DIY Leather Rack

I don't know about you, but I live in a small apartment, and while I am lucky enough to have an entire room dedicated to leatherworking, space is premium. 

One thing that has continually taken up too much room is the sides of leather, which were previously still rolled up in the boxes they were shipped in and leaning up against the wall. It was definitely not the best way to store the leather, especially the firmer leathers. It's also an eye sore and source of clutter, which can inhibit my productivity. So I decided to make a rack I could hang the hides on.

This rack cost me about $200 to make. It's a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but still a worthwhile investment for my work space. A good amount of that $200 was spent on the galvanized pipe, and I imagine you could find a cheaper alternative.

Just a warning: I am not a wood worker. But I thought this might be helpful for other leatherworkers, so here's how I made it.

MATERIALS

• 3 - 4ft x 5.5in Oak Boards
• 2 - 16.5in x 5.5in Oak Boards
• Wood Glue
• Wood Putty
• Sand Paper (1000, 800, 600, 200)
• Polyurethane (I used matte)
• Wood Stain (I used walnut)
• Screws #8 1.25in
• 4 - 3/4in Elbows
• 4 - 3in x 3/4in Nipples
• 4 - 6.5ft x 3/4in pipe
• 1 - 3.5ft x 3/4in pipe
• 4 - Industrial Wheels
• 4 - 3/4in Floor Flanges
• 2 - 3/4in Tees 
• S Hooks
• Drill + Drill Bits
• Rotary Sander
• Clamps

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STEP 1

A light amount of glue on the bottom of the 16.5in boards.

Boards clamped together after gluing.

To get started, I put a thin layer of glue on the bottom sides of the two shorter boards and placed them on the ends of the three longer boards. After, I placed clamps on the ends to allow the glue to dry. You'll save yourself a ton of sanding work if you wipe of any excess glue that squeezes out after you've placed the clamps.

I don't have a ton of wood working tools, but for easiest/best results, I suggest using a longer clamp to keep the three long boards pressed together as well. Those kind of clamps are expensive, so I just made sure to keep the three long boards pressed together as I clamped on the two shorter pieces.

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STEP 2

Apply wood putty.

Sand smooth.

Once the glue had dried, I put wood putty in some of the cracks between the boards. After the putty had dried, I used a rotary sander to smooth everything out, round out the sharp edges, and eliminate the excess putty. I started with 1000 grit and worked my way down to 200ish.

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STEP 3

Laying on my dog's bed while I apply stain to the underside of the base.

Brushing on polyurethane.

I wiped down the boards with a slightly wet paper towel to get rid of any leftover sawdust. I then applied one coat of walnut stain with an old t-shirt and allowed it to dry. Finally, I brushed on a layer of matte polyurethane let it dry, and brushed on one final layer. Once it was all dry, I hit it with an extremely high grit sand paper to give it a nice smooth feel.

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STEP 4

Drilling pilot holes.

Screwing in the wheels on the bottom side of the base.

On the bottom side I drilled the pilot holes for the wheels and on the top side I drilled the pilot holes for the floor flanges. I put them roughly in the same area, so make sure that your holes don't line up on both sides. This can be achieved by rotating the floor flanges when marking the holes. For the floor flanges, I drilled the first hole 2in in from the long edge and .5in in from the short edge. For the wheels, I placed them 2in in from both edges, again making sure that the holes wouldn't line up on both sides. Finally, I screwed the wheels into place on the bottom side of the base.

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STEP 5

The base of the leather rack where the floor flanges have been attached.

The top of the leather rack where the leather hangs from. 

Finally I put all the pipes together. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good picture of it all set up on the floor, but am hoping you guys will be able to see what I did through the first picture on this post and these two pictures here. The two 6.5ft pipes have the flanges on one end and the elbows on the other, Then the elbows have the 3in nipples attached and those are attached to a tee. Each sides tee is attached by the 3.5ft pipe.

Once I assembled the pipes, I then screwed the floor flanges into the wooden base. Finally I put grommets in my sides of leather and hung them up with the s hooks.

All in all this project was worth the time (which wasn't much) and money required to make it. It's been much better on my leather, which is no longer getting permanent creases in it from sitting upright in the box. And this rack doesn't take up much room at all, which is fantastic for the small size of my leatherworking room.

