Leather for stacked leather handles?

[willis]

I recently made a handle on a Karesuando blade blank and behind the bolster put some leather and copper spacers.I used some 8-9 oz leather cut from a Tandy veg tanned tooling single shoulder and when shaping I kept finding voids or hollow spaces.I looked through Tandy's catalog and did not find any "heavy duty sole leather".What kind of leather do you that have experience with builing stacked leather handles recommend?I have seen pre cut leather discs on the knife building sites but would prefer to cut the tang holes myself.You can see where the voids are in this pic,they show up as dark spots where polishing media and wax has filled them.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

There's a way to compress leather. The guys that do a lot of strops talk about it, but I can't remember what it's called? Maybe doing this would help?

 

[Sagewood]

There's a way to compress leather. The guys that do a lot of strops talk about it, but I can't remember what it's called? Maybe doing this would help?

Wet it down and squish it, thats about it

If you've got firm leather, it will only compress a little bit. But if you are using some soft belly or shoulder leather, it can become very thin by the time its compressed. Then again if you are using firm leather(like the stuff near the spine of the cow), you probably wont have the problem with pitting and voids on the exposed edges of the leather in your handle.

If you are using some softer stuff, I would find the firmest portion of the leather you have, wet it down, and then roll it with a pipe/tube/rolling pin. Then let it dry and cut out your stacks for the handle.

If that doesnt work, I've got oodles of scraps laying around I can send your way.

 

[Horsewright]

I've used leather for spacers a couple of times. Couple of coats of superglue during your final sanding will help with any voids not taken care of by compression.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

I've used leather for spacers a couple of times. Couple of coats of superglue during your final sanding will help with any voids not taken care of by compression.

I was thinking about that too. I've used ca to fill pits and voids in wood and home made laminates, but never on leather (that I can remember anyway), so I didn't want to recommend it. You could build up a few layers until they are filled, sanding lightly between coats, then polish with white (plastic) rouge. I picked up some instant set spray yesterday at my local mom&pop hobby shop for just this reason. I find that things get slow to cure after a few coats, and the spray was recommended.

If it were me, I'd compress the leather on any piece before installation.

Hope it works out for you in the future.

 

[Salolan]

I too will echo the compressing your leather first. I recently did a couple stacked leather handles just using scraps from making sheaths. I never noticed any voids while shaping my handles. I cut out all my washers, soaked them in warm water until they were saturated. Then I slid them on an all thread with some large washers on either end and started compressing. I would crank down on them about twice a day as they dried back out over a week. I would recommend putting a wax paper between the layers every where you want to get them apart though, as mine had glued themselves together.

Chris

 

[Ebbtide]

tutorial:

https://www.brisa.fi/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=15

best pic I have of my version of the brisa clamp…

Another piece of wood, with a hole for the tang, goes on the top to squeeze down on the leather.

 

[willis]

Compress the leather it is then thanks for the advice.ebbtide i made a contraption similar

 

[Ebbtide]

A long time ago someone pointed me to that tutorial.
I'm glad to keep the knowledge flowing.