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Leather Working Question

873 views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  WillyH 
#1 ·
I'm planning to make leather grip covers for my Vintage. I'll wet the leather to make it more pliable to form it to the grips.

Seems leather will stretch a bit when wet. My question is, will the leather shrink back down when or after it's dried? The leather I'm using is about 3/32 thick, if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance (o:
 
#4 ·
It will stretch when wet and shrink as it dries. Just remember if you don’t oil it or seal it somehow it will do the same thing every time it rains. Also important to know what kind of leather you’re using. If it’s already finished the it won’t mold. It needs to be vegetable tanned and non finished to be wet moldable.


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#5 ·
Yup, it is veg tanned and no finish. I've been playing around / experimenting with it and have watched a couple of You Tube vids on the subject. I made a case for my fob and it came out ok... not perfect but not too bad for my 1st try with leather. For the fob case I wetted the leather and formed it with a wood mold I made. It stretched for the mold ok, but I couldn't really tell if it shrunk any when it dried. I wanted to darken parts of it a little so I used brown shoe polish for that, then went over it all with skidmore's. When I get the grip covers done I think just applying Skidmore's alone, will yield a fairly good match to the Vintage bags and seat... we shall see about that!! Thanks for the replies and advice (o:

Bag Leather Fashion accessory Brown Handbag
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