I have a few quite nice fountain pens from when i was working and I wanted to keep them somewhere else than just loose in a drawer. So, I started to look at designs for pen cases. The cases that I like, and I thought protected the pens the best, were mainly cigar cases - although you can buy molds for similar to the one I intend to make from leathercraftpattern.com.
So, molded leather - which I had not tried before. The first step was to make a mold. I had a number of plastic test tubes which were about the right size; no end of timber and I am quite used to resin work (with cabinetry). So I made a very simple mold. The tubes were epoxied to the base of the mold. The sides of the mold were measured to come half way up the depth of the tubes, i.e. sides equal to the radius of the tubes. The next time that I was mixing resin, I mixed a little extra and filled the mold to the top of the sides. This meant that the resin also came halfway up the tube sides.
I then soaked some thin goatskin (for the inside lining of the case) and some faux ostrich hide (this is my first time doing this). I molded them both to the form with a bone folder and then cramped on some offucts of timber.
Now to let it dry. When dry, it would form one half of the bottom part of the case. I would then repeat this exactly for the second half and then glue and stitch those two parts together, stitching up the two channels between the tubes as well. That would complete the lower half. I'm not sure about the top half yet. I think that I mold more layers onto the bottom parts so that they would slip over the lower half when complete. Obviously, i couldn't stitch the channels on the top half as it wouldn't slide over the lower half. I may, therefore, just make a simple wooden mold for the top halves. Who knows yet? .
How will it turn out? Will it be a disaster? Will it be good enough on my first attempt or will I learn from it for a second try? Follow my success or disaster and learn from the mistakes.
Apologies for the delay in this post. A lot has been happening. In short, 5 years ago we got permission to convert a large barn into a house. Cutting a long story short, the local Council objected to the build and we have been fighting for 4 years plus to get it certified lawful. Thankfully, that happened last week. The fight has cost us over £200,000 - on top of a build cost to-date of £690,000 and a completion estimate of another £200,000. So, the stakes were high but, truthfully, sense prevailed and the liars were defeated. So now, we get the barn completed. There is quite a bit of work that I need to do - the barn is some 740 square metres but I'm only doing some nice bits - I'm panelling one room in English oak in the classic style (rails, stiles and inset panelling) and making various bits of furniture - mainly tables and cabinets. Therefore, for the next few months, I am focussing on timber - at least I know better what I am doing with timber. I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated woodworking area of about 110 square metres and a separate craft room of about 50 square metres.
Anyway, pen case. Please see the photographs for the result. I'm only 70% pleased with the outcome. There are a couple of areas where my sewing should have been more accurate. I like the concept of the case but the result has to respect the concept and I don't think it does. I have since bought a vintage leather cigar case from Ebay for me to see how that is constructed as it does not appear to have the protruding side seams. I'm interested to see how it was mad. Live and learn. I also quickly made the second pen holder using a small scrap of oak and inset the leather as you can see. The idea is that my pens can sit in the oak pen holder on my desk and then
, when I go out, i transfer them to the leather pen case. Don't look too closely at the pens themselves as I just took some pens that i had been given years ago to fill up both items.
Okay - I hope that I am back on track with this one. Its only a very small item but lots for me to learn from it.
The first amendment was, as I mentioned before, to sew along the top of the inner and outer layers before moulding. That has worked well in that it was easier to sew and made positioning the two pieces easier in the mould.
The second was to make much better (more complete) top halves of the moulds. My experience is in timber where I followed what i would have done if the pieces had been veneer for instance. Either that or I would have used my vacuum press setup which is a god send for large pieces; I may well try the vacuum press on leather next time. Anyway, top halves re-made and the fit was a lot better in terms of evenness of pressure and shape to the mould.
I wet the (top-sewn) leather pieces for a minute or so and then placed in the mould, cramping down nicely. 24 hours later, I released from the mould; the leather was still a little wet (as you can see from the dark brown piece in the photo which was taken out a few minutes ago. I then used contact adhesive between the layers and replaced into the moulds. What this method did on the light brown bottom half in the photo was to make it quite rigid - the lack of which was a complaint of mine with the previous method.
When they are all glued and dried, I can then look at the fit between top and bottom halves. I may have to fit a welt between the two top halves to allow for a snug fit of the bottom half into the top. Don't know yet.
So, I was able to put in a few hours today - very busy until the weekend taking and collecting dogs from vets and specialists. Anyway, the revised moulds are downstairs in the workshop waiting for the PVA to dry. I make my templates out of offcuts wherever possible and its the same for the moulds - they may not look great but they will do the job. Its the only use for B&Q MDF which is so, so poor but the offcuts are cheap.
I recut the leather for the four parts (two x top half and two x bottom half). Glued two edges; edge creased two lines and completed the first sewing on the two top halves. Ive left excess at the end of each line so that I can pick that up and make neat when its all together
Right. I talked about issues with prototypes and I hit a dead end. I just was not happy with the quality of what I had done. The moulds and cramping were not good enough and my placement of the leather not quite as exact as it should have been. So, prototype #1 is in the bin and I am on to #2. I am pretty sure that I can use the moulds but have better cramping processes.
I'm not giving up by any means and this item will continue.
You learn more from your mistakes than your successes.
By hell, I must have learned a lot over my life
Next stage on the build. Clearly, one of the issues with any prototype is that you are probably going to be refining what you do as you go through the process. So, as you can see from the picture, I have moulded the two bottom halves. This has brought up issues and the need for solutions.
the big issue is that the moulded pieces are not very stiff and will not make a case that's sufficiently stiff to my mind. That's no doubt a combination of the type of leather and its thickness. However, as I don't want a thick, thick case, I have decided to insert three more plastic test tubes permanently into the bottom half. So that the pens have some comfort and don't rattle, i will glue thin leather into each tube.
That lack of stiffness also means that I cant go ahead with my original design for the top half (which was for leather moulded rather like the bottom but slightly wider to slip over the bottom). I'm going to have to make a simple wood mould for the top. Thats not an issue but I will post a picture when Ive done that - hopefully later today.
The last point from the prototypes is that I should have glued and stitched the outer and inner leather before moulding. I didn't do this on the first of the halves but did on the second. Lesson learn
t for the top halves anyway.
Im no expert but the Waterman pens do what I think they should do.
My Cross pens are roller ball (probably a hanging offence to fountain pen afficiandos) but I found i needed a pen with red ink when editing large documents
Thanks for that. Making a plain top mould would be very easy for me but I would like to try something a little more intricate. My current thinking is to mould a top half (two layers) over an already moulded bottom half over the mould. With cling film over the moulded bottom half. We shall see.
My pens are nothing special - their sentimental value far exceeds their financial worth. I've got three Waterman's and two Cross's that mean something and that I would like to look after
@martin Nice work! Yes the top half is always trickier to do. I would probably make a wooden mould for that and test out the fit after drying with some scrap vegtan.
I am into pens, care to share some of the examples that will be living in their new abode?