jkittle99 Report post Posted November 16, 2016 I want to make a leather portfolio to hold a legal pad , your typical pad-folio type of design. My natural tendency is to gravitate towards tooling leather for something like this, because of it's stiffness, but I really love the look and feel of much of the other stuff I come across, but even thicker leathers seem to be very flimsy and I"m afraid the final product wouldnt want to hold form very well. Am I stuck with tooling leather and dye for a project like this, or are there ways to make other types of leather that tend to be less rigid do the job? Super newbie here, open to thoughts and suggestions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiwican Report post Posted November 17, 2016 glue and stitch the leather you like to the veg tan? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Halitech Report post Posted November 17, 2016 depends on if you want to do anything on the front or you are leaving it plain. If you plan on leaving it plain, you could use the veg tanned as a liner like kiwi said and glue the other leather to the flesh side of the veg tanned. Just turn it so the grain side will be facing the legal pad Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
byggyns Report post Posted November 18, 2016 If you wanted rigidity but not the look of veg-tan, you can use a bag stiffener material to give the folio more stiffness. You just have to glue it between the inner an outer layers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Colt W Knight Report post Posted November 21, 2016 Commercial padfolios are made with thin vinyl and cardboard as a stiffenervous. There is no reason you can not use chrome tanned leather. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chapper Report post Posted December 2, 2016 I buy the cheap plastic place mats or the thin plastic (2 oz thickness) they call cutting boards at Walmart to use as stiffners. Glue between the liner leather and the outside. Works good. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiwican Report post Posted December 3, 2016 i like that idea too Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jkittle99 Report post Posted January 7, 2017 Thanks for all the tips! I'll post pictures once it's complete! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wlg190861 Report post Posted February 13, 2017 (edited) I just finished the first one I made, Thank god it was for me because it was to narrow for the legal pad { Live-N-learn }. I used 5/6 oz veg-tan an sewed deer skin to it as the cover, looks nice though. #1 tip make sure you have the right width. Edited February 13, 2017 by wlg190861 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites