# leather blank questions



## builtbybill (Sep 7, 2015)

Hello,

Have a couple questions for those of you that have made leather blanks.  After you glue up the "disks" of leather would there be any benefit to stabilizing it in a vacuum chamber, or can it even be stabilized at all?  If it cannot be stabilized what is the best way to glue it up and strengthen the leather?  I have seen 3 different ways posted:
   1) wet the leather and completely saturate the disks and assembled blank with polyurethane glue 
   2) glue the disks, and saturate the assembled blank, with thin CA
   3) glue together with weldbond glue and then saturate with thin CA

Also, do I have to glue the disks onto the tube or will the blank be solid enough to drill after glue up?

Thanks,

Bill


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## wyone (Sep 7, 2015)

I have done number 1..  which was a total mess and took forever to get the glue off my hands, bench etc and number 2 which worked WAY better.  The last time I punched a hole in the leather and used a tube to glue everything together on, rather than glueing it together and then drilling it.  It was much less messy


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## wyone (Sep 7, 2015)

I think I am going to try using like 15 minute epoxy to glue on a tube next time..  I think it might be better.  I know the CA let me do a better job of having uniformity in the layers than the poly glue did, but had to work fast and could not clamp at all.  I think the epoxy might work best for all


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## plantman (Sep 7, 2015)

Bill; I have used many types of skins to make pens, but have never tried to use disks to make one. Also in my youth, I have tooled leather as a hobby, and still do once in a while. Here are some tips about leather. When you cut leather into disks, it is the same as working with end grain in wood. The pores run lengthwise. When you tool leather, you wet it so that it will soften and compress when struck with a tool and hold that shape. Drilling leather is the same as trying to drill a perfect hole in your arm, it just tears it up and does not make a smooth cut. I have always punched holes in leather with purchased or homemade tools. Adding any liquid to leather will change the color of it  depending on the minerals in the liquid. These would be my thoughts on using disks to make a pen. I would punch the holes in the disks, wet them, slide them on a bolt with a couple of large washers,  and compress them in a vice until dry. Someone had a thread on here a while back about drilling holes in a wooden clamp to press segmented pieces together.  Now slip and glue them to a tube and glue with thick CA. Since they are dry, you can glue them together one at a time without having to hurry or clamp. Spray with accelerator.   Next I would saturate them with thin CA and add more as you turn them down to size to fill any open pores. You could also add alcohol ink/dye to the disks somewhere along the line if you want colored disks. I am sure there are some knife makers on this site who have methods of making leather handles for their creations also. I can see no reason why you could not stabilize your leather blanks, but mesquite man would have a better answer than I do for that.   Jim  S


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## its_virgil (Sep 7, 2015)

Here is now I make pens from leather disks: http://tinyurl.com/nqotufu
Do a good turn daily!
Don


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## SteveJ (Sep 7, 2015)

You are the man Don!  Of course you have a tutorial on this.  And a slimline to beat.  Another thing I need to try.


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## Sabaharr (Sep 8, 2015)

I would be interested in knowing what vacuum stabilizing would do. I know it would pull out the air and replace a good bit with resin. Whether its enough to completely harden the blank is the question. But the man to ask would be Curtis Sebeck at TurnTex.com. Give him a call. I guarantee if anyone knows it would be him and he will gladly help you out.


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## builtbybill (Sep 8, 2015)

Thanks for all of the help, just waiting for the leather to arrive so I can start.  The reason I was concerned with how hard the glued up leather will become is because I want to try a 1 piece slimline with the leather blank and I was wondering if it will be hard enough to be "unsupported" on the lower half of the blank.

Bill


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## KenV (Sep 8, 2015)

builtbybill said:


> Thanks for all of the help, just waiting for the leather to arrive so I can start.  The reason I was concerned with how hard the glued up leather will become is because I want to try a 1 piece slimline with the leather blank and I was wondering if it will be hard enough to be "unsupported" on the lower half of the blank.
> 
> Bill




Bill --  PSI sells an 8mm pencil tube  (note pencil and not pen) that is a "just right fit" for a 7mm slim line tube.  They make a nice reinforcement for a 7mm tube when there is a concern about stability or strength.


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## builtbybill (Sep 8, 2015)

KenV said:


> builtbybill said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for all of the help, just waiting for the leather to arrive so I can start.  The reason I was concerned with how hard the glued up leather will become is because I want to try a 1 piece slimline with the leather blank and I was wondering if it will be hard enough to be "unsupported" on the lower half of the blank.
> ...



That was just what I was thinking but wasn't sure if it would work.  I tried doing a search here for that and came back with like 70 pages of hits on the search so I never found the answer.  So thank you for saving from 70 pages of reading!!!!

Is that the only 8mm tube that will work?  I really do not want to pay PSI shipping costs for 1 item.

Bill


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