1st Leather Attempt

[DurocShark]

I picked up a bag of Tandy scraps and tried to make a pen. I glued the leather together using Titebond then soaked the block with thin CA. Tube glued in with med CA and thin CA added frequently throughout the turning process.

Finishing was with thin CA only as I was trying to keep the texture of the layers. I don't know that I'm totally happy. The leather came through at the ends of the tube, leaving lighter areas visible. I can re-soak those in thin CA to repair, but I wanted to share this little mini adventure.

Comments, smacktalk, whatever, welcome. I'm looking for ideas here. I can go with a more "normal" CA finish that may work, but I really wanted the bumpiness of the leather. Maybe capping the ends with wood/acrylic would make that work?

 

[papaturner]

Nice job, Don. Great looking pen.

 

[fernhills]

Neat,

 

[Jim15]

I like it, nice work.

 

[george]

Very nice work.

 

[BullDurham]

I like, but would like to see at a different angle with out the clip, just the blanks part.

 

[cinder_ladylocket]

I love it and if your not happy with it send it to me and I will take really good care of it for you....heheheheee Cinder_Ladylocket

 

[almer]

I picked up a bag of Tandy scraps and tried to make a pen. I glued the leather together using Titebond then soaked the block with thin CA. Tube glued in with med CA and thin CA added frequently throughout the turning process.

Finishing was with thin CA only as I was trying to keep the texture of the layers. I don't know that I'm totally happy. The leather came through at the ends of the tube, leaving lighter areas visible. I can re-soak those in thin CA to repair, but I wanted to share this little mini adventure.

Comments, smacktalk, whatever, welcome. I'm looking for ideas here. I can go with a more "normal" CA finish that may work, but I really wanted the bumpiness of the leather. Maybe capping the ends with wood/acrylic would make that work?

Ive made a few leather pens,some fr string leather,some for real leather pieces,i do what we call stack leather wrap on pool cues,its beautiful wrap,if you look at tigerproducts.com website i think they show in detail the metod we use to take raw leather down to a real shiny leather finish,i sold the pens i made but im going to make some more and will post pics,it can be dyed to make any color you want

 

[DurocShark]

I looked but can't find anything on tigerproducts.com.

I've done a couple since, and have found a couple of things:

Leather flexes. CA doesn't.
Dyed leather is often bleached in the middle with the dye only penetrating the surface. (Doesn't necessarily look bad, but...)
Leather smells better while turning than many woods.
Thick stiff leather is easier to work with than thin or suedes.

I'm still not 100% happy with my results, but I haven't tried a poly dip yet. That's next.

 

[almer]

I looked but can't find anything on tigerproducts.com.

I've done a couple since, and have found a couple of things:

Leather flexes. CA doesn't.
Dyed leather is often bleached in the middle with the dye only penetrating the surface. (Doesn't necessarily look bad, but...)
Leather smells better while turning than many woods.
Thick stiff leather is easier to work with than thin or suedes.

I'm still not 100% happy with my results, but I haven't tried a poly dip yet. That's next.

www.tigerproducts.com is a pool cue based dealer that deals in leather wraps and stacked wrap,try the site again,i just looked at it

 

[DurocShark]

I got the site up, but I couldn't find any how-to's or "how we make it" stuff. That's what I meant.