Warning: corner glue delamination on my first ever leather wrap

I finished a leather wrapped journal about 3 weeks ago and the corners started lifting on the second day. I used PVA glue and clamped them overnight, thought that was solid. But the leather was too thick, around 4 oz, and the corners just didn't get enough pressure where the fold met the board. By Thursday the top right corner peeled back a good half inch. I ended up carefully scraping off the old glue with a palette knife and switching to contact cement, then used a bone folder to really press those corners down. It's holding now, but I'm wondering if I should have skived the leather edges first. Has anyone else had this happen with thicker leather, and do you always skive or is there a better way to prep the turn-in corners before gluing?

1 comments

1 Comment

avery62915d ago

PVA is fine for that job, people just mess up the pressure or the glue amount. Thick leather corners always have issues unless you pin them down with something heavier than a clamp. Contact cement makes it harder to fix if you mess up the alignment, so honestly you traded one problem for another.