Cast Iron Heat Resistant Handle Grip Made Out of Leather

In this Instructable I'll show you how to make leather handle covering for cast iron cookware. I love cooking in cast iron but the handle has a tendency to get too hot so I made some covers. With the small pan I usually only attach it when I am handling the pan. With the bigger pan I will sometimes leave the covers on the whole time I'm cooking since they are farther away from the flames, with an electric range I don't think this would be as much of a concern.

You will need:

• Leather
• Scissors or razor blade to cut leather
• A way to make a hole in leather, I used a rotary punch but there are several ways you could do this
• Pen, pencil, ect
• Leather rivets
• Hammer/Arbor press to seat the rivets

After trial and error I came up with this pattern. This is for a small/medium sized cast iron, for large piece pan add about 1/2 inch of material in all directions.

• To get a feel for the piece you need to cut out it may be helpful to cut out a paper or card stock version first. I reused a old cover as a pattern.
• It ends up using about a 5x4.5 inch piece of leather.
• This will be a trifold so divide the narrower width into 3 sections to create two fold lines.
• I rounded the top 3 sections and only two on the bottom. The third section on the bottom is cut flat to create room on the inside for this flap.
  • The leading edge next to this flat flap is cut at a slight angle, this helps to create interior space when it is all folded up. See pictures for details.
• Create 5 holes along the edge with 3 humps cut into it. When folded these will line up and be connected with hardware. 3 holes will be lined up on one side and 2 holes will be lined up on the other. The spacing will depend on the leather thickness but you can look at mine for reference, this leather was about 3/32 thick.

• Push the rivet through the holes and connect the two halves.
• I used a arbor press to seat the rivets but a hammer will work fine.
• Repeat the above steps for the holes on the other side.
• Your handle is now complete.

Hopefully your cover fits as intended, luckily these are quick to remake if you need to tweak it a little bit. Leather has a little give and stretch so it can be forced on if needed if its close. The pattern I used was for a smaller to mid sized handle but you can increase the dimensions of it to fit larger pans. You can see it kind of fits on my large cast iron but does not slip on all the way, I have a larger one that fits on that pan. After experimenting with different sizes and construction methods I realized two rivets was the simplest and fastest way to construct these. You can finish the leather however you like, I left it raw so I can see the natural wear of the piece. I hope you found this instructable useful and helps you to be a little safer in the kitchen!