Box Pocket--How To Neatly Trim Excess Leather Flaps?

[RiverCity]

If you go the wet formed route, you can be careful with nail placement and hide them in a line of stitches.

Chuck

[Northmount]

Iron or steel nails will leave black marks due to reacting with the tannin in the leather. Brass or stainless steel nails (or screws) shouldn't react with the tannin. So if you are going to hide the holes in a line of stitches, be careful what metals you use. Wet forming often leaves irregular edges, so generally need to be trimmed to fit nicely. I prefer to cut oversize and trim to fit and tidy up during assembly.

Tom

[TomG]

I looked back at the wet formed bag tutorial and see what you mean.

I would assume that using nails to hold the leather over the form would not be the preferred method if you were going to machine sew the bag together, right? I don't see how you'd get the stitch line close enough to cover the nail holes.

[Northmount]

Machine sewing formed pouches, boxes can be fun too. Really need to watch the layout and have adequate leather for the machine foot. Cylinder machines need more space inside too. Might be easier to utilize the nail hole line as part of the sewing line when doing hand sewn articles.

Tom