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lostcaggy

Creasing thin veg tan leather

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Hi

 

I've made a couple of bifold wallets from chrometan and am now making a few more from veg tan leather. Using 3oz/1.2mm for outer and 2oz/0.8mm for the interior. I want to make them look more professional and so want to crease the top of the card pockets.

I'm having quite a few problems getting a line as the leather is quite soft/stretchy.

I've got a couple of osborne creasers #1 and #4 I've tried cold creasing and hot creasing but still having issues in getting a crisp straight line. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

Edited by lostcaggy

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Hard to advise without really knowing what kind of leather we''re talking about. There are milled veg tans available that are soft and stretchy and of course, there's the possibility that you've got some softer belly leather. No matter; what you really need is some dimensional stability.

A couple of things that come to mind are wetting the leather (casing, not just a light surface application of water) and letting it dry or affixing the leather to a backing board to give it more stability.

Getting veg tan wet and then letting it dry usually stiffens it up a bit but if it was me and I already had the leather cut I'd be inclined to try a backing. You could either contact cement the leather to some kind of flat surface or you could use shipping tape .  The tape I use on the backs of all my veg tan stamping/carving projects  is 3M Scoth Heavy Duty Shipping Packaging. It comes in rolls about 5cm (2" m/l) wide. No problem if you need to create an overlap with the tape but don't be stingy with the overlap on the seams.  I don't recall exactly where I heard it but someone (Aaron at Makers Supply?) said that it must be the Shipping tape, not just the regular packaging tape. I don't thing I'd be inclined to use a hot creaser on something that thin with a tape backing, though. I think maybe a very light spritz of water and a cold crease could work for you.

Regards,

Arturo

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Hold it down with a ruler close to the edge.

I show you an example.

1389062802_Namnlost.thumb.jpg.1bb2f6b449a92fb86df52f99f001a4da.jpg

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If it's stretching, put some low tack masking or painters tape on the back.

 

Be sure your edge is just as straight as you want your crease to be. Otherwise, use a ruler or straight edge to crease along.

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