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Soaking should work. Routinely done when molding leather, is it not? But will not boiling water shrivel or shrink it like it does all veg-tanned leathers?

@Glocker21, @DJole, Pretty bags. A bit different, both, but that's nice.

Anti-tetanus first! and Band-aids. For cutting, a plain Stanley knife works best for me. Of course, round knives work well too and a whole slew of other items, but you can get those over time. A Stanley knife or something similar, is something we all usually have at home and the blades are easily replaceable and inexpensive, so that we always have a very sharp edge which is vital. An Xacto knife is good too but the heft of a Stanley knife is nice when cutting leather of some thickness. Rotary cutters are convenient as well but you need a bit of practice. The blade on mine actually broke when using an ordinary steel ruler with it! A thicker ruler is because, at least for me, an ordinary metal ruler I run over with the knife and damage the blade. Could cause serious cuts as well. A self healing mat of course. I think Owden has a set of 3 sizes for less than $20.00 on Amazon. These are smaller sizes - A2, A3 and A4 if I am not mistaken. As you tan you own leather, you probably have larger leathers, in which, these might not suffice. AN L-shaped knife helps as well. if using lighter or softer leather something to keep the leather in place as you cut. Anything heavy will do. I use pieces of marble and a steel anvil and anything else at hand, as long as it does not stain. All that, at least, just for cutting.

@Wepster Yes. It is. Thank you. Similarly, when beeswax is melted with two other immiscible fats and warmed and stirred well, it is possible the fats form tiny droplets that get coated or mixed with the beeswax which, as the mixture cools, solidifies and prevents the other two fats from reforming larger and larger drops and ultimately separating. At least, I think that is probably what happens. If I am wrong, please correct me.

@Littlef exactly. Beeswax probably helps the miscibility, if olive oil and tallow don't mix. Anyway, I don't know why I did not remember earlier that all oils and fats do not necessarily mix just because they are all lipids. Anyway, two oils together without a chemical reaction.. probably an oil-in-oil emulsion. The beeswax probably helped to stabilize it.

You mean versus a nut oil? No idea.

That's just too bad.

Oh Wow! I hope your grand-parents at least got a good price for that land.

Greek fire. Used in warfare at sea, is it not? Oil on water, as it were. Wonder how and how much they refined the oil before using it.

Beef tallow, coconut oil. Gradually separated into two layers overnight. No idea why I thought of beeswax, but it helped. It is still a nice homogenous lotion.

@fredk, Ground oil - crude oil probably. I wonder whether some of those lanterns are still around. You never know.

@fredk, that's interesting! And that process should be easier to do now and the preservation as well. Do you have a pic of the piece that you have and is with your daughter now?

I warmed and mixed tallow and oil, equal quantities, to make a lotion for dry weather. They did not mix. When I checked the next day, the tallow and oil stood in 2 layers. So I warmed both again with a little beeswax and now I have a nice, homogenous lotion. I wonder if that is one of the uses of beeswax in everything.

@Handstitched LOL. NO it is real leather, apparently. Some store called DistrictLeathers.com sells it in the US. They say it is horse hide or Kangaroo leather. Introduced in 2017, developed and introduced in his fashion collection by someone called Shruli Recht - in the Netherlands. It looks a bit like vinyl. In fact the majority of the search results show vinyl.

Transparent/translucent leather is a thing! Has anyone used it?

If its a coin, you could make 2-4 holes placed symmetrically,, sew them in place between 2 layers of leather and make that a part of the design. Stick it everywhere else with contact cement though.

Yes. I like to use embossed leather because it is a little stiff anyway and it adds a touch of class as well! I too use chrome-tanned leather for the colors and variety available. Love working with veg-tanned leather but there is just so much you can do with it. Chrome tanned adds variety.

I don't do silk lining because it looks nice but is not very practical. We women tend to dump any and everything inside our bags. Silk gets dirty pretty fast and is difficult to clean. I made a bag recently with soft leather on the outside and a lovely ostrich embossed on the inside. It give support and looks unusual. Cuts down the weight too, which is always an important consideration.

@Handstitched, That is nice. I'm not surprised it sold fast. I like that slight dip at the base. @Dwight Good to know that not much conditioner is needed. I have use a little neatsfoot oil and some conditioner but to me, the neatsfoot oil has an unpleasant odor. Even the conditioner with its own fragrance cannot seem to mask it. But it will disappear. Meanwhile, I am whacking the leather often and bending and folding it and my husband is helping me with that too. It seems to be softening.

Oh wow! @Handstitched got a pic of that bag? That's called making a silk purse out of a sow's ear! I oiled a piece of the leather and bent it and bashed it a bit - it was slightly softer this morning, so rolled it up and held it in place for a while with rubber bands. I will keep it aside for about half an hour and then bash it some more. Great for when I am in a bit of a temper. @chuck123wapati, where are you? Sorry no. Just joking. No offense intended Chuck.

Oh. Okay. I will try that. I'm in no hurry to soften that leather anyway. Thank you.

@Garyak You made this bag? It is gorgeous! I hope you made more and charged a mint for them. The beauty of this is that it doesn't look like it's made from scraps. It looks deliberate.

@fredk, Could you please tell me how to soften stiff leather splits? Pretty please? See? I'm asking so nicely!

@toxo That's true but they should be unique AND beautiful. To me. I'm finicky. Not everyone has the eye and talent to design really beautiful things or to get the colors just right. No idea who designed this bag but that person has both.

I actually really like this the most. It is unusual and one of a kind. No offense @toxo but the others are nice but repeatable and sometime seen. This one? Nope.