[Coodeville]

What's the best way to cut leather for auto interiors?

[kristkustoms]

Shears...X-Acto knife...

[kleen56]

If its a straight cut, a ruler and xact o knife or razor works well (like kristkustoms mentioned) If its curves I use a pair of really sharp scissors. It also depends on how thick of leather we are talking about here.

[DanTwoLakes]

I cut all upholstery fabrics, vinyls, ultraleather, and leather the same way,...... with a scissors. I like the spring loaded scissors Fiskars makes. If you cut fabric and leather every day like I do it really is a lot easier on my hand. They only cost about $16, and they're available at Wal-Mart in their fabric department. I mark the leather on the top side with a Fisher SR80SL silver ink pen. The ink wipes right off with a little mild cleaner.

I'm not crazy about using an exacto-knife or other blade type cutters because upholstery leather stretches so much, and the blades get dull so fast. If you make a mistake with one, you can really screw up some expensive leather. I also don't like cutting myself. Cutting real heavy leather is another story, there you have to cut it with a utility knife or something like it.

[Coodeville]

So what is the best way to keep curved cuts the correct radius when cutting leather? Secondly, leather will stretch. So should you make the pieces smaller than the old pieces that you used for a pattern in order to take into consideration the stretching?

[DanTwoLakes]

That's one of the drawbacks of cutting leather with a blade. If you cut it with a scissors you have no problem with curves.

The way I handle leather is to make the pieces the same size as the originals, but I sew them all to sew foam, even the pieces that didn't have sew foam on them to begin with. The pieces you sit on and lean on I sew to 1/2" sew foam, and the rest of the pieces get sewed to 1/4" sew foam. The sew foam keeps the parts from stretching, and also provides padding where the cover goes over the seat's frame.

[JunkIt]

They cut leather like butter.