No, this doesn't have anything to do with boxes. It's about going beyond conventional tools and techniques when deciding how to do a woodworking job. Joe makes frame-and-panel leather-topped desks, and my job is to apply the leather. Although we've read many accounts of how to do this, we've had a lot of success with our own "hybrid" technique. This is desk number five, for Joe's daughter, and uses up the last of the "cow" we bought on ebay.
First, instead of glue, we use wallpaper paste, mixed double strength. The leather is moistened, and the paste brushed onto the substrate. Then, I unroll the leather and press out air bubbles using my fondant smoother. (That's from my cake decorating tool assortment.) It works beautifully, and lets me get right up against the frame.
Once the leather is firmly attached and bubbles removed, I trim the leather the way I used to trim wallpaper, with a razor knife (here an Xacto knife) and a wide putty knife. For places where I can't use the blade, I use my very sharp embroidery scissors.
This particular desk was really tough. Since it was the last of the leather, it had thicker and thinner places, and some very "natural" looking spots that were tricky to flatten out. Also, Joe was able to position the substrate so that the leather came right to the top of the panel. While this was what we wanted, it made it hard to figure out where to do the trimming so that the leather was not cut too small, while not cutting into the frame.
leather 1.jpgleather 3.jpg
leather 2.jpg
When everything was trimmed nicely, I applied more paste to the areas where I had lifted the leather, and gave it a final going over.
The fondant smoother went back into the kitchen drawer, the scissors into my sewing box, the putty knife with the paint supplies, and the Xacto knife into my tool drawer.
And tomorrow we can reclaim the TV room, which was doing double duty as a shop annex.
First, instead of glue, we use wallpaper paste, mixed double strength. The leather is moistened, and the paste brushed onto the substrate. Then, I unroll the leather and press out air bubbles using my fondant smoother. (That's from my cake decorating tool assortment.) It works beautifully, and lets me get right up against the frame.
Once the leather is firmly attached and bubbles removed, I trim the leather the way I used to trim wallpaper, with a razor knife (here an Xacto knife) and a wide putty knife. For places where I can't use the blade, I use my very sharp embroidery scissors.
This particular desk was really tough. Since it was the last of the leather, it had thicker and thinner places, and some very "natural" looking spots that were tricky to flatten out. Also, Joe was able to position the substrate so that the leather came right to the top of the panel. While this was what we wanted, it made it hard to figure out where to do the trimming so that the leather was not cut too small, while not cutting into the frame.
leather 1.jpgleather 3.jpg
leather 2.jpg
When everything was trimmed nicely, I applied more paste to the areas where I had lifted the leather, and gave it a final going over.
The fondant smoother went back into the kitchen drawer, the scissors into my sewing box, the putty knife with the paint supplies, and the Xacto knife into my tool drawer.
And tomorrow we can reclaim the TV room, which was doing double duty as a shop annex.
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