[Northkeep] Hard Leather

[Marc Carlson]

> From: centurionevan at gmail.com
>        I am planning a leather project but realized I have never hardened
> leather before and have some questions.
>  What is the best/longest lasting method for hardening leather? What
> different ways are there? Also, should I dye the leather before I harden it?
> If I am going to shape it, should I shape it before hardening? These may
> seem very simple to answer, but I would rather ask and know for sure than to
> mess it up.

The two basic techniques used are doping the heated leather with melted wax, and water hardening. There is a really interesting sounding historical technique of doping with melted resin instead of wax, but I haven't done much with that.

If you chose to use the wax method (not really historical, but popular in the SCA), water shape the leather first, and make sure it's REALLY dry before you add the wax.  In the summer here and south it will soften.

M/D
 		 	   		  
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