Boiled Leather

[Kevin61]

I am new to leather working and I am thinking of making armor for the SCA. My question is can boiled leather be tooled? Or can it be tooled before boiling without messing up the tooling?

[rcsaddles]

I am new to leather working and I am thinking of making armor for the SCA. My question is can boiled leather be tooled? Or can it be tooled before boiling without messing up the tooling?

Are you putting the leather into boiling water to make it hard? If so, it will also shrink some. It will probably mess up your tooling. Take a small piece, maybe a 6 X 6 piece and experiment.

[Kevin61]

Ok will do. Thanks for the advice.

Are you putting the leather into boiling water to make it hard? If so, it will also shrink some. It will probably mess up your tooling. Take a small piece, maybe a 6 X 6 piece and experiment.

[DaveJohnson]

Hi There

I think the toolingould be effected by the boiling and shrinkage and tooling after it has hardned would be near impossible. I've seen stuff on deviant art were guys have made the amour of the boiled leather also called "cuir bouilli" and then added decorative overlays and straps with tooling on them - so the hard stuff still protects but there is some decoration over it.

Have a look at the bottom of this page http://plantigradecorp.net/chaspirine/index.php?2008/10 to illustrate what I mean and check out www.deviantart.com under the arts and crafts and leatherwork section

Cheers Dave

[yan]

I am not a expert but I made a couple of pieces of cuir bouilli. (made a lot of mistake at first, now it's starting to look like I want)

If your your water is just a little colder your leather will still harden but will not shrink dramaticly.

the hoter the water the harde the leather, but do not ''cook'' your leather.

carving will not be as clear,

do not use water base tint (eco flow from tandy) before you bouille leather.

Like rcsaddles said testing is always to ways to go

[Peter Ellis]

Hi there. I'm active in the SCA and have made quite a few pieces of hardened leather armour.

One of the first and most important things is to not actually boil your leather

At 167 degrees Farenheit the leather undergoes a chemical change that results in hardening of the leather when it cools back down. This change does require water, but not a boiling pot of it. Enough moisture in the leather to let you mold it to shape is quite sufficient.

What I do is to form my pieces by getting the leather damp enough to mold, and then bake in the oven at about 180 degrees. I use an oven thermometer in there with the piece, rather than trusting the settings on the oven. I put the leather on a plank, because putting it on metal will give scorch marks where it touches the metal.

Let it bake until it starts to look dry, then pull it out and let it dry for a couple more days. Throughout the process of baking and right after you pull it out at the end, double check your form and adjust shape as needed. When it cools down and dries out, it will be remarkably stiff and hard, suitable for SCA armour use.

This method does not have significant shrinkage with 13-15 oz saddle skirting. It also does not significantly impact any tooling work you might have done on the piece before forming and baking it.

[Nighthawk]

I do a lot of competetive sword fighting. I know what the SCA rules are- they stopped playing with us because we regularly beat the hell out of them!- but I do know that simply molded leather armor made from 12-15 oz saddle leather is perfectly sufficient. It protects really well, as a matter of fact, especially with a heavy piece of wool tartan folded up double underneath it. But I do have to say that in truth, we do Scots style fighting, which means that the most armor we wear is a pair of bracers and a targe. The late Renaissance Scots were a people in poverty and had to learn technique and skill to avoid getting hit since they couldn't afford armor! So I guess that most accurately, heavy saddle skirting molded to shape works extremely well for bracers and shields!

Now you know why we were nothing but bracers, gauntlets and shields. But do you know why we wear kilts? Because zippers scare the sheep away!!

[Nighthawk]

OK, for some stupid reason, the edit function is not working, so I will make a whole new post. I said "I know what the SCA rules are- they stopped playing with us because we regularly beat the hell out of them!" That sounds snipey. It's not meant to be. What I meant to type was "I DON'T know what the SCA rules are- they stopped playing with us because we regularly beat the hell out of them!" Apologies. Having left out that one little word made the whole post read as sarcasm.

[Nighthawk]

I just finished using the tooling/soaking in hot water/baking at 180 method on a reproduction of a molded Italian pen case from the 1500's. It looks COOL! This method works great, and is really easy! I only did the bottom, though. I need to make a wooden mold for the top half tomorrow. I should have pictures to post tomorrow.

[leathstitch]

Hello. I read with interest your posts about "boiled Leather'. I have found some information about the subject and as a medieval reenactor of leather craft I undertook some experiments.

It seems that the "Boiling" was not as it seems actually boiling the leather but the bubble given off as the hide was soaked.  I will explain.

I dissolved an amount of rabbit skin glue in warm water and then soaked the hide in it. During soaking the hide released bubbles and when the bubbles stopped, I knew the hide was saturated.

I removed the hide from the solution and straight away the liquid in / on the hide began to gel and set. I folded the leather over a wooden shape and as the gel became firmer, I removed the excess. After a few hours, the glue had set and the leather was quite firm but with still a little flexibility. 

No shrinkage occurred and the leather withstood attempts to cut it.

I have used this same solution of rabbit skin glue in warm water to harden up cases that I make for medieval spoons and other cases. Even thin calfskin leather is made firmer but not brittle.