Gluing Chromexcel Leather

[NewYorkerInSydney]

Hi folks,

Im having trouble with gluing chromexcel. I have glued pieces together in the same way I glue other leathers that bind together tightly, but this stuff just comes apart. The glue doesnt hold it. Anyone have any suggestions or glues that work well with chromexcel?

Thanks in advance,

Nyis

[Chris Pass]

are you gluing flesh to flesh, grain to flesh, etc?

are you roughing up the leather before applying?

what type of adhesive are you using?

-Chris

[Colt Hammerless]

Ask Kevin at Springfield Leather Co. On one of their deals videos, they announced that they were going to start carrying Chromexcel. They were talking about how much oil there is in it, and how it's hard to cement because of that. They mentioned something that one of their customers used to attach it to a motorcycle seat, but I don't remember what they said. Here's the link to "Ask Kevin" : http://www.formstack.com/forms/?669123-wcA3Djo4P2

He's usually pretty quick at answering. Good luck!

Paul

[NewYorkerInSydney]

are you gluing flesh to flesh, grain to flesh, etc?

are you roughing up the leather before applying?

what type of adhesive are you using?

-Chris

Thanks for your reply. I am glueing flesh to flesh (underside) together. I used both the white type of tandy glue and also the contact cement and neither holds it well. I have not roughed up the surface though. Are their particular glues I should be using? Thanks for your help.

Nyis

Ask Kevin at Springfield Leather Co. On one of their deals videos, they announced that they were going to start carrying Chromexcel. They were talking about how much oil there is in it, and how it's hard to cement because of that. They mentioned something that one of their customers used to attach it to a motorcycle seat, but I don't remember what they said. Here's the link to "Ask Kevin" : http://www.formstack...9123-wcA3Djo4P2

He's usually pretty quick at answering. Good luck!

Paul

Thanks for your reply. I tried finding the video you were talking about without luck though.

Cheers,

Nyis

[Colt Hammerless]

It was one of their "10 Day Deals" videos from a couple of months ago. You won't find it on there any longer, you'll have to ask them (either the owner Kevin Hopkins, or Rusty, as they were the ones in the video who mentioned it.)

Paul

[jk215]

The heavy oil content makes chromexcel a bit tougher to bond. I would suggest roughing up the parts your glueing by "fuzzing" or lightly skiving the edges and using rubber cement.

Edited June 21, 2013 by jk215

[SteelheadFineGoods]

I find two products/strategies to work fairly well when adhering two pieces of Chromexcel, flesh side to flesh side.

What seems to be strongest in my experience is to give each piece a light application of Barge contact cement and let them dry completely. Then when they are completely dry give each piece a second light application of Barge contact cement and when the cement has begun to lose its tack you can press both pieces of leather together and they should stay very well adhered. One application of Barge just doesn't cut it.

Alternately, I've had pretty good experiences using Fiebings Leathercraft Cement (the white stuff). Apply the glue to both pieces, press them together and keep them pressed tightly until the glue dries completely. I like to use binder clips all along the edges to help press the leather together - just keep the jaws of the clips over where you plan to stitch because they will leave a light impression on the leather. This stuff works pretty well, but not quite as strong as Barge in my experience.

If anybody else knows of better ways to adhere Chromexcel I'd also love to know.

[Blak Smyth]

I know this is a thread from a few months ago but I ran across the same issue and all I did was sand the area I intended to glue with a course piece of emery cloth. This seemed to fix my problem and held fine until I stitched.

[Nuttish]

Chiming in late.

I've been working with Chromexcel and found that inconsistencies in the several sides I've gotten are in the degree to which fat and wax permeates the flesh side. Where my construction is flesh to flesh and it's relatively wax free, it just rough it up a bit with 100 grit under my stitch away from the edge and use paper cement. Stay away from your edges because Chromexcel just absolutely can't help itself from getting all nappy anyway.

Where the flesh is waxy, it's going to be inconsistent over even smallish pieces. For flesh to flesh, I'm sanding from 100, 220, 400 and 600. 400 and 600 really just comb and burnish a bit. You'll have to pull stray fibers over the edges and use a very very sharp knife to carefully trim in whatever profile you wish. Bevelers don't work very well on this leather in my limited experience.

Grain to grain and flesh to grain rubber cement up just fine when you take some 100 grit and remove the tiniest bit of surface to reveal the white chrome layer under the grain. Don't go nuts.

Regardless of what you're gluing to what, be very diligent about keeping your edges clean with Chromexcel. Cement won't sand off nicely because it soaks in so deeply.

For temporarily fixing pieces for stitching, you can just press with your fingers or use a brayer. No big deal.

