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How to Stretch Hide Leather

Hide leather is durable, long lasting and a beauty to look at and feel when prepared properly. A crucial step of this preparation is the stretching aspect. During stretching, you apply pressure to the skins to release the natural tension in the hide and thereby produce soft and supple leather. Stretch your hide once it has been cleaned using simple materials and some elbow grease.

Things You'll Need

Cleaned leather hide
Plywood
Nails
Hammer
Leather spreader
Chair

Instructions

- 1
  Rinse a cleaned leather hide so that both sides are wet through. Let all of the excess water drip off and move the hide to a sheet of plywood. Use plywood that is bigger than the hide on all sides to allow for stretching space.
- 2
  Turn the hide skin side against the plywood and secure the uppermost corners to the plywood using small nails and a hammer. Adjust the nails as you go if you find the hide is stretching beyond the fixed positions.
- 3
  Ease a spreader from the middle of the hide, outward to stretch out the leather to the corners of the plywood. Use long, slow motions to push the hide and stretch it out. Fix the hide in place along the edges as you work it out.
- 4
  Check the hide often to see how dry it is. You need to wait until the hide is almost dry, but still damp to the touch. When the hide reaches this point, remove the leather from the plywood and drape it over the back of a wooden chair.
- 5
  Run the spreader along the hide where the leather is resting on the back of the chair. Move the stretched portion of the hide so a new, unstretched part is resting on the chair. Keep working the leather in this way until each part has been stretched.

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