Rope to Leather

[Spence]

I moved from rope to leather a couple of years ago and I'm now ready to tackle a fancy picture frame.

The knotheads here will know what I'm referring to: The fancywork from the 1800s, done by seamen on the old sailing ships. I've duplicated a couple and even restored one (partially) for a collector.

So now, it's time to try one in leather.

1. What would be the best way to secure the leather to the wood frame? Adhesive or staples? (With the ropework I used brads and small amounts of glue), then shellac, paint maybe, and varnish.

2. What adhesive would be best? Spray?

3. Recommendations on leather? Garment, exotic, roo?

I plan to try to use sennets, decorative knots, flat turksheads, etc - whatever I can make up that looks good.

Thanks for your time and suggestions.

[The Major]

There should not be any reason you can't fasten the leather the same way as you did the rope. Using a combination of small brads and cyanoacrylate adhesives, in some cases you can even use white glue. If you are going to use a spray adhesive, use a web adhesive. As far as the type of leather goes, that all depends on you and what you want the outcome to look like. But if you are doing the fancywork, try kangaroo.

[hidepounder]

I moved from rope to leather a couple of years ago and I'm now ready to tackle a fancy picture frame.

The knotheads here will know what I'm referring to: The fancywork from the 1800s, done by seamen on the old sailing ships. I've duplicated a couple and even restored one (partially) for a collector.

So now, it's time to try one in leather.

1. What would be the best way to secure the leather to the wood frame? Adhesive or staples? (With the ropework I used brads and small amounts of glue), then shellac, paint maybe, and varnish.

2. What adhesive would be best? Spray?

3. Recommendations on leather? Garment, exotic, roo?

I plan to try to use sennets, decorative knots, flat turksheads, etc - whatever I can make up that looks good.

Thanks for your time and suggestions.

Spence,

I do frames from time to time and have never used anything but Barge on them. It works very well. The frame on the right has a tooled piece of leather on top of ostritch. It's all just glued.

Hope this helps!

Bob

[Spence]

Spence,

I do frames from time to time and have never used anything but Barge on them. It works very well. The frame on the right has a tooled piece of leather on top of ostritch. It's all just glued.

Hope this helps!

Bob

Thanks for the hints, Shawn and Bob, that is awesome work. I'm a long way from tooling though. I may do lacing applique, but the rest will be knots and sennets. (hopefully) Thanks