When casing can leather conditioner preservative be used / added when tooling / stamping?

[ContactCement]

When casing will adding leather conditioner preservative improve tooling and stamping?  Does anyone know what ingredients are in this ? Is there a recipe for a homemade version of this ? easy carve concentrate.  The local store is many miles away and shipping liquid don't seem like a good idea.

Edited December 18, 2017 by ContactCement

[cord1974]

Somewhere on here is a recipe for a casing solution.

I forget who posted it but remember it contains Lexol and something else.

I experimented with it and did see an improvement in the burnishing effect the tooling took one.

[YinTx]

In a previous topic, I posted this:

There are a lot of casing solution recipes on this website.  Here are the few that I gleaned:

Bruce Johnson’s casing solution recipe:
1.5 cups water, .5 cups Lexol conditioner, 1-2 tablespoons baby shampoo, 1 tablespoon listerine (brown).  

Ed the BearMan’s recipe:
4 Tablespoons of Lexol, 3 Tablespoons of Glycerin, 2 Tablespoons of Brown Listerine, about 40 drops of Dawn, or Joy , Mixed in 7 cups of warm Distilled water

HidePounder’s recipe:
1 teaspoon of (Joy) soap and
1/2 teaspoon of glycerin to
2 quarts of water.
 

There are others out and about the wide world of internet.  I sort of cobbled my own off of a combination of the above, using glycerin, baby shampoo, Lexol, Listerine, and water.  The water in the above recipes ranged from 1.5 cups to 2 quarts.  Mine was the 1.5 cup version, I will add more water to reduce the ratio of conditioners to water, I think it may help.

As you can see, they all have some type of conditioner already in them, so any additional neatsfoot oil after the fact I think becomes overkill.  They do really facilitate carving and tooling tho.

 

YinTx

[cord1974]

Thanks Yin.

It was Bruce's recipe I used but couldn't remember what it entailed.

I mixed up a quart bottle a year and a half ago and I'm still on the same bottle..

[YinTx]

I must be doing something wrong... I made up a mixture totaling about 3 cups, and it is already gone, working on my second batch that was about a quart.  And I've only been doing this a few months...am I using too much?

YinTx

[bikermutt07]

8 hours ago, YinTx said:

I must be doing something wrong... I made up a mixture totaling about 3 cups, and it is already gone, working on my second batch that was about a quart.  And I've only been doing this a few months...am I using too much?

YinTx

I'm thinking that pile of basketweave panels in the junk bin has something to do with this......haha

[YinTx]

Oh.  Yeah...maybe...

YinTx

[Sheilajeanne]

Where can I find glycerin? 

I think I need to start using casing solution. The leather gets really hard and dry sometimes when I case with just water! And I find that treating it with neatsfoot oil darkens it too much for my liking.

[garypl]

Should be able to buy glycerin at any drugstore.

[Sheilajeanne]

Thank you!

I wonder what purpose the soap/shampoo serves. Anyone know? I know glycerin is commonly added to hand lotion and lip chap sticks, so that's easy to understand why you'd want to put it on leather. But soap emulsifies oils and grease, so not sure what purpose it would serve.

Edited December 22, 2017 by Sheilajeanne

[garypl]

1 hour ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Thank you!

I wonder what purpose the soap/shampoo serves. Anyone know? I know glycerin is commonly added to hand lotion and lip chap sticks, so that's easy to understand why you'd want to put it on leather. But soap emulsifies oils and grease, so not sure what purpose it would serve.

Maybe soap has something to do with surface tension or emulsifies the solution more efficiently?  Need a chemist here!

Gary

[Northmount]

Soap is slippery, helps reduce friction for the swivel knife.

Tom

[garypl]

12 minutes ago, Northmount said:

Soap is slippery, helps reduce friction for the swivel knife.

Tom

I guess looking for the most obvious reason is often the best - soap is indeed slippery!

[YinTx]

I see in my batch it works as an emulsifying agent as well.  I also saw 1 gallon containers of glycerin at the local feed and tack store, that unfortunately went out of business.  Was debating getting a bottle, but it said for animal use only?  Wanted to make lotion out of it...along with the casing solution use.

I also have a bar of glycerin from Fiebings that I use when tooling, really slippery stuff.

YinTx

[cord1974]

Yin, if you're carving and tooling a lot, then no. You're doing fine.

I just don't have the time to do as much tooling as I'd like.

As someone said glycerin is available at any drug store. I bought a four ounce bottle 10 years ago and still have plenty..

[mikesc]

If you can find the bar soap brand "dove" it has glycerine in it ( as do most traditional "bar" soaps" ) ..
Soap "works" for the reasons areas Tom gave.. "slipperiness"..which is actually more to do with the physics ( friction, or in this case reduced friction ) than the chemistry of the constituent parts of the mixture. Sometimes* chemistry and physics are very interdependent.

* In fact , always..but the "hows" and the whys" are not nearly as important for our purposes as leatherworkers ,as the "effects".

Drugstores also have glycerine , it is cheap, and any tools which have any rubber joints will benefit from having glycerine smeared into them..good for your skin too..and your leather...it "rehydrates" and thus softens..put a few drops of glycerine onto a dry leaf, rub it gently into the leaf, the leaf will soften.

Edited December 23, 2017 by mikesc

[ContactCement]

Forgot to ask earlier. Will a casing solution interfere with dye after tooling & stamping ? Or can leather be dyed before tooling & stamping ? Also will it improve awl work & stitching chisel? (Make it easier)

[garypl]

 

6 hours ago, ContactCement said:

Forgot to ask earlier. Will a casing solution interfere with dye after tooling & stamping ? Or can leather be dyed before tooling & stamping ? Also will it improve awl work & stitching chisel? (Make it easier)

I’ve never had problems dyeing after casing and carving.  Normally you will be using awl and chisel after leather has dried, so should not be a problem.  My normal sequence is: case, carve/stamp, allow to dry, apply NFO, dye, then stitch.

[Mattsbagger]

Isn't the liquid Fiebings saddle soap basically glycerin?

[YinTx]

On 12/26/2017 at 1:16 PM, Mattsbagger said:

Isn't the liquid Fiebings saddle soap basically glycerin?

I think so.  I have a bottle of it, I used some in my casing solution...seemed to work ok.

YinTx