microwave leather?

[slewfoot]

Hi I am new here and I have been learning to do some tooling. I have been to a couple of classes at my local Tandy. I was curious if anyone has ever tried to microwave leather. The reason I ask is that I was going to start on a project the other day and my leather was a little too wet and it was taking it forever to dry out to tool. I thought about putting it in the microwave but opted for the oven set at 225 degrees for a few minutes. It helped. So if any one has ever tried to microwave leather I would like to hear about the results. good or bad.

John Slewski

[anne newkold]

I have always heard of using a hairdryer to dry it out some.

[whinewine]

Hi I am new here and I have been learning to do some tooling. I have been to a couple of classes at my local Tandy. I was curious if anyone has ever tried to microwave leather. The reason I ask is that I was going to start on a project the other day and my leather was a little too wet and it was taking it forever to dry out to tool. I thought about putting it in the microwave but opted for the oven set at 225 degrees for a few minutes. It helped. So if any one has ever tried to microwave leather I would like to hear about the results. good or bad.

John Slewski

Yes, I have. not well. The microwaves nuke the moisture in the leather with more or less disasterous results. Years ago, I made a drinking jack out of 7-9 oz leather & nuked it for seconds at a time for a number of times. It distorted the leather & warped it in spots & the result was an instant '200 year aging' that gave me a neat effect that I hadn't expected. Last year I tried to make a shot glass from 3-4 oz & the result was disasterous.

Bottom line, nuking is not controllable, especially in the lighter weights. You'd be better off with an oven or a hair dryer

[Johanna]

Yep, what whinewhine says. It will burn, warp, discolor, shrivel and not the same in any two spots. The results are unpredictable and usually spell the ruin of the piece. I don't recommend microwaving leather at all for any reason.

Johanna

[okiwen]

Amen to the above. One minute was fine. The next was a wrinkled mess that turned brittle and broke. It really broke.

[sbrownn]

I have worked out a process of microwaving wet leather while still in the mold to dry and cure it. It works for all types of leather from veg tanned to latigo and you can go from wet molding to ready to sew in as little as 10 minutes. The microwaving heats the leather up and evaporates the moisture so it drys fast and it also cures it so that it retains its shape well once out of the mold. The method works especially well for molding latigo which is difficult to form using more traditional methods.