Leather question

[Mason Kuettel]

My grandmother gave me a piece of alligator leather that my great grandfather gave her after wwII. She said "maybe you could make a pen out of it or something"! I guess my question for the group is this...how would i go about turning a 4" by 8" section of gator leather into a pen?

I have seen the pens with layers of leather, but would love to have the leather shown off more than that if possible. I havent measured the thickness yet, but it would probably be too thick for most types of pens if i wanted a clear cast over the top of it. Any ideas???

 

[firewhatfire]

scrape it down thinner and glue it to the tube, or cut a piece wet it, stretch it and sew it over the tube for the top half and get an alligator jaw bone blank and do bottom half of blank with it.


kinda like this one.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=87231&highlight=harley

 

[snyiper]

Take a gasket punch or a piece of tube the size you want and sharpen the edge and punch out circles. Take and drill each circle for the tube you are using and glue one and slide it on the tube. I use gorrillia glue for this as it fills gaps, that being said cut 1-2 more than fills the tube so you can clamp the whole thing end for end compressing the leather. When it is dry you can true the ends and turn on your lathe when you square it up you will get rid of any leather that hung over your tube.
Hope ths makes sense.