SUP

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Great. I'm checking my leather sets this week.

Welcome to this forum @JPCox Checked your Instagram - your work is beautiful.

@Aven Thank you. I will look at it. It's fun to learn something new to me that is an old technique.

@Sheilajeanne Love that too!

I'll go get the Vaseline brand of PJ and see what happens.

OBSERVATIONS: FRONT BACK EDGE CONTROL S, WD0, TN; FD S,TN, FD S CM S, WD0, TS, FD S, TS, FD S PJ1 S-, WD, TN, FDRY S0, TN. FDRY S50, TN, FDRY PJ2 S-, WD, TN, FDRY S0, TN, FDRY S50, TN, FDRY PJM1 S, WD+, TS, FD+ S, TS, FD+ S PJM2 S, WD+, TS,FD+ S, TS,FD+ S The key: Soaking: S = heavily soaked. SL= lightly soaked S- = surface water absorption S0 = no water absorption. S50= half absorption Water droplets WD=water drops present WD0= no droplets WD+ = Many water droplets Feel of leather: FD = damp FDRY = dry Texture: TN Normal TS = soft Control: Soaked through no water drops on surface, not softened. Sides clearly soaked through as is the back. Control plus mineral oil: Darkened due to the oil, no water drops on surface, soaked through, sides and back are soaked as well. Noticeably softer. PJ1: Darkened due to PJ, Water drops on surface, surface water absorption, sides show water absorption on surface, back dry, texture unchanged. PJ2: Darkened due to PJ, Water drops on surface, surface water absorption, sides show water absorption on surface, back dry, texture unchanged. PJM1: Darkened due to PJ and MO, plenty of water drops on surface, complete water absorption, sides show complete water absorption, back show water absorption, texture soft, leather feels damp. PJM2: As for PJM1. CONCLUSIONS: It is clear that PJ does inhibit water absorption by leather, this inhibition being affected by other factors. Here, the mineral oil clearly decreased this water repellent effect. Petroleum Jelly is not absorbed by the leather. It remained on the surface. When applied on plain clean leather, it stays in place and is an effective repellent. When applied on top of mineral oil however, the 2 greasy materials slide against each other and the petroleum jelly being on the surface, probably did not spread well and possibly got drained away by heavy water drops and left the leather vulnerable. With a night of being exposed to heavy rain, the leather pieces with only PJ are still not soaked through. For short exposures, petroleum jelly appears to be a good water repellent. When and with what to use it and how to ensure it remains in place are the next questions. I will next try to see if warming the leather after petroleum jelly application helps. Unfortunately, although PJM1 and PJM2 both had plenty of water drops on the surface, they absorbed a lot of water as well. Need to see how to avoid that, other than not leave the leather out in torrential rain all night!

I kept several pieces of veg-tanned leather with petroleum jelly , which I shall now call PJ, in the rain. These results are after a night long, heavy exposure. It rained heavily overnight and I could check the leathers only in the morning..: I used 6 pieces of leather as follows: Petroleum Jelly Mineral oil Control. N/A N/A CM N/A Yes PJ1 Yes No PJ2 Yes No PJM1 Yes Yes PJM2 Yes Yes Observations and conclusions follow.

You're welcome. Incidentally, it's Ma'am. Not Mister..

Just checked, so many translucent leather lamps from the East! Nice. Searching for translucent leather does not show them. I searched for leather lamps instead.

I bought some transparent leather and it smells of LPG! Or rather, the additive they add to the actually odorless LPG. Could it be that today's methods use some of what was done so long ago?

Yes. That one. It did not darken but it was not as effective as the ones with oils and waxes. But oils and waxes always darken leather, at least temporarily. Maybe you could do trials on small pieces of the leather.

For a non-darkening conditioner, you could try the one by Chemical Guys. It has not darkened any of my leathers.

Good idea to use key fob dies.

