DJole

Hah! That's gratitude for you! She clearly loves you and your work! ;-) But seriously, well done -- not just on the sturdy leather work, but for the work you put into it for your daughter. Gotta love the pink color!

I have been playing with boiled leather for a few months now, after spending lots of time researching and reviewing instructions and videos from the internet. Marc Carlson's link (listed above) is a very good starting place. Here is what I have found: (1) Boiling water (100 C/ 212 F) is NOT what you want. It cooks the leather too hot and too fast, and you'll have all kinds of warping and shrinking and brittleness problems. There is a big difference between shaping wet leather and shaping "boiled" leather -- you really only need to "boil" it if you absolutely want or need a large degree of hardness or rigidness (like armor, for example). Most pouches or sheathes don't need that much hardness or rigidity, so merely soaking in warm or cold water and then shaping them is fine. So whenever I mention "boiling" here, I don't actually mean "boiling," but rather nearly boiling, at the temperature that is best. (Carlson discusses wax vs. water as what cuir boulli is, so I refer the reader to him on that discussion.) (2) So what is the best temperature? It depends on two factors: the hide itself and the thickness. You will need to use test bits from the hide to find the best results. If you don't, you'll waste a nice big piece of leather. I have one piece of shoulder leather here which I have discovered reaches my desired results at 170 F, for about 20 seconds. The thicker belly pieces I have been using need 180 degrees, for about the same length of time, to reach the hardness I want. I use a BBQ fork that has a temperature gauge to check the water temperature. This is difficult, because you won't KNOW if the temperature and time is right, until after the leather is dry, which can take hours. 190 and above turns the leather into brittle cardboard. (3) It takes some practice to observe the leather in the water, watching it bubble and curl, and know when to take it out. I have read some say to soak the leather for 10 minutes or so before putting it into the pan of hot water, and others say you don't need to do this. I'm not entirely sure yet which directions yield the most consistent results. (4) Any tooling done prior to boiling is not going to look good -- cut lines swell and get hard edges; shapes warp and twist. The simpler the tooling or design, the less likely it is going to be mangled by boiling. I suspect that most historical boiled leather goods with patterns were embossed, rather than tooled. Tooling after boiling may work, but it would be difficult for 3 dimensional shapes, unless you have a rigid form or mould for them. And this leads us to... (5) using some kind of rigid form to tightly hold the leather in a shape as it dries is great for boxes, pouches, and even knifes or shears. I did this for my leather shears -- wrapped them in plastic, then shaped the wet leather around them. Many people do this for knives, gun magazines, and so on. . (6) dyeing prior to water hardening is going to work better, unless you are using a water-soluble dye (like the Eco-flo dyes). Afterwards, you'll need to decide how to treat the leather-- it's only rigid, not waterproof. Water will spot and stain it. (7) it is also possible to soak the project and then dry it carefully in the oven, at a low heat. You need to test it (what heat? how long?), and WATCH it. I've only done this once, so I know it works, but I don't know yet how to get beautiful, smooth, non-warped pieces using this process yet. (Again, I bet that keeping the leather around a form as this is done is the way to go. )

One of the problems that beginners run into is that floral designs are introduced as beginner projects. Yes, they're traditional, and yes, they use the basic set of tools (swivel knife, beveler, veiner, etc.), but that's way too much for a beginner to handle. I have a project from 7th grade shop class (yes, Virginia, in the late 70s there was actually shop class and it included leatherwork!) which is a floral design on a luggage tag. As far as I knew, leather work *was* floral work, so it didn't really stick. I like the idea of a "Celtic" carving class (although the historian in my wants to point out it's most likely not Celtic at all) because it's going to be a lot simpler, with less realism to try to strive for. So a beginner like your daughter can just learn to use, say, the swivel knife, a beveller, and backgrounder and end up with a great piece. Then the confidence level goes up, and she can, if she chooses, work up to more complex realistic floral (or figure carving) designs.

My strop looks like this: That's a flesh side strip with a thin strip for edgers glued to the side. that's the main stropping side (with rouge) and a thin strip for my French skiver. She ain't pretty, but she gets the job done.

What a nice guy!

