Wet Forming

[LouieL]

Hi all! First post, so thanks for such an inspiring community and I hope this post ends up in the right place!

Now, I'm new to leather work, having only made a few axe sheaths and odd little bits. I tried the other day to wet-form a small zippo case using 5oz VegTan leather. So I dropped my leather in a pan of fairly hot water, and noticed straight away it shrunk considerably. Having moulded it and pressing it against my Zippo, I left it overnight and the following day to dry. I came home and started fiddling with it, and noticed it was really brittle.

So my questions are: is leather supposed to shrink so dramatically when submerged? And why did my leather become brittle and snap when I tried to punch holes in it?

Many thanks in advance,

Louie

[Matt S]

Water was too hot.

[Jason Austin]

The hotter the water used, the more shrinkage and stiffness you will have. I use room temp water unless I am making armor.

[Jimbob]

NO HOT WATER ON VEG TAN !!!!!!

[LouieL]

Well then, I guess I was wrong to use hot water!

Thanks guys

[ReneeCanady]

I use room temp water also for veg tan.

[penguineer]

Hot water works - you just have to be careful with temperatures, different tannages will react differently with the same heat.

Sometimes you want the leather to harden, but you will also turn the leather brittle(as you discovered). Put the leather in too hot water and bad things will happen. One technique is to form the leather over a mould, tack it down and then pour hot water over it - the leather will stretch, deform and harden. Experimentation is needed.

For what you're doing, I would just soak the leather in cold/room temp water and work away at it with a bone folder, stretching it around the corners, then clamping or clipping the sides down before letting it dry. You'll discover that this will also harden the leather a little.

Cheers!

[angelheart11]

Me being a newbie also. would like to know the process for wet forming., Can I use any leather... eg Latigo, 5-6ounce same goes for Veg tan. I want to make wast-belt pouches, for tracer, phone, camera, toolman, pen and small pad. Do I sew lace, rivet.

Byt there way fin ished saddlebags. Thanks to those of you whao gave me good advice and encouragement. takes time as I go down too fgar, up for a while now. so Onward we go.Will post pic of bags, whaen I get courage!!!!

[ReneeCanady]

Cuir bouilli is the term for using hot (boiling) water for molding leather, and WILL harden the leather. If that is the result you want you can take it a step further by adding a 50/50 mixture to it of beeswax/neatsfoot oil and bake your project at your ovens lowest temp for very short periods of time. It all depends on how hard you want it and what type of leather you are working with. I almost always use veg tan. With this method your leather WILL shirnk as well. Same rule, depends on the leather.

Personally, I find room temp water to be perfect and gives hardly any shrinkage at all. I make leather leather bags all the time and it makes the 5-6oz leather have a decent feel, but the 8-9oz leather has an amazing feel once dried. I also still use neatsfoot oil, dye, finish, and hit it with aussie as well. May be over kill, but hey it works LOL

[LouieL]

Thanks a lot guys, very useful input