Getting caught up

I started this to keep myself honest to myself and to have a reminder that I said I would accomplish a thing. Something to look back on and be like “Dude, you said you were going to make a knife. Why is it not done yet?” I was between projects when I added this one (a blog) to the list. So the truth of the matter is, that I'm almost done with my first knife and currently carry my own handmade wallet. I have nearly achieved what I had started at the beginning of the year. The question is; why did it take so long? I drew out, patterned, and cut all of the pieces for my wallet in 2016. It then sat until a week and a half ago because I didn't have contact cement. Seriously. I set off a project for half a year thanks to glue. I'm telling yah, the excuses I make for myself are ridiculous.

I had some garbage steel that I was playing around with last year when I made a jig for hand filing knives. I “made” three blades to prove that the jig worked and I could move ahead with the plan. It wasn't until two months ago that I finally ordered quality steel worthy of being a blade. When it arrived, I sat on it. It would take me a few weeks to finally get around to doing anything about it. I ground, profiled and filed my blade to a point where I was “happy” with it. It wasn't as I had designed, and in the grinding process I clipped the tip off. Normally I would toss it and start over (in a few months), but I pushed forward. I tried making an excuse that I couldn't heat treat the blade and that would be my big holdup until I had a forge, but instead I made use of the tools and materials I had at hand. Now, sitting on the counter, is a heat treated blade ready for final grinding and sharpening. I've ordered new abrasives, and am so close to being finished it is crazy.

Lets jump back to the wallet. The only leather I had on hand was super thick. Thick enough that I could probably make belts out of it and have them last longer than this blog probably will. The leather that I had was purchased nearly a decade ago when I got into steampunk and decided I was going to start tooling leather. Spoiler alert...that was short lived. There are literally dozens of free and hundreds of less than free templates and patters for wallets on the internet and I wanted none of it. I had decided that I would make my wallet based on what I thought a wallet should look like. Being that I am a straight noob in the wallet, and especially leather crafting industries, my wallet design was crap. The original design I made for the cards simply didn't work. The space I had left to slip bills in, wasn't big enough. All around, the wallet was garbage. Seeing that a wallet that couldn't hold cash, nor card was useless, I attempted to remedy the problem.

The wallet that I ended up with is stout. You could probably stop a bullet with this wallet. I'm not willing to test that hypothesis, I'm just speculating. Its ugly, dyed with food coloring and barely functional. I have to fold cash in half to make it fit and it only holds 4 cards. The fact of the matter is, it works. I have used it for nearly 2 weeks and it has not left me hanging. I took my hits with this project, learned from them and moved on. I saddle stitched the mess outta that wallet. I broke half a dozen needles, but I learned how (and how not) to join leather together. Had I given up, I may have had to encounter some of these problems with a project I was actually proud of. But instead I now have a shitty wallet and a properly heat treated shitty knife, but at least they are getting done.