Hello Everyone, I am beginning to document my first attempt at a briefcase build. I will be periodically making updates as I go and I would love to hear feedback from everyone. Don’t be shy about warning me if I am about to do something stupid. I want to make a bag similar to one of these in a very traditional style, but with a couple small twists. I am sick and tired of making wallets and my honest goal is to make and sell custom luxury briefcases. These are my goals for the bag… · A double 3 piece gusset · Fully lined with Alran Chevre "Sully" goat leather · Newspaper pocket. · A very nice center divider with excellent pockets · Hand-stitched using an awl and pricking irons (no KS allowed) I ordered a side of Wickett and Craig English Bridle in 6oz unlined in Tan color. I am a little concerned about the total weight of the briefcase now that I have the leather and part of me wishes I went down to 5oz. We shall see. The first thing I did was build a paper model of the bag. I have a lot of my hard-earned pennies tied up in materials and I am not following a pre-made template so I wanted to make sure this would make sense. Paper is cheap and English Bridle is not. All pieces are cut and I had a great time using some of my new (to me) antique round knives. This is also the first item I have made on my spiffy new workbench in my spiffy new house. Things are looking up. I spent a lot of time debating between an accordion style gusset and a 3-piece gusset. A lot of time. Eventually I intend to make both, but I decided on the 3-piece for my first bag. I think I like the fact that it will stand on its own and looks more structured, almost like a Dulles bag. As for the technique, I am going to do a combination of a few individual’s recommendations. I am mixing Valerie Michael’s (The Leatherworking Handbook) technique with a technique I first saw demonstrated by Ian Atkinson in his Messenger bag video where he uses a wood jig. I don’t like that he cuts a channel into the grain side of the leather though, so I am using Valerie’s technique with the compass race on the flesh side. I did some preliminary tests and my worries grew that I would be building up a lot of thickness once I added the goat lining, particularly where everything comes together with the center divider. I decided to skive the inside lips of the gusset with a French edger (an old Gomph from Bruce Johnson) prior to wet forming. I first cut a channel about half thickness with a compass race and then skived the lip with the French edger. My hope is that it won’t get too bulky when combined with 0.6mm Goat Sully. On to the wet forming. I used a straight edge and bone folder to get the fold started and then clamped it into the wood jig. For more info on the jig, go watch Ian Atkinson’s video and I made mine pretty much exactly the same. If this works out, I am going to build 5 more jigs so I can do 6 folds at a time because it takes forever for the leather to dry. So I clamped the gussets in and let them sit overnight. The inside lip has been skived on all gusset panels and the outside lip has been left normal (I might regret that later). This is where I am at. I have order a hide of Sully goat leather in Marine (sort of a dark Navy Blue) in 0.6mm. I have heard conflicting info on how thin I could go with goat, as some people say 0.6 and some say 0.8 to 1mm. I say to hell with it and went 0.6mm. I do not own a leather splitter so my plan is to mail some of my leather panels to Rocky Mountain Leather Supply and have them split to a more manageable thickness. I am having my handle pieces (planning to follow the attaché handle build), center divider, and newspaper pocket all split down. This is hopefully prevent me from ending up with an 11 pound briefcase and make it easier to sew. I have a feeling that I will need two goat hides at the end of the day, which sucks as this is getting expensive. Another bump in the road is the lock I had intended to use turned out to be terrible. I ordered two briefcase locks from Abbey England and they are both garbage. I know that AE is a well respected brand and I am not trying to bad mouth them, but honestly the locks they sent me are trash. One has already broken (it looks like some kind of spring feel loose and now you can’t even put the key into it) and the other sticks when you open it. They are both covered in scratches from a file and they didn’t even get mailed with the brass pins. So I am going to cut my losses and order another lock from ABAS. My first hide of Sully should arrive in a few days along with some Aqualim 315 which I intend to use to glue the lining to the leather. Does anyone have thoughts on using Lin Cable for the bag? I have never used it before but want to use the highest end materials I possibly can on this bag. I considered using Wuta poly but it is sold out on Ebay in the color I want and ships from China and I don’t really want to wait a month. A third choice would be the Twist thread but that is also sold out. Stay tuned for more updates on the lining!