Thought I might feed into this one. I have been working with leather for 25
years, albeit in the conservation of medieval manuscripts. But I am aware of
the technical nature of the product. Firstly I would suggest you carefully
examine the leather on offer. I found it really difficult to get "real
leather" much of what is out there is either re-constituted scraps or so
heavily machine grained and surface coated as to be hardly recognizable as
leather at all. You can buy proper vegetable tanned skins with minimum surface
coating from The British Hide Company, they took over the Connolly Hide
business, including stock of leathers.
As regards working with leather, I would definitely NOT recommend soaking in
water, this will have long term effect on the fibre structure which will
embrittle and fail. The trick is pare the flesh side of the skin, which can be
reduced quite radically where it has to be folded around complex shapes and
where it is turned over edges. You can buy purpose made leather paring knives
form bookbinders supply shops, I make my own from high speed steel machine
hack saw blades. You need a very flat surface and a VERY keen edge. A piece of
marble works well as a base. Once you have practiced on scraps and got a feel
for how to work the knife, then all the trimming becomes less daunting.
Contact adhesive is what you need for this kind of work, and you can get one
that gives you some "positioning time", it is the usual rule; start from the
centre and work towards the edges. I am always amazed why paring has not been
part of the upholsterers techniques. I trimmed all my interior in leather, not
correct I now realize but will have
Regards
John
John Gillis
(Senior Conservator)
Library Conservation TCD
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