I have a nice scrap of leather which I need to make thinner for an artistic project. I need a way to remove the fibrous underside without damaging the smooth top surface. A rasp seems to work, but it's very slow. A wirebrush on a bench grinder works great, but I can't control it enough to keep from going right through the leather.

Any ideas? The leather needs to be as thin as possible.

could you stretch it some how? i would think if you built a frame to stretch it in and then put the leather in there and stretch it out it would also make it easier to remove the rough underside of the leather like you're trying to do now.

I'm going to be thinking about this all day tomorrow and hopefully be able to come up with a solution for you.

How thick is it now, and how thin (number wise) does it need to be?

Darn, about 4 years ago i worked at a leather shop which had a machine designed to do just that. It was a spinning cup shaped wheel and the rim of the cup was a razor sharp edge with a guard which you ran the leather along until you reached desired thickness.

A deli meat slicer might work?

Right now it looks like 1/16" uncompressed, and I'm guessing it needs to be 1/32" or 1/64". I just test and see if it works after every attempt at thinning, so I don't have a set size. It looks like after a certain point it no longer creates hundreds of little "hairs" sticking up. This is where it needs to be.

A belt sander seems to be the best so far, but it doesn't thin the leather evenly. I fear if I go any farther, it will break through in some spots. A mini wirebrush on a dremel gives me enough control, but it also creates a huge mess of leather flecks which float around like dust.

A razor blade is as slow as the rasp, and increases the chances of cutting through it. A manual wood planer isn't likely to gouge it, but I can't control it very well. I also tried a lint shaver, but it has no affect.

Just a tiny bit more and I'll have a really neat mod to show everyone. A tiny bit too far, and it becomes scrap...

What sort of leather is it? treated rawhide or surfaced and colored?

Take a heavy rolling pin to it to make it easier to work with.

Shit, that's pretty thin, much thinner than I was imagining you'd need.

What about using some type of adhesive that can be easily removed from the leather (if the leather can be wetted, maybe regular elmer's school glue, just wash it off afterwards) to glue the leather to a flat piece of wood, and then putting nails (with heads that are a little more than the thickness you want the leather to be) around the edge of the leather so that as you're sanding it on the belt sander you know that you're either close or right at the thickness you want when you start grinding the metal...?

I'm not exactly sure what kind of leather it is. It's a soft and supple smooth brown top surface with the texture of skin, with what feels like short matted suede on the underside. It looks to be originally from a piece of furniture.

I already tried stapling it to a block of wood before using the belt sander. The problem isn't going too far, it's uneven wearing. Some parts always get thin before the others, so I can't go any farther.

A sanding bit in the dremel seems to work better than the wirebrush. It creates shorter matting, but it's still very slow. I'll try a bit more with it tomorrow.

Sandpaper. If a belt sander is giving great but inconsistent results then just use sandpaper dude.

I finally got it thin enough. I ended up using a shaving razor to remove the fibres. I glued it together, and should have some nice pictures for everyone once it dries. I have my nice softbox, infinity sweep, and a pair of strobes all set up and waiting.

I've done some searching, and as far as I can tell my idea is original. You may not find it terribly exciting, but I think it's simple and elegant.

Stupid spray adhesive doesn't even list the drying time...

Allright, looking forward to seeing it Spatula :)

Oh, by the way, do you have any estimation of when your website will be back up?

Image1... (http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/1117/temp2kx8.jpg)
And Image2 (http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/7170/tempzt5.jpg)

I like the second one best. The narrow focal plane serves to highlight the subject, and creates a nice soft impression.

The touchpad works just as it always did, only now it has the feel of a soft leathery cushion. What do you think?

13579, I don't know when I'll have the site up again. I need someone to host it until I can do it myself, but I have no one to ask.

That's pretty sweet! Did you come up with the idea for that yourself or did you see it on another computer?

2nd pic is definitely the best. How exactly did you take them? I'm sort of a photography nerd and like to know/learn about that kinda stuff.

And it still works? wow.

No wonder you wanted it so thin heh.

As far as I know, it's a Tzar original. I've searched for "leather touchpad" and "leather laptop", but the closest I saw was leather padding on the case, not the touchpad.

To take the pictures, I put it inside a soft box, like this one. (http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/6914/50cmphotocubesoftboxgqk5.jpg) It was then lit from the outside with a pair of strobe flashes. (http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/5651/digite8.jpg) (Though mine aren't that nice)

Then I used an infinity sweep inside the box (a fancy term for a sheet of paper or cloth hung as both a side and bottom background without any folds or creases). I have some really weird fabric which works great for pictures. In plain light it looks like an ugly dirty dusty beige, but take a picture and it saturates fully, giving a pure white background.

And of course the secret to the narrow focal plane is a big expensive dSLR camera. It's a shame how all but the most expensive cameras don't even let you adjust the aperture, shutter, or even focus these days. A small lens won't give you a very narrow focal plane, but I could still do a lot better than the auto focus/exposure ever could.

If you don't mind waiting till thanksgiving when I can access my server, I'd gladly host it.

Wow, first time I've seen anything like that. Surprised it worked...

It turns out spatulatzar.com (http://spatulatzar.com) was already registered...by me!

I'm surprised I got it working so soon. Usually it takes nearly a week for the DNS to propagate. Oh well, it's finally working now, and hopefully here to stay. Thanks PirateJoe for offering to host, and thanks to everyone else for the compliments.

~Tzarina

Heh, alright!

*Waits for updates*

As far as I know, it's a Tzar original. I've searched for "leather touchpad" and "leather laptop", but the closest I saw was leather padding on the case, not the touchpad.
I imagine a laptop completely wrapped in leather could be sexy as hell, if done right.

To take the pictures, I put it inside a soft box, like this one. (http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/6914/50cmphotocubesoftboxgqk5.jpg) It was then lit from the outside with a pair of strobe flashes. (http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/5651/digite8.jpg) (Though mine aren't that nice)

Then I used an infinity sweep inside the box (a fancy term for a sheet of paper or cloth hung as both a side and bottom background without any folds or creases). I have some really weird fabric which works great for pictures. In plain light it looks like an ugly dirty dusty beige, but take a picture and it saturates fully, giving a pure white background.That sounds like something I need to check out. I often try to photograph small stuff like this and the flash/lighting is what screws everything up.

And of course the secret to the narrow focal plane is a big expensive dSLR camera. It's a shame how all but the most expensive cameras don't even let you adjust the aperture, shutter, or even focus these days. A small lens won't give you a very narrow focal plane, but I could still do a lot better than the auto focus/exposure ever could.I have an old DSLR film camera that I much prefer over any non-SLR digital for that very reason, I like being able to control the focus and aperture/depth of field and shutter speed easily and accurately. The only thing I give up is being able to zoom, and also being able to instantly view (disappointing) pictures.