Attaching leather to tool a board game

[StacyNC]

Hi all,

I’m a brand new leather worker, and am interested in making game boards. I’ve read through the site, taking notes as I went. Thank you, CitizenKate, for answering questions about your construction methods!

What I haven’t been able to figure out is how you all attach your leather to the wood, and when to case it. Do you glue, wait, and then case? Do you have a particular product and method to give a nice, flat bond between the leather and the wood? Or, do you use another sort of substrate besides wood?

I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks!

-Stacy

[Orangeleather]

Without being shot down by the ‘masters’ on here, here’s my take on it as it’s not within my field.

I would have considered using pin nails to position/retain the leather joints.

I’d make sure I’d explore all options in reference to specific glue for this job.

use scrap leather offcuts to practice prior to the actual job

lastly, wait on here for an alternative better answer ;-)

 

[fredk]

Heres how I do game boards;

1. Cut leather to top size plus the height of the sides plus approx 10mm extra on each side, eg on a board 30 cm square on 15mm thick board the piece would be at least 350mm square

2. Put board on leather, onto flesh side, mark its size, then gouge a fold line along where sides meet top area

3. Apply contact adhesive to board top, and just a little to flesh side of leather in the top area

4. Place board onto the leather; turn over, I use a brayer* to flatten the leather and firmly attach it to the board, using the brayer in a star line fashion, always working from the centre towards the edges and corners         * instead of a brayer, a good rolling pin might do

5. When the centre top has had time to dry I then glue the sides down using the contact adhesive. I do opposite sides first, then the other two. I use one of my antler folders/burnishers to press the leather tight. This leaves 4 sticky-out bits at the corners where the sides meet. When the sides are dry  I use a sharp trimming knife to cut off these sticky-out parts; cutting straight down and the knife at about 45 deg to the two sides. This saves having to measure and cut the ends of the sides very carefully before attaching to the board

6. Now, using my sharp trimming knife I go around the board cutting the leather on the sides level to the bottom of the board; like a cook cutting pastry from the edges of a pie

7. I like to use upholstery pins/tacks along the sides of board. They are not necessary to hold the leather but they look nice. I place about 5 or six per side; but the same number on each side eg all sides get 5 or all sides get 6

8. I have a few templates for different sized playing areas and templates for making the squares. I place these on the board top in turn, marking them out. I usually gouge the lines for the squares now.

8a. Sometimes I cut and prepare a separate playing area which is glued onto the main board after #9

9. With the playing area marked and cut I case the whole game board, carefully, so as not to get too much water into the wood board. Once cased I stamp or otherwise make the pattern I want

10. After that work I use a few coats of thinned Resolene as a dye blocker on playing areas I do not want dyed. I dye the playing squares I do want coloured, then use an 'antique' over the whole board, then a beeswax mix as a sealant

11. I add a leather disc at each corner of the reverse side. The discs are punched out of waste leather. Prior to the start, depending on the type of wood base its has been either varnished all over or painted matt black.  All corners on the board have been rounded, to ease the leather round them

12. Choice of ood is upto you, but it needs to be well seasoned and stable. I can no longer get such wood, the last full grain board I used warped badly after a while, plywood boards have also warped and even de-laminated, I now use thick MDF board

It doesn't need a whole lot of glue; once its stuck down a bit and the edges are done that leather aint goin nowheres. The drying out after casing helps pull the leather tight too

I don't usually keep photos of the things I make but here are a couple of a board game I made years ago

Edited January 8, 2018 by fredk

[StacyNC]

Thanks, both of you, for taking the time to reply. Fredk, that is exactly what I needed! Now I have a starting point for my board game adventures. 

[kiwican]

good looking game board

[Northmount]

11 hours ago, StacyNC said:

Thank you, CitizenKate, for answering questions about your construction methods!

I assume you saw this thread http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=278#entry297272

I've been thinking of doing something like the table in her post March 28, 2013

Tom

[StacyNC]

Thanks, Tom. I'd seen that post last year when I was looking through the site, but couldn't find it again when I went looking this week. I'm going to bookmark it now!

[Northmount]

5 hours ago, StacyNC said:

Thanks, Tom. I'd seen that post last year when I was looking through the site, but couldn't find it again when I went looking this week. I'm going to bookmark it now!

I knew I had seen it and couldn't find it.  Then looked through notes and photos I had saved for reference and found the url.  Just lucky!

Tom