Wet formed holster is hard

[Epplers]

I think I wet formed a holster to many times and now it's as hard as plastic and is thinner. I formed it wet with a vacuum sealer twice. I am worried that I dried it out. Would putting warm neats foot oil help?

[Dwight]

That is exactly what veg tanned leather is designed to do.  It is perfectly normal.

I have one here I made maybe 15 years ago . . . still stout enough to knock a person out if you hit em up side of the head with it.

Do not use warm NF oil . . . take a brush . . . put the oil ONLY on the smooth hair side of the leather . . .  and just enough to barely . . .  barely coat the entire surface.

The holster then is laid aside . . . allowed to dry for 24 hours . . .  then dyed . . . dry another 24 hours . . .  and final finish put on it.

You did good.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Hags]

Yep. That's the truth. Veg tan gets very firm after wet molding. 

[Panzerradeo]

Veg tan hardens when you wet form. It's perfectly normal. You need to oil it to bring life back into it. I recommend skidmore's leather cream, aussie leather conditioner, or neetsfoot oil.

[PastorBob]

Welcome to the forum from SW Missouri.  

[chiefjason]

Yeah, this is a feature not a bug.  Really want to have fun?  Force dry the leather in an oven, dryer, or drying box.  

[JayEhl]

Hi --- being still new to making wet formed holsters, would using the oven or dryer method make the leather form worse?  

[Bert03241]

not sure what you mean by Form worse. Using a dryer box or an oven to speed up the drying process is fine.Its not going to change the form of the holster. Just don't make the oven to hot, like use the lowest setting the oven will turn on and then watch your holster. When its cold enough to run the furnace I set my sheaths on the heater vent over night this works pretty good.

[Hags]

I use the bread proofing setting on my wife's oven to dry my holsters during the winter. You really dont the heat to be much over 100.

[Bert03241]

Just now, Hags said:

I use the bread proofing setting on my wife's oven to dry my holsters during the winter. You really dont the heat to be much over 100.

exactly 100 to 110 maybe wouldn't go much higher then that

[Hags]

I put a separate thermometer in the oven and it barely registers 110. Not sure it got to that really. But it does have a fan that circulates the air and I believe that does as much as the temp. Before that, I just put it in there with the light on overnight.

[Dwight]

My drying box will heat up to 140 in the very top . . . they hang a bit lower . . . in the 130 to 135 range . . . 

They dry fairly quickly . . . and dry hard.  Much harder than if I just let them air dry in my 73 degree shop.

Depending on what I am wanting  . . . sometimes use the box . . . sometimes don't.

May God bless,

Dwight

[chiefjason]

I have a shoe rack in my dryer that I use.  2 holsters get an hour.  Single holster 40-50 minutes.  The way I do holsters the heat can change the mold a bit so I put weights on the sides to keep them flat.