The round case experiment

Some time ago I tried to make a round case for fountain pens I think my skill level at that time made this difficult.

I am going to call this my second attempt. Rather than gluing the edges of the kydex together I have started to weld them which gives a far stronger joint.

The top and bottom edges of the leather have been cut to an angle of around 45 degrees. This is to allow the end caps to fit tightly in position.

The larger piece of leather was then cut into equal parts to make the top and bottom.  I marked and punched holes for stitching and dyed the pieces black I have also started to shape the leather

I started stitching as the leather was still wet it was flexible enough to allow me to stitch the edges together. I used a hidden crossover stitch with straight stitches on the outside.

After stitching I started to make the end caps. I will show more detail later.

I have tried to show some detail of the stitching in this picture it is difficult to show black thread on a black case.

The inner kydex tube was wrapped in black suede.

 

One of the drawbacks of using suede is where the top piece slides over it the suede will compress and start to go shinny the fibres will eventually flatten comp[lately and it will look like leather.

The case just needs the end caps stitched in place.

The use of suede for the liner also make it very difficult to open.

Attempt no 3 learning from attempt number 2 I decided to use leather to wrap the kydex tube.

Everything was made the same way as no 2 so I wont add any detail on that.

I will add some detail on the end caps as mentioned earlier I drew around the actual ends of the leather tube and cut out a template.

Using the template I cut out two circles of the same leather my method is quite simple rather than trying to cut the circle in one go. I placed the template in position and using a very sharp clicker knife I cut a series of straight lines around the edge of the template.

After some time you end up with a pretty good circle the next step is to mark a line with a pair of dividers I have marked it red here to stand out.

Using the line as a guide I cut an angle of around 45 degrees

Edges have been sanded and smoothed ready for dye.

All of the pieces brought together for a test fit

Before I stitched the endcaps in place I realised that the stitching was not going to be strong enough and decided to remove it.

Here are the re stitched components still awaiting the endcaps being stitched in place

Stitching a dry case is much harder to do than a wet case in had to cut a pair of needles in half and use a pair of needle nosed pliers to stitch the case together.

I will post the pictures of the finished case soon.

Sorry it has taken me longer than I expected to finish this case initially I was waiting for some fine thread to arrive from France it arrived quickly however I still lacked the confidence to stitch through the edges. I find this stitching very difficult with the restricted movement in my right wrist.

My intention was to have the inside with a glossy finish and the outside with a slightly mat finish

So as a proof of concept I think this is a success changing the stitching to an outside crossover from the inside crossover resolved the issue of the loose lid it is now very secure I don’t think that wear will effect the fit much.

As I don’t have any pens of this size I think I will find a new home for this prototype.

Thanks for looking

Michael