I got my leather (Deerskin) lacing from "the Leather Guy". He's on E-Bay. I had tried others, but their lacing was not as supple, smooth or wrapable. It was about $24shipped for 50ft. Using 3/16" wide lacing, I began wrapping at the outer side against the recessed lip, w/o trimming... just scrunched against the lip wrapped firmly, but not tightly, and just overlapped the end on the first turn. From there on, butt each wrap firmly against the previous turn (no gaps). As you wrap, gradually (as soon as you can) get lacing to become all perpendicular to the grip core. (so it looks even). At end of wrapping, when space becomes like 1/16"... leave about 1/2" or so, and lay lace over wood ferule area, and with a sharp one sided razor blade, carefully split lace to a sharp point. jam this point into the smaller gap by massaging the wrapped lace away from the ferule ledge. Jam in with edge of your fingernail. ** you can just do so many at a time, because your hand may grow tired from the holding/wrapping**
Then I would dunk the grip into a quart of Amber shellac for a second or two, pull out smoothly... let last drop come off grip end, then wave grip assy. gently thru the air to dry. (don't whip it!). I would take wine corks with wire run thru them and press into wood grip inorder to dunk the grips.
Let dry at least overnight. The shellac would do several things... glue lacing to wood, protect deerskin, add color to wood, and give the desired semigloss finish after dried. No need to glue lacing to wood. I think my customers were pleased... all my grips were checked for fit on a 7/8" handlebar. Any too tight were reamed out by hand with a suitable sized drill bit.
TOC leather wrapped wood grips. Fit 7/8" bars, suitable for pre-1910 bikes ...... $80.00 shipped to your door. (domestic shipping only). Available in about a week...5 pairs!!!
thecabe.com