I think, as the population increases and people migrate so much, household staff is getting to be more common. And it makes sense too. It provides income when it is most needed. I like that in the West all professions are treated with respect. In India, these days it is demanded and I am happy about that. We grew up treating staff with love and respect. We are currently caring for my mother's maid who is old and has no one. There is no social security in India so we are her security.

I can imagine, especially when people are very connected to their own communities. When we first came to the US, except in the largest cities on the coasts, everywhere else, it was difficult to get anything at all. In some places, we were the only non-whites. Many thought that non-white meant Hispanic and I had to explain that that is not so. Most people were surprisingly friendly and welcoming but others were hmmm. My family is luckily very adaptable and had no trouble but I know of many who were very unhappy. Especially when people treated us like the denizens of a zoo - I once had a white woman tell me that I and my Irani acquaintance reminded her of a 'colorful flock of birds'. Very condescending. So yes, we have to put up with a lot. I suspect people always have, through the centuries, whenever they have migrated. I was timid at first... now, as I think is evident, I'm not.

Everyone in India has servants, not just Hindus. The Christians and Muslins, the Jews and Sikhs and Parsis have just as many servants. We have cooks and chauffeurs, cleaning staff and sweepers. With that population, it just makes sense. It ensures everyone is working and earning None of us in India throw things on the floor and expect servants to pick it up. It is just an exaggeration - I have heard people say that too but never seen it. Indians are very materialistic and money minded - saying that they have people pick up after them is a way of indicating how wealthy they are. After all, it is not routine in the West to have maids in middle-class and lower middle-class neighborhoods like it is in India, so they have no idea how routine it is for us. Your tenant probably had some mental issues and sadly, no one realized it and helped him.

Nice to hear about all that children learn here. Where I come from, a different culture, growing up if I wanted to do anything myself, my parents explained that if I, for example, repaired my slippers, I would be depriving the mochi (Hindi for Cobbler) of his earning. So I went to the cobbler. The same for everything else. Those of us who could afford to buy their services, did so, in my family, for the reasons stated. (at one point, we had more maids than we needed, because one needed a job!) I did learn sewing though but not cooking. That I disliked and still dislike. I learnt cooking from my husband who cooks very well and did, from his childhood. I still hate it, he still enjoys it. In the US, I can learn everything without any guilt but when I visit family, I still will go to the mochi or call the carpenter for repairs.

Do you plan to make and sell them? That would be interesting.

@x546JP If I may ask, why do you want to know this?

I'll maybe make a small coin purse with veg tan ad try Vaseline on that. Let's see.

Yes. I have something like that. I use it for edge burnishing larger items like bags. I should be able to get a buffer wheel for that. Ordering these now. I use a handheld Dremel for edge burnishing small items - so just need to look for a buffer wheel. it probably has one - lots of attachments I have not looked at. Thank you @Wepster and @Littlef. I might actually have most things I need at home. Now to get to work. Thank you everyone here who has given me so much of information and guidance. Now I get to work!

@Northmount, @toxo wow. My eyes ache just reading about these experiences. My worst is mild comparatively - a klutz next to me in the lab, tipped over her spirit lamp onto my arm which caught fire - from elbow to fingers. I waved it around and the remaining spirit on my skin evaporated and the fire died out. Everyone else was transfixed with horror. My arm, amazingly, was fine - not a single burn. Never sat next to her again.. no one did. Anyway, leery about using spirit lamps since then. Yep, exactly. After over 4 decades of using pressure cookers, one of mine exploded some months ago. No idea why. Valves worked fine. Vents clean and clear. Even with utmost care, accidents occur; all we can really do is think of all the risks and possibilities and try to prevent them.. and cross fingers and hope.

@dikman you are clearly a kind person. It's a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for the tip on wet and dry paper. I gather you mean sandpaper? I'll maybe try that first. Then the heating and oiling. Seem the safest! I love that I learn so many new things here constantly.