Perfectly folding leather at 90 degrees

[VinceOuel]

Hello everyone, 

New on the forum and I need your help. I build wooden boxes to carry and store collectible cards. I want the cover of those boxes to be made of leather. However, I have a lot of difficulty folding the leather correctly over the box. I tried using a V groover and/or a stitch groover with a ruler as a guide but the final result is poor. Note that I will glue two pieces of leather together to form the cover, I'll explain a little further below.

Do you have any suggestions on how I could fold the leather perfectly over the box? Or the tools I should use to be more efficient and precise?

Also, I want to dig in the leather to add magnets. I am going to fit magnets that are 1/16" thick on a piece of leather and glue another piece over it to hide the magnets. Same issue, what would be the best tool and technic to use in order to be precise and efficient? Could I use a rectangle stamp and emboss it 1/32" deep on both pieces of leather, would it work?

Thanks

[chuck123wapati]

I suggest Al Stohlmans series on making cases there are three books " The Art of Making Cases" 

On the above pictures you have skived on the wrong side or that would have worked just fine you need to remove your material on the inside of the bend

Skiving for the magnet pockets also.

or you could form your leather in a jig or form then apply it.

[Northmount]

Use 3 layers of leather, the middle layer to hide the magnets.

 

[Dwight]

If I am understanding . . . and looking at it correctly . . . you can forget creasing the leather for that top part of the box cover.  You will continue your process for the magnets.

1.  For the top . . . you make a box . . . exactly the size of the top of your card holder. 

2.  You then make a cover for that box that is the same dimension as the top of your card holder . . . PLUS the thickness of the leather used on the inner cover piece.

Wet your leather really good . . . put it over the box and force the cover down over it . . . leave it for about 20 minutes . . . gently pull them apart . . . lay your leather out to dry some place where it is not too hot . . . let it dry out slowly . . . this will be the inside piece

3.  Then you make a box that is the dimension of your card holder . . . PLUS the thickness of the inner leather piece

4.  Then you make a cover for it that is the dimension of # 3 . . . plus the thickness of the second leather piece

Wet your leather really good . . . put it over this box . . . force the cover down over it . . . leave it for about 20 minutes . . . gently pull them apart . . . lay your leather out to dry some place where it is not too hot . . . let it dry out slowly . . . this will be the outside piece.

5.  Then take super glue to your magnets . . . glue them in place in the inner piece of leather.  Put your leather "inner top" on the first box . . . smear it real good with Elmer's white carpenter glue . . . do the same to the inside of the "outer top" piece . . .  and slide them together . . . take pieces of thin wood you have made exactly for this box . . . the outside dimension of the leather put together . . . put a piece of wood on each side . . . hold them in place with some rubber bands . . .  lay a block of wood on the top of it . . . put a brick on the piece of wood . . . and go do something for 24 hours.

When you come back . . . you will have a very nice box.  You probably will want to cut the dimension of the outside piece about as exact as possible . . . the inside piece a little big.  Then when all is dry . . . you can fit a block of wood inside the cover and use a razor knife to trim the inside . . . and the top should then be ready for assembly.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited May 18, 2023 by Dwight

[TomE]

In Stohlman's "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather" he describes the process of sewing a miter joint to create a tidy looking square edge.  A French edger will cut a channel for your magnets.  Works best using leather of a firm temper.  I use the #2 Ron's French edger to seat stud hooks in the platform of bridle cheek pieces and reins.  https://ronstools.com/straight-french-edgers/    

[VinceOuel]

 

3 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

I suggest Al Stohlmans series on making cases there are three books " The Art of Making Cases" 

On the above pictures you have skived on the wrong side or that would have worked just fine you need to remove your material on the inside of the bend

Skiving for the magnet pockets also.

   Yes I know I skived the wrong side, my error haha. I was just using the piece to test the strength of my magnets. I'm going to take a look at the Art of Making Cases. I would like to eventually make deckboxes completely out of leather so this could be useful.

2 hours ago, Dwight said:

When you come back . . . you will have a very nice box.  You probably will want to cut the dimension of the outside piece about as exact as possible . . . the inside piece a little big.  Then when all is dry . . . you can fit a block of wood inside the cover and use a razor knife to trim the inside . . . and the top should then be ready for assembly.

Dwight

 

3 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

or you could form your leather in a jig or form then apply it.

You both have good ideas to mold the leather. I might give it a shot eventually for another project. However, maybe I overlooked a detail in my initial questions. I want the leather cover to act as a flap to easily open and close (see pictures below). Forming the cover is therefore not an option since the whole thing will be too ridged.

51 minutes ago, TomE said:

In Stohlman's "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather" he describes the process of sewing a miter joint to create a tidy looking square edge.  A French edger will cut a channel for your magnets.  Works best using leather of a firm temper.  I use the #2 Ron's French edger to seat stud hooks in the platform of bridle cheek pieces and reins.  https://ronstools.com/straight-french-edgers/    

Ok I'll try a French edger. I've seen them mainly used on the edge of a piece so I wasn't sure if they would work as well in the middle of piece thanks.

For the sewed miter joint, do you think the joint remains flexible? I guess the goal is to keep it at 90 degrees right?

[TomE]

4 minutes ago, VinceOuel said:

Ok I'll try a French edger. I've seen them mainly used on the edge of a piece so I wasn't sure if they would work as well in the middle of piece thanks.

For the sewed miter joint, do you think the joint remains flexible? I guess the goal is to keep it at 90 degrees right?

If you need to go deeper with the French edger you can run a stitch groover along the sides of the channel and repeat with the French edger.  The grooves will allow the feet of the French edger to go deeper.  Of course, the French edger should be very sharp.  I've not sewn a miter joint but it looks rather inflexible.  If you need a flexible joint it is probably the wrong method.

[chuck123wapati]

i see what your trying to do now. You may want to rethink the perfect corner approach and round the box top corners slightly to fit the leathers bendability. And yes you can still form the leather, after you fit it and condition it the hinge/ bending areas will still bend because of the skiving..

[VinceOuel]

3 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

i see what your trying to do now. You may want to rethink the perfect corner approach and round the box top corners slightly to fit the leathers bendability. And yes you can still form the leather, after you fit it and condition it the hinge/ bending areas will still bend because of the skiving..

I'm new to leathercrafting, how would condition the hinge areas? Simply by folding back and forth?

[chuck123wapati]

13 hours ago, VinceOuel said:

I'm new to leathercrafting, how would condition the hinge areas? Simply by folding back and forth?

you condition the veg tan leather with an oil of some kind during the finishing stage. so it isn't dry. I use neets foot or mink oil. just a light coat all over your leather, don't get it on your wood though before you seal it.

[jcuk]

This may be of some use to you, i have also added a link to the tool he is using.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tie1GC2tbI

https://www.abbeyengland.com/american-race-economy-fs101

 

Hope this helps

JCUK

[Chakotay]

On 5/18/2023 at 9:52 AM, VinceOuel said:

Do you have any suggestions on how I could fold the leather perfectly over the box? Or the tools I should use to be more efficient and precise?

 

check out about 13 mins in . . .