Ammonium water for leather?

[Eriksen]

1. In a norwegian knife maker forum, a guy adviced me to soak the leather in ammonium water (1 cap ammonium to 2 liter water) and let it soak until it got a bit slimy surface before pressing in a pattern with a carved hardwood scale. Are there anybody here who has any knowledge about this?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

The process is called "casing" it opens up the pores and softens the leather so it will take the stamping and carving better.

Here is what I do:
Soak the leather in water with just a little squirt of dish soap in it. You want the tooling (smooth grain) side up. A minute is plenty of time.
Take it out, wipe it off lightly with a clean cloth or paper towel, and let the excess water soak in and evaporate on it for about 10 minutes.
Case the leather in a zip-lock bag for an hour to overnight.
Take the leather out of the bag and let it sit for 10 minutes or so with the flesh (rough) side up.
Tool as desired. If the leather to get dry, wipe with a damp sponge. When taking a break cover the work with a sheet of saran wrap or glass. When quitting for the night, store in a large zip-lock bag. If a bag isn't going to work, wipe the surface to make it look wet and set a sheet of glass on it.

 

[Horsewright]

Stacy provided ya some great advice there. When working with larger pieces the old way of casing was to dunk the leather in water until all the bubbles stopped coming out then wrap it in a wool blanket overnight. This is how western saddles are made. I did this pair of bulldog tapaderos (stirrup covers) that way as the pieces were simply too big to case as Stacy mentioned. Just tossed the leather in warm water in the bath tub until the pieces sank and stopped bubbling, wrapped in a wool blanket and made the taps the next morning.. Casing is not only good for tooling but also for forming heavy leather which is what needed to happen here:

On day to day smaller projects we use a product called Pro Carv in our shop. Its made by an outfit called Bee Natural Leather Care and we get it off that biggest river outfit. Another professional leather worker turned me onto this stuff 10 years or so ago. I haven't been with out it since. It is in all the water containers on our work benches. Ya mix it with water at a 1/10 ratio and call er good. Simply dampen your project with a sponge and then wait a few minutes till the color starts returning to normal. Lots of folks will use a hair dryer to hasten this a little and the wife has one on her tooling bench. When the color has come back start tooling. No more waiting over night! This stuff WORKS! and it does smell a little like the dish soap that Stacy mentioned. We buy this stuff by the quart and a quart will last us a long time even with the amount of work we kick out. It also makes changing your water out a less often chore. It simply lasts longer without getting all grungy with the Pro Carv in it. We use it in the water we use for molding sheaths and holsters too as well as for tooling:

Give this stuff a try and if you are interested in leatherwork I would invite ya to join us over at Sheaths and Such here on Blade Forums.

 

[Cushing H.]

Huh ..... i've just been running water over the leather, wiped dry, then started tooling immediately. I am going to have to try this technique!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I hoped you would chime in, Dave.
Pro-Carve is great stuff. I think I used to get it from Tandy.

 

[Horsewright]

I hoped you would chime in, Dave.
Pro-Carve is great stuff. I think I used to get it from Tandy.

Yeah it really is good stuff! I hadn't heard that trick about the glass before.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

When I used to do large carving, like a briefcase, large purse, or bowling bag, I would glue the work to the poundo-board with rubber cement and case it with water followed by Pro-carve. When I was ready for a break or done for the night, I gave it a quick wipe with water (or pro-Carve) and set a sheet of glass on it. The next day ... or a few days later... I would just lift off the glass, give it a wipe with water, wait a few minutes, and get back to work. One of the old guys at Tandy told me about that. Can't remember for sure, but it might have been Al Stohlman at one of his demos. IIRC, it was back in the late 60's.

 

[Eriksen]

Is Pro Carv a beeswax solution? I saw another website where a person had experienced with several different leather hardening techniques here, and beeswax was one of them.

In a youtube video a guy claimed that he had tested most of the hardening techniques and he had found the best. Are there other here who has tried "leather firmer"? It should be a good choice for armours, but will it make the leather good enough also for knife sheaths?

 

[Horsewright]

I bake my sheaths and anything else like holsters that have been wet molded. This provides a firmness to the leather thats just right, while keeping it leather and not making it armor. A detailed explanation is here in this tutorial I did on pancake sheaths:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/pancake-sheaths-and-how-i-go-about-them-pic-heavy.1262927/

A guy needs to follow the instructions pretty exact or ya can make sheath jerky. I don't know whats in the Pro Carv. Its a. liquid unlike most beeswax conditioners I'm familiar with.

That's cool Stacy I met Ann once at some show or deal but that was after Al had passed away.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Yep, Al was neat. He could carve leather scenes like an artist paints pictures.

I have to look around in my books. IIRC, I bought a copy of his Pictorial Carving book and he signed it.

 

[Horsewright]

Yep, Al was neat. He could carve leather scenes like an artist paints pictures.

I have to look around in my books. IIRC, I bought a copy of his Pictorial Carving book and he signed it.

Yeah I got that one somewhere too.