At the start of this build, I mentioned that this is one that has special meaning. It’s more than just an assortment of parts, and its role in my life represents a new beginning, incorporating a newfound passion: leatherworking.
One day, when I had too much decision paralysis over picking a belt, I thought: How about I just make one? Then it’ll be special, so it won’t have to be perfect. A €38 starter kit from Amazon, a strip of buffalo leather, three days of my time, and a few bleeding fingers later, it was done. What started as an impulse moment has become a core hobby of mine, for which I’ve since built a home workshop.
As such, when I restarted my work at Tom’s Hardware a couple of months ago and was told to build some really cool PCs, I knew I had to do something special with the first one. And that something special had to be leather.
Let’s Have a Look at the Leather
The piece of leather I’m using today is, for all intents and purposes, not that amazing. It’s one of the first pieces of leather I bought. It’s vegetable-tanned, but the tanning doesn’t run all the way through the hide, so it only has the rich color on a thin, rather delicate top layer. This also reflects in its cost, though – if I recall correctly, I scored half a hide of this one for about $23.
Being such a thin and rather delicate piece of leather, though, makes it somewhat unsuitable to use for making everyday items. It’s too thin to make a belt, and although I could use it to make a wallet, the top layer would wear apart in just days. You couldn’t make a coat with it for the same reasons, and vegetable-tanned leather lacks the suppleness and flexibility for that anyway.
This isn’t tough buffalo leather for belt-making that develops a beautiful patina either – it’s cheap leather that just ends up looking scraggly if actually used by a person. As a result, I’ve sat on it for a long time, not really knowing what to do with it.
But along came this PC build. Being a thin bit of hide, I could easily glue it into tight spots in a chassis, and since my plans for it were not to make it a handle but purely decorative on the inside of the PC, its delicate nature was no problem.
Cutting the Leather
Cutting the leather is quite straightforward. I started by grabbing the longest side of the leather and cutting a fresh, clean line. On a previous project, I had used a strip cutter. These are great for cutting out belts or straps that are straight enough, given that they’re quite narrow, but cut a wider piece from the leftover cutting, you’ll notice that the line cut by the strip cutter isn’t all that straight – but the Evolv X2 has very straight lines we want to match.
I then measured out the case thoroughly, planning my cuts along the way, and cut out three pieces. From the third piece at the back, I cut a small cutout for the expansion slots on the cover plate – I’d hate to have to rip all the leather off to remove this cover so the GPU can be removed.
For all the cuts, I used an X-Acto #2 knife with a fresh blade, which cut through the thin, delicate leather with ease.
Cleaning up the Edges
After cutting leather, the edges are never quite so clean. Typically, there are multiple steps to take here – first is to sand the edges, then you have to use an edge beveller, and then use a burnishing gum and burnish the edges.
However, this leather is very thin, and on the whole, the X-Acto knife left quite a clean cut, so I decided to skip sanding. Because the leather has a very delicate top layer, if I wish to edge bevel, my beveller needs to be freakishly sharp – otherwise it just bites into the leather, cutting a chunk out, and if it doesn’t do that, it’ll leave quite a jagged line. Because this is also not leather you will physically interact with much, a smoothed-out edge isn’t really that important. Besides, the burnishing also does quite a lot.
As such, I skipped straight ahead to applying Tokonole. This is a burnishing gum from Japan, which I’ve watered down and put into a marker – it’s much easier, efficient, and less messy to apply this way.
After allowing the leather’s edge to absorb the Tokonole and dry, I proceeded to burnish the edges using my burnishing machine. You can do this step by hand with a wooden tool, but I don't have the time or patience to do so. The heat from the burnishing machine, together with the burnishing gum (Tokonole), essentially polishes the edges of the leather, pushing any fraying fibers into the finished edge, and creating a smooth, lightly-glossy, slick finish.
Because the leather is quite thin, I could skip straight to the smallest section of the burnisher. This is the bit with the tightest curvature, which also helps round off the leather's edges for more comfortable handling.
Gluing the Leather
With all the pieces ready, it was time to glue them into the case. For this step, I’m using Kövulfix. This is a type of shoemakers glue, and it has some very interesting properties that make it ideal for this project
For one, it’s a contact-cement type glue. This means that in order to adhere, you apply a layer of glue to both surfaces you want to join, and let them dry for about 20 minutes. No need to rush against time; the exciting step comes after letting the glue dry.
Once dry, you line the leather up with the spot you want it on the case at, however, you have to be very careful: contact-cement, as its name implies, cements upon contact – as soon as the leather contacts the case, the two dried glue layers stick to each other with a bond so strong it won’t be possible to adjust or move things around. As long as your cuts are precise and your initial lining up is good, this is great.
Once the entire piece is in place, press down on the leather hard, roll over it with something smooth, or just use the base of your thumb for smooth, equal pressure, and ensure everything adheres properly.
This bond is now so strong, you’ll have to put some serious force to rip the leather off.
However, what makes Kövulfix perfect isn’t just the strong bond. Any excess glue that I accidentally got on the front side of the leather (provided the skin side is non-porous, unlike the flesh side), I can remove by simply rubbing over it with my finger. And the same goes for the edges between the case and the leather – rub over any leftover glue, and it rolls up into a gum-like substance and just comes off.
Finally, I gave the leather a coat of wax to even out any wrinkles, give the color a little more richness, and make it shine a little.
If anyone ever wants to remove the leather, some strong pulling will rip it off, and the glue residue on the case easily dissolves with acetone, bringing it back to its factory state.
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