<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Kylan,</DIV>
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<DIV>In order to accept the infusion of wax, the leather must be warm. The method I used was to 1) form the leather pieces by wetting and bending them to the desired shapes, tying or strapping them where necessary, and letting them dry completely; 2) heating them in the oven at 180F (as you mentioned), then 3) melting the wax over low heat, and brushing/spreading it on the warm leather. You may need to do more than one application, warming the leather between applications, and a final gentle heating in the oven can help even out the wax infusion.</DIV>
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<DIV>NOTE: Do not harden your straps and/or ties, as this will make them brittle. Attach them to the armor after the hardening process is complete. Treat the straps/ties with Neatsfoot Oil - not only will it keep the leather supple and strong, but will approximate the color of the wax-hardened armor quite well.</DIV>
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<DIV>Padraig<BR>*****************<BR>Nunc Est Bibendum<BR>************************************<BR>Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.<BR>************************************<BR>Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.<BR>- John Stark<BR><BR>--- On <B>Tue, 8/25/09, charles armitage <I><charlesarmitage@yahoo.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid"><BR>From: charles armitage <charlesarmitage@yahoo.com><BR>Subject: [Loch-Ruadh] Beeswaxing leather HELP!<BR>To: "Elfsea" <elfsea@lists.ansteorra.org>, "Kingdom of Ansteorra SCA Inc. Shire of Loch Ruadh" <loch-ruadh@lists.ansteorra.org><BR>Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 9:51 AM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>Does anyone have a good guide to how to beeswax leather armor? I'm just about done with my gear and what to protect / harden it some and picked up some beeswax thinking it would be pretty straight forward and nope, I'm lost.... HELP!<BR> <BR>I'm finding that putting the hot wax on the cool leather just makes a white layer of wax, am I suppose to coat the leather and then place it in the oven at 180 there by melting the wax in? Or am I suppose to mix the wax with oil and rub it in?<BR> <BR>As I said I'm lost!<BR><BR><BR>Ld Kylan Ulfgierrson mka Charles<BR>"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>