Wallet
As you can probably deduce from my Leatherworking section I am very much into EDC card wallets. Well, back in the day I stumbled upon Trayvax and this was befire they went global.
Having spent my life using leather and textile wallets, I was mesmerized with an idea of a metal one. Sadly, at the time Trayvax did not deliver where I lived. Even better! I decided to try out another project.
Idea​
I would cut out the shape out of metal and make it loosely resemble Trayvax Element wallet. Then I would find some leather somewhere and make the wrapper. :) Paracord, I had.
Challenge​
Having successfully upcycled a bunch of materials, of course I started looking around the workshop. I did not have any sheet metal of suitable thickness. Nor did I have a plasma cutter yet.
What I did have was a solid plate of aluminum about a centimeter thick. At some point, it had been a door handle for a glass door. It ended up in my workshop after we helped a friend renovate his restaurant.
I also had an angle grinder, and enough inexperience to let nothing stop me. So the plan was formulated:
- Shape the aluminum plate.
- Cut out the money clip in the middle.
- Get some leather to wrap around.
- Fix the leather with paracord.
- Make some sort of a buckle.
Outcome​
Turns out, cutting aluminum with an angle grinder disc built for steel does not work very well. Aluminum is more malleable than steel, which is harder and more brittle. This makes the disc cut very slowly through aluminum while the disc is spent very rapidly.
Alas, I continued. I had a small block to work with but very delicate work. I had to alternate between drilling, grinding, and sawing in order to get the gap in the middle where I would fix the leather and have a money clip.
Basically, I was cutting out a very thin frame out of a solid block of aluminum. But hey, upcycling!
When I was done with the metal, not that I was satisfied with the finish but rather exhausted, it was time to find some leather. Nowhere in my town's surroundings could I find a shop with leather. Ordering online specified distant delivery dates.
Then my mom gave me an old leather bag that she no longer used. I tailored a template, cut out a leather patch from the bag's back side. But at the time, I knew nothing about leatherworking, specific needles or thread, bevelling and polishing edges, and the rest.
I ended up simply joining two pieces, one to hold the cards and one for the little belt that secured it, and sewed them up with my mom's needles and thread meant for fabric. I fixed the side with paracord and that was it!
Learnings​
You can see in the image that the leatherwork is very sketchy and rushed. But what came out of this first ever try was that this sparked an interest for later years which has now led me to set up a leatherworking station in my bedroom :D
Also, I have learnt that aluminum behaves vastly differently from iron, steel, copper, and tin. That it also needs different welding techniques and machines which at the time I did not possess.
I ended up using the wallet for about a year, but the little money clip in the middle broke in the end. It was too thin to be made out of aluminum. Were it steel the thickness of about 4 millimeters would have held, but for aluminum it was too thin. Moving paper notes in and out of the wallet manipulated it into snapping.
Most of all, this has started an education journey about multiple tools, materials, and future projects that have now finally led to me adding a dedicated leatherworking station to the planned layout of my new workshop.