Welcome back to the blog!
The leathercraft being reviewed today comes all the way from Grand Rapids in the USA. This Travel Wallet has been crafted by Dan at Hides and Stitches, and is a little different from the usual wallets you’ve seen on this blog – it’s also a note cover too!
Dan first began crafting leather goods in 2013, and shortly after launched the Hides and Stitches workshop with his wife Tiffany. Hides and Stitches specializes in small to medium sized carry goods made with American leathers, with a focus also on sustainability in crafting. Their wallets looked particularly beautiful when I first came across their crafts on Instagram earlier this year. Being impressed by the combination of precise craftsmanship and rugged Americana, I was keen to see Dan’s work in person.
This Field Notes Travel Wallet has been made with Horween’s Vintage horsehide in natural colour, though various other Horween tannages and leather combos are available also. Let’s have a closer look!
Design
The Travel Wallet was designed with, well, travelling in mind. It primarily functions as either a notepad cover or a passport holder. At 15.2 cm tall by 10.0 cm wide, it is slightly wider than most mid-wallets.
The wallet is small enough for me to comfortably operate with one hand. By virtue of it being a A6 note pad cover, the size of this wallet is just right for scribbling on the go.
With a standard A6 note pad inserted it is approximately 1 cm thick. The entire wallet is relatively light in terms of being held in the hand or carried in the pocket, given that it has less panels compared with the average mid-wallet.
The right sided compartment was design to hold either a note pad (such as the A6 Field Note you see here) or a passport.
The left sided panels contain two curved card slots and a large compartment which can be used to carry paper currency and receipts. The outer shell and larger base panels also feature curved corners.
Due to the generous sizing, each of the card slots can hold a stack of 4 or 5 cards if required.
Leather
The leather featured here is a special front quarter horsehide from Horween – the Vintage horsehide in natural colour.
This is a vegetable tanned horse leather, which has been stuffed with fats after the tanning process and tumbled. I measured this horsehide at around 3.5 oz.
The vegetable tannage creates the defined grain that you see here. The stuffing process gives the leather a pull-up, extra longevity and some water resistance.
Finally the tumbling finish condenses the grain, giving the surface an irregular, slightly variegated finish that is reminiscent of vegetable tanned horsehide jackets that have been worn for a few years.
This shrunken and stuffed horsehide is much denser than the usual cow leather, and is fairly scratch & water resistant. The vegetable tannage means that this leather should age more gracefully compared with Horween’s other types of horsehides which are re-tanned/Chromexcel-ed.
The oily and tumbled nature of this horsehide also means it has a soft temper – this wallet does not need any breaking in.
The backside has a furry/fleshy finish.
Construction
This travel wallet is purely hand-made: the leather panels are hand-cut, hand-burnished and hand-stitched.
The panel cutting and layering here is fairly precise. When closed, the edges of the wallet matches evenly and there are no protrusions.
The hand-stitch is done with tonal Ritza 25 ‘Tiger’ thread, at 5 SPI. This very thick Tiger thread is a braided and waxed polyester thread, noted for its strength and durability – a great match with the rugged horsehide.
The stitches lay fairly flat against the leather grain despite the thickness of the threading. The tension of the stitch is also nice and even, with the stitches crossing over panels very precisely. Overall the stitch work is remarkably neat despite the ruggedness of the materials involved, all the stitches being very similar in length (even at the corners) and regularly space, testament to Dan’s thoughtful and careful placement of holes.
It would appear the edges here have been either gently creased or pressed. The hand-burnish here is fairly well done; there is the occasional fluff along the edge here and there, but overall the finish is fairly smooth. It’s not the mirror-polish, perfectly smooth finish that you see on vegetable tanned carving leathers, but considering the irregular fibre structure and soft temper of the Vintage horsehide, I’d rate the edge burnish here as pretty good. (Most Horween horsehides and CXL leathers are quite difficult to burnish!)
The maker’s mark is neatly stamped into the left lower corner on the inside.
Thoughts
All in all, I’m impressed by my first wallet from Hides and Stitches.
Firstly, the rugged design and aesthetics of this Travel Wallet is right up my alley, matching nicely with the rest of my wardrobe (mostly workwear and Japanese denim). The tonal stitching and the unadorned outer shell place the emphasis on the texture and colour of the leather. The aesthetics here, with the use of Horween’s vintage horsehide and thick Tiger threading, is certainly rugged and unmistakably Americana.
I would also imagine that, with the use of alternate leathers (e.g. shell cordovan) and different thread sizes or stitch density, this wallet can certainly be further dressed up if workwear is not your cup of tea.
Secondly, the design itself, especially the inner panels, is certainly eye-catching. Yes, its function as a notepad/passport cover dictates that this wallet will be one big rectangle, but Dan has managed to include both subtle and dramatic curves into the paneling. Making a big wallet look nice is much harder than, say, designing a reasonable billfold layout, the task being especially difficult if the wallet is not only long but also wide. The fact that the inner paneling on this Field Note Travel Wallet pulls together nicely, aesthetically speaking, is quite a feat in itself.
The use of Horween’s Vintage series horsehide is a nice touch too. Pure vegetable tanned horsehides from Horween such as Vintage or Essex are rare to come by, and they’re certainly not cheap leathers! This tumbled and stuffed horsehide is a nice departure from the usual shells and glazed tooling leathers, much more rugged in terms of scratch and water resistances – a beautiful and practical leather for travelling for sure.
Finally, at $80 USD for most leather selections, this Travel Wallet from Hides and Stitches is very good value. Again, I emphasize that this wallet is entirely hand-made. Whilst rugged and relatively minimalist in design, no shortcuts were taken here – everything from leather cutting to saddle-stitching has been completed by hand.
Indeed, the level of hand-crafting and detailing here is more than I would expect for a sub-$100 wallet (which would usually be machine stitched and lacking details). The leather cutting and awl work are remarkably regular, the saddle-stitch executed neatly too.
One of the major points of assessment for me, when it comes to wallets, is looking at how neatly the stitches crossover the different panel layers. As you can see in the photo below, Dan has accomplished these crossings without flaw! Despite the ruggedness of this Travel Wallet, the actual construction is very precise. I was not surprised to learn during the writing of this review that Dan has an interest in mathematics, as it is well reflected by the neatness and cleanliness of his work.
Overall?
This Travel Wallet from Hides and Stitches is a well made and practical wallet for travelling, with a rugged aesthetic and distinct look. The quality of the leather and the calibre of hand-crafting exceed my expectations for a wallet in the <$100 price range. The Americana flavour is strong on this piece too, which means that it matches very well with denim and other workwear.
I would certainly recommend Dan’s work!
To see more of Dan and Tiffany’s crafting, visit the Hides and Stitches webshop.
Indigoshrimp 