Gluing Bag Stiffener To Oily Leather???

[Arturomex]

Just received a new pair of boots made of what appears to be pretty oily, waxy leather with a definite pull up quality to it.

In an effort to stop the kilties from curling, I'm thinking about gluing some Tandy Bag Stiffener to the underside of the kilties. The leather feels a little oily and I'm considering contact cement as a bond. While I'd like to do a trial run on another piece of leather, I don't have anything with this particular leather's qualities on hand.

Never used contact cement on an oiled leather. Hoping someone here has and can share their experience and the results.

Thanks,

Arturo

[jimi]

Hi Arturo, I have used contact cement on oily leather and can say that it will hold it in place long enough to sew the parts together (most of the time) but will not hold them together for long. Hope this helps?

[Tugadude]

Make sure to roughen the leather some.  There are different kinds of bonds and when a surface is roughened it helps to attain a "mechanical" bond.  

[Arturomex]

  On 2/28/2020 at 10:24 AM, jimi said:

Hi Arturo, I have used contact cement on oily leather and can say that it will hold it in place long enough to sew the parts together (most of the time) but will not hold them together for long. Hope this helps?

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Hey, Jimi, thanks. You're dead on. I decided to try a little spot test on the upper part of the kiltie using contact cement and the aforementioned Bag Stiffener. Prepped both surfaces, let the cement set up well and bonded the two pieces. Had a marginal bond that, as you observed, would have sufficed for holding things together for stitching but certainly wasn't going to hold long or hard. I lifted the Stiffener off the leather and the cement dis-bonded at the leather surface. A lot of it came off with the Bag Stiffener and it only took a couple of thumb rubs to lift the rest off the leather. I think stitching is going to be the way to go but if I do that I don't think I'll use the Bag Stiffener. I think a thin, firm leather will work better and I'll have the opportunity to dye it if I chose to.

  On 2/28/2020 at 1:10 PM, Tugadude said:

Make sure to roughen the leather some.  There are different kinds of bonds and when a surface is roughened it helps to attain a "mechanical" bond.  

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Yep, sound advice. But I don't think it would make much difference in this case, Tugadude. That leather is just loaded with wax and oil. Tried to put a bit of a polish on the boots themselves and they're not having any of it. I could buff for an awfully long time before I ever got a shiny gloss on this stuff. But I'm optimistic that it'll wear well. LOL

Regards,

Arturo

[Northmount]

I've seen some comments here about using deglaser to remove at least the surface oils and waxes.  Another experiment for you?

Tom