Add a Ton of Class to Your Leather Projects with Padding

One thing that is going to add a ton of class to your work is padding your leather.

It’s a skill that’s a lot like tying a tie. Not that hard to learn (sorry if your tie impaired), and it might take a YouTube video or two to help you figure out what you’re doing, but once you’ve got the basics putting on a tie is easy, quick, and adds a lot of class.

Recently I made this goal board to practice my padding, but mostly just for the hell of it. Because of the project itself, I wouldn’t describe the padding as ‘class,’ but it does look a lot better than just stitching the word goals into a flat piece of leather. To prove that padding really makes projects look classier, here’s a picture of a bag I recently made that is padded (see above). 

All that aside, I’ll be using this goal board to show you how to pad a project, because the skills are transferable to pretty much any leather project you’re hoping to pad.

I started this project by printing out the word in the font I wanted, then glued the paper to a piece of leather using a spray glue, and finally cut out each letter.

Step 1: Choose the Size and Thickness of Your Padding

Whether are you are doing a weird letter project like I did, or you're padding a bag similar to the one at the top of the page, it's important to know to choose the right leather to achieve the look you're wanting.

You can pad your project by using two pieces of leather that are the same, with a different piece of leather sandwiched between. This is what I did the the briefcase. Other times, especially when using thinner leathers on the surface of your project, you'll want to have two different leathers picked out for the bottom pieces to go with your thin top piece. This way you're able to give the bag (or whatever you're making) some strength, while getting to use thin leather ( which really works the best when padding). This is what I did for the goal board, which is covered in a very thin pig skin.

Whichever method you choose, it's important to pay attention to the weight of your leather.

Thin Leather on Top (1-2oz or less): For instance, if you are using a very thin piece of leather for the top piece you can expect the padding to look just like it looked underneath the leather.

Thick Leather on Top (3oz+): However if you use a bit thicker of a leather, expect things to be less defined and a little more round. If you're doing lettering, the lettering will become bigger when you add the top layer, instead of being the same size.

For the Padding Itself (3oz-ish): I typically use 3oz leather for the padding, and have used 5oz leather once or twice in the past for a more dramatic difference. I think 3oz is the sweet spot though. Much smaller than that and there isn't much of a noticeable difference. Much more than that and it get's a little ridiculous looking and is hard to form the leather above around the padding. Keep in mind this is only a general guide line. For example, if you're just using 2oz leather, you might want to consider using padding under 3oz. 

Alright, now you can hopefully make an educated choice on how to choose the right leather for a padding project. If you're still having trouble making a decision, my personal rule is the more flexible the top layer is the better.

Step 2: Cut Out the Leather

After that I set the 3oz letters on to a 5oz piece of leather, making sure they were centered and spaced correctly.

This part is pretty straight forward. However, when you're deciding the length and width of your padding theres a few things to keep in mind.

The bottom piece will always be cut to the size you need for your project. If you need a 4x16in gusset, then the bottom piece will measure 4x16in. It's preferable that this piece is the most study piece of leather of the 3 pieces used. If you have a whole hide, cut this piece out from what was the back of the cow.

For the top piece of leather, I always cut it out bigger than I need. It's difficult to account for the extra length and width needed to cover the padding, and therefore better to make a piece that's too large and trim it afterward. It's helpful if this is a stretchier piece of leather. If you have a whole hide, cut this piece out from the belly area.

The middle piece of leather use for padding depends on what kind of leather you are using for the top piece:

Thin Leather on Top: As mentioned above, if you choose to go this route, the padded area will be the same size after you put the top layer on. This means you want the padding to be right up to where you stitching line will go. As an example, I usually set my stitching about 3/16th in. In this instance, the padding I cut out would be 3/16 shorter than the piece underneath it on every side. As a side note, I would avoid setting your padding too far back because it looks really odd.

Thick Leather on Top: For this you'll want to make the width and length of your padding a bit shorter to compensate for the thicker leather on top. If I'm using 5oz piece of leather, which is about 1/8in in thickness, I will take 1/8in off every side of the padding.

Step 3: Glue it All Together

Once the letters were glued on and that glue had dried, I covered the entire project in glue and placed a very thin pig skin on top.