Not sure if rubber cement is ever suitable for anything more than temporarily setting up constructions for stitching. That's all I use it for. If you're looking to more permanently fix this stuff, I've been experimenting with 3M Super 77 spray cement using the same prep. You've got to mask your piece up so well that it's a major drag, but it seems to work well. You didn't say for what purpose you want to fix your pieces so I hope this helps.

[SteelheadFineGoods]

Springfield Leather now carries Bulldog Brand Latex Cement and claims that it's great for gluing Chromexcel and other oil tan leathers. I think I'll pick up a bottle to see how it does. Anybody else have experience with this glue yet?

http://springfieldleather.com/37043/Cement%2CContact%2CLatex%2C8oz/

[Blak Smyth]

Springfield Leather now carries Bulldog Brand Latex Cement and claims that it's great for gluing Chromexcel and other oil tan leathers. I think I'll pick up a bottle to see how it does. Anybody else have experience with this glue yet?

http://springfieldle...tact,Latex,8oz/

Keep us posted, would love to hear your results.

[SteelheadFineGoods]

Keep us posted, would love to hear your results.

Well, my order of Bulldog Brand Latex Cement came in the mail a few days ago and I put it to work right away. I cut six 1.5" squares of 2-3oz CXL front quarter horsehide and conducted a test comparing Barge, Bulldog, and Fiebing's Leathercraft Cement. I adhered flesh side to flesh side and followed normal protocol for each adhesive. I did not do any prep work to the leather before the glue up such as scoring or scuffing up the leather. I left everything in its normal state so that I could simply compare the effectiveness of each adhesive.

Bulldog smells awful and it tacks up very quickly. The instructions call for application with a brush which, in my experience, was a mistake because it just gummed up my brush bristles. The bottle says that it washes out with water but that's not exactly what I found to be true.

I allowed all three samples to dry for over 30 hours clamped with binder clips. After removing the clips I attempted to pull the pieces of leather apart from one another at the corners. By far, straight up Barge had the best adhesion power. Though the results were close the Fiebing's Leathercraft Cement (the normal white glue) seemed to outperform the Bulldog Latex Cement. Clearly my experiment is not accurately controlled, but it was clear that the Bulldog and Fiebing's did not have the adhesion power that Barge does with CXL. The Barge holds to itself really well and generally sticks to the CXL without tearing up the leather when pulling pieces apart. When pulling apart the Bulldog and Fiebing's pieces the adhesive seemed to rip the leather away from the top layer similar to how layers of cardboard might come apart.

I'll give Bulldog another chance in the shop, but I feel most confident in my normal routine gluing CXL which is to scuff the leather, apply a thin layer of Barge, let it dry completely, apply another thin layer of Barge, let it dry to a tack, then adhere the pieces together. Please let me know if you have better strategies or different experiences with any of these adhesives.

[Blak Smyth]

Well, my order of Bulldog Brand Latex Cement came in the mail a few days ago and I put it to work right away. I cut six 1.5" squares of 2-3oz CXL front quarter horsehide and conducted a test comparing Barge, Bulldog, and Fiebing's Leathercraft Cement. I adhered flesh side to flesh side and followed normal protocol for each adhesive. I did not do any prep work to the leather before the glue up such as scoring or scuffing up the leather. I left everything in its normal state so that I could simply compare the effectiveness of each adhesive.

Bulldog smells awful and it tacks up very quickly. The instructions call for application with a brush which, in my experience, was a mistake because it just gummed up my brush bristles. The bottle says that it washes out with water but that's not exactly what I found to be true.

I allowed all three samples to dry for over 30 hours clamped with binder clips. After removing the clips I attempted to pull the pieces of leather apart from one another at the corners. By far, straight up Barge had the best adhesion power. Though the results were close the Fiebing's Leathercraft Cement (the normal white glue) seemed to outperform the Bulldog Latex Cement. Clearly my experiment is not accurately controlled, but it was clear that the Bulldog and Fiebing's did not have the adhesion power that Barge does with CXL. The Barge holds to itself really well and generally sticks to the CXL without tearing up the leather when pulling pieces apart. When pulling apart the Bulldog and Fiebing's pieces the adhesive seemed to rip the leather away from the top layer similar to how layers of cardboard might come apart.

I'll give Bulldog another chance in the shop, but I feel most confident in my normal routine gluing CXL which is to scuff the leather, apply a thin layer of Barge, let it dry completely, apply another thin layer of Barge, let it dry to a tack, then adhere the pieces together. Please let me know if you have better strategies or different experiences with any of these adhesives.

Great feedback, thank you! I will stick to the Barge stuff as well, although I only use it to hold long enough to stitch.

Edited January 14, 2014 by Blak Smyth

[WScott]

You could always just give up on CXL altogether and send it all to me for proper disposal