Patching tears In Leather
1. Check tear for fit
2. Glue edges of tear
3. Press together
4. Skive patch for back
5. Glue patch on
6. Polish?
1. Check the tear for fit – will it go back together? Or is it stretched? Maybe need to stretch some
bits to get it to fit right
2. Glue the edges of the tear with ortec – put the glue on with a nail real gentle
3. Wait till tacky – 5min then, push together in such a way, that once the leather is sitting in its
normal position the join is relaxed and not under pressure to pull apart. So if in its normal
position on a boot it is curved, don’t glue it together on a flat bench. Put it together while
resting it on a boot tree or similar. If it’s super soft leather it won’t matter – but keep the e idea
in mind.
4. Use a thin piece of leather to patch the back so that the outline of the patch doesn’t show
through. Skive the edges heavily and a good amount in from the edge – this will help reduce the
amount of “show through” of the patch.
5. Glue the patch onto the back of the tear, ortec. And put it on in such a way that the tension will
be on the patch – not on the tear. If it’s all flat, then just a slight amount of tension on the patch
as you put it on will do the trick.
6. Polishing the tear is an option if it doesn’t look too flash – but test a bit if you can before you do
the entire area, as sometimes the polish looks weird on the tear.
Types of leather
Aniline leather is a type of leather dyed exclusively with soluble dyes without covering the surface with a topcoat paint or insoluble pigments. The resulting product retains the hide's natural surface with the 'grain', i.e. visible pores, scars etc. of the complete original animal's skin structure.