Hot waxing a leather sheath - When things go horribly wrong...

[Javapuntnl]

O.k., perhaps a bit overly confident after my first experience with hot waxing leather (a tiny flask I made for my daughter after reading a tutorial by Eric M), I decided to make a new sheath for my knife. I wanted to make a neck sheath that was lighter than the previous sheath I made with the recommended sheath leather which is much thicker, so I thought I would hot-wax the sheath like I’d done with the flask making it hard as rocks and seemingly indestructible…
Well, all went well; got a nice looking sheath with a nice tight fit. I waxed it and put it in the oven at 200 degrees F. like I had done with the flask… 10 minutes later I checked it, seemed like it had too much wax on it still, left it in the oven for another 10 mins….. BIG Mistake! You can see the results…

Note: this sheath was intended for my Enzo Trapper, almost twice the size of the sheath…

Perhaps an Enzo Trappette…


I think it looks pretty cool though… I'll just have to find a knife that fits it…

Jacob V.

 

[TeeDee]

I don't want to be crude , but that does'nt look 'right'...




Still you've learnt something new.

 

[ANDYRAF]

That's a crackling sheath.

 

[eraaij]

Crunchy!

Happened to me once, fortunately on a smaller project.

 

[Dave Budd]

I can sympathise with you. I've hot waxed a fair number of sheathes and drinking cones (easier to make than a tankard ) and they have turned out ok, having tested the wax with a scrap piece first

Then I made a lovely 1 1/4pint tankard with tooled decoration and I was very pleased with it. Until I wxed it and got one side of the bottom third a bit toasty! The tankard still works but i can't bring myself to get it out on account of the strange angle it stands at and the crinkly bottom

 

[Chainsaw]

Did something similar to my first piece of leather carving and tooling recently. Took me about 2 hours fiddling with it to get it just right, dyed it up fine put the wax on and got a wee bit to close with the heat gun, melting it and my fingers to boot. The fingers were supposed to be there to stop it getting too hot... didn't work.

You learn something every time, pity it has to cost us!! Looked good though

Cheers,

Alan

 

[Pict]

This thread should come with a warning. How do you get coffee out of a keyboard?

Good excuse to buy a tiny little scimitar. Mac

 

[eraaij]

Maybe you could get a fitting

Viking Drinking horn for it

 

[caliban]

It'd make a nice wellie for a one legged elf.

 

[hiho]

It'd make a nice wellie for a one legged elf.

lol, might be a pair if number two goes wrong