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

[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