I made a Leather NFC Luggage Tag!

As per tradition, TL;DR! Front view. I've got a trip booked for Iceland later this summer, and it got me thinking about luggage tags. So here's my take on the subject.

Rear view.

How it works: Embedded at the center of this handsome 3-4oz veg tan leather tag is a universal, fully re-programmable, lock-able, 888 Byte NTAG216 readable/writeable NFC (Near Field Communication) chip, and can be accessed from either side to view whatever information you put on it! Ideally, you'd simply throw on your contact info so as to help in getting your item returned if lost. But, you can easily program an action for your phone to be called instantly upon contact, open up whatever website URL you'd like, GPS coordinates, automatically send text messages, emails, etc. All done through any old free NFC configuration app found on either the Play Store or Apple Store. I prefer "NXP TagWriter" personally. But the idea here is to keep your information private while moving through the multitude of wandering eyes at travel ports, and accessed with ease by staff or other caring travelers, while also adding a rad lookin' keychain to your gear of course :P

How it's made: Started drafting up a bunch of ideas using Corel Draw. You can see how much an idea can involve over two weeks time until you're absolutely happy with it.

Laser engraving and cutting some beautiful 3-4oz Hermann Oak veg tan leather (covered in masking tape for protection) from my Corel Draw file above with my silly chinese laser cutter I've named Larry.

All cut out!

Now the fun part; Painstakingly removing each little strand of gooey masking tape :D Takes about 15 mins on its own if done carefully.

All cleaned up and hit with some mink oil to remove any excess tape residue.

Punched my initials! Ended up liking this look and feel greatly over simply engraved letters.

The brains of the operation. Installed the adhesive NFC tag right in the middle.

Weldbonded the edges for a near permanent seal.

All lined up!

A nice sanding of the edges with some 1000 grit paper to even them out.

Burnished the edges with a little water and elbow grease to round them out.

Applied some black dye on a wool dauber to help unify and give the edges some pop (very very carefully, it's really easy for the dye to bleed past the edge).

Treated to a healthy dose of Mink Oil and Aussie for nutrients and protection from the elements over the course of its travels.

Finally rubbed some gum tragacanth along the edges to seal and polish them.

Hardware installation: Grommets first. The tool used for this job is pretty particular; you stick the post half of the hardware through one of your holes, then lay one of the flat rings on the other side. You then force them together with either a hammer or...

A One Ton Arbor Press! :)

1/4" Grommets set! Lookin' awesome. These serve to disable any chance of ripping the leather tag out either side.

6mm Rivets set! Done by crunching male and female pieces together, a bit like the grommets. But assures a permanent, folded metal connection that beats stitching any day.

Lastly, installing the braided steel airline cable! These things are totally rad. At about 5" long with a threaded coupling to secure each end together, you can safely attach this to whatever you want with absolute assurance it'll still be there for years to come.

Done!

Final shots, front.

Rear.

On a backpack!

Right at home on a keyring too!

The many variations and attempts before reaching the final version.

And for fun, a quick run through of all the layouts I tried before settling on what you see here today. It is much cheaper to mock these things up digitally, as I quickly learned :P

Independence Doge Tax! Have an awesome 4th of July everyone. Stay safe, and give your pups plenty of attention amidst the warfare going on around them!

And thanks a bundle for following along yet again, usersub; I'd super appreciate any feedback. Would be happy to answer any questions also! Toodle-oo!