The Stacked Leather Project

Everything's cut, dry height is right at 5 inches, I'm gonna guess that'll condense down to 3.75 or less. That combined with the spacers I like to put at the guard and end cap will give us plenty of room to work with.

Next the 41 pieces will get soaked in water, stacked up and compressed.

I'm going experiment with some water based glue (Aquilim GL) with some test pieces because... overkill, though it doesn't need it to make a solid block. If that works out I'll use a mixture of water and glue to soak the leather in before I compress the final block.

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I was thinking about it and realized it might be important to note that while the leather is dry like in the photo above it won't compress. From this dry 5 " stack I can only compress it about a 1/4", and that's using a decent amount of pressure.

Once leather is wet it gets in a plastic(?) state and will compress down to 3/4 to 2/3 of it's thickness in my experience. Once it dries from that wet formed state it will hold that shape and density, and density is what we're after. The denser we get the leather, the less it can shrink or expand once it becomes a handle.

I don't mean to over explain things, but thought that might help put things in better context for those of you following along.
 
Redmeadow Knives said:
I was thinking about it and realized it might be important to note that while the leather is dry like in the photo above it won't compress. From this dry 5 " stack I can only compress it about a 1/4", and that's using a decent amount of pressure.

Once leather is wet it gets in a plastic(?) state and will compress down to 3/4 to 2/3 of it's thickness in my experience. Once it dries from that wet formed state it will hold that shape and density, and density is what we're after. The denser we get the leather, the less it can shrink or expand once it becomes a handle.

I don't mean to over explain things, but thought that might help put things in better context for those of you following along.
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Explanation was perfect for me. I was thinking the handle would be under constant compression, trying to blow the pommel off. Makes a whole lot more sense now...
 
jlauffer said:
Explanation was perfect for me. I was thinking the handle would be under constant compression, trying to blow the pommel off. Makes a whole lot more sense now...
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Oh good, glad that made sense. We'll end up with a dense block that we can cut on a bandsaw but will still keep the feel of leather.

This video is from 5 years ago, you can see how strong the bond is and that the leather still stays flexible even after it's condensed.
 
The glue I've been waiting on came in, gonna go pick it up and get this ball rollin. Normally I can't ship liquids like that in the winter but we've had a warm streak and this shipped quick from Billings so it should be fine.

I've mentioned before that glue isn't necessary with this technique, I just want to see if it adds any strength. It's supposed to dry clear, we'll do a little test piece and go from there.
 
3fifty7 said:
Somewhat off topic but is this a filter or did you run this photo through an app or what ?
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That's an app I've always used called Snapseed on my phone. It has a ton of options and is really user friendly.

The only thing you have to do when you first open it is go to the settings and make the resolution lower so it saves the images small enough to fit on Bladeforums. Once that is done you can take a picture on your phone, open it in Snapseed and save it, then it will upload on Bladeforums. Takes a matter of seconds, maybe a minute if you want to apply filters.
 
This stack of 5.75" of dry leather is soaking in ice cream tubs with Aquilim GL dissolved in at about 8oz a gallon.
20230210_165429-01.jpeg

20230210_171455-01.jpeg

Milky
20230210_180021-01.jpeg

I tested some pieces yesterday with and without glue and the one with glue had a significantly stronger bond without any weird color side effects and it still took oil in well.

I'll end this post by saying....

Is this process necessary with stacked Leather? No.

Is it better than other stacked leather processes?
No.

Does it give you a denser leather handle?
Yes.

Is it ridiculously more labor intensive than the traditional method?
Yes.

Is it cheaper to make?
A big No.

Do I like overkill?
Yes.

Will I sleep better at night knowing that Redmeadow stacked leather is the best it can possibly be?
Yes.

Does my answering my own questions in a post make me feel like a dork?
Yes
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Can my other Redmeadow stacked leather handles be retrofitted? ;)
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I think other than the OG they were all done like this. I warn you, if you send the OG back you might have to fight me to get it back! The most I've ever learned while making that knife, love that one.
 
Redmeadow Knives said:
I think other than the OG they were all done like this. I warn you, if you send the OG back you might have to fight me to get it back! The most I've ever learned while making that knife, love that one.
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I guess I didnā€™t realize you glued the others. šŸ˜Ž Yeah, that OG isnā€™t leaving here lol! I love that one too!!!
 
SpyderPhreak said:
I guess I didnā€™t realize you glued the others. šŸ˜Ž Yeah, that OG isnā€™t leaving here lol! I love that one too!!!
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My bad I thought you meant compressed. I think I've used glue once before but not this kind.
 
Mechanical advantage of a 1/2ā€ screw is quite impressive. If I knew how much torque you put on each nut, I could tell you the clamping forceā€¦ :)
 
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