I tried using a bone folder on a different kind of leather and it went weird

So I was working on a small journal cover with some really soft, thin goat leather, not the usual veg-tan calf I always use. I went to crease a line for the hinge with my bone folder, pressing down like I normally do. Instead of a clean crease, the leather just sort of... dimpled and stretched. It left this ugly, puffy line that wouldn't hold shape at all. I thought maybe I needed more pressure, but that just made it worse. I ended up having to scrap that piece. I learned that tool pressure and technique aren't one-size-fits-all, and that super soft leather might need a totally different approach, maybe a lighter touch or a different tool. Has anyone else run into this with softer skins? What do you use instead for a clean fold line?

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3 Comments

holly_green826mo ago

Saw my buddy wreck a nice piece of lambskin trying to score a fold with a bone folder. He used a metal ruler as a guide and pressed way too hard, just left a weird stretched groove. He ended up getting a clean line on the next try by just using the back of a butter knife with almost no pressure, just slowly running it along where he wanted the fold.

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noah_smith6mo ago

That "almost no pressure" thing is key. So many problems come from people trying to force a result instead of letting the tool do the work.

10

jade7386mo ago

I mean, that's how I always mess up gift wrap.

5