricking iron holes in some places). Even so, it was a good first attempt and I'm eager to make another.