Making Leather Traveler's Notebooks
by Tony Thomas After my success making a traveler's notebook out of heavy felt, I decided to make a few more out of leather using the popular Ray Blake method . For the first one, I used some vegetable-tanned tooling leather (highly recommended) from my local Tandy Leather . The piece was only a bit larger than the 6" x 9" I needed to make the notebook. It was a fairly thin piece at around 4 oz. (approx 4/64"). I also bought a small punch to create the holes. After cutting the leather, punching the holes, trimming the corners, threading the elastic cords, and applying a bit of oil, here is what I came up with in about 20 minutes: After living with the notebook for a week or so, I decided to make a second notebook out of heavier tooling leather I found on eBay ( DC Leather ). It was a about 8.5 oz. (almost 9/64"). I also bought some dye ( Angelus ) for both notebooks to give them a more finished look. The heavier leather was a bit more ch...