I been working on one this week. I did a good job stretching and getting it glued down. But, I didn’t grind the pad down enough. The leather pad is a bit proud all the away around. Not wanting to scrap it, I’m wandering if I soak it in mineral spirits or something to dissolve and loosen the glue. Then grind the pad and recover the same leather?

Been there before. I never try to save the leather, just remove it and use a new piece. Careful pulling the leather off, I have separated the pad from the base before ruining the new pad. A scalpel can be handy.

To check my size before I glue on the leather I stretch a piece along the joint looking for high spots. I mark the trouble area with a pencil then file/sand that area until I'm happy with the fit.

One of the more challenging jobs to get to look right in my opinion.

May I ask what leather you guys are using to cover the pads? I think I was told at one time goat skin was best because it was tough or wear resistant....but, I also may be wrong about what I was told.
Thanks, Bob

I use top grain pigskin.

Have you ever considered eland? I just happen to have a couple square yards of the stuff and I'm wondering about a leather covered but for a couple of guns.

I'm going to try kangaroo on my next one.

I recently had a pad covered with goatskin. The 'smith (Dan Morgan) said that finding good pigskin was about impossible for him to find at the time he did my work. Gil

If I can get mine fixed without scraping it and starting over, how do you get the lines burnished in?

I have a tool that a now deceased leatherworker friend made for me, the lines are added by heating the tool and burnishing the leather.

The goatskin pad is exceptional.

Thanks!

Battle;

If you want to see one of the tools as mentioned by SKB (Steve) send me a PM and I will take a photo of the one I made and send it to you via your email address that you can give me in the PM. I will also send you a photo of the tool disassembled so that you can see how to make one yourself. You heat the rotary tip on the tool with a small amount of heat using a propane torch pencil tip nozzle.

As Steve mentioned pig skin works very well as does kid skin. Buy leather skins that are 1 ounce specified as you desire to have leather that has about the thickness of .020" or 1/2mm. When you receive the skin that you ordered find the portions of the skin that stretch the most to use. Also I usually cut the leather to use from the overall skin where the most stretch is top to bottom of the pad--heel to toe. Use a solution of 50/50 water and rubbing alcohol to soak the piece of leather in to aid in the stretching.

Kindest Regards;
Stephen Howell

Very good work there,looks well shaped too.

Well, the OP's original question was whether he could remove the leather from the pad and reuse it. The direct answer is maybe. If you remove it early in the program it may be possible, if you wait to long (more than a day or so) it's a problem. You may end up tearing pieces of rubber pad out unless as Steve suggested you use a scalpel or some such. All this is predicated on whether you used Barge cement (not the crap that comes in the blue n white tube either) I mean the original in the yellow n red tube that I don't believe is available in the tube any longer.

I will give you my way of marking the amount of pad to remove to allow for the thickness of the leather. BTW, you must fit the pad to the stock close, just as though you are doing a regular pad (I mean close!). I then remove the pad from the stock and put a coating of white liquid shoe polish to the base. Using a something that is reasonably accurate mark a line around the outside of the pad base at the thickness of the leather (.020 to .025) Grind the outside of the pad to that line and be careful not to overgrind. Make sure that you follow the conture of the original pad.

I dropped the leather covered pad in acetone for a few minutes. The leather peeled right off. No damage to the rubber pad. I’ll at least be able to use the pad, not sure about the leather yet.

Thanks Doug for your suggestion.

Just one final thought, you may have already done this but sand the logo off the back of the pad. The logo will show through if it is not removed.

Yes I had the logo removed. I actually did a good job sanding the pad, just st not enough.

When you guys grind these things. What sort of grit belts do you use? I'm assuming you are using a belt sander of some sort.

Any other tricks? I'm taking notes.

I use a disc sander. The grit I think is 220.

This right here .........

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-direct-drive-bench-top-disc-sander-43468.html

........... and a jig.

