"Fraying" edges on leather strap

Hi, this is my first post! It's great to have a forum like this to post about this issue I'm having. I can't seem to find any other examples of this happening to leather edges.

My issue is of the 1/8th inch thick raw unfinished leather straps (on my rucksack, which I just bought 3 weeks ago) that have become "frayed" with little thread-like protrusions from the leather. These straps are used with roller buckles to close the rucksack lid.

Being as the straps are dark brown (and so I'm not worried too much about darkening), I've rubbed mink oil on the edges to try and burnish the threads back in to the edges, but after a week of use after the mink oil application, the edges are coming frayed again. This seems to be much more than the normal "raw" look and weathering.

I don't want to keep adding mink oil, due to the risk of goop accumulating and possible rancidness. I have not tried to actually finish the edges myself, e.g. using gum tragacanth and a slicker, and I'm not sure how much I'd want to do this myself anyhow.

Is there a good explanation as to why my edges are doing this (e.g. poor cutting technique, dried out leather, etc.) and what are my options at fixing this (e.g. cutting these threads off or polishing them back into the edges) and preventing it from happening in the future? Ideally, I'd like a nice smooth burnished look. Is my best bet taking it to a leather worker?

Thanks for your help!

Welcome to this leather problem solving forum.

The pictures are not sharp enough to see the details of the leather structure to confirm.

So my guess is that these straps are most likely made from the suede split that is pigment coated as picture #2 shows – with textured coarse fiber of split suede rather than the smooth grain of top or full grain leather.

These edge can be fixed with a bonding repair using natural leather Bond-3D, smoothen in the edge and let it dry, excess protruding fibers are trim – these bond when cured is strong and will not crack especially from straps that is stressed with constant flexing. The cured edge can further be rework to smoothen it only by Bond-7A as an option.


Roger Koh
[email protected]


See products mentioned…

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n.../Repairer5.jpg
Leather Repairer (5):
Leather Structure Impregnator,
Leather Bond,
Leather Bonding Aid,
Leather Stucco &
Leather Patch.

Leather Doctor® Leather Bond-3D
It’s for leather structure bonding repairs.
This is an aqueous medium soft polyurethane leather bond that will not lift the leather finishes unlike other solvent based glue.

Leather Doctor® Leather Bond-7A
It’s for bond smoothening aid and excess clean up.
This is a soft nitrocellulose lacquer emulsion bonding aid.
It’s to level and remove excess leather bond from leather surface safely without the need for sanding.