Leather Bottle / Hip Flask

[Big John]

After seeing pics of Bardsters excellent work I thought I'd give a leather bottle a go. It turned out quite well, although it is a little smaller than I'd anticipated at only 50ml - I'll just have to make sure it's full of the strong stuff!

Thanks to Bard for his inspiration here:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=9790

and thanks to Grooveski for the beeswax - have a rep point each!

I was most worried about the waxing, but it went pretty well. The leather is fairly thin - about 2mm, I melted the wax in the oven at about 110 to 130 deg C then spooned it over the bottle which I had also warmed up for a minute or two in the oven.
I poured some wax inside and swilled it around before pouring it out and putting the whole lot back in the oven for another 5 mins or so. I propped the bottle up neck down so that the excess wax could run out, but did it a bit too much as it leaked like a sieve first time!
I had to re-melt the wax and pour some more inside to coat it, now it's fine - and quite strong as well.

 

[leon-b]

well done thats a good piece of work
leon

 

[JonnyP]

Thats a nice bit of work there John, are you going to make a bigger one now ?

 

[Grimnir]

Respect is due very nice!

This has made me think - can I make one of those? Imagine that for a mead bottle! Well, next time I get some leather...

 

[Bardster]

Nice one! excellent job
And for all those others who want to try - full instructions ( with pictures) are in the latest BCUK magazine - so go buy it!!

 

[Longstrider]

Thats a nice piece of work there Big John. What with Bardsters excellent tutorial piece and this for inspiration I realise that if I ever get "time off" from making knife sheaths for folks I'm just going to have to have a go at one of these.

 

[Grooveski]

That's tidy! Like the design .

Got round to packing mine out last week but haven't waxed it yet. Bit wary after destroying my sheath(too hot - waaay too hot! ) a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Big John]

Thanks Guys,

It was pretty easy really so I'd encourage anyone to give it a go - and I'll definately be making a bigger one - using a similarly shaped plastic bottle as a size template!

As for the waxing, it was just melted really, no hotter. I'm not sure what the melting point of beeswax is, around 90 to 100 deg C I would think, I upped the oven to 130 to get it melted quicker then lowered it back to 110 to keep it melted.

I did try it with hot water as I'd read somewhere that you can use water as well - but it just shrivelled up instantly - was I glad I tried a sample piece first !!

 

[Pitkin]

Love leather bottles must have a go at one

 

[fishy1]

Thanks Guys,

It was pretty easy really so I'd encourage anyone to give it a go - and I'll definately be making a bigger one - using a similarly shaped plastic bottle as a size template!

As for the waxing, it was just melted really, no hotter. I'm not sure what the melting point of beeswax is, around 90 to 100 deg C I would think, I upped the oven to 130 to get it melted quicker then lowered it back to 110 to keep it melted.

I did try it with hot water as I'd read somewhere that you can use water as well - but it just shrivelled up instantly - was I glad I tried a sample piece first !!

I think the melting point of beeswax is 64C.