Grain leather grain direction fight took me 3 days to sort out

I was putting together a photo album cover with some nice goatskin leather and the grain kept curling the opposite way from how I wanted it. I spent two whole evenings just pressing and flipping it, thinking I did something wrong with the glue. Turns out I needed to cut the panel on the other side of the hide entirely. Three days for a fix that took ten minutes once I figured it out. Has anyone else fought with grain direction on a project and found a quick trick for checking before you cut?

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vera5141mo ago

Weren't you the one swearing at your own test strips, @clark.alex, before you learned to just bend the hide over your palm?

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clark.alex1mo ago

Quit pretending this was some big craft mystery. You glued it wrong, flipped it, probably used too much water or pressure, and then blamed the hide. Grain direction matters, sure, but any decent bookbinder can read it in about ten seconds by just bending the leather over their finger before they cut. Three days means you were stubborn, not unlucky. I have cut hundreds of panels from goatskin and if you wet it lightly and let it relax, the curl tells you exactly which way it wants to go. Sounds like you skipped that step and fought the material instead of working with it. Next time, cut a test strip first and stop treating a basic mistake like a mystery.

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