Traveler's Roll-Up Happy Hour Kits in Shell Cordovan

I love road trips. From extended car-based touring adventures to quick weekends away to visit friends, traveling by car remains a classic and particularly freeing mode of travel. Especially these days when the romance of air travel has been all but gutted by the necessary hassle of enhanced security procedures, long lines, cramped accommodations, and fees for everything, jumping in your car offers a freedom and flexibility that is balm to the world-weary traveler’s soul.

My family and I enjoy both urban adventures with a specific plan or destination in mind, like seeing a play or museum exhibit, as well as more open-ended trips. Throwing your tent and some minimal gear in the back of the station wagon with the dogs and just driving to some undiscovered corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula or Ontario is a great way to spend a week or two in summer. Whatever your style, the person of taste and distinction will want to be prepared for an impromptu happy hour at the end of the day. Presenting the Rover Haven happy hour travel kit, crafted from Horween’s shell cordovan, of course.

Distressed No. 8 or Natural shell cordovan with solid copper rivets, solid brass buckle, and the Rover Haven maker’s mark. Simple ingredients make for simple elegance and function.

I built two of these kits as gifts this year for two very special people in my life. Each one contains a cheese board made from oiled cherry wood; an 8 oz stainless steel flask; a 111 mm SAK with cheese knife, serrated main blade, and corkscrew; and two hors d’oeuvres forks. That’s it. The whole thing rolls up so nothing can fall out, and is secured with a single-layer strap fastened to the outside of the kit, brass buckle, and captive floating keeper.

The Victorinox cheese SAK. There’s no bottle opener, so keep your Pioneer handy in case someone brings Two Hearted Ale to the party.

I put a little forethought into choosing the individual components of the kits, but none whatsoever into the design of the actual shell cordovan roll-ups, which I then totally improvised. What did I have, what would fit where, in what orientation, and how to fasten it all? The organic process resulted in two very honest products, sturdily handcrafted with love.

I made the No. 8 roll-up first. I was lucky enough to have one huge, intact shell that I got from Horween several years ago. It was so big, I think it must’ve come from a Clydesdale, and although untouched, it suffered from numerous flaws. Its thin spots, cracks, scrapes, and other imperfections gave it the overall distressed and worn-in look and feel of your unrestored 1954 Jaguar XK120’s seating surfaces. I wouldn’t want it for my belt, handbag, or wallet project, but it was perfect for the vibe I was going for with the happy hour travel kit.

The No. 8 shell was huge but deeply flawed, offering the perfect character for this project.

To save time, and because I love pounding on things, I decided to use hammered copper rivets in closing up the pouch for the cheese board. You might recognize these rivets if you wear Levi’s, as they use these to reinforce their jeans at the stress points. The rivet body looks like a copper nail, with a big flat head on it. You insert the nail through the hole in the two layers and place a burr washer over it, sandwiching the two layers. The hole in the burr washer is critically too small for the rivet stud, so it must be pounded down onto the material surface. It fits so tightly that you wouldn’t be able to remove it at this point if you wanted to. The stud is then cut off very close to the face of the burr washer using a fret cutter, and what remains of the stud is deformed with a bucking tool, leaving a finished head. The whole arrangement is very secure and attractive when complete, in that Copper Age, a-Viking-might’ve-made-this sort of way.

The cheese board tucks into a pouch, and the other items are secured onto the pouch’s outer surface.

That’s almost all there is to it. All that remains is to sew or rivet some straps onto the pouch to secure the other items. A test roll determines where to trim the roll-up, and I decided that this one would look good with an envelope-shaped flap that just reveals the first two copper rivets in the sides. Finally, a single-layer strap is attached for closing the whole thing up. For adjustability, the strap’s keeper floats between the strap’s two attachment points. It is thus captive and can’t get lost.

Fold, roll twice, fasten with buckle and keeper, then toss into the boot of your XK120 for happy hour readiness.

The second roll-up happy hour kit was more challenging to construct because I didn’t have another Clydesdale shell available to me. So I combined two smaller Natural shells and two partial Natural shells I had already used for other projects, but rather than cut them into four pieces of regular and predictable (i.e., easy) geometry, I decided to join them however they presented themselves, following their natural shapes and edges. And again I chose shells with flaws and imperfections that made them unsuitable for watch straps and the like, but perfect for projects like this. The result is free-flowing and artful, if I say so myself.

Three shells joined at their natural edges form the outer layer of the Natural roll-up.

Inside, the same accessories are available. For flasks, I bought two GSI Outdoors Glaciers in the 8 oz size. They’re a pleasing pocket-friendly shape, just the right size, and have nicely knurled leak-proof tops secured with a polyethylene leash. You could spend more, but I’m very pleased with these simple and durable flasks.

The GSI Outdoors Glacier flask in 8 oz size.

Because I formed the bottom edge of the cheese board’s pouch with copper rivets, I chose to close the ends with seams. This required some careful trimming and piercing, and the sewing of these seams was tricky due to the tight area, but the end result is both lovely and sturdy.

Sewn pouch edges on the Natural roll-up.

The final product is similar to the No. 8 Clydesdale roll-up in function, and offers the same style and spirit in a slightly different shape due to its longer, narrower cheese board. It also has a little room to add another tool above the forks, perhaps a hand carved paddle for those little tubs of lusciousness, La Bonne Vie. I love the forks I found for these happy hour kits; they look like the forks the Who’s from Whoville use to eat their roast beast.

All the essentials for your impromptu happy hour.

These simple roll-ups could easily be made from conventional leather or waxed canvas if you’re handy with a sewing machine. And if you don’t know how to hand sew leather you could easily rivet the whole thing too. Have you made yourself a travel-friendly happy hour kit or other accessory? I’d love to hear from you if you care to share.

Thanks for reading my blog. I welcome your comments below.