Sheilajeanne

Yes indeedy!!

Yes, we've forgotten how this old sort of tech worked! Both my mom and my dad told us what it was like to live in the era before all houses had electricity. The farm my dad grew up on didn't get it until the late 1940's. My mom's family were without it until they moved to Weston in the 1920's; a small town that has now been absorbed by Toronto. I have one thing from that era - a pewter candle holder that belonged to her family. And at a recent family reunion, one of my cousins held a lucky draw for two glass kerosene lanterns that had been passed down from our grandparents. I declined to enter, as I'm getting up there and have no children to leave the lanterns to, and I don't want their history to be lost.

That's a 'Court Jester' reference, isn't it?

The funeral parlor that looked after the arrangements for both my mom and dad gives the families candle holders to remember their loved ones by, as so many people/faiths/whatever you want to call your belief system/ have the habit of lighting and burning candles to remember their loved ones by. You might have a business opportunity here (thought the ones this funeral parlor gives out are sculpted metal.)

There could be some veg tan mixed in with the chrome tan. I suspect the deer tan may be veg tanned. Or else they've just named it that due to the color...There's an simple way to tell: dampen the surface and try tooling/stamping it. If it will take a tool mark, it's veg tan! I had to do this once with a piece of mystery leather someone gifted me. Yup - wouldn't stamp, so chrome tanned. If leather is mouldy, you can tell by the smell usually. Edit: there's obviously some non-leather mixed in with that. Some of the pieces look to have a woven fabric backing. Could be either so-called bonded leather, or an imitation leather like Naugahyde.

Just a correction, Sup - it wasn't my table the Shabbat candles burned - I am not Jewish. It was a lady I was working for who was suffering from M.S. Yup, never leave candles burning unattended! My parent taught me that, and they both spent their early years in homes that used candles and coal oil lanterns. Okay, have one candle holder I'd trust for that. It's a chunk of limestone, about 8" by 6" by 3" deep, with a natural depression in it that's just the right size to hold a tea light. My husband found it somewhere. I left a tea light burning in it overnight, the evening he suffered a stroke, and was taken to hospital... :'(

So, how many deer do you get on average? :D

LOL, Chuck and Fred!

One for deer hunting season:

Chuck, I'm not much worried about starting a fire, though to be on the safe side, yeah some testing might be a good idea. I once saw the results of what happened when a Jewish family left their Shabbat candles burning in a bowl they THOUGHT was fireproof, then went out somewhere. The result was, even though it didn't catch fire, the whole house was severely smoke damaged, and the dining room table ruined. Cost thousands of dollars to clean the house from top to bottom. Sooo, never ASS-U-ME as the saying goes... In my case, I was just REALLY pissed off that the finish on my desk was damaged! They also often call tea lights 'warmer candles' and they ain't kidding!

Sup, I thought the holder would act the way the glass tea light holders do, and be thick enough to protect the top of my desk. I was quite surprised when it didn't! Makes me wonder if the glass holders are safe when the light burns down! I have 3 holders I know are safe - two are made out of stone, and one has a REALLY thick glass bottom.

A young kid was looking at a memorial plaque that was at the back of the church. The priest came over, and they boy asked, "What are all these names, Reverend?" "Those are the names of men who have died in the service," the priest replied. The boy's eyes got really big. "Which service, Reverend - the 8:30 or the 10:30?" For the horse riders on this forum (yes, I know what this feels like...)

Just a word of caution about tea lights. I have a ceramic candle holder that will hold two tea lights sitting on the bottom. My mom gave it to me, so it's pretty special, because she's now gone. The bottom is about the same thickness as a dinner plate. I set it on my desk one night, with two candles in it. As the tea lights burned down, they caused the bottom of the holder to get so hot that it damaged the finish on my desk! So, if I were to make that candle holder, I'd have it resting on something heat and fireproof when the candle is burning.

Reminds me of this funny story: Guy was cutting the grass, wearing sneakers, and managed to run over his foot with the lawn mower. A trip to the E.R. followed. After the doctor had removed his shoe and what was left of his sock. the patient asked, "What d'ya think, Doc?" "Well," the doctor replied, "offhand, I'd say your mower blade needs sharpening. You've still got all your toes!"

DanMatha, good news! And, yeah F**K CANCER!! One of my oldest friends was just diagnosed with a tumor in her liver. It's a secondary tumor, and they think the primary is in her pancreas. And pancreatic cancer almost never has a good outcome.

Sup, yes my thought exactly. But how is it any different from pork fat (lard)? Or beef tallow? Even neatsfoot oil is just processed fat from the lower legs of cattle: The fact it was processed didn't stop the mice from nibbling on my tack! I looked up how to make pork lard for cooking. You can do it yourself. You basically put the pork fat in a strainer, and heat it in the oven for 4 or 5 hours, with a Dutch oven or other large pot underneath the strainer to catch the fat. That's all there is to it - just make sure all cracklings are removed. We've come to expect that everything we buy in the store goes through some sort of complicated process before being sold. And that isn't always the case. https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-render-lard-and-why-you-should-use-it/

Fred, all I need to do for that is to fry up a pan of bacon! (and strain out the bacon bits afterwards.) Not so very long ago, farmers never thought of buying fat at the store. It all came from their animals - tallow from cows, lard from pigs, goose grease, etc. And the indigenous leather supply company I sometimes buy hides from has an ample supply of bear grease, which, unfortunately can't be shipped outside of Canada. Excellent research on the bees, Fred! Well done!

Hoping you do, and please report back afterwards!

"People just repeating what they've been told"... As someone who was heavily into riding and working with horses in my younger days, I was told to only use pure neatsfoot oil on leather, as neatsfoot compound contained petroleum products that would rot the stitches. Good tack is and has always been expensive. You need to take care of it if you want it to last. And horseback riding and driving has a very long history. So, I am quite happy assuming that what's been passed down to me by other knowledgeable equestrians is the truth - the result of several hundred years of caring for tack. My riding instructor served in the Hungarian cavalry prior to, and during WWII. He had an old saddle with his name (and rank) on the cantle from his military days. Except for some wear on the saddle flaps from his knees, it was in excellent shape. I also briefly dated a guy who was with Canada's Governor General's Horse Guards. They used traditional military tack, dating from when Canada still had a cavalry. He told me his newest piece of equipment was a curb bit with the date 1913 stamped on it! In days gone by, the cavalry knew how to look after its equipment, and I saw it with my own eyes. Contrast that with what I once read in Mother Earth News, from the hippie generation. People who subscribed to this magazine were all about going back to the land, and living an eco-friendly way of life. For some of them, that meant using horsepower instead of driving a car. This particular article talked about what was necessary to use horses for transportation. It said that leather will eventually dry out and crack and break. so once a year, you should give the horse's harness a good soaking in a barrel of oil.* Yes, this is really messy, and you will have to hang the harness somewhere where the oil can drip off it afterwards without harming anything, but if you don't do it the leather won't last... * I don't recall if they specified what kind of oil, but I'm fairly sure it was motor oil. Probably USED motor oil. My reaction to reading this: F....ing idiots!! As students of a former cavalry captain, we were taught to clean our tack EVERY time we rode. The main cause of tack breaking at the stable was either years and years of wear and tear, or a horse damaging it after dumping its rider!

Love this thread!!

Bruce, for over 20 years, our family lived across the road from a Metro Toronto fire captain. I once saw his wife take some rags to the curb, and set them on fire. So your solution is fire-department approved! Another good method would be that fire proof red pail they show in the video. The really scary part for me was that the bags he sprayed with the fire extinguisher re-ignited a number of hours later!

Tell me about it!! Between helping my relatives out during hay season, and working in a riding stable and the racetrack, I've bucked many a hay bale. Dirty, sweaty, prickly hard work!

It's not just waste hay, Fred. Many a farmer has lost his barn from putting hay away when it's too wet. One of my uncles said he'd once come across a burned out section of hay in the mow, where a fire had started, then extinguished itself due to lack of oxygen, as the bales were packed really tightly. He sure dodged a bullet on that one! That's why those big round bales wrapped in plastic have become popular as they can be stored outside, eliminating the chances of your barn going up in flames, along with all your livestock.

Very nice save!

This was posted by a wood working site, but I feel leatherworkers also need to be reminded of the dangers. I also know quite a few of the leatherworkers on this board also work with wood! It's a YouTube video, unfortunately. Hope you can see it! https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=6835198336500559