A pair of single pen cases

I have been commissioned to make a pair of pen cases.

I started with two pieces of Kydex sheet which I have formed into two tubes.

The next step is to line these tubes in suede of the chosen colour.

In order to add the lining I take a piece of suede and run a line of running stitch along one end

I then added the dowel inside the suede and tightened the thread knotting it to secure it in place.

At this point I added some glue and inserted the suede wrapped dowel into the kydex tube the thread and needle were used to pull the lining into place. It is a very tight fit.

This is the end of the first part of the making of these cases the outer cover will be made next

Outer covers start as flat pieces of shoulder leather around 2 mm thick.

I should cut one length for the tops and another for the bottoms but I like each case to be made from the same piece of leather. another of my little quirks it means there is a little more waste.

The edges all have their corners removed

And slicked a leather working term for wetting and smoothing the edges.

Adding colour to the leather

The next step was to add some shape to the dyed leather before it had dried out the lid is in a plastic bag to stop it drying out as I need to stitch and trim the bottom piece before I can shape the lid.

After shaping and gluing I marked out the stitching holes and stitched the case together.

The bottom section is now joined together permanently and is ready for trimming.

Once the sides were trimmed which is not a job for the faint of heart 🙂 you need a very sharp knife and a really deep breath this is the point where you can destroy the case. After the base has been trimmed and some tea has been drunk the top piece can be formed around the base.

As it has been stored in a zip lock bag it is still wet and forms easily around the bottom well easily when you have these big industrial metal clamps to do the hard bit.

I prefer to form the top without glue first and once I am happy with the shape I add the glue and clamp again. The lines can be removed with modelling tools before the leather dries once dry though it is there forever.

The dark chocolate case needs to be shiny it is chocolate after all.

The wooden toggles / pen rests are made by hand from wood in this case seaple  holes are drilled to allow the thong to pass through.

Once I was happy with the toggles I smoothed the edges on both cases and slicked them to obtain a smooth edge. I dyed the edges to match the rest of the case I also used the leather dye to add some colour to the wooden toggles.

Here are the finished cases

Thanks for reading

Michael