by Forkbeard » Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:48 am
Where to start, where to start?
First of all, knife makers are NOT armour makers. The method he described to you is for making wax hardened leather. This type of stuff works great for knife sheaths and gun holsters becuase it's always a little oily(good for guns and knives) and it's easy.
There are no new leathewr hardening methods.
It doesn't make it shirnk becuase the mixture is under 200 degrees. When I made you helmet, it didn't shrink at ALL. I cook my leather dry(like I've said in about a million posts) at about 180 degrees.
I don't know where you got the extrodinarily WRONG idea that a person should boil leather to harden it. Never put leather in boiling water. It shrinks uncontrolably due to inconsistensies in the leather itself. Shapes come out wierd and lopsided. It can also burn you very, very badly.
Furthermore, Wax hardened leather when do the way you desribe gets it strength and shape from being impregnated with wax that has cooled down. This means that when it gets hot again(like when you're fighting in the sun, yeah I'm very serious) It softens and looses it shape a little every time. Water hardened leather hold it's shape due to the stretch and warp of the fibers in the leather. The shape is locked in to these fibers when it is steamed dry in the oven. It hard and rigid for a different reason, see?
I'll finish with my favorite reason why wax hardened leather sucks. Wax and oil impregnated leather is cool and durable, but it has one SERIOUS flaw that I feel kept it from ever being used as armor. When you stab it, the wax and oils act as lube. The blade glides right through like **** through a goose. Water hardened leather is MUCH harder to stab through or cut.
If you want to waterproof you leather, spray it with **** scotchguard. That **** works great.
FB
Warlord of the Western Uruk-Hai
Don't call it a comeback
I been here for years
Rockin my peers and puttin suckas in fear