don't ever do this-

[dirtclod]

You can try using hair dryer like the other person said. I have used a hair dryer to dry things using a box. Cut a hole in the box the same size as the dryer snout and stick through. Put what ever you want to dry in the box close it up but not to tight and keep a eye on it so it doesn't over do it. It will get pretty hot in the box in a hurry.

Oh yea everbody has screwed something up some time or the other. My worst was not wearing some gloves when i was dyeing a couple of handles and then picking up a piece that didn't need to be dyed. Yep it was start all over time. If you don't mess up once in awhile you aint doing nothing.

[TwinOaks]

Boiling water will shrink leather in a hurry as well. How do I know? Well, see, I have this friend............

[CitizenKate]

I wanted to dry it and "cure it" a bit so I put it in the microwave. I set it for 10 seconds and after 2 it shrank to the size of a marble.

PLEASE- someone tell me that they have done stupid things like that before!!!!

I haven't had this good a laugh in quite some time! No, I haven't tried it, but that was only because I happened to see a post from someone else who did before I had a chance to. I think this must happen quite often, because I think I see a post like this about every year or so. By the way, putting the leather in boiling water will do the same thing.

You can take some comfort in knowing you have probably prevented at least a few others from making the same mistake, and providing the rest of us with some much needed comic relief!

Thanks for posting!

Kate

[swinewerx]

That is quite entertaining, the worst things I have done were, being impatient, that is the biggest. The next would be to actually get the tooled leather wet on both sides, instant popping up of the tooling. The last would be to use ,,,,used motor oil, at first it didn't seem so good but, after letting it dry completely it actually turned out to be a very nice dark brown. These oil soaked pieces are my foot peg covers on my longest chop ever swine floo , and no, it was not because of the recent outbreak. It was made a year and a half ago, and swine flu has reared itself many times, that is what it was made for

[Vikefan]

I just spent 2 hours(happily) making a thin pocket holster for myself. My first. It was for a Ruger 380 lcp.

All finished and a perfect fit and draw. The leather was still wet from forming (why I wet it I don't know as it was 4oz or so.

I wanted to dry it and "cure it" a bit so I put it in the microwave. I set it for 10 seconds and after 2 it shrank to the size of a marble.

PLEASE- someone tell me that they have done stupid things like that before!!!!

I still have the template so off I go again-

ah well.......this is how we learn I am told.

pete

I am sorry, and feel for you after all your hard work completing your project. However your story struck me as a kind of funny. Do you have pictures of your leather marble? I am not trying to be smart, just have never seen leather shrink to marble size and think it would be interesting to see.

[David]

Pete,

I feel for you bud, my first project was a checkbook..... dried it out in an oven....

It looked like a potato chip! Wavy style.

David

[katsass]

Well, I'm not fessing up to anything but I did have some nicely tooled, hard-as-rock dog chews!

[Angster]

Hmmm... Well, there was this wall-hanging I was working on, as a raffle item to an event we were going to the next morning. Just finished tooling it and wanted to get it dried out.

Put it in a preheated oven at the lowest setting, I think it was 180. Went to look in on it after a couple of minutes and the grain side of leather was all wrinkled like my great grandfather's face. I reasoned that it was because I hadn't fully cased the leather, just wetting the surface to finish the tooling.

So, out of the oven and to the bathtub it went. I was able to get the worst of the wrinkles out (along with some of the tooling), and was actually liking how it looked. Sort of old and antique-y.

Then, just to compound my idiocy, back to the oven!!! Thinking I didn't want the leather to curl, I lined the rack with aluminum foil and placed the leather tooled side down. Turned the oven back on and was going to let it harden and dry.

My wife, being concerned that I was an idiot asked if it was going to be ok, which I said 'Sure, no problem!' But I started getting worried. After a couple of minutes I went to check...

It looked like a well cooked steak, grill marks and all. Although the oven said the temperature hadn't gone over 150, I'm sure below the leather and aluminum foil it was probably around 300...

Well, needless to say, I was a bit upset. My wife, bless her, quietly disappeared to the far reaches of the house while I raged in the kitchen for a while.

All in all, it did finally work out. I decided to recreate the wall hanging during the event, and as folk watched me work on it, they kept buying raffle tickets, so I think we raised more money than if everything had gone according to plan.

The barbeque leather piece? It actually has a happy home with a friend of mine. He just had to have it, even though it was a complete mess.

[pete]

I originally posted this more to myself as a rant than an "idiot tutorial".

Thank you all for your responses. It's so great to be a part of a worldwide group of screw-ups!!!

I get sort of tingly around my legs when I think of you all . (Kinda like ......Chris Mathews but for an entirely different reason)

Bumblers.....UNITE!!!!!!

pete

[swinewerx]

always hang your rejects in somewhere special to you mine is my garage