Flatten Re purposed Leather

[onelooneyzeta]

Some of you may have seen my other post.  I currently repurpose used hs footballs.  I mostly dable in small goods, wallets, key chains, etc.  I am looking to make a messenger bag.  As I deconstruct the football and have all the panels, I am wanting to use as much of the panel as possible.  To do so I need the panels flattened out.  Any suggestions for doing this?  As you can imagine they've developed quite a 'warp' or 'curve' to them.  Appreciate all input.

[rodneywt1180b]

I have no experience at all but it might be worth gluing it to a thin leather as a backing and pressing it flat while the glue cures.  Sort of like a veneer.

I'm hoping someone will be along soon with a better idea.

Rodney

[billybopp]

You can try wetting the leather then place something smooth and heavy on top.   

[onelooneyzeta]

I've thought about trying to make a jig of some kind.  put the panels between 2 pieces of wood or something and clamp them down? I don't know if I should wet them or use some kind of conditioner?  Kinda grasping for info and some help.

[Rockoboy]

I am not an expert in any way, so my suggestions are just a suggestion of what might work. Unfortunately, you might ruin and/or waste some leather in the learning process.

I am guessing a football will be sealed on the outside, so anything applied to the leather will have to be applied to the flesh side.

In the 1st attempt, I would wet the leather and place a heavy object on it, or clamp it between solid flat surfaces, (but do not use metal) while it dries. Maybe more or less water will be the difference.

If the water does not work, I would try a coating of some sort of leather lube, wax, lanolin or concoction of various ingredients. Different people have various leather treatments that the make and/or recommend.

Good luck with you research, I would be very interested to hear about your methods and results.

 

[Bob Blea]

I've had some luck with chrome tanned leather and a warm dry iron.  You have to be careful because some leathers have a plastic coating on the outside that can melt and stick to things if it gets too hot.  Also, it's possible to scorch the leather if the iron gets too hot too.  I've kept my iron on a low setting and placed it grain side down on my tooling stone, then put a dry towel between the leather and the iron and applied pressure.  It has been able to get a lot of wrinkles out.

[LatigoAmigo]

I'm not sure that this will work for your needs, but I cut leather with a laser so I need for it to lay flat during the process. So I purchased some stencil board (a very thin, hard type of cardboard) from a local art supply store, and sprayed the surface with "repositionable" adhesive, then pressed the leather onto the adhesive.

[onelooneyzeta]

On 11/28/2017 at 11:02 AM, LatigoAmigo said:

I'm not sure that this will work for your needs, but I cut leather with a laser so I need for it to lay flat during the process. So I purchased some stencil board (a very thin, hard type of cardboard) from a local art supply store, and sprayed the surface with "repositionable" adhesive, then pressed the leather onto the adhesive.

Are you able to remove the leather from the stencil board?

[onelooneyzeta]

On 11/28/2017 at 8:21 AM, Rockoboy said:

I am not an expert in any way, so my suggestions are just a suggestion of what might work. Unfortunately, you might ruin and/or waste some leather in the learning process.

I am guessing a football will be sealed on the outside, so anything applied to the leather will have to be applied to the flesh side.

In the 1st attempt, I would wet the leather and place a heavy object on it, or clamp it between solid flat surfaces, (but do not use metal) while it dries. Maybe more or less water will be the difference.

If the water does not work, I would try a coating of some sort of leather lube, wax, lanolin or concoction of various ingredients. Different people have various leather treatments that the make and/or recommend.

Good luck with you research, I would be very interested to hear about your methods and results.

 

This is the route I'm thinking of going.  I've talked with another guy that works with baseball gloves and his stuff always looks really smoothed out.  He uses a homemade jig that he is able to squeeze down the leather and clamp it.  Leaves it for 24 hours.  

[LatigoAmigo]

7 hours ago, onelooneyzeta said:

Are you able to remove the leather from the stencil board?

Oh yea. The adhesive is "repositionable" so it does not have that much tack. Pulls right off. I have been using this method for several years.

[onelooneyzeta]

17 hours ago, LatigoAmigo said:

Oh yea. The adhesive is "repositionable" so it does not have that much tack. Pulls right off. I have been using this method for several years.

I may have to give that a try.  It would be amazing to work with a piece of leather that is flat.  the football panels get so 'warped' I don't know if that's a good term, but there is a major curve to it.  Any time I try something that is using the majority of the panel, it is a pain.