Somebody has already pointed you to Marc Carlson's medieval footwear site, and that's an excellent place to start. If you are looking for strictly historical patterns, you should get a copy of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Shoes-Pattens-Medieval-Excavations-London/dp/1843832380 Do you have a particular century and country in mind? Are you looking at a medieval illustration or painting and saying "Yeah, HIS boots are what i want!"

*applause* That's a great looking bag! A very nice design, with great tooling and coloring. If I had done that, I'd carry that thing everywhere, not just to the job site. You never know when you might need that cordless drill in the grocery store, y'know...

First take a look at videos like this, to see if this is what you want: Using antique gel and hi-lighters: I myself used a resist and some antique to get the edges on these pieces here: I used a resist (2 coats) on the large light brown sections. When wet, it gets a little darker, but then it dries clear. I left the stamped sections bare, with no resist. I wiped the pieces with a full strength antique black -- I must admit, it's a bit terrifying wiping it over the resist-treated portion, because I wasn't sure if it would work or not! But it did -- after letting the antique dry according to the instructions, I wiped the pieces down with a damp sponge, and the antique dye wiped right off the big treated portion yet stayed mostly down in the depths of the tooling. The raised portions turned a "worn out" charcoal gray. What you should do is experiment on scrap leather -- use different strengths of antique dye, diluting it (either alcohol or water, depending on the dye) to get the shade you want.

Have you thought of using a diluted antique finish? Perhaps that will emphasize the detail. It's a well done piece, by the way, so I think your design choice is wise here, to hint or suggest color rather that saturate it with a full-on dye job.

Nice construction for piece #5!

I have a thin strip of leather glued to the side of my strop for the bevellers, just like you did.

Thanks to reading various tips and advice on this forum, I took a look at some of my stitching and lacing chisels, which I've owned for many years now. Compared to my higher-end stitching chisels (thanks, GoodsJapan!), they were quite rough (which explains a lot about why they stuck in the leather more, and so on.) So I took out my fine grade sandpaper, my sharpening stones, and my strop, and sanded off the roughness on the flats, smoothed them out, polished them, and stropped them. Now they are nice and smooth, and they go into the leather.. and come out of the leather... a lot better. I even stropped my awl, and I was surprised at the difference it made. It's great to learn from the voices of experience.

I used paintbrushes of various sizes. It's some nervous work, because you do NOT want to mess it up, since the dye cannot be brushed off or removed.

Hey, welcome to the forum! You've got a great start here. Since you're in Taiwan, you might appreciate something with a pan-Asian flavor like this project of mine: <http://djole.altervista.org/djole/Publications/Leather/DemonBox/TempleDemonBox.htm>

That's really nice for a first project! (Certainly much better than my first projects, most of which I keep hidden away at home, storing leather tools in them and such.) Good edges, very good stitching for the first time, too. I wish I had had the same information (this forum, the internet) back when I first started playing with leather in the late 1980s.

Okay, next step-- Here is the throat plate, placed on the chin piece (but not attached yet). I decided to go with three plates, laced together, rather than one piece. An earlier version of the bottom plate warped too much in the cuir boulli process, so it wouldn't line up. I discarded it and did another. Lesson to self-- yes, TOO HOT or TOO LONG will mean you throw the leather piece away. Here it is from the side and from the front. I am liking the looks of this-- I think it's a viable concept. The chin piece doesn't really "need" to be there, but it'll match the forehead piece, and more importantly, it's a mounting point for the rigid throat plate. Why use a throat plate? Well, the fencing mask has a soft bib there, meant to stop sport fencing blades, which are much lighter than longsword blades. This plate structure has some give to it, but it's also going to soften a hard thrust by a good amount. It's also modular -- if or when the laces wear out, they can be replaced. They'll wear out long before the leather plates will.

Welcome to the forum! You'll find all sorts of helpful instructions, advice, and tips, as well as lots of inspiration for projects. You can spend hours reading about sheaths and such after using the "Search..." function to look for those things, so make sure you've got the spare time blocked out!

The stickers on the hides just to my left (three tooling bellies) read "made in Argentina." It's not harness nor European single bend, however.

