This is a wallet I made for my husband after he told me his was falling apart. He was hoping for a small wallet, something thin and minimalist. I used proofgrade walnut and the leather you get in your first welcome pack.
Whats really cool and fun about this project is the implication of blocks of black in my svg files to engrave almost half way through the wood so the leather could nestle flat along the wood instead of sticking out. Inside the wallet I did the same thing for the button so the cards inside wouldn’t catch.
The wallet is cut into four layers; two full sized layers with the designs and deep engraving for leather, button and so on. The other two layers are just a thin 1/4 inch boarder with one side missing (the part the card slide into).
The designs on the front and back are from Runescape, currently and probably always my husbands obsession.
Notes to learn from:
There were a few things that made this project frustrating and having to be re-cut and edited multiple times.
When hammering in a button on wood, stay patient and don’t hit to hard. Yes it will take forever to curl that dang thing but if you hit to hard the wood will snap in half and no amount of glue will fix it.
speaking of buttons, I know this one looks cool but it sticks out way to much, next time I’ll try and find the flatter magnet ones.
The wood would not stick together. No amount of glue could to it. So in the end I had to modify the design to allow and thin dowel of balsa wood. I didn’t mind because in the end this thing is rock solid and the little bit of tan on that dark walnut really makes the project pop more.
don’t waste good wood. After messing up the first attempt, I noticed you couldn’t even tell the middle part was walnut because of the burn marks from the laser. So I used some scrap basswood for the middle on the second go.
Welcome! Great project and I enjoyed hearing your story of how you got there. I’m still contemplating making my own small purse - and I can learn from you!
Snaps are more positive than magnets and magnets are not friendly to credit cards in any case, but did you know you could make buttons like that out of hardwoods?
I have also seen a leather thong or button hole tie down the button stronger than snap or magnet ever could.
Very nice project! I’m a big fan of minimalist wallets and make a kinda similar all leather version but your wood one is very cool looking. Let us know how the wood wears and holds up.
(Oh yeah, the finish on PG keeps glue from working as well and you have to do a bit of sanding to get it to adhere well.)
I have been trying to figure out how t odd something similar , what was the file format you used and the setting to achieve this. It turned out well, any help or info would be greatly appreciated.
The first thing you need is a special kind of Image in a format that White is the highest point (and ignored by the GFUI ) and Black is the lowest point that will be the maximum power setting. The rest of the levels portions of that full power by the different shades of gray. There are many available free and at a price on the web with various restrictions on use and you can make your own following the same rules.
I use illustrator, because ive been using adobe forever, and then convert the file to a svg which maintains the size i program it to. I do a lot of measuring before i cut and program my files in illustrator as such,
The setting were the pre-programmed ones for the walnut proofgrade.
