Unlucky Mid-Length Wallet

Treat a piece of leather well and use it with great love. Such is the rule for aging the leather nicely.

Back on October 2010, I ordered a custom wallet from a leather artisan called Scott Willis (better known in internet world as Unlucky; his works can be found here). The model is a repro to the famous Flat Head mid-length wallet. Since then, I have carried the wallet with me everyday for roughly one and a half year before I switched back to a shorter wallet. The wallet was mink-oiled once with Red Wing mink oil. The exterior was made of natural vegetable tanned horsehide, making it more supple and oily while cowhide was used for the interior which is responsible for the grainier surface. Everything from cutting to stitching the leather was done by hand.

The wallet when it was new

Here's what it looks like after one and a half year of use:

And for your viewing pleasure, I snapped some details of the wallet:

Horse leather in black (a little bit over-exposed)

The texture of the horsehide exterior

The texture of the cowhide interior

 Thickness of the wallet (about 5mm)

The rusted rein loop (made of nickel) due to oxidation

 The stitching on the inside

The thread on the outside has picked up some indigo

Unburnished edge with some cracks and fraying