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HellfireJack

Humidors

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I've tried using plastic bags in the fridge to manage the moisture content in leather but to me it seems really harsh on the leather.

I decided to try a humidor to see how it works and wanted to know if anyone else does. I searched but only found one non-cigar reference about braiding. I figure that before plastic bags and refrigeration this is probably similar to how they maintained a work piece.

I purchased a simple humpback pine box from the craft store and coated the interior with a good amount of beeswax to make it water tight and cemented a "gasket" of leather around the rim of the box where the lid sits.

I wet a sponge to the point of dripping and put it inside a wax paper cup and added half a wax paper cup of baking soda to hopefully keep any mold under control.

I fully cased a scrap piece last night and waited about an hour before putting it inside. It still had not returned to the original color. Today, 24 hours later, it's still the same "wet" color. It still felt like leather though as opposed to the feel of a cold piece of cardboard after sitting in the fridge.

I took it out and let it sit for an hour and noticed it starting to dry and lighten in color so I assume the box is doing it's job.

I'm going to arbor press a 3-D stamp into it every day just to see how long it remains tool-able and to see if it acquires any odors, mildew or molds. I'll be taking pictures of it during the process and I'll try to post them later.

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Can't wait to see your results.

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Hi Jack,

What you've made is an old "Casing box". At the saddle shop we used to have something very similar. The box we had was about 2' x 3', lined with foam rubber, with a sealed lid. After getting the leather to the correct moisture content, the leather was put in the box to keep. It would stay cased over the weekend, with no problem. We would take the open box & sit it outside in the sun, every few days, just to make sure there wasn't any mold problems. During the tooling process, if the leather was getting too dry, we'd put it in the box with the other cased leather, while we tooled something else. Within an hour, the piece was ready to tool some more. It's a great thing to have, if you have lots of pieces to tool every day. Otherwise, it's just a big box, that takes up a lot of room. Take Care,,, Ed the"BearMan"

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Wishful, Me either. :)

Bearman, I kind of figured there would be something similar in use by people. There had to have been. It sounds like the moisture in your type of box comes entirely from cased leather? Was any other added?

Mine isn't anywhere near as large. It's about 14x12 with the cylinder top about 14 high.

I took these last night after I posted.

post-7334-055370600 1314890659_thumb.jpg

post-7334-047126700 1314890670_thumb.jpg

post-7334-003127000 1314890687_thumb.jpg

I plan on changing the cups out with something smaller and more permanent and securing them to the floor of the box and adding a platform to go over them. I'll also be finishing the box off with stain.

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