Yes you can! It's still a work in progress, though. I'll update it as parts get put together (I'm working on it right now, actually.) I'll put it onto the mask for the next photo to illustrate the concept more clearly.

That's a nice looking blade. Pattern welded (aka Damascus steel) makes my heart go pitter patter-- in a good way, of course! I've got a dagger blank of pattern welded steel. Sometimes I get it out and look at it and tell myself that one of these days...yes, some day...not this year, but maybe the next or year after... it will get made into an actual knife.

I did this for one project of mine: In this case, I just started with a knot. I'm not sure how to begin without it (since backstitching won't work with the pattern.) I'll be interested to see the solution to this.

One could take the conventional stitching pony and clamp the bottom base board to the table top. Wouldn't that work for you? Or does it stick up too high to be useful?

Another work in progress For doing HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), a basic fencing mask is a good start, but they're not really enough protection for using steel in tournaments. Thus, there are mask overlays on the market, which add padding and protection to your head (a good thing to do!). I decided that I could make my own custom overlay, using leather to add the rigid or semi-rigid "plating" to the mask. These are the first two pieces. (I'll add others as I complete them.) The larger one goes on the forehead, a place which sees a lot of sword strikes. It will get some foam padding underneath it later on. The smaller one goes under the chin, and it will hold an additional throat protector that goes over the mask bib. That protector bit will be riveted to the strip of leather Using a fencing mask, I made a pattern from paper to get the curves right, then cut them out of leather. The border is done with a Tandy stamp, a Christmas gift (Craftool Pro Stamp-Border D2171) from their recent sale. I sewed both pieces together using my new stitching pony (brought back from Korea). The seam is left standing up, for more reinforcement. I got them nice and wet, then molded them to the fencing mask itself, strapping them down to hold shape as they dried. I used a block-out resist for the big inside panels, and a Tandy Antique Black for the border itself. The edges were burnished with water. I may use an edge paint, but I haven't decided yet. I left the leather a natural color-- it's a nice contrast. I then riveted the strip to the chin piece, and wet-molded that to shape. I have the patterns for the throat plate, but I haven't completed that part yet. I'm really pleased with the way they look so far (and they're really nice on the mask itself-- but no pictures of that yet!) to be completed: 1) Create and attach throat plates (probably leather articulation). 2) Finish design for sides and top of mask, create the same. 3) mount all pieces so they strap tightly on. 4) add foam padding 5) make back of head panel.

This is a work in progress. I'm making a piece of throat /neck armor called a gorget. I have a metal one, but I wanted to see if I could do one out of leather that would be rigid enough for use in some sword combat arts (i.e. rapier fencing or HEMA longsword, but not SCA rattan.) So, here's a test of the concept of cuir bouilli. I spent a LOT of time doing Google research and reading a few sets of instructions. Testing this thick leather, I found that immersing it in 180 degree (Farenheit) water for about 20-30 seconds seemed to be right. I am not sure that belly leather, which is what I am using here, is the best thing for this project, since some pieces still seemed less rigid than I wanted. Yet after re-boiling them, I ran into the problem of the leather getting brittle. I don't recommend trying to re-boil the pieces if they don't seem rigid enough. One problem is shrinkage and warping -- to really get this right, I need a frame or mold for each piece. I did end up using my metal gorget to shape part of it (after wrapping it in plastic to keep wet leather off), which helped. I decided to attach the neck pieces to the front and back shoulder pieces using tabs (as visible in the Side picture)and brass rivets. I wouldn't recommend doing it -- the tabs get really think and hard when the leather is boiled. I didn't boil the tabs for the front piece, which made them easier. But next time, I'll just use a piece of leather to attach the two pieces together. The front piece (with the decorated panel) is two pieces. The decorated panel holds the pieces together, and acts as a reinforcement. Things to complete: (1) line the flesh side and add a small bit of padding for comfort, clear up raw edges. (2) add "blade trap" strip to the front piece. (3) decide how to strap them together into one unit. (4) apply final layer of finish to everything. Dyes used: Angelus Wine Tone for shoulder pieces, Angelus Lt. Brown for throat pieces.