Hair on inlays

[Hilly]

For those of you that do hair on inlays, what is your method for getting good results?

[Hilly]

C'mon you guys! Nobody can tell me the best way to do a hair on hide inlay? Hide Pounder? Bruce Johnson? Anyone?

I want to make a photo album cover with an inlay, and I want to know if you just glue the top leather down to the hair? Do you use contact cement? Do you cement both inlay and top leather?

I don't want to waste any hair on hide, and the photo album is going to have a lot of carving and tooling on it, so I don't want any mistakes.

[bruce johnson]

Hilly,

Sewing hair on will give you gray hair. It slides very easily in the hair direction. If I can, I glue it down to something and sew through it sandwiched. On a binder I use the stiffeners from a 3 ring binder cover. I have just sewed right through the cardboard. When you put on a liner the inside stitches don't show.

If I am doing something that doesn't have a stiffener and I don't want stitching to show through the liner, I tape it in place on the flesh side with carton tape. Sew it and then pull the tape off. I trim it closer to the stitch line with a wide french edger so it kind of skives at the same time. Some people use tacks to hold hide for sewing and then pull them as they get to them also. It works alright too.

I don't clip the hair close the stitch line and then glue it. Never fails - it slips and I have the bare area showing. I likewise have had poor luck applying glue to the hair and not having glue show. At times I have also skived the edges, glued it down to oversized thin lining pig and then glued the pig to the top piece to keep things lined up.

One thing on albums that looks nice is to plug them. Take the piece you cut out and thin it slightly and then take an allowance off the outside edges. Set your stiffener in place, place the plug and outline it. Then glue it down, and glue the inlay over it. Put the top piece in place and sew it. Plugging hair-on inlays really makes them look nicer I think. The problem with plugging comes on things subject to abrasion wear like belts. The hair will rub off with use.

[kevinhopkins]

Hi... Actually, there are several ways to go about it... You can do your cut out, dye the edges, then lay it over the hair on, and sew around it. You can sand the edges of the hair on pc if it's big enough, to remove a bit of the hair around the edges if you want. That way it's a bit easier to glue. I've done them where I've sewn around the edge of the outer leather, and then sewn the hair on pc down to the lining. If you do that you need to sew right next to the edge of the outer leather. You can also put a little foam under the hair on to sort of give it a puffy look. I'm sure there are other ways to go about it, but those are a few things that I've done in the past.

Kevin

[Hilly]

Hilly,

Sewing hair on will give you gray hair. It slides very easily in the hair direction. If I can, I glue it down to something and sew through it sandwiched. On a binder I use the stiffeners from a 3 ring binder cover. I have just sewed right through the cardboard. When you put on a liner the inside stitches don't show.

If I am doing something that doesn't have a stiffener and I don't want stitching to show through the liner, I tape it in place on the flesh side with carton tape. Sew it and then pull the tape off. I trim it closer to the stitch line with a wide french edger so it kind of skives at the same time. Some people use tacks to hold hide for sewing and then pull them as they get to them also. It works alright too.

I don't clip the hair close the stitch line and then glue it. Never fails - it slips and I have the bare area showing. I likewise have had poor luck applying glue to the hair and not having glue show. At times I have also skived the edges, glued it down to oversized thin lining pig and then glued the pig to the top piece to keep things lined up.

One thing on albums that looks nice is to plug them. Take the piece you cut out and thin it slightly and then take an allowance off the outside edges. Set your stiffener in place, place the plug and outline it. Then glue it down, and glue the inlay over it. Put the top piece in place and sew it. Plugging hair-on inlays really makes them look nicer I think. The problem with plugging comes on things subject to abrasion wear like belts. The hair will rub off with use.

Thank you for the reply, Bruce. I like the idea of glueing the hair on to some thin lining and glueing the lining to the front. I guess I will experiment when I finally have the chance to. I like the idea of plugging, too.For the time being, I can only make plans. I'll be working 70-80 hours a week till after Labor Day.

Hi... Actually, there are several ways to go about it... You can do your cut out, dye the edges, then lay it over the hair on, and sew around it. You can sand the edges of the hair on pc if it's big enough, to remove a bit of the hair around the edges if you want. That way it's a bit easier to glue. I've done them where I've sewn around the edge of the outer leather, and then sewn the hair on pc down to the lining. If you do that you need to sew right next to the edge of the outer leather. You can also put a little foam under the hair on to sort of give it a puffy look. I'm sure there are other ways to go about it, but those are a few things that I've done in the past.

Kevin

I wonder how a pet clipper would work around the edges? Just shave a little off around the edges....

[nobearsyet]

The Oster A-5 horse clipper with one of the "surgical" blades works well. But the hair on stuff still wants to slide a bit once you shave it.

[hidepounder]

Hilly,

I'm sorry Hilly, I missed this thread! You've probably fiinished the project already, LOL!

I must be doing something wrong because I don't really have a problem with hair-on inlays. I use a pen to mark the edges of the overlay, then I shave the hair off with a pair of clippers. It doesn't have to be pretty, just enough to expose the leather to glue to and I stay away from the edge I marked. I use Barge to glue the overlay onto the hair-on piece and I plug the inlay with the cut out like Bruce is talking about also. I line everything I do so the hair-on will be sandwiched between two pieces of veg tanned leather. Of course it all has to sewn to make it permanent, so you need to design the overlay with a margin or edge to sew along the edge of the overlap. I don't let the hair-on extend out to the outside edges of the piece. I like to skive the back side of the hair-on down pretty thin so that I can cut is short of the outside edge. I do this because the chrome tanned leather does not edge very well and this way I can let the overlay and the lining come together and I get a better finished edge. One thing that makes a big difference.....I only buy hair-on hides with "summer" hair. It is very short and much easier to deal with.

Hope this helps...

Bobby

Edited August 8, 2009 by hidepounder