What next?

[Affaltar]

Hi everyone

 

I got my first serious veg tan project almost done but I don't know how to finish it.

I'll use gum tragacanth on the alone edges, then stitch it and finish other edges. At what point should I put something on it to protect it and make it usable? What should I use?

I have carnauba cream, neatsfoot oil and some Italian leather cream and oil. What else should I get, not just for this but in general?

I can get some shoe impregnation easily, I don't know if that is useful for veg tan like this or just for finished

[fredk]

Get bees wax. The best is from a local to you bee keeper.

Melt some bees wax with some carnauba wac and add in neetsfoot oil to make a paste. You can use this mix to feed your leather and as a finish polish.

[Affaltar]

 

19 minutes ago, fredk said:

Get bees wax. The best is from a local to you bee keeper.

Melt some bees wax with some carnauba wac and add in neetsfoot oil to make a paste. You can use this mix to feed your leather and as a finish polish.

Thank you! Is this comparable/preferred to commercial options or just a solution to use in a pinch? Do you have a more precise recipe?

[fredk]

1 hour ago, Affaltar said:

Thank you! Is this comparable/preferred to commercial options or just a solution to use in a pinch?

As good as a commercial option might be, they can be expensive for a small tin and they have other additives which I do not want. I have two grades of beeswax/carnauba/nfo mix which I use all the time. A soft grade, like soft butter for applying after dyeing which feeds nfo into the leather to replace oils lost and a hard grade, which I use for edge burnishing and end finish polishing. After dyeing the leather should be given a feed of nfo. Getting the amount just right is a problem, too much can ruin a project. But with my soft mix I can get just about the correct amount of nfo into the leather.

1 hour ago, Affaltar said:

 Do you have a more precise recipe?

A precise recipe? ha, ha,  I make it by - umm, 'I think that will do' or 'that is about right'

Metal bowl. Heat some beeswax in the bowl until the wax is totally melted, add about a spoon full or two of white carnauba wax flakes, then add nfo. Stir well. Let the mix cool and see how soft or hard it is. Too soft - remelt and add more beeswax. Too Hard - remelt and add more nfo.

If you use about 100g of besswax add about 5 or 10ml (a teaspoon or two) of Carnauba wax flakes, use white flakes and not the brown. Then just add nfo until you get the mix as you want it. This 100g/10ml/? mix will last you a lot of projects.

[Affaltar]

I have white carnauba cream from tandy eco-flo, can I use that or should I get flakes? I also have white leather wax from leather-eshop, it's called just leather wax xD

That recipe is much more precise, I get some starting point, just how much oil do you put approximately? Should I go with 5ml and up little by little or around same as wax and do bigger jumps?

I'll find some wax today and try it if my carnauba is ok

[fredk]

10 minutes ago, Affaltar said:

I have white carnauba cream from tandy eco-flo, can I use that or should I get flakes?

I do not know the Tandy Carnauba cream. I have some made by Le Prevo. I do not know what else is in it The cream might work alright. I started making my mix before I ever bought the carnauba cream.

10 minutes ago, Affaltar said:

 I also have white leather wax from leather-eshop, it's called just leather wax

Without knowing what else is in it  I  would not use it.

10 minutes ago, Affaltar said:

That recipe is much more precise, I get some starting point, just how much oil do you put approximately? Should I go with 5ml and up little by little or around same as wax and do bigger jumps?

oh, more that that, start with about 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of wax, by volume

edit. you can probably get yellow bees wax in a local hardware store. If you can find some local bee keepers, and I know there are a great many in Croatia, ask them for the white 'cappings' wax. You'll pay a little more for it but its the purest, cleanest wax out of a hive.

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by fredk

[chrisash]

Me i just use Effax Balm it works well into the leather, seems to waterproof ok and when applied on plain veg tan it hardly darkens the leather at all, far less than nfo

[Affaltar]

Thanks guys very much, I'll try it out and keep you posted

[Affaltar]

8 hours ago, fredk said:

I do not know the Tandy Carnauba cream. I have some made by Le Prevo. I do not know what else is in it The cream might work alright. I started making my mix before I ever bought the carnauba cream.

Without knowing what else is in it  I  would not use it.

oh, more that that, start with about 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of wax, by volume

edit. you can probably get yellow bees wax in a local hardware store. If you can find some local bee keepers, and I know there are a great many in Croatia, ask them for the white 'cappings' wax. You'll pay a little more for it but its the purest, cleanest wax out of a hive.

 

I made the mix as you said, I saw there are many bee keepers locally so I asked my colleague can he recommend one and he told me the guy standing next to him is a beekeeper :D 
He didn't have the fancy pure one on hand, but I got a nice chunk of regular one.

I asked the italian supplier and I was told it's just 100% wax, synthetic, specially for veg tanned leather.

When I rubbed it in some of the dye came off, I like it, but the end user doesn't, so what to do now to have it completely black again? 
 

[Alaisiagae]

@fredk Where do you get white carnuba wax flakes? I've been searching google and amazon all day, and all I can find are the yellow flakes.