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Patch holes on horsehide

Andrew Withington

Active Member
Any suggestions on minimizing the appearance of needed/thread holes on the exterior of seal horsehide once a patch has been removed?

Thank you kindly!
Andy
 

Southoftheborder

Well-Known Member
Any suggestions on minimizing the appearance of needed/thread holes on the exterior of seal horsehide once a patch has been removed?

Thank you kindly!
Andy

You can never really hide them but you can reduce them a little. There are various techniques including carefully filling the holes with glue and finishing with matching shoe polish. That's very slow and needs a very steady hand. If done properly it can almost hide them unless you know they're there and look for them. But the glue tends to come out and IMO it's a game that isn't worth the candle.

The best simple way to minimise them a bit is to wet the area and use a warm iron to press it gently over a wet towel. Or a steam iron. But carefully so as not to overly heat and ruin the leather. By steaming it it swells the fibres and closes the holes up. Neatfoot oil will also swell the hide and close up the holes too. Some people think it rots stitching but as long as you use pure neatsfoot oil not the mineral added type it doesn't.

You will aways see the holes after pressing but you can reduce the size by about half. In time they will almost close up naturally without doing anything. But I'm talking a couple of decades.
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
got an eye for color? patience? time? after the warm iron treatment, or warm water, wait till dry, and then mix up some acrylic paint samples to find the color match for your hides. the reason to make up samples is that the paint looks different wet then when it drys. using flat end tooth picks or the end of an exacto knife force a small amount of paint into each hole [tedious? only a little], making sure that the paint surface is lower then the surrounding hide surface. you will have to mix a lot of little batches, as the paint drys fast and is of no use when it gets lumpy. because acrylic paint is somewhat viscous and has a bit of body, it will begin to fill in the holes with repeated applications. at some point the repeated paint application in the holes will be the same height as the hide surface. with care you will get better at the procedure as you go along. the acrylic paint will not come out due to its adherence quality, and will not chip off. when done well you can make those stitch holes nearly or completely disappear. when finished knead the stitch holes and surrounding area of the hide. this will bring about a kinda uniformity in appearance to the area.
 

John Lever

Moderator
There is a paste that fills holes but just can't remember it's name. Brown goo of some sort, specially for leather.
 
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