The Johnny the Fox bifold wallet from Ashland Leather marries the amazing name of Johnny the Fox from the rock band, Thin Lizzy, but is really named after the Chicago gangster Johnny Torrio, who had the nickname Johnny the Fox. Made from veg tanned Horween leather, it manages to carry an amazing number of cards while still be constructed to be thin.
(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
The Johnny the Fox wallet we have in this review is the bifold wallet from Ashland Leather. You are probably, as I am, thinking about Johnny Torrio who had the nickname of Johnny the Fox. He was the leader of the Chicago outfit and Al Capone was his protege who took over the business later. The band’s name is Thin Lizzy. Well, I guess that I am going to take this Johnny the Fox name in a different direction.
It comes in a wax-sealed box, which I am not quite sure how they do it, whether it is consistent or they just tape it on, but it is cool. We have got the minimalist, but it has a fantastic presentation as what you get with Ashland Leather products. The Johnny the Fox bifold has several card slots. The amount of leather contained in this wallet is amazing, it holds a fantastic sewing and an intoxicating smell. It is a lovely-looking wallet, but there appears to be a relationship between Johnny the Fox and Jimmy the Weed. This wallet is dark tan English Dublin leather, which is just amazing. Nevertheless, it has no external features, but the interior provides three card slots, plus two more, one on each side behind, which makes it a total of eight card slots with a total capacity of three cards each. In addition, it has got a wonderful billfold pocket, which will work really well, since it can accommodate five plus notes. However, it will not work with tall currencies. It measures 4.25 x 2.5 x 0.25”, which is basically a quarter inch and it weighs 78 grams or 3.3 ounces.
I carried out the insertion test with eight cards plus five slips of cash and, to my surprise, the Euro works, which means that the tall currencies, the yen and Euro will work just fine. Furthermore, with only eight cards, the thickness of the wallet was close to an inch. The company recommends up to 24 cards when fully utilized plus five plus notes, and like I mentioned, taller currencies do work, which is great.
This is designed and made in the USA, in Chicago specifically. It is made from Horween English Dublin vegetable tanned leather. It smells incredibly good being that this is vegetable tanned. It is a naturally finished aniline leather, so you get all the variations to the hide. If you look at it closely, you can see all the striations from the hide, which look fantastic. The suppleness of the leather, the smell, the texture and everything that comes with it, makes it amazing. The Horween tannery is in Chicago, which means that it takes a short trip for them to get the quality leather since they are right next door. The sewing is excellent, as I mentioned earlier, and it is reinforced in all the right places as you would expect, as since pulling cards and even cash on and on tends to pull the leather and over time it may pull the thread areas out.
It has got a nice stamp from Ashland Leather at the bottom right-hand corner, in addition, it has an extra nice little design element. There are creases on the top of each one of the card slots that add a nice design presentation and another good look for this wallet. The burnishing is done very well, it is not rough and has a bit of a shininess to it, which I tend to like. This shininess is really good and fits nicely the character of the wallet and all the layers, that is why it is so thin, which is rather surprising. The weight of the leather used obviously plays a role in this. Furthermore, with the thinness of the cut, all these pockets go all the way down without trying to short-change the leather. However, seeing how thick it became with eight cards, with 24 cards we will be looking at Costanza quality by way of the thickness of this wallet if you really tried to push it. But the fact it can handle up to three cards in each slot means that it is built well and can take that capacity if you want to push it that far. The wallet is priced at $125, which is pushing the value a little bit.
The wallet is very well balanced and it opens up easily allowing quick and easy non-stressed access to the billfold pocket. The way it functions and operates is delightful, in addition, the Horween leather will patina beautifully, and any marks or hide character will add to the wallet’s finish and its character.
The final score of Johnny the Fox is 5 for quality because it is top quality and there is nothing to question, I give the price 2 since it is really pushing the expensive side of a bifold considering its build, features score a 3 as it does what it is supposed to, usability scores 4 because it is a smooth operator and is very well balanced, finally, perception scores a 5. Ashland has built a solid reputation around quality, customer service, and heritage products, which permits this wallet to get a final score of 40 out of 50.
Thin Lizzie’s seventh album release was called Johnny the Fox with Johnny being the poor Johnny Boy in a music track that you have to hear to appreciate. If you liked this review, watch the video, then watch the next one. For those old enough to know, Thin Lizzie is a treasure.
The Fox has a simple and clean exterior that ages to an elegant patina, wearing the scuffs and scrapes of the rat race like the badges of honor that they are.
