Casing Leather

[Warren]

Hello, just wanted to add my two cents worth in. I'm new to the forum and have only been doing leatherwork for about a year now so I'm by no means an expert. I had been just spraying or sponging my leather before I tooled it with no problems. Then I was on the net the other day and I came across a blog about saddlemaking. The guy does some beautiful work and has great credentials, so I read through his tips and suggestions. He was very adament about the way he cased his leather. he uses the dunk method and says to leave the leather in a bag or between two blankets for at least one day and two would be better. I can't remember if he says what kind of bag and the only thing he specified about the blankets was wool.He says it will really set the stamps and allow the tool to burnish the leather. Now this guy makes alot of money making saddles and I'm just an amateur so I take his advice. I'm not saying he's wrong but I will never do that again. The next day when I took the it out of the plastic bag I had placed it in, it was molded or mildewed I not sure. What I do know is it was messed up. I let it sit for about four hours until it looked dry and tried to tool it. No go, it was still squishy and the stampings didn't look sharp at all. I waited until the next day when it was completely dry, buffed it with some 600 grit sandpaper on the front and 400 on the back. Then I sponged it and tooled it and I wasn't happy with the results. The stampswere not sharp and clear like they usually are. I finished the holster because I hate to start something and not see it through and because it was for my son. He's happy with it and I guess thats what counts. Oh yeah the leather was herman oak 9/10.

[Skipknives]

Phoenix Arizona here guys,,most of the year I can pull leather out of a 30 minit bath,,10 minits in the vacuum table to shape over a knife,,on the table for two hours and its dry and ready for trimming, stitching, ect.

by the way,,if i let it dry then dunk it in water for 20 more minits and let it dry a second time,,its like armor ,,no sun light involved and age isn't a factor.

I'm learning so much from you guys/gals

PS. i use 8-9 oz leather

Edited November 7, 2007 by Skipknives

[Billsotx]

Skip, Did you make a vacuum table? Thanks been an idea I've had for a long time. I'd like to know more about that. Don't want to high-jack this thread so we might go to another if you have time to share.

thanks,

Bill

[Guest]

I too have tried the saturate and refrigerate method and found the leather to be mushy. I won't do that again.

At my real job, we had occasion to test the hardness of leather after it was wet and we discovered that it did indeed get harder when it was wet and allowed to dry completely.... But the difference was something like .01% harder.... now I don't know about you folks but in the course of tooling a project I may wet it 6 times at the most....and allow it to totally dry out once before wetting it and finishing my tooling. By our calculations at work I would be looking at .07% harder....max. That would not be detectable by human hands; so why on earth would I want to change something that works?

just my humble opinion.....jmho

Dave Theobald

[Romey]

Bill,

A doctors office or hospital might keep xrays in records , but generally a vet office wont so maybe able to have the local horse doc save them for you. I would think tho that spray adhesive on anything like mylar or somthing would work. I bet there is sheets of somthing or another at your local walmart or a hobby type shed

[Kevin King]

my brother in law is a podiatric surgeon - i get all the xray film i want - only thing is - its all xrays of feet!!

steveb

thats funny