You'll want to start by gluing the padding to the bottom piece of leather. Once the glue has dried, cover those pieces with glue and set the top piece on top. If you're using a thicker leather, I typically wet the surface a bit to help it bend around the padding a bit easier.

Step 4: Bone Folder

I then formed the leather around the letters using a bone folder and allowed the glue to dry. From there I marked my stitching lines, created the holes, and stitched the project. To finish the project, I trimmed off the excess pig skin and burnished the edges.

Once the top piece is placed, you'll need to make sure that it is formed to the padding underneath. All you need to do to pull this off is use a bone folder and press the leather around the padding. After it's been formed around the padding, make sure to apply pressure to the edges while the glue dries.

Step 5: Stitch

If you are stitching padding, the stitching is pretty straight forward. The only thing to keep in mind is making sure your stitching is up against where your padding ends.

I thought stitching wouldn't be that difficult for the lettering. I was wrong. So I figured I'd share some of the things I learned while doing it.

1) Make sure your font is big enough. If my font would've been much smaller the stitching would've gotten ugly.

2) Create holes at the corners first. If you don't make sure the clearly define the corners of each letter (for the letters that have a corner) then they end up not really looking like letters. I created the holes on the corners first and then spaced the holes in between as evenly as I could.

3) Be Aware of Inside Curves. This was especially the case with the 's.' On those tight inside curves, you have to make sure that your holes are placed perfectly. They need to be placed so curve still looks like a curve while maintaining your evenly spaced stitches. If I did this again, I would start on the inside curves of the 's' with my stitching.

Whether you're making some weird lettering project like I did, or you're adding padding to something to make it a little classier, I'd love to see what you're making. If you want, drop a link to your instagram account in the comments below, so I can check out your stuff. Or you can just tag @goldbarkleather in one of your photos. 

A Basic Guide To Folding Leather

There are lots of different situations in leather working that require folding leather, and I don’t mean just bending leather, I mean a sharp clean fold. For instance, the edges of your gussets need to be folded to lay flat with the front and back panels of your project. Maybe you just want to make a folded pocket. Or you want a more shaped bag that has hard angles instead of smoothed curves. In any case, folds are super important. They’re something that appear in almost every project. Here's something I've recently been working on that required nice clean folds.

I used folds to create a the pocket on the front and also used folds on the gussets to make sure the bag very square. The gussets would look bowed or looked u-shaped if I had not wet formed the edges outward.

All that said, making sure you fold well can have a big impact on the professional look of a project. Here's a simple three step process for making sure you get clean folds every time. 

Step 1: Groove

By reducing the thickness along the fold of the leather, not only does it make it easier for the fold to stay once made, it also makes sure that your fold is nice and straight. To create this groove, I use a groover on the back side of the leather. I set a ruler alongside the fold line, and then move it back about 1/16th of an inch. This is to account for the groover, which doesn't make cuts right against the ruler due to it’s shape. I then run the groover along the ruler three to four times until the groove is about 1/3rd the way through the leather. But, if your leather is thinner than 3oz, you can probably skip this step. Thin leathers are already pliable enough to fold and if it’s thin you also run the risk of grooving all the way though the leather, which, if you haven't done before, makes for a sad day.

Step 2: Wet

This is where the magic happens. If leather becomes wet, it will dry into the shape of whatever it’s pressed against. So if you wanted to make a crazy mask out of leather, no problem, just soak the leather and stretch it over a mold. Once it’s dried it will keep the shape.  Lots of people have done it, and what they’ve come up with is pretty impressive (http://imgur.com/a/b7J6v). But we aren’t making masks, we are just folding stuff, so don’t soak your leather just yet. Instead, using a paint brush or your finger, place water along the groove you’ve made on the back side of the leather. Repeat this process until the area is soaked through. You’ll know when you’re done when the top side, or flesh side, of the leather starts to darken. Once it starts to darken even a little, make sure to stop so you don’t over soak the leather.

