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KINGSMERE CRAFTS
HAND-CRAFTED LEATHER GOODS
Moulding leather
One of the outstanding attributes of vegetable-tanned leather is its possession of the qualities which enable it to maintain a moulded shape.
Methods for exploiting this ability have been developed around the world over hundreds of years. Objects as dissimilar as helmets, shields, boxes, gun cases, masks, drinking cups, cigar cases, bowls and sculptures have all been created using one of the procedures I will be describing, or certainly very similar to it.
To mould anything, leather which is vegetable-tanned, or has similar characteristics, should be used. The belly section of a hide is ideal for easy moulding, though the flesh side of a belly (a belly being 7-10 square feet) will, of course, have a looser fibre-structure. That doesn't preclude other parts of the hide, it's simply that the belly is the easiest section to use for anyone without experience of moulding leather.
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The definitions of the various parts of a hide are shown below |
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Side....A+C+E or B+D+F, Back....A+C or B+D, Shoulder....A or B, Double shoulder....A+B, Belly....E or F |
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As I may have mentioned briefly in an earlier page, the leather trade in the UK, and in almost every other country in the world, operates in square feet. A figure 16 stamped in the corner of a skin or hide means it measures 16 square feet. Fractions of a square foot, ¼, ½ and ¾, are indicated by a small figure 1, 2, or 3 written just after, and just above, the whole number. And as a vegetable-tanned hide comes in eight weights (or thicknesses) there is a wide selection. That's even before you get to the densest of all, sole leather, which is measured in irons and bought by the pound weight. One iron =¹/48"; therefore 12 iron leather is a quarter of an inch thick. Leather in these thicknesses weighs somewhere between 14oz and 18oz per square foot. It is also expensive!
However, before any vegetable-tanned leather can be moulded, or for that matter, readily accept any decorative impressions, it has to be "cased". That is dampened with clean warm water applied with a suitable cloth or foam-rubber sponge to the flesh side, or wholly immersed in warm water, in a container large enough to hold the leather without scrunching it.
The length of time the leather is dampened for or soaked will depend on its thickness, and only experience gained by trial and error can indicate how long that will be, plus how much moulding is going to be attempted. It is only by going through this wetting process that the fibres of vegetable-tanned leather can be made soft and pliable.
It is whilst the leather is replete with the water (though it should be left to mellow for a short time) that it can be formed into three-dimensional shapes by using moulds or formers or even to a degree, freehand. It can, in this state, be easily manipulated by hand, being pulled and stretched as necessary.
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