None of your beezwax!

[Jake907]

an interesting side note? Shopping bags can be recycled as yarn....no, really! 

My wife sometimes makes things with them, It is surprisingly strong, I don't have any pictures of her stuff at the moment, but I grabbed a pic from Google for you to see.

 

But on the main topic here, I use a shooting range bag to keep my leather tools in (because I work on the go a lot of the time), and I love cereal boxes for pattern making, and my thread wax is a homemade blend of 70 percent beeswax and 30 percent pine pitch, it makes your fingers nice and tacky for gripping the needle, while still protecting the thread from the elements, may be even better than straight beeswax for that actually because the pitch gives it a higher melting point. 

[Killerwork]

For glueing and dying swing over to the hospital. The bed roll paper they use works great! They usually change out the rolls once they are half way done and toss out the rest. If you can meet up with anyone, preferably a member of management, ask to take them off their hand. I have rolls of it out the house and never played a dime.

 

Also if you really need to you can use it as an extremely cheap tracing paper, but it will bunch up if not pulled tight enough and gets to wet from the leather.

[Mjolnir]

18 hours ago, Jake907 said:

an interesting side note? Shopping bags can be recycled as yarn....no, really! 

My wife sometimes makes things with them, It is surprisingly strong, I don't have any pictures of her stuff at the moment, but I grabbed a pic from Google for you to see.

 

But on the main topic here, I use a shooting range bag to keep my leather tools in (because I work on the go a lot of the time), and I love cereal boxes for pattern making, and my thread wax is a homemade blend of 70 percent beeswax and 30 percent pine pitch, it makes your fingers nice and tacky for gripping the needle, while still protecting the thread from the elements, may be even better than straight beeswax for that actually because the pitch gives it a higher melting point. 

Potentially making one grocery bag out of many is pretty cool!

the pine pitch recipe is awesome!

PS Wow. now you've got me thinking. I remember climbing trees as a kid and that pine sap wouldn't wash off my hands I had to worry it off. Tough stuff.

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Mjolnir
ps

[Pirate305]

On 2/26/2018 at 5:01 PM, Sheilajeanne said:

i use a granite floor tile that I got for $9 bucks from Home Depot as my surface for tooling. Had it for going on 2 years now, and it has yet to crack or chip. And if it does, I can replace it numerous times for what a marble slab from Tandy would cost me! 

Bought 3 glass shot glasses from Wal Mart for mixing dyes. The clean up really well when I'm finished, and so far,  I've yet to knock them over, as the bottoms are nice and heavy! Before that I was using the disposable ones, and they were so light in weight I had to be REALLY careful not to knock them over.

I purchased a granite slab for $40 from a countertop builder. they had a remnant pile and cut it to size. 2 ft x 2ft x 1 inch thick. I love it. 

[Mjolnir]

1 minute ago, Pirate305 said:

I purchased a granite slab for $40 from a countertop builder. they had a remnant pile and cut it to size. 2 ft x 2ft x 1 inch thick. I love it. 

I did the same thing because of this site. They had a Huge backyard full of scrap. They started cutting 1' 2's because of leatherworkers. $20 sq ft.

[Jake907]

1 hour ago, Mjolnir said:

Potentially making one grocery bag out of many is pretty cool!

the pine pitch recipe is awesome!

PS Wow. now you've got me thinking. I remember climbing trees as a kid and that pine sap wouldn't wash off my hands I had to worry it off. Tough stuff.

 

Pine sap on E-bay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1lb-Natural-Rosin-Colophony-450g-Pure-Pine-Sap-Resin-Light-Yellow-Amber/253000850261?hash=item3ae8069b55:g:DmkAAOSwYGFU13mZ

bees wax, also on E-bay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Pound-Pure-Beeswax-Yellow-Bees-Wax/120538931517?epid=1931413396&hash=item1c10ae213d:g:wD0AAOSwrklVBDPl

 

I've been wanting to try a tin cloth recipe that a friend gave me, gonna try it on a Carhartt jacket, because you know we have such balmy summers here.....40 degrees with wind and rain for a week, lol

1/2 pound wax

1/2 quart raw linseed oil

1/2 quart turpentine

1/2 cup pine tar 

melt together and apply to canvas. 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Jake907

[Sheilajeanne]

Jake, had to Google 'tin cloth'. Had never heard of it before. Wow, as my hubby used to say, 'It's a bad day when you don't learn anything new!"

It was invented in Alaska by a company that outfitted loggers: https://www.filson.com/tin-cloth.html

[Furthark]

2 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Jake, had to Google 'tin cloth'. Had never heard of it before. Wow, as my hubby used to say, 'It's a bad day when you don't learn anything new!"

It was invented in Alaska by a company that outfitted loggers: https://www.filson.com/tin-cloth.html

+1 for Filson. If you can afford them, they make top quality outdoor and work clothes.

[Jake907]

9 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Jake, had to Google 'tin cloth'. Had never heard of it before. Wow, as my hubby used to say, 'It's a bad day when you don't learn anything new!"

It was invented in Alaska by a company that outfitted loggers: https://www.filson.com/tin-cloth.html

I actually didn't know the history on it, thats cool, maybe I should google it too! LOL

7 hours ago, Furthark said:

+1 for Filson. If you can afford them, they make top quality outdoor and work clothes.

