Open leather briefcase with a peeling suede lining corner beside contact cement, a crepe block and a bone folder.
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Re-Gluing a Peeling Lining

ByPeter Joeseph 'Briefcase Maker' Kalafatis

Glue holds a lining still. Something else has to hold it in.

A peeling lining is the inside skin of a leather bag letting go of the outside one, usually starting at a corner or along the top edge where hands go in and out, and the fix most people reach for is the same glue that failed in the first place. That’s my argument, and I’ll make it before the reversal comes. Glue it alone, and it lets go twice. I’ve glued a chestnut bridle lining into a briefcase on camera, so I’m not against glue. I’m against asking it to do a job it was never good at.

Video: Gluing my Chestnut Bridle Leather Briefcase Lining, from Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker on YouTube.

That’s my channel, a chestnut bridle lining going into a briefcase. New work, not a repair. A repair is harder, because somebody else’s glue got there first.

Why a lining lets go

Leather moves. Old glue doesn’t.

Hands lifting old yellowed glue from inside a leather bag with a crepe rubber block before re-gluing the lining.

Start with the material. Yvette Fletcher, head of conservation at The Leather Conservation Centre, writes in a short paper on choosing adhesives for leather that leather expands and contracts, and that objects in use get opened and closed. Any glue under a lining has to flex with that, every day, for years. A bag is a hinge with a handle on it.

Then the glue itself. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s CAMEO entry on rubber cement says natural rubber cements grip strongly at first and then “Become yellow and brittle with age.” The University of Illinois preservation guide on adhesives says rubber-based adhesives oxidize as they deteriorate and then lose their adhesive properties. Peel back the lining on an old bag and find a yellow, crumbly crust, and that description fits. It isn’t dirt. It’s glue that died.

Dirt and oil come next. Buckleguy’s guide to using Barge cements starts with one rule, that both materials be clean and dry before the cement goes on. My opinion: a lining glued over dust or grease was starting with half a bond.

What about conditioner? Somebody asked that exact question on leatherworker.net, whether to condition the flesh side before adding a liner, and nobody in the thread answered it. I won’t pretend to settle it either. Test a scrap.

Glue was never the fastener

On a lined case I stitch the edge. The glue is there to keep the layers still while the thread goes in.

Here’s the case for my side. On my lined cases, the edges get stitched, because that’s what holds the lining. My unlined cases don’t need it. On lined or suede-lined cases I’ve used a latex-based edge paint, partly because it also glues the layers together at the edge. So on a case I build, glue has two jobs: hold the lining flat while I punch and stitch, and seal the edge. Neither of those jobs is carrying the weight.

A member of that same leatherworker.net thread, johnnydb, says a liner needs something mechanical to hold it, because “The glues don’t hold the fibers as well as you might like.” A briefcase is the same problem with more corners.

So my opinion, stated flat: if a lining is peeling at an edge that can take a stitch, glue it back and then stitch it. The stitch is the repair. The glue is the clamp.

On the Suede Lining page I wrote: “For many years, I have expertly lined my briefcases and bags with real suede.” I don’t build the leather-lined version anymore. The Maker page says why: it takes more time than I can give. The reasons still hold, though. Suede needs care around liquid and ink. A bridle lining, or a natural leather lining where the inside of the hide is the finished surface, wipes clean and is a little more durable. With no separate lining there’s nothing to peel. That’s the cheapest repair there is: not needing one.

Clearing the old glue

New glue on old glue is a bond with a rotten floor under it.

Macro of a stitched edge holding a suede lining to the leather shell of a briefcase.

Peel the lining back only as far as it has already let go. Don’t pull it past the line where it still holds, because what’s still stuck is the one part of the old job that’s working.

Then get the dead glue off both faces. In a leatherworker.net thread of tips for cleaning up excess contact cement, a member called Elton Joorisity suggests a crepe eraser or a scrap of crepe sole. Another, celticleather, lets a teaspoon of cement dry into a ball and rubs it over the area to lift the old film, and says it worked on suede. Rub, don’t scrape. A blade in a suede lining leaves a bald patch you’ll see every time the bag opens.

Where the old glue has gone to yellow powder, brush it out with a dry brush and get it out of the bag, not into the seams.

