Making the Royal enfield leather key cover

 

It was 27th April 2017 when a fellow bullet lover messaged me on Instagram inquiring if i could make the Royal enfield leather key cover by sending me a reference image of the product to which i agreed on making as i was experimenting on various leather products to enhance my leather crafting skills.it looked very challenging but it was worth a try as i had nothing to loose.

Little did i know what was in store for me when i was working on it and things changed when i posted the image on my Instagram.

I was stormed with comments and Dm's like never before and this product took my leather crafting journey to next level.

A step by step guide to how i make the Royal enfield leather key cover 

A product that i build to last long enough to accompany you throughout various journeys.

It all starts with selecting the Appropriate part of the Hide keeping in mind how the leather will adapt to the key shape and wouldn't squeeze while hand stitching due to thread tension.

Most of the Royal enfield leather key cover were/are made using vegetable tanned leather which ages beautifully over time, unless a different type of leather ( chrome tan,oil pullup, oiltanned ) is chosen by the client due his personal preference which doesn't affects the durability of the product.

 An outline/pattern of the key shape is drawn on the flesh side of the leather which will helps us determine the cutting pattern.

An outer area of 15mm- 20mm from the drawn outline is cut using a sharp knife  and a centre hole is punched using a dye.

The leather is glued with the key inside to get an impression/marking of the hole on the flesh side of the leather that will help us to insert the leather loop later and to punch a precise hole which exposes the royal enfield emblem on the key front

 

The glued leather is carefully opened and holes are punched using punching dye, the rough edges of the punched area are hand burnished to make the edges smooth making sure all the punched holes are precise so that leather leather adapts onto the key shape 

 

Aesthetics

The next step involves gluing the leather again making sure everything aligns perfectly which is very important for our next step when we punch holes for stitches.

Holes are Punched using the hole punch tool following the outer line which the leather has adapted so that we get a nice clean stitches maintaining the aesthetics.

 

 

  My favourite part Hand stitching

The product is then hand stitched using the traditional stitching method of saddle stitches which is much better than machine stitches.The thread i used is 0.55mm beige polyester waxed thread which is strong and doesn't unravel, unless removed with physical force.

 

when finished with the stitching the leather outer is then cut using a sharp pair of scissor maintaining the key shape. the rough edges if any are burnished using a wooden burnisher to smoothen the edges of the leather 

 

The final step involves inserting the leather loop thru punched hole and there u have a meticulously handmade & hand stitched Royal enfield leather key cover which is build to last long.

The whole process takes 3-4 hours and the results are worth the time & skill invested.

Over the years i have received enormous support for clients across India & Abroad. Sharing few Images of the product crafted using different types and colours of leather for various clients.