They do, and thats one of the reasons that I want to try this tin cloth recipe, because carhartt and others are a lot more affordable but close in quality, if they only made tin cloth items.... all you need is a cotton garment to start with and paint this mixture on it. 

 

Maybe @farmersracer could add something to this part of the conversation, I believe his bags are very similar to tin cloth, its basically waxed cotton.

[Mjolnir]

This is great stuff Jake! You are like Jeremiah Johnson.

[Jake907]

1 minute ago, Mjolnir said:

This is great stuff Jake! You are like Jeremiah Johnson.

ha! I wish! I am by no means a mountain man, just a hard workin country boy who happens to live in Alaska. yes I'm a bit of a gear junkie, but you have to be up here, because a good portion of money/time/effort/thought go into "how can I do this better next time?" this country does not suffer fools. And as a friend of mine is always telling me "you gotta be tough if you're gonna live in Alaska!" LOL

[Rockoboy]

On ‎2‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 9:08 AM, Jake907 said:

1/2 pound wax

1/2 quart raw linseed oil

1/2 quart turpentine

1/2 cup pine tar 

@Jake907 Is the turpentine used here, pure gum turpentine or regular "clean out paint brushes" turpentine?

[Jake907]

On 3/4/2018 at 3:38 PM, Rockoboy said:

@Jake907 Is the turpentine used here, pure gum turpentine or regular "clean out paint brushes" turpentine?

I wish I could tell you Rocko, the guy who gave me the recipe used the cleaning stuff I believe. He did a canvas jacket, and I had the opportunity to observe it in lots of different weather since we work together, it seemed to hold up pretty good. 

above I just posted the ratios, but there is a little more to the recipe. 

"Heat linseed oil and melt wax into oil. Double boiler. Remove the heat, add turpentine. Add optional (pine tar). Proportions aren't exact. More wax gives better protection and stiffer coat while more linseed oil offers less stiffness but less protection. Turpentine helps thin mixture but requires more time to air out smell. Unprocessed bees wax (originally calls for 80-20 beeswax-parafin) works fine. Filson recommends hanging treated clothes in very warm area for latter, more even coverage. Brush on warm using heat gun or blow dryer". 

Thats the best I could do with the hand written note. Good luck man, let me know how it turns out for you.

[Rockoboy]

4 hours ago, Jake907 said:

Thats the best I could do with the hand written note. Good luck man, let me know how it turns out for you.

HMMM thanx for the information. I think I will continue with my initial direction.

I am thinking of the following, to see how it works out ...

Beeswax, lanolin, neatsfoot oil - equal parts.

25% by volume of pure gum turpentine.

Anybody got any thoughts for or against any of my ingredients?

[Matt S]

On 3/2/2018 at 1:08 AM, Jake907 said:

1/2 pound wax

1/2 quart raw linseed oil

1/2 quart turpentine

1/2 cup pine tar 

melt together and apply to canvas. 

On 2/27/2018 at 10:27 PM, Mjolnir said:

 

I made a few lb of this years ago, minus the pine tar. It's fantastic -- not only to reproof my tin cruiser (which still stands up on its own on cold days) but it's also great for lighter weight waxed cotton, and for gun stocks and tool handles.

I wasn't sure if I had to use real turps or could use the substitute we call white spirit (a petroleum distillate) but I figured for the little extra cost involved I might as well use the real deal. Certainly smells better. I used what remained as part of my oilcloth making experiments.

[RedDun]

When gluing I use plastic wrap so to keep the glue from sticking to my bags of rice that I use as weights. Yes, I know the rice is in a plastic bag already but I may need to eat it later, wouldn't want my rice to be too sticky. The rice forms around whatever I'm gluing nicely. I use the thin insert between the layers in my cases of diet Dr Pepper for dying, small patterns and writing notes or measurements.

Great topic Mjolnir!

[farmersracer]

On 2018-03-03 at 3:07 AM, Jake907 said:

I actually didn't know the history on it, thats cool, maybe I should google it too! LOL

They do, and thats one of the reasons that I want to try this tin cloth recipe, because carhartt and others are a lot more affordable but close in quality, if they only made tin cloth items.... all you need is a cotton garment to start with and paint this mixture on it. 

 

Maybe @farmersracer could add something to this part of the conversation, I believe his bags are very similar to tin cloth, its basically waxed cotton.

Hi All

There are many companies out there claiming the invention of tin-cloth or waxed canvas:) What I have heard is that the origin is cotton canvas soaked in pure linseed oil. After a few weeks of oxidation the oil will dry and the textile is water proof. The downside is that the clothes also become stiff as cardboard. Eventually sailors and forest workers added fat and waxes, to make the original linseed recipe more comfortable.

The recipe I see in posts above are all wet waxes. They will in most cases create a oily surface to the cloth, and the ingredients are quite difficult to mix. In addition to this, a wet wax will melt during the summer time if you leave your cloth in the sun.

There is a simpler way to make cotton water resistant. A Swedish company, Fjallraven, has invented a dry wax with only two ingredients. It is called GrenlandWax. It is hard as a brick, and is applied by rubbing the cloth with a GreenlandWax block, and heating the surface with an iron or hair dryer. The recipe has been known for decades in Sweden:

100g parafin

10g beeswax

That is all. Add a few layers of this and the cloth will be water resistant. If you are aiming on water proof - use the wet waxes, and apply with a brush.