Couple of small problems I've had lately with my leather sheaths, see if you can help

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2 small things.

After applying my hot wax mix to my sheath last night, this morning I noticed that the welt had shrunk inward a TINY amount...barely enough to feel in some spots. Most people wouldn't ever notice it, but it drives me nuts knowing something happened and not knowing the reason. Prior to the wax treatment, the welt was fine.

In conjunction to it shrinking a bit in spots, it caused my contact cement to leach out a bit in those shrunk areas. I'm thinking the heat of the toaster oven helped reliquify the cement....I'm using Barge in the blue tubes from Hobby Lobby. This isn't major, but I have to find a way of getting rid of it without marring my edges so I can finish burnishing without smearing it. (think old tape adhesive that just smears when you try to rub it off).

When you folks glue up your welt, do you take the glue ALL the way to the edge or do you stay back a bit? I've been going all the way to the edge.

Just looking for ideas as to why this is happening.
 
Take it back to the sanding belt and square up the entire edge again, then burnish and hand sand and refinish the edges. The sanding will get rid of the Barge. the toaster oven thing is not a good idea for the entire sheath. Heat is not leather's friend. You can use an 1875 watt hair dryer to work the wax in IF you are determined to use wax treatment at all. I never do and never will. The hair dryer will accomplish everything you need some heat for and be much more gentle on the leather. I routinely use one on my bench to flash dry a sheath during the final finish process to harden (stiffen) the leather some for a more rigid fit .

Using tubed Barge, I would also bet your glue is too thick (at least to my standards) I like my Barge to be about as thin or thinner than pancake syrup out of a bottle.. I really want it to drip easily off the brush.

Paul
 
2 small things.

After applying my hot wax mix to my sheath last night, this morning I noticed that the welt had shrunk inward a TINY amount...barely enough to feel in some spots. Most people wouldