50's British Foreign Office's attaché case, RESTORED 

I just got laid off yesterday, and this video, believe it or not, really helped me to get grounded again and feel a little bit better. Thanks Steve.

Having worked in Whitehall for the British government I’m not surprised the original turned out to be a bit cheap and cheerful. I recall the late British comedian, Jeremy Hardy, telling about his evacuation from Lebanon during the war there: “The Americans were evacuated by their secret service in armoured limousines, while we had an old charabanc, driven by a Foreign Office official in driving gloves”. This is the kind of project that would feature on the BBC’s popular TV show, The Repair Shop.

These Civil Service briefcases were used from the late 1950s. Leather was still in short supply after WW2( rationing continued until 1954 in Britain) & expensive, so leather was only used on the parts that received the most wear. Hundreds were made, so corners were cut.

How nice to spend my Saturday morning coffee with you.

Since it is not the original piece, remaking with leather was definitely the best course. You were fortunate to have the leather like the fabric. This was almost the “silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.

Always good to watch a craftsman at work

Love it when you do the historical and older projects.

Steve, you always go above and beyond what you need to and I really admire that!… you are an amazing artist.

Is it just me that gets an ASMR response from the sound of bags and shoes being worked on?

I really enjoy the repairs on these items with a backstory. Leather coats, handbags, satchels,etc. Shoes and boots are okay, too, but the sentimental items mean more to me as a viewer.

As much as I love the shoe videos, I really enjoyed these videos where you rebuild something completely different like this. Just absolutely amazing.

At the moment he said he hates hand stitching, I was doing that very thing and thinking how much I liked it because it looks so nice. Lol.

Another great job Steve, turned out beautiful …! Basically a new satchel… The Master Steveroo does it again…! ❤️💯👍Greg

Beautiful job!! That leather is so stiff. You are such a craftsman.

What a great restoration of an neat old case. Awesome, simply awesome.

Steve, as usual you showed what we as leather crafters go through when making something. Whether it is a brand new build or a repair/refurbished piece they all start the same… an idea. Your brain is different though in my opinion sir. Your ability to flip on the fly is second to none but your work is so impeccable and your attention to detail is just amazing. I have yet to catch any misses in your none foot wear projects. Your L shaped binder idea has been used a long time but most crafters today do not know about that, and that my friend sets you apart from “just another leather/shoe guy!” Again, Fantastic work. On a side note. I hand sew everything except my cloth liners because my hand sewing looks so much cleaner and better than my machines do. Right tools for every job is what we want but make do with what we have! All the best my friend, Walter from AZ

You are giving a second life to that briefcase and at the same time making it more luxurious because now is made of real leather from most of its body not only the center portion 👍🏽👏🏾🙏🏽

That came out amazing brother!

This is a very nice product restoration .🎉

Hello Steve, enjoy your month off... seeing this bag repaired was a very emotional experience for me brought back a lot of memories. Thank you. It is always a pleasure to watch a master craftsman at work. Respect.

I don't know what it is with your videos but they calm me down and I can watch your videos for hours .keep it up steve . Can't wait for the next project

I was just thinking 'where's Steve? Haven't seen him for ages and here you pop up. Good to see you and great video as usual.

Lucky you had that leather such a great job.

I love a nice weekend morning Bedo's video. Cool bag project, thanks for the video.

Another great video Steve, thank you for sharing!

You have taken this to another level well done Steve

You absolutely amaze me! You are a true craftsman in this day of slap it together and send it down the road. I wish I could do what you do.

What great work as always. Simply amazing as usual. Thank you sir for a fine presentation.

That come out fantastic with the Old with New.

The Goat at his finest🎉🎉🎉🎉 great job as always Steve.🎉 many blessings to you and your family from philadelphia...

I understand what you tried to do by salvaging as much as you can. As a leatherworker and perfeccionist I'd have done the same,replace every broken bit and make it like new.

Greetings! I love your videos. Thank you! Great work!

Steve, sorry haven’t been keeping up with you, I’ve been sick, but this project turned out so fantastic I had to send you a big compliment on your work! You are, in my opinion the best on the net. Thanxz

Can't believe you just happened to have that textured leather laying around for a perfect replacement!!

Steve, Comme d’habitude tu as fait un travail magnifique en préservant l’histoire et la qualité de cet objet. Encore bravo et merci pour tes vidéos où s’exprime ta bonne humeur ! 👍👍

Another great restore job Steve. Customer was very happy, I'm sure. And yes, you made the right choice in replacing the fabric w/ leather. Amazing that you had that with the same pattern from years ago......cool. 👍

I'm always impressed by your work. I love watching your videos! Excellent Job!

Great project and work. Well done. Enjoyed waking up to a new video.

Great to watch, how skillful you finisch your projects! 👍😎

The restoration projects are very interesting to me. I like thinking about the people who might have used them.

You are a very talented man sir.

Whoa!! This is huge!!! 😮 👑

Good Morning Steve 🙋🏽. It's very nice to see you today. Thank You for inviting me to watch your video. Enjoy your Weekend ‼️👋🏽👊🏽👍🏽💯. The Bag is Beautiful ❤️

Fantastic work, best of luck with the backlog and enjoy independence day!

Great job. I wish I had just a bit of your creativity and skill. Thanks a lot for the video Steve. Try to get a little rest next month. Looking forward to your next video in August. 👞

I am Truly amazed with your work ethics that does not seems to falter to every work you are doing considering the magnitude of the work, I wish I had that quality and attitude, thank you for sharing your video

Good to see you Steve, I enjoy watching you give best new look to something people usually throw away. Keep up the best job 👍God bless you and your loved ones. Thank you for video, James from California 🇦🇲

Absolutely phenomenal restoration Steve! Every time i see the jobs you do, it excites me more and more to learn so that i can one day be taking on jobs like this! Thank you for always sharing your skills through your videos! You are much appreciated by all of us!

I know I’ve mentioned this before some time back but your knowledge it’s a shame you can’t get a apprentice to pass all this knowledge onto, it’s too valuable not to pass on

Your videos are always on point love em! Specially, these kind something old that needs to be reworked and you tell the client we’ll try to find something matching but probably won’t be the same but then you turn around and boom you have the exact same materials as the Orginal it’s amazing how often this happens really pays to buy out old work shops and keep things around!

Great job as always, sir, even tho there was no hammer time lol

Always enjoy your videos.

Steve, brilliant work, as always!

Looks great.

3:33, It is what was referred to as Leatherette. Canvas impregnated/coated with colored, liquid PVC.... 5:55 they would have used leatherette because it was cheaper and the textile was not a strategically important material. The real leather was going to soldiers boots, infantry saddles and bridals for horses and mules, fighter and bomber pilot jackets and helmets...etc I think using the old bag basically as a template to basically make a new back out of actual leather is giving the client something even better than the real thing. As always, excellent work.

Hello Steve. This must be the finest example of that style of Government case anywhere in the world now! Superb. And such a great video to watch. The perfect leather. Amazing how your huge leather collection just ‘luckily’ threw up the perfect match. Beautiful to watch. Thanks Steve. Another video which brings the viewers joy.

Made my day with the video! Thanks Steve

Hello Steve. This must be the finest example of that style of Government case anywhere in the world now! Superb. And such a great video to watch. The perfect leather. Amazing how your huge leather collection just ‘luckily’ threw up the perfect match. Beautiful to watch. Thanks Steve. Another video which brings viewer joy.

HI, STEVE!!! DAMN, YOU'RE GOOD!!! 🎩

Excellent job

Hi Steve! That came out great! I hope you had a great 4rh!🎉

Fabulous results, Steve. I think you were correct to replace both panels and your reasoning was sound. If it were indeed their grandfather's bag, that's another story but I think you gave them the best bag they could have asked for. Terrific work.

I'm sure someone else will already have said it, but this isn't an attache case, it's a briefcase. Attache cases are the boxy rigid types with a hard outer and clamshell opening. This would typically be called a briefcase. The two are often misnamed.

I feel you with the hand stitching. Over the past couple years, I've gotten into repairing and restoring shoes and boots for my own collection. Obviously as a home hobbyist, I can't afford an outsole stitcher, so I have to do all of my soles by hand. It's a real bitch. 😬

Man! ya got lucky with having that extra hides. that come out quite nicely & we got coffee time with Chris. Have a great 4th of July. Take that Cobra out for a spin.

Nice...👍.

Man, man, man..... wow..... golden hends

PURE ART ❤

Beautiful job, I need to source buckles like those, everything I've found isn't quite the same.

Nice, Saturday morning coffee and a restoration video from Steve. It needed a 007 touch, something added that is "secret" for some added fun. Nice old briefcase, but, c'mon... use leather to make these pieces! Nice work there Steve. And, don't forget to pull Chris' hair while you're at it.

Unbelievable good job. Your customer is getting a better bag than it was new. I wonder if you can convert cardboard shoes into leather ones too!

OUTSTANDING Steve 111111

I have the same satchel in mint condition! It is a Royal Mail

These were civil servant (government) document carriers. Not exactly by an attache as not always attached to an embassy. Attache cases were commonly more regid and seure due to the nature of the documents they carried. Sadly even good condition ones go for as little as £30 but considering the change in monarch then there is some increase value in older ER-II items.

I always wondered what happened to the following shoe companies I remember from my childhood in the Sixties: Thom McCann, Kinney, Red Goose, Buster Brown. I guess they just want by the wayside.

Thank god you didint sharpen the blade... a lot of folks are still on edge from the debate.....LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buenas tardes Steve ,otro maravillosos trabajo realizo en un maletín iconico ,y siempre bien acompañado de tus amigos en el tirmpo de café ,un cordial saludo desde Espańa 🎩👍👍👍👍👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Howdy Steve, great job on the attache bag😊

As usual, you arrived at the right choice but this one seemed iffy for a while! Because the bag did not really belong to the customer's grand father there was nothing lost by replicating the piece and actually upgrading it with that leather versus keeping that impregnated canvas or whatever it was. Turned out great as always, you are a fine craftsman.

Your viewers are here for your gimmicks. Coffee time. Hammer time. Sharpening disposable razors.

I don't suppose too many of those government bags ever got restored. Expect most of them ended up in the incinerator. I recall two features not present in this example. (1) the gusset extensions could be buckled together, and (2) there was a soft leather inner flap under which documents were supposed to be placed. These two features were designed to prevent documents being extracted without unlocking the main closure.

Мне очень нравится то, что Вы делаете! ❤

Came out great! Not that i was expecting anything less💪🏾🤌🏾

Thanks for the Saturday morning with the sexiest guy on RU-vid.

Good evening ❤😊

“The Attaché of Theseus” 😂

Very nice work. I hope you solve the sewing machine problem since you do not enjoy hand stitching.

I mean Wow!! You are an artist.. I think I'd have said.. "Look your bag is shagged, but I can make you a new one, this time out of real leather.." because let's face it, that'"s what you did with your usual brilliance... I bet they don"t even realise the huge quality difference between the original cardboard cut out and your work or art leather case...

You're a f-ing BEAST!!!!

Nice one, Chris

"Leave it to the a British Government. Just kidding." Hey man! We both know you weren't kidding! 😂

thx, bud!

That front flap looks like oil cloth. My dad used to reproduce it using canvas and black rustoleum paint. But then they changed the formula of the paint and he could never get it right.

nice work beto😀😀

Beautiful, as always! I wonder how difficult it is to be able to service your machines and if you have a sewing machine tech person come in or if you mostly service them yourself. Your industrial type machines just seem daunting and seems also that an expert must be difficult to find that exceeds your knowledge of repairing them.

Lol what was the dramatic music at tea time 😂😂

Amazing work! Curious how much you paid for that leather when you bought it and how long it’s sat on the shelf before this project came in? It was the perfect piece for the job. Well done, you are truly an artist.

yes indeed messenger bag

Steve, great job as always! How much would you want for a bag like that built from scratch?

1o:24 RE-PLACE! RE-PLACE! RE-PLACE! GOOOOOO REEEEAL LEATHER! Yayyyy!!! I bet that attaché case cost a pretty penny! What horrible quality these days 🤨 You made it look great! Good job! God bless!