Splicing leather for a strap

[Kimlet2156]

Hi, have a question. I have a customer that wants a crossbody bag out of a particular piece of leather. The problem is I don’t have enough to make the long cross body strap in one piece. Im looking for suggestions on how to splice the leather together to make it strong enough to hold a lot of stuff? I plan to use two pieces of leather glued together and stitched on the edges. But what would be the way to approach the spliced area? Thanks for any help in advance!

[mike02130]

I've used these before.  It worked well.

 

[TomG]

7 hours ago, Kimlet2156 said:

Hi, have a question. I have a customer that wants a crossbody bag out of a particular piece of leather. The problem is I don’t have enough to make the long cross body strap in one piece. Im looking for suggestions on how to splice the leather together to make it strong enough to hold a lot of stuff? I plan to use two pieces of leather glued together and stitched on the edges. But what would be the way to approach the spliced area? Thanks for any help in advance!

Might help to know what kind of leather.
I've made 30-40 foot dog training leads from Latigo and VT. I skive the ends down on opposite sides and the use contact cement to glue them together and them do a running stitch up each side at the splice for strength.
For a bag, you'll probably want to stitch the whole length of the strap for aesthetics sake as well as strength.
 

[Dwight]

It's a bit tricky . . . but you can also take the large piece of leather (biggest ya got) . . . and cut a running piece around the outside edge in a circle .

Keep cutting . . . coming in on that circle . . . and you can get 15, 20, 30 ft of length . . . all one piece.

May God bless,

Dwight

[RiverCity]

Since you are making a 'sandwiched' strap anyways, you can use thin nylon inside the strap.

IMO the main strength becomes the nylon, with the added strength of the leather. It is also a good method of strap making for anything that is under a lot of tension and might stretch.

From there, you can splice the leather however you choose. you can even make patchwork looking straps with this method.

[Danne]

This is how I would do it.

Top layer skive the transition so they overlap each other.

Reinforcement (Velodon/Vildona, or some nylon reinforcement)

Lining

 

[garypl]

Could always use a Conway buckle to attach the ends together

[battlemunky]

A lot of great suggestions. I like the tri-glide set up @mike02130 posted. It uses much shorter individual pieces and joins then into longer ones all while allowing for adjustment.

Post pics of whatever direction you go with, please.

[Squilchuck]

Can anyone post a photo of how the hardware mike02130 suggested works?  -John

[toxo]

On 10/26/2021 at 5:49 AM, Kimlet2156 said:

Hi, have a question. I have a customer that wants a crossbody bag out of a particular piece of leather. The problem is I don’t have enough to make the long cross body strap in one piece. Im looking for suggestions on how to splice the leather together to make it strong enough to hold a lot of stuff? I plan to use two pieces of leather glued together and stitched on the edges. But what would be the way to approach the spliced area? Thanks for any help in advance!

Don't overthink it!  If the leather is thick enough and wide enough, a long slanted skived scarf properly glued and stitched will hold a hell of a lot.

[battlemunky]

On 10/30/2021 at 8:37 AM, Squilchuck said:

Can anyone post a photo of how the hardware mike02130 suggested works?  -John

https://youtu.be/u7awkN6OkFQ see around 1:52:00 mark for when he starts using the tri-glide. He is using it on canvas webbing but the tri-glide doesn't care a single bit.

EDIT: sorry, I know you asked for a photo but the only photo and directions I have are copyrighted and I can't share them but the video above is from that exact same set of instructions, as it is from the same pack Ian sells.The video is the companion to the tote template.

Edited November 1, 2021 by battlemunky
clarity

[Cumberland Highpower]

Toxo and others are right. On a few occasions I've made belting for machines skived, glued and stitched (In area of lap) and they work for many years.

[chuck123wapati]

i have a belt that was made longer by slicing the one piece down the center about two inches and skived to 0  then skiving the other piece on both sides again to 0 to create a tapered tongue. the tongue was glued inside the split and sewn.