Littlef

Those are nice!

I do the same, mix tallow and bees wax. In the winter I might add a bit of olive oil if the mix is too hard in the colder temps.

wow, 3 gallons of Tallow would keep me stocked for black powder for a long long time.

I've never seen a metal quick disconnect - The photo looks like those are standard attachments for a backpack. I think if you were needing the strength of metal, you have to re-work it for a regular buckle or a frog, like on a military rifle sling. You could also possibly make a carabiner go through a loop of leather. (Trying to think outside the box.)

cool, thanks!

that's kinda cool. I'm planning on making a tool roll, and canvas cover in duck cloth. That would be helpful working out how to hem all the edges.

I just cut it off with scissors and burn it with a lighter. I've thought about getting one of the thread burners. Thread burners are not expensive, but I'm not convinced its gonna make an improvement enough to separate me from some cash.

I actually bought one off Amazon for $80-ish, or whatever it was. Its takes practice and adjustment to get it right. I was splitting a couple straps to make a bonded edge. It took a few attempts to get it right. Several times, I split the strip about 80% through the length, and then I cut all the way through, and had to start over. With more practice, I'd probably work out the fine touch it takes, but its not something I'm going to need to do on a regular basis. Simple 1-2" straps are not physically difficult to pull, but I think 6-8" wide straps would be really difficult to split. - If I needed to split leather regularly It would be worth getting an upgraded model, with options to fine tune the thickness.

Its probably not going to work, but a bottle of isopropyl is cheap. Its worth a try. If you get it to dissolve in the alcohol, use a scrap test piece before trying it on your actual project.

I noticed it too. That looks like the job of grandchildren, maybe middle school or high school aged, who decided they would improve the grips. (That's my assessment.)

That's a really neat piece. The loop repair blends in nicely with the original leather work. I'm sure the family is thrilled with the work. (I know I would be.)

I'm not using tokonole on the grain side - only the flesh side. I was just responding to your comment on how you dilute the tokonole when you're burnishing the flesh side, which I'll try that next time. I have seen videos where people burnish the grain side without tokonole, but I've never tried that. I know I accidentally get tokonole on the grain side sometimes. - Like when I'm trying to burnish a long strap. It discolors the leather when you do. you could possibly get an even color if you intentionally tried to make an even coat, but I'm not sure if it would really create a benefit.

I starting my first leather projects last winter. I absolutely burnish the flesh side also if I apply tokonole. - I picked up one of those thick glass plates with the rounded edges off amazon. So far I've had no issues regarding the tokonole -

That's a good idea, and a good looking marker. I normally just use masking tape, but that looks waay nicer.

That's interesting, I've only applied it, undiluted. Next time I'll try diluting it and see how it works. - you can use up a lot of Tokonole, depending on how big your project is. I haven't seen it cracking my leather... but I'm also fairly new at this, in a hobby capacity, so It's not like I'm in a production environment.

I certainly haven't tried it - but just thinking about what a spray bottle pattern looks like on if you spray it on a piece of paper, it typically makes a pretty inconsistent pattern. You might get better results if you tried a "continuous spray" bottle - those make a much more even spray, but its also a really wide spray nozzle. It might make more mess than what you want to deal with. I use a continuous spray bottle if I need to add additional water while tooling.

Those will work well! I'll bet people will scoop up those quick for hunting season.

Are you saying that you have a stock of leather that has now been on "your" shelf for 5 years? If that is the case, I would make the guess, that it has been slowly drying out, and has now reached a moisture point where it lost elasticity and has become brittle. I might look at where its being stored. Are you in a dry climate? A furnace and Air conditioning both tend to pull moisture out of the air. You might put a hygrometer in the room where the leather is stored to see if that is a factor. Using a humidifier might help if the room is dry. My only other thought is adding a leather conditioner, but you said that you already tried that. - I recently used vinegaroon on some leather straps, and let it dry out completely for a few days before oiling it with Neats foot oil. The leather became stiff and brittle. Adding neatsfoot didn't bring back the flexibility. I learned that there comes a point where the oil can no longer restore the original flexibility. Prevention might be the only solution.

Those are cool! I've been toying with the idea of replacing my black leather saddle bags on my motorcycle, and making some with a more western style in brown/tan with tooling. I seem to have way more ideas for projects, than I have free time to get to them.

Good looking sheath. Now the plastic case for my calipers seems a little inadequate, lol.

I don't have any scientific data to back this up, but no, I do not believe the level of tannins in the leather has a correlation to leather quality. Tannins are present in the plant material that animals eat. The levels regularly fluctuate based on diet, and a multitude of other factors. I think the largest problem was because you sealed the leather before applying the vinegaroon. That physically made a barrier that it couldn't pass through. Adding the tea did 2 things. Tea is fairly high in tannins, so that strengthened the chemical reaction; but in addition, you added more water, and the saturation of the leather also helped the 2nd application of vinegaroon better distribute through the leather. Using vinegaroon isn't an exact science. If you run it through once, and its not dark enough, you can always apply it again. a word of caution, the acid in the vinegar does degrade the natural oils in the leather, so it normally will need a good dose of neatsfoot oil afterwards. I've had leather that got hard and brittle after using vinegaroon. I found that the leather needs to be oiled before its fully dry after the vinegaroon. If the leather is allowed to get brittle, oiling it might not be able to restore the flexibility in the leather.

Just doing a quick google search I found a ph of 3-4. of course concentration changes will make that vary, but its definitely acidic.

yea, I very much enjoy the whole process of shooting black powder.

Not if you do the maintenance. I can clean my cap and ball pistols almost as fast as a modern firearm. You gotta clean black powder each and every time or it will rust up.

Thank you very much, I appreciate that. The coehorn mortar was designed to be small enough to have a small team of guys pick it up and carry it around by hand as the battle evolves. The corner seams on the case were challenging with that 8 to 10 ounce leather. I plan to later try and make some cartridge boxes, so this was a good introduction to making cases.