Interest Hobbit Bofur's Tobacco (Coin) Pouch

[Indy Magnoli]

This was a special request from a customer a while back, so I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone would be interested in a run of dark red leather pouches based on Bofur's tobacco pouch from The Hobbit. Here is a prototype:

So... any takers?

Kind regards,
Magnoli

INTEREST
--------------
1) Gibbs (e-mail)
2) kevin926
3) Raiders March
4) Arwyniel
5) Nocturno
6) finarfin
7) TomVDJ
8) StridersHeir
9)

 

[kevin926]

Interested, pm me if this goes into production.
I'm kinda hiding from the sales thread but this caught my eyes. My wife is a huge fan. Nice offering. Thanks

 

[Raiders March]

Hi indy, do you think this pouch is large enough for the smaug coins you offered a little while back?
It would look really nice as holder for them maybe?

 

[Arwyniel]

Interested.

 

[Nocturno]

Awesome to have in any Lotr/hobbit collection.

 

[finarfin]

This is my first post in the forum, so hello to everyone!!

I would be interested in this Indy, it looks great!

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Hi indy, do you think this pouch is large enough for the smaug coins you offered a little while back?
It would look really nice as holder for them maybe?

Depends how many coins you want to fit! But seriously, these are hand-made so we could probably do a larger one if you want. The prototype I made measured something like 3" x 4".

 

[TomVDJ]

Yep, interested!

 

[Indy Magnoli]

I've updated the original post with a newest prototype, which has a thicker leather and hand-tooling on the flap:

 

[TomVDJ]

I don't have good screen caps at hand, but in this picture I found, the pouch looks a bit darker / browner:



From which part is this screencap? I can rip my bluray to have better screencaps...

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Film lighting & filters... the "RED" Book is the same... in the film it looks dark brown.

 

[TomVDJ]

Here some pics of the pouch as seen in the movie (Desolation of Smaug). Don't remember if the pouch can be seen in other scenes?

 

[StridersHeir]

I'd love one!

 

[Indy Magnoli]

We've finished the final version and are ready to take orders:

This can be ordered via our Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/452495386/hobbit-bofurs-tobacco-pouch-coin-bag-by

We've got three finished and ready to go with a few more being made next week.

If you'd like coins to go with them (as shown above), they can be ordered through our main prop site: http://www.magnoliprops.com/coins-dwarf-p-474.html

Kind regards,
Indy

 

[finarfin]

Ordered!

 

[Raiders March]

Ordered!

Yep, same here!

 

[Indy Magnoli]

We'll be doing another run of these next week, so if you missed out, now is the time to order!

 

[TomVDJ]

Got my pouch today, but I must say I'm somewhat disappointed. It's not the quality I see in the first picture of this thread . To name a few things:

- The stitching work is much sloppier on mine than the one in the picture.
- The decorative piece of leather on the flap is coming loose.
- The round border on the flap is not as nicely finished as the flap soon in the picture.

I can post some pictures of the above things tomorrow. OK, this was not a very expensive purchase, But I expected a bit higher quality, to be honest (based on what I saw on the picture above...). I'm going to tackle some of the issues myself (sanding down the flap to a nice round shape, gluing the leather again, maybe aging the complete pouch with some leather products, so the stitches blend in more, so it's less noticable that they are sloppy, etc...), but it's a pitty I didn't get a pouch like the one seen in the pictures. Maybe I was just unlucky, I don't know. I would like to hear about the other buyers here...

 

[Indy Magnoli]

@TomVDJ, We're sorry you're not entirely happy with your pouch. These are done by hand and we did want them to be quite rough/rustic looking and not "machine" made. The stitching on the prototype was done the exact same way and each one is a bit crooked here-and-there. We've been trying different glues out for the flap so that is a bit of an experiment. The prototype also was coming a bit loose, so likewise, I had to re-glue my one. What do you mean exactly about the round border not being as nicely finished? The edge cutting? The same tools were used for both the prototype and your bag, so not sure why there would be variation. We certainly appreciate the feedback! Hopefully you can tweak your bag to get it to look the way you want. If I can be of any help, let me know!

Kind regards,
Indy

 

[TomVDJ]

Hey Indy, I'll post some pictures later to exactly show what I mean. It's difficult to explain in words. I understand that it should not look machined but hand made, but dwarfs are supposed to be craftsmen , and the pouch I got, looks like it was rushed... The pouch in the first pic looks much, nicer: also hand made, but done by a craftsman. Anyway, most of the things I can fix, I guess...

-- EDIT --

So, as promised some pictures of what I was talking about:

1. The stitching. I understand that this is hand made, but the stitching work in the red circles is pretty sloppy in my eyes and not comparable to the stitching seen on the pouch in the sample pic.



2. Then the leather detailing coming loose, but this is not a biggy, I guess. I'll just reglue it:



3. The flap: it's not that easy to capture it on picture, but the edges are a bit raggy. The sample bag doesn't seem to have this:



Also the shape is more or less round, but could have been better. I'll try to sand the outer rim to a nicer round shape:



Also, when I took out the leather ropes, to work more easily on the pouch, I saw that the holes in the leather were not punched completely:



In the meanwhile I took a leather punch and made the holes complete.

All in all, I'm not that thrilled with the purchase. To be honest, I would have skipped this run, when I knew on beforehand what I would have gotten. However, as said: the price was not that high, so shipping it back to get a refund, would cost me almost halve the price of the pouch. So I'll rather try to improve it myself. My plans:

1. Punching the holes nicely (done)
2. Sand down the flap to a nicer round shape
3. Reglueing the leather flap ornament
4. Maken the complete pouch a bit more brown with brown leather wax
5. Replace the rather raggy leather straps with other ones (straps already ordered)