Been diving into making wallets from leather. After about 6 or 7 wallets I feel like I’m really getting a feel for how to skive and burnishing the edges. It would certainly help if things didn’t take weeks to arrive from Amazon and for me to be using a knife designed to skive rather than using a razor blade like I’ve been doing, but we use what we can while we can!
Anyway, made myself a wallet from three pieces, all cut, including stitch holes, on the GF. All of my leather is natural without any prior dye, so after cutting, I skive my edges, sand some to even it out, then dye it using Eco Flo water stain or Fiebing’s. Let the dye dry for a few hours, apply a finish, and buff. Apply a second layer of finish, which is a personal choice, then dab glue where they connect, stitch them, finish and burnishing the edges. Here’s my wallet:
I was really surprised at how “professional” it looks, and I find myself pulling it out just to stare at it throughout the day 
After feeling comfortable with that style of wallet, decided to do a flap style, which admittedly does need some small adjustments, but this is all practice for now before taking it to the big time!
My wife began to get jealous of me making “myself” all of these wallets (not pictured are the other handful of tests, one of which I really liked…okay, I’ll take a picture of it, and was my first “good” run)
There was also this one, which has no stain or dye applied, just a finish directly to the leather. I really liked it, as well.
Alright, so my wife was definitely jealous of these and requested I make one for her with a floral pattern. Funny enough, I had planned on doing a floral one anyway, so lucky her 
It’s a bit hard to make out the pattern on the front, but it certainly stands out enough on the back. I also wanted to use a light purple thread, but only have brown and white. My white is a cotton based thread, so it was simple enough to take a sharpie to and then finish with some beeswax. Sanded the edge of this one and also used a purple sharpie to color the edge.
I’ve got more colors of dye and thread coming, I originally only bought a few things because I wasn’t sure if I’d be happy with working with leather, but I’m obsessed. I haven’t been this excited to use my laser in a while, and the laser is only a tool, really it’s the leather that’s just so fun to work with. Already have people wanting me to sell them wallets from the small posts I’ve done, so when I’m ready to go, they’ll be ready to take them 
I ordered a decent amount of supplies, thread, dyes, etc. so hopefully I’m able to hold out for several months of leather work before needing more. I’m the one who keeps track of our finances, so my wife is oblivious to the absurd amount of money I’ve spent on all of this stuff. But hey, it hasn’t hit GF levels of money, yet, so we’re still in the clear!