Keep the solvent can closed. The temptation, when glue won’t come up, is to flood it with whatever’s under the sink. Fletcher’s paper says acetone should not be used on leather at all, that white spirit is acceptable, and that solvents can affect finishes and painted surfaces. She also says to test first. Do that somewhere nobody looks, like the underside of a pocket or the strip under a gusset fold, and wait to see what the leather does before you go near the face of the bag. A dark ring from a solvent test is a lesson. A dark ring across the front panel is a new bag.

Buckleguy’s note that light sanding can help applies to the leather side, not the suede. Take the shine off with fine paper, then get every grain of dust out. Dust between two coats of cement is the same as dirt. The guide to cleaning the inside of a briefcase is worth a read before any of this, because a lining that’s grimy around the peel will be grimy under the new glue.

Gluing it back down

Both faces, one thin coat, wait, then one shot at lining it up.

Use contact cement for a permanent lining repair. Rubber cement is a temporary glue, and the two preservation sources above say what it turns into.

Weaver’s page for toluene-free Barge cement gives a dry time of 10 to 15 minutes after coating both surfaces, an open time of up to 4 hours, and a fix for missing that window: warm the cement with a hair dryer to bring it back. Buckleguy lists the same numbers. Coat the lining and the inside of the shell thin and even, out to the edge of where the old bond still holds. Thick coats don’t grip better. They ooze, and on suede an ooze is permanent.

If the bag is going to be handled indoors and you want less fume, Montana Leather’s page for Renia Aquilim 315 describes a water-based contact cement with no solvent. Its directions: sand, remove the dust, apply to both sides only once, let it dry until the film turns transparent, then press with appropriate pressure.

Now the part that saves the job. Close the bag before you press. MADMAX22, in a leatherworker.net thread on keeping wrinkles out of a lining, says heavier linings wrinkle unless the piece is pre-flexed into the position it normally lives in before gluing. Glue a lining down flat inside a bag that lives curved, and the first time it closes, the lining buckles or pulls loose again. Set the shell in its working shape. Then lay the lining in from the middle out, press with a roller or a bone folder, and work any air toward the open edge.

Then, where the edge can take it, stitch it, and match the old holes if there are any. If there aren’t, you’re putting new holes in a bag forever. Hold that thought.

Where my fix is the wrong fix

A conservator would throw my glue out. On the right bag, the conservator is right.

An old worn leather document case on a conservator's padded table with soft brushes and cotton gloves.

Here’s the turn, and it’s a hard one for me. Everything above is a maker’s repair, done for a bag that’s going back into use tomorrow. On an old bag, a family piece, something with a name and a date on it, a maker’s repair might be the worst thing that ever happens to it.

Salvador Alcántara Peláez, a conservator at the National Records of Scotland, wrote up a training day on adhesives for The Book and Paper Gathering, where Fletcher spoke on leather. His summary of her advice on leather work: “adhesives such as hide glue or contact adhesive should be discarded”. The same write-up notes that all adhesives proved difficult to remove from porous or fibrous materials. In her paper, Fletcher lists reversibility as an “Important conservation consideration,” meaning the next person to touch the object should be able to undo what you did.

Contact cement doesn’t undo. Neither do new stitch holes. My whole argument was that glue alone is too weak, and the answer was to add something more permanent. On a working briefcase, I’d still say that. On an heirloom, the permanent fix is the problem.

The post on original versus restored patina gets into the fight over whether a fixed bag is still the same bag. I won’t add to it. If the bag matters more than its use, put the glue down and find a leather conservator. If it’s a bag you carry to work, glue it, stitch it, and carry it. Knowing which bag you’re holding is the actual skill here, and nobody can sell it to you in a can.

Afterward, store it the way the bag wants, not the way the closet allows. The guide to storing a briefcase between seasons covers that, and a lining kept out of damp, crushed corners has a better shot at staying where you put it.

Barge All Purpose Cement, Quart: A quart of solvent-based contact cement. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

Mnuizu 60 mm Leather Press Edge Roller: A 60 mm roller for pressing glued leather flat. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

DEEDYGO Genuine Bone Folder: A genuine bone folder for creasing and burnishing. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

John James Saddlers Harness Blunt Point Needles: A set of blunt-point harness needles, five sizes with five needles of each. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

Mandala Crafts 150D 0.8mm Black Flat Waxed Thread: A flat waxed polyester thread, 0.8 mm, in black, for hand sewing leather. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

Weaver Leather Supply Diamond Leather Stitching Chisel Set: A set of 4 mm diamond stitching chisels for punching saddle-stitch holes. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

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