Four wallets in six years. That’s a little excessive, isn’t it?

I have gone through 4 bilfold-style wallets in order to find one that I loved. Each wallet I’ve owned was wonderful, but have been lacking in one area or another. I really should stop hunting for something else, but for some reason I find myself very critical and particular about wallets. Maybe it’s because I keep it in the back pocket all day long.

The wallets in this outdoor picture are way too bright. I need to pay more attention during the picture-taking and post-processing steps. Anyways, from the top going clockwise: Corter, Saddleback, LV and Makr bifolds.

Louis Vuitton: This wallet was a gift from my mother a couple of years back. The LV bifold was my first nice wallet. Before this one I was carrying a poorly constructed canvas and velcro wallet that was well on it’s way to falling apart. The LV is the slimmest out of all four you see, built using their Epi Leather. It feels like plastic to me from the moment I touched it to the time I retired it. This eventually led me to hunt for another bifold to hold my contents.

Maybe due to how thin and plastic-y the leather was I always felt that the wallet was overpriced for what it was. Maybe someone can school me on the awesomeness of Epi Leather.

Saddleback: Thick, full-grain leather with a pigskin interior. This wallet is tough and still has a wonderful leather smell after a year of accidental liquid contact (Alcohol, beer and alcohol, rubbing to name a few.) The Saddleback arrived stiff and rough on touch, but over the course of a year the leather has developed a smooth surface with a variety of markings made from daily use.

The wallet was a little thicker than I would have liked. My preferred carry for a wallet is in the back pocket of whatever pants I wore. It’s been like that since I started carrying a wallet as a kid, and it’s not going to change anytime soon. This makes for an uncomfortable carry is I sit for a prolonged period of time. If I carried my wallets some other method the extra thickness would be wonderful. This Saddleback has been given to someone who needed a wallet upgrade.

Makr: This wallet was meant to be a replacement for the Saddleback, but in the end I only carried it for a month. This bifold is a slimmer wallet made with Horween’s chromexcel leather. Not that it’s a bad wallet, but a part of the construction of the wallet had me continue my quest for a bifold.

I don’t have a picture of it, but the interior of the wallet is stitched in a way that the two flaps of leather end up as a bulge at the big cash slot. This gave the interior a clean appearance, but it also had the negative effect of bending the objects in the slot. At worse it shortened the lives of receipts. The stitched area managed to render one of my UPS tracking numbers illegible. Checks get bent into shapes that give the Bank of America ATMs a hard time.

This is all too bad because I really wanted to like this wallet. The wallet had developed some character from the month’s worth of carrying. It’s slim without feeling weak, and denim stains have made it’s appearance on the exterior of this wallet. If I just kept cash in the main slot I wouldn’t have much of an issue with it, but due to my small collection of necessary receipts and checks the wallet had to be retired.

The Makr wallet now serves as a contingency.

Corter: Of course, this gave me an excuse to check out Eric Heins’ leather-crafting.

Eric operates Corter Leather from his studio apartment in Boston. He crafts all the wallets by himself from hide to a finished product. I can only imagine the blisters from all that abuse to his fingers. I met Eric briefly when I went to his apartment pick up a wallet made with Horween’s shell cordovan. Although extremely busy with churning out orders he took some time to accommodate me. Talking to him and seeing his workplace affirmed my decision to seek him out for a quality wallet. His room/workplace is filled with leather-crafting tools, books and old as well as new products. If I had half the dedication Eric has with Corter Leather, I’d be set.

He offers an assortment of bifolds, from natural to fabric lined, waxed or dyed, but I was set on purchasing the full shell cordovan variation (As opposed to outer shell cordovan and inner veg tanned leather.) This wallet holds the glossy look and smooth feel of my other shell cordovan products. Eric even cut the leather in a way to save most of the stamp from Horween at the center of the main slot. The stitching is wonderful, and I find myself taking this wallet out a few times a day just to hold it. Yes, I’m weird.

This wallet contains all the ingredients to what I wanted in a wallet. It uses leather from the US, made locally. It’s the right size, not too thick but enough so it’s still substantial. The stitching is solid and the crafter is someone that takes pride in their work. I’ve only had this wallet for a month, but I plan on keeping this one until one of us expires. Who knows, the wallet might outlast me.