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Hot wax botch - British Blades :: Custom Knife Making
I got a Brusletto Balder yesterday and decided to make a new sheath as the one supplied was a bit insubstantial.
As the Balder weighs next to nothing I thought it would make an ideal neck sheath.
All went well until my first attempt at hot waxing.
I hadn't researched how to to this properly so I just dipped it into molten wax.
When it dried on too thick I couldn't remove it so I tried warming with a hairdryer.
When that failed I tried boiling water.
The rock hard, shrivelled result is shown below next to the replacement which was made from the same pattern.
The moral of the story - don't boil leather
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I stopped waxing sheaths as I ended up a nervous wreck whenever I did one I had more luck with dribbling the wax over the sheath than I did with dipping it though
Nice second sheath
Tiffers
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The boiling awater did it!
100 degrees is far too hot.
Leather polymerises at around 75 degrees (and wax melts at 40-ish).
If you're going to wax dip you need a jam thermometer to check the temperature then dip for no more than 15 secs at 80 degrees.
At the right temperature the wax also pours off cleanly and you don't get a build up.
Still...I think we've all made leather frittters at one stage Put it down to experience and be glad it was a Balder sized sheath
As Tiffers says driping or painting on the wax is an alternate method that's less likely to ruin your work.
(But I've given you rep points for trying )
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Sorry to hear about your misfortune.
I also once made the mistake to use too hot water on leather, wrecked a niece piece of it.
As for hotwaxing, this works for me:
An Airgun to warm up the beeswax and the sheat, a small brush to apply it and a pair of cottongloves to protect the hands.
Hot air is perfect for controlling the amount of wax to soak into the leather.
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Thanks All I've given up on the hot water idea but the heat gun idea looks good.
I bought one when I was making Kydex sheaths but I prefer leather so it hasn't seen much use.
Cheers,
Andy
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Hot waxing is fine for the ladies to remove unwanted hair---- Hot waxing leather can sometimes create a new vocabulary that used to get your mouth washed out with soap!
---Sandy---
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Lost Patrol, this is what I used to start hotwaxing:
http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_artic...id_article=192
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Wild Rose, a leatherworking member who sadly doesn't seem to be around much these days, once posted a link to a near definitive article on leather hardening.
Here's her post here...
Quote: : Rose When hot dipping it's not the wax dip, etc that hardens it it's the HEAT!
(in fact oil will soften leather)When leather goes above 122F it begins to chemically change - at 167F it actually begins to change into hide glue.
Here's a link to more info re: hardening leather:
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc...eather/hl.html
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Ha Ha--Wild Rose----Him is not a her, her is a him!
Meet my good friend, Chuck Burrows!
Sandy
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....not the first time I've done that to some poor member,
My sincere apologies Mr Burrows
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