I'm not the only woodworker in my house. Joe, my partner, makes the "big stuff", while I make the decorations. However, sometimes I'm called upon for specialty work. This is Joe's fifth leather topped desk. We have three, my son has one, and this one is for Joe's daughter. Since I'm the "finesse" person, my job is to glue and trim the leather for the desk top.
We use a double strength wallpaper paste for the "glue", since it works really well, and is very forgiving. We've gotten four tops from one cowhide, bought on ebay, at a lot better price than anywhere else. The top is frame and panel. We start by making a template out of paper. The leather is cut to exact size, (which, of course, is never exact) then moistened on the underside. Paste is brushed onto the top, and the leather is unrolled.
My tool of choice for smoothing the leather and eliminating air bubbles is a plastic fondant smoother. Fondant is a sugar paste icing, and once applied to the cake, has to be smoothed. I use a wide putty knife and Xacto knife to trim the leather, keeping the putty knife on the leather in case of slippage. For trimming any places that I can't do with the knife, I use a small embroidery scissors.
The bottom line is that the tools you need for a job aren't always found in your shop or toolbox!
