New way to harden leather

[Zuloo]

ok so this was presented to me at a knife makers convention, the gentleman that told me about it had been making knives for about 20 years. he told me to boil a pot of 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 paraffin wax, 1/3 neatsfoot oil, you boil it till it just starts to smoke then pull it off.
while your doing this you have the leather in the oven baking (no soaking required before baking)
when the mix is done boiling, take a brush and "paint" the mix on the leather and continue to bake the leather.
he told me this will not only harden it like a rock, but also waterproof it and not shrink the leather

[No'Vak]

By volume? Or by weight?

[Derian]

That's pretty much normal wax hardening. The neatsfoot oil isn't normally used (at least not during the boiling), but yeah, basic process is the same.

[Zuloo]

i think he meant volume as in 1/3 of the overall amount that your making.
but the thing that got me so fascinated about this was that during this process the leather doesnt shrink like it does during normal boiling

[Forkbeard]

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

[Zuloo]

lol, ok ok i just thought i would run it by you guys, he said it would be a good way of doing it and it wouldnt shrink the leather like normal boiling does to leather, i know boiling shrinks leather. i didnt know that it would be bad for armor....hooray internet discussion
and i know the * of this was misleading, but how else am i going to get your attention

[The Lost Celt]

I've done wax hardening and water hardening, FWIW I can say I'll never try wax hardening again, it adds weight, tends to scar and cut easier, traps heat better, and overall compared to water hardening is much less worthwhile.

Comparing the two, I honestly see no benefit with wax hardening.

I'm gonna second Forkbeard, leather in boiling water is absurd, when you water harden you simply saturate the leather in water and bake it out at low temps to evade steam from curling the plates (I do 150 or so till it's dry on the surface and turn it up to 170 or so gradually, oven temps are inaccurate but the end product will feel like wood without cracking if you bend it)

[Thomas MacFinn]

Thanks Forkbeard for both a complete answer on why that is the wrong technique for armor and explaining why wax hardening is the right tool for a knife scabbard.

[No'Vak]

That was worth it.