Embossed a whole cover backwards and only noticed after I glued it down

I was working on a leather journal last Tuesday and got so into the flow that I put my brass type on backwards. By the time I realized, the glue was already set and I had to peel the whole thing off, which left a nasty mark. Has anyone else done something similar and found a good way to fix the leather without starting over?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_green826d agoMost Upvoted

The other day I was tooling a belt and got the buckle loop sewn in upside down. Had to rip out all the stitching and felt like a complete doofus. There's this trick where you can use a little bit of saddle soap and a damp cloth to gently massage the leather (like really gently, not scrubbing) and it can help lift some of that glue residue and flatten out the marks. Worked pretty well on a wallet I messed up last month, though it did take a couple of tries and some patience.

oliver7196d ago

Wait, isn't saddle soap actually bad for tooled leather long term? I heard somewhere it can dry out the stamping and make it crack over time, especially if you use it too often. I've always just used a tiny bit of water and a bone folder to smooth out glue residue and stitch marks, let it dry slow under a weight. Feels like saddle soap is more for cleaning dirt than fixing mistakes, ya know? Like using it as a fix might cause more problems down the road if you do it a lot.