DIY Nubuck?

[MagnificentHonky]

I have recently developed an interest in leather working. Outside of researching various things, though, I haven't actually begun to persue the interest, yet. (I generally start all new hobbies with a research phase, before I spend the first cent. Easier on the wallet, that way.)

Anyway, a project that I'm looking to do, involves nubuck, which I understand to be top grain leather that has been treated to resemble suede.

I've gone digging through the interwebs, trying to find out the process for creating nubuck, but all I've found is the vague statement that nubuck is "sanded and buffed to create a suede like appearance". Anything after that is diverted to instructions on making homemade cleaner for boots... Not what I was looking for.

So the questions are:

Is the sanding and buffing done pre-tan or post tan?

Is a special tanning process required?

What grits of sandpaper would be used for the sanding?

What is the buffing process? And what tools and buffing compounds (if any) are used?

If all this is done pre-tan, I'm not much interested in doing it, at the moment. I'm a trucker, and am away from home for weeks at a time, so tanning is not something that I have time for. Also, I don't have convenient access to a cow, or a place for an entire cows worth of meat. However, I would still be interested in the knowledge. I collect random knowledge, anyway.

On the other hand, if the nubucking process is a post-tan exercise, I would be interested in trying it out. It would be personally gratifying.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

[chrisash]

Not sure where you are on the Earth, but Nubuck is sold in many leather places already done, you can often buy a shoulder as the smallest size about 10 square foot or a complete side, all the ones i have seen are in a natural light tan colour but there may be other colours. The only thing you have to do is cut out the design and sew together if you are in the USA then this link may assist you

https://products.weaverleathersupply.com/search?ts=custom&w=nubuck

[MagnificentHonky]

Thank you for the link.  (I am in the U.S., incidentally) Assuming the production process is more tedious than I want to deal with, buying nubuck already done isn't necessarily out of the question.

But... I still really want to know how the stuff is made. Sometimes, I like to do projects, just because I can. Or, to see IF I can. My Grandfather and his brother were the same way; they both made stuff that made you say, "Interesting project, I see the skill... But, why?" 

The larger project is a trunk restoration. My wife bought this old, 150 year old trunk (give or take) that's covered in what appears to be a nubuck material. The nubuck has designs burned into it. The nubuck is also dry rotted, cracked, and a panel is missing. Looking into trunks, it appears that paper, leather, and metal were all fairly common coverings, but this nubuck covering is rather unique.  The coverings aside from metal tend to be destroyed over time, and many trunk restorations leave the trunk "naked"; which is probably why I haven't found a similar trunk. I want my trunk to remain period correct, and keep it's original look.

Certainly, I can't be the only one that's ever wanted to take a piece of leather, and turn it into a piece of nubuck. I'm beginning to get the impression that this is some big secret, and the Area 51 file on nubuck creation hasn't been declassified, yet.

[MagnificentHonky]

Wow, so no one knows, huh? That's rather disappointing...

[TonyRV2]

You may as well be asking Horween its tanning process for creating their famous pullup leathers. It's akin to asking a BBQ champion the recipe for their BBQ sauce. It just aint gonna happen. Most tanning and finishing processes are well guarded company secrets.

That said, at least you have a starting point knowing that Nubuck is made by sanding and buffing the grain side of the leather. I doubt that doing it without machinery is going to yield a very uniform result, but if your hell bent on doing it then its going to take experimentation on your part. The main caveat is this...by the time you pick up a hide or three of veg tanned leather and start experimenting with it, you may as well have just bought the Nubuck hide to begin with.

[bikermutt07]

Nubuck is a chrome tanned, sometimes veg retanned leather. It's not something you need to worry about making yourself. Look to Acadia leather for some sides. They have many deals on pull-up leathers (most with a buffed surface like nubuck, but with color change on the wrinkles) on Instagram. 

 

Here is some form of crazy horse I got from them.

[MagnificentHonky]

Hmm. So it is akin to the Coke formula and Area 51 files, lol.

It's not necessarily that I'm hellbent for making my own, out of some perceived necessity.  It's kind of like those guys on YouTube that build stuff, using old school hand tools (as opposed to modern power tools), or that guy who does the primitive technology channel, or the guys who crumple up a sheet of aluminium foil and transform it into a perfectly mirrored sphere.  Or the people who build overly complicated machines, whose sole purpose is to unplug themselves from the wall, once plugged in. The point is less the finished project, and more the sense of accomplishment.  The other thing, at least for me, is that unanswered questions just drive me nuts, lol. Were I a cat, curiosity would have killed me 9 times over, many moons ago.

To duplicate the trunk covering, though, I now wonder if using Nubuck is wise; the original material has designs burned into it, and it's my understanding that burning chrome tan produces a rather toxic smoke. So maybe I'd be better off using the backside of veg-tan, or something else.

Well, maybe I'll just start experimenting, or maybe not. Just depends on my available time, I suppose

Thank you, both, for shedding a little light.

@Biker: That's some nice looking material. It wouldn't suit for the trunk, but I could think of several projects for which it would be downright spiffy.

[chrisash]

Found this if any help

https://ozapato.com/leather-vs-nubuck-vs-suede-what-difference/

I would try gently moving the leather against a bench sander very lightly and feeding the leather at a constant feed rate and need a quite fine sandpaper to make the contact area a consistent wear

Basically the opposite to RockyAussie's skiving method using the outside of the leather rather than the inside

Never tried but just a suggestion

[MagnificentHonky]

Thank you. 

I figured that the sandpaper grit would have much to do with it, along with applied pressure.  I also figured that intial experimentation would probably be best done on smaller pieces; no use destroying an entire side, in finding another wrong way to do it, lol (to badly paraphrase Thomas Edison, in his quote on creating the lightbulb...)

I intend to buy a package of larger leather scraps, to play with burning, stamping, and carving techniques, so sanding and buffing on those, won't be a big deal.  Though, that article implied that the texturing of the nubuck was part of the tanning process, so I'm not going to be holding my breath on discovering a nubuck creation method.  And, it's fine if I don't.  It will be disappointing, but it won't ruin my day.

After poking through this forum, and watching a bunch of YouTube how-to's, I'm pretty excited about getting into leatherwork, even if I never do discover the secrets of nubuck creation.

[clivel]

Going back 40 odd years to my student days, when I spent a few months working in a tannery, my recollection is that nubuck was the result of a mechanical process that buffs the grain side of the leather. I don't recall that any special tanning process was used, but I think they mostly used chrome tanned.

The buffing machine consisted of a metal wheel about the size of a car tyre with a smooth surface. One of my jobs was to refresh the surface of the wheel. It was coated with an appropriate glue, and then slowly rotated by hand while emery powder was sprinkled on it forming an even coating. For nubuck, a fine grade of emery would have been used. Once dry, the wheel was rotated at high speed vertically at 90 degrees to the operator. There was a wooden platten in front of the wheel controlled by a pedal which pressed the leather draped over the platten against the wheel.

If your trunk is 150 years old, then it most certainly cannot be nubuck, which to the best of my knowledge originated in the 20th century. More likely it is 'split', the bottom layer of leather after the tanned hide is split. This is rougher than either nubuck or suede. Suede is simply buffed split.

Clive