Step 3: Fold and Hold

Once the groove is soaked through you’re ready to fold. Making the fold straight can actually be a little bit tricky if the fold is a longer one. To make sure the fold stays straight I always fold the leather over a bone folder and then tap it a few times with a cobblers hammer. Once I’ve done this the entire way down the fold, I think set something heavy on top (usually a few books) or clamp it down with some binder clips. If you use the binder clips, make sure to pad them or cover the fold in cloth, so the clips don't leave indentations. It’s also really important to keep the leather pressed firmly down while it dries. I then leave it sit for about 2-3 hours while the leather dries out. Depending on how much water you put on the fold, it may take longer. Just make sure the leather is completely dry when you remove the books or binder clips.

And that’s it! As I mentioned at the top of the post, there are a ton of leather working projects that require a good clean fold. I gave a few examples of when I use folds, what projects have you guys made that requires these kind of folds? Feel free to drop a link to some of your work with folds in the comments.

Basics of Cutting Leather

Cutting leather isn’t particularly tricky, but doing it right is. Cuts need to be perfect, because they seriously effect the ease of the steps that follow and result of your leather project. Even a slight slip of your ruler can mess with your burnishing process and make your stitching lines no longer straight. Small mistakes like that, get amplified with each step you take to complete your project. So, if you haven’t given some thought to how you are cutting out leather for your projects, now is the time.

Have the right tools:

There are a lot of different knives that can be used in leather working, but let’s just focus on the main ones for now. When you’re choosing which knife you want to use, one of the big considerations should be the thickness of your leather. Thin leathers and softer leathers are notorious for pulling as you cut them. This is something you really don’t want, because your lines won’t be straight. You shouldn’t use knives that have a lot of drag on thin/soft leathers. 

Rotary knives and Japanese Knives, both work well when it comes to thin leathers. Rotary knives because of their lack of drag, and Japanese Knives because of the way you can finish a cut. The leather pulls the most at the end of a cut and Japanese knives can be pushed down at the end of the cut to prevent this drag. It’s kind of like you stamp the end, as opposed to cutting it.

On thicker leathers, most knives will work. Round knives and head knives work especially well because of their versatility. They cut both straight lines and curves well, while also being capable of skiving. Trim knives and X-Acto Knives also work well and are really easy to manage, though I will sometimes avoid using an X-Acto on very thick leathers due to the amount of effort it takes to make a cut.

Finally, make sure to chose the correct ruler. This sounds pretty obvious I’m sure. But having your ruler slip is a really common mistake, especially when you’re working with a heavily waxed leather. The issue is probably more with your ruler than something you are doing. Make sure to get a heavy ruler, and if you can, get one with something on the bottom to help prevent it from sliding.

Score: 

The obvious benefit of scoring leather (or tracing a pattern onto leather), is that it’s your best bet for not wasting leather, both when it comes to mistakes and managing the amount of scrap you have after you cut.. But the additional benefit of scoring is that it really helps with precision, because you have marked out the exact spot your cuts begin and end. And, as I already mentioned, good precise cuts mean that burnishing and stitching straight lines becomes much easier.

Know how to work around tricky corners:

While you can cut around corners any way you choose, there are methods that work better than others and methods that will prevent you from cutting too far into the leather. For cutting around curves well and even cutting 90 degree angles, check out this blog post.

Keep your knife perpendicular:

This isn’t hard to do, but it’s not something I gave much attention to when I was first starting. If you don’t keep your blade perpendicular to the leather, your cuts will look straight, but you will find out that it’s not the case when you get to the burnishing process. Keeping your blade perpendicular will ensure that your edges line up perfectly and will reduce the amount of sanding needed during the burnishing process. If you are having trouble with this, try not to over extend your arm when making cuts, because your hand naturally starts to roll as your elbow gets close to locking.

Keep your knives sharp:

I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. Sharp knives equal clean cuts and a lot less mistakes because you’re not going to struggle to make the cut. If you’re not doing so already, get in the habit of stropping your knives before or after each time you sit down to work. Stropping isn’t even hard to learn. This will ensure that your knives stay sharper much longer. Eventually you’ll also need to spend sometime sharpening your knife. This is admittedly harder to learn, but this guide will get you started on the right foot.  One last thing, the knife in the picture above is stainless steel, and I find myself sharpening it all to often. It’s important to make sure your knives are high enough quality to hold an edge, if not you’ll find yourself needing to sharpen your blade far too often, and getting worse cuts.