SRH

I've got a Jet disk. Not a problem.

I've read that people freeze the rubber first. Is that really worth the trouble? Could throw a cooler of dry ice in the shop.

I've never found that to be necessary, but I've never tried grinding any of the really soft, hi-tech pads. I've only done vintage (style) ones like Hawkins, NoShoc and Silvers. They usually grind well without chilling.

I use a B-Square jig, but am probably going to spring for a B & R pendulum style. Friends highly recommend them.

SRH

I don't know what sort of pad I would use for leather covering but probably not a real soft one.

I'm looking at the B-Square jig on Midway. Not sure how they actually work but I suspect I could figure it out easily enough.

They're pretty easy to use, and they come with good instructions.

My bad. I do not have the B-Square, I have the Miles Gilbert jig. Sorry for the error. But, all of that type work pretty much the same way, I think. The pendulum type is entirely different. It's what I wanted to begin with, but they were out of stock at the time.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1007111917?pid=658338

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools...-prod44670.aspx

SRH

Without knowing how they are used, they look deceptively easy to make.

Recoil Rob posted a set of instructions on doing leather pads here on doublegun. I copied that and intend to follow much of it. That method uses leather covered plugs over the screw holes but I believe leather pads can be done with just slits somehow. I'll have to research that a little. After the season is over, this will be a nice project and learning experience. I sort of hate to cover up the only wood-checkered butt I've ever had, but I need the length.

I grind my pads on the gun using an 80 grit 6" wide belt sander, I then final sand by hand to get it as close as possible to the stock using finer grits. I remove the pad, mark it in the same manner Doug Mann does and use the pendulum jig above to grind the last .025" or so off for the leather thickness.

I always cut holes the pads and make plugs in the traditional manner but I have seen them done with slits in the leather. I like the plugs myself.

The goatskin I have used is less stretchy than pig, but it is definitely tougher, more abrasion resistant. I buy whole hides of pigskin in different colors; The belly area is more stretchy but also softer.

I gonna add here that the javelina leather covered pad Steve put on my Francotte was one of the best jobs I've seen, he knows of what he speaks.

The instructions I wrote are for putting on a pad with no plugs or slits. I didn't want to attempt covering plugs so once I had the pad ground I socked the mounting screws in tight with some wire wraps around the screw on the back side of the pad. Then I covered the pad with leather. I overdrilled the screw holes in the stock, put release agent on the screws, filled the holes with AcraGlas and set the pad on with clamps.

After the epoxy dried the pad was tight to the stock and if it needed to be removed small slits in the leather would allow a thin shank screwdriver bit in. Brownells makes one especially for pads.

My mistake. I had a series of methods posted by different members. Yours was, as you say, plugless and slitless. thanks for that by the way, I'll be considering that method carefully.

If anyone is interested here's a link to the original post. Looking back it seemed a bit simplistic but I was using it on field grade shooter, old Ithaca's and the like. As noted above, when it came time to put a pad on my high grade Francotte sidelock I left it to SKB...

Leather covered pad


.

This is the pad and system I use for plug-less leather covering.

Did you make the mounting brackets or is that some thing purchased?

New England Custom Gun. Buy the mounting hardware and you can select several different thickness of pad. The pads are very nice. The system works very well.

The Rich Cole approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JvSp0hIaNA

Thanks for the video. He uses really thin leather.

that is a great video for certain, but somewhat depressing. Do all of you that do this have a leather skiving tool? I'd hate to have to buy one of those for one pad.

I thought it was an interesting video and the video on youtube by Midway on the same subject also was interesting. Between the two I'm going to try doing this without skiving any leather and also combine techniques on some low end guns I have ...gluey fingers and ruined leather would be part of the learning curve. What I got most out these videos was the two different methods and fixtures they made to score the leather lines on the pads. One burning the leather score and the other a pressure score. I wonder which is more commen or is it a horse a piece.