Hardening leather & engraving/embossing

[Thijzzz]

Hello gentlemen,

I've seen some beautiful designs come by, amongst them the flasks from MikeDB.

Doing a little leatherwork myself (beginner) I have 2 things I want to know more about. I've found some info on the web, but info from people really using the techniques would be great.

1. Hardening leather (to make it more scratch proof)
I can hardly finish something or little dents and scratches appear. Now I don't mind a little wear and tear, but I get dents in my leather thingies before they've even left the house! See the flask for an example - on the back it's already started.

- What would be best to get some protection? Hardening in some way? Using more leather grease? Any tips would be most welcome.


2. Engraving/embossing: the very nice sharp lines of some engravings are great. Problem is that my leather is relatively soft and embossing never gives nice sharp lines unless I Dremel a pattern in. And I don't want to remove leather, I just want to engrave it.

What's the way to prepare leather so you can make freehand engraving/embossing easy?
Any other tricks?

Many thanks in advance!

Matt

 

[penvisser]

Hoi,

zier er goed uit! En lekker spul trouwens ook......:You_Rock_

Nice job mate, and very tasty stuff there..............:You_Rock_

 

[Thijzzz]

From a well known wine merchant here in town who barrels his own "korenwijn" (old dutch gin with a hint of herbs) and whisky. Waiting for colder days to go pike fishing and have this with me to warm up

 

[Eric_Methven]

Boiling water will harden the leather but it will also shrink and probably misshapen it. Hot dipping in beeswax will do the same job but without the shrinkage. It will certainly resist scratches and bumps.

To beeswax the hip flask cover in the photo, remove the cover, clingfilm the entire flask, replace the cover, hot dip it for 30 seconds or so, remove it from the wax and wipe the excess off with paper kitchen towel. It will still be hot and soft so let it cool and harden. Once cold, slide it off the flask and remove the clingfilm. Clean any wax off the flask that got through the clingfilm and replace the hardened leather cover. If it's too loose, remove the thong lacing, use some new lacing and tie it tighter after sliding a bit of double sided selotape in between the leather and flask body.

I can't advise on the tooling as I'd need to see what leather you are working with. Different types have their own best methods.

Hope this helps,

Eric

 

[singteck]

Hi Matt,

That's a great job you did there. I can see the marks on the leather and i think you need to trim your nails!

I don't like to harden leather with wax because they tend to feel different. A few wetting and drying should harden the leather for most use but for covering of flask, you would be better served by using chrome tanned leather.

As for sharp lines on engraving, the trick is in the carving with a swivel knife.

Keep up the good work.

singteck

 

[Thijzzz]

Thanks for the replies gents.

Singteck: I can't imagine this was made by a swivel knife. It looks like one can only cut out complete pieces of leather thru and thru, not engrave it....right?

 

[singteck]

That looks like it being done by a stamp.

singteck

 

[MikeDB]

That looks like it being done by a stamp.

singteck

No it wasn't. This was embossed onto the leather by hand from an original drawing. I use the edge of a bone folding tool and a bluntened brass scribe usually used by clay modellers. As the leather is also slightly wet formed and the inner bottle inflated the design has to be done after the flask is moulded or the soaking anf forming would distort the finished image.

Mike