cat

I've never tried dipping leather in boiling or hot water, as I've heard that it can damage the fibers and cause the leather to become brittle. I just soak the leather for about 20 minutes in room temperature water, hammer it with a rubber mallet to compress the fibers and to help shape it if needed, finish shaping by hand and then let it air dry. Once it's dry, I use Future floor polish (an acrylic that leaves a glossy finish) to seal it and harden it up. Using Leather Balm with Atom Wax will also add a bit of hardness. No matter which method you try, I recommend testing the process on scrap first to see if you like the results. Cat

Thanks for the welcome and the responses! I am totally unfamiliar whith braiding terms, but at least that gives me something to look up. What I'm confused on is how many strands there are on the original. In some places, it looks like there are only 2 strands coming out of the drawstring holes, but it looks like the number of strands have been increased to multiple strands at the ends. There's what looks like beads on these strands, right about at the place where it looks like the braided part begins. Do you think they're stitching on extra strands at those points? I don't see any indication of the extra ends sticking out past the bead, so I'm guessing if that's the case, the bead is covering them. Thanks again, Cat

Hello, I am in the process of trying to make a 16th century pouch, based off of an original and am trying to figure out how the drawstrings were braided. It looks like more than two strands were used, and on mine, I've only got 2 to work with. I posted this topic in the "how do I do that" section, but I thought I might get better results here. Here is the link: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3504 I was hoping someone could tell me how the braiding was done on the original so I can modify my attempt to make it look the same. I realize the pic of the original isn't very clear, but hopefully someone can help make sense out of what's going on with the braids and loops. Thanks, Cat

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and am somewhat of a beginner leatherworker. I've done several projects, but have really only been at this for a relatively short time. I'm trying to make a 16th century pouch, and am unsure of what I'm seeing in the photo of the original. I am attaching some pics (hopefully) of my pouch attempt, and the original I am basing it off of. I'm a bit further along in my progress on the pouch than what this pic shows, but it should give you an idea of what I have to work with. The pic of the original is not the clearest, but I'm hoping someone will recognize how the braiding was done on the drawstrings. To me, the stuff just looks like a jumbled mess, so I'm hoping someone can tell me what I need to do to mine to make it look like the original. I've got 2 strands (well, two ends of one strand) for my drawstring, but the braiding on the original seems to indicate more than 2 strands. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks, and please excuse my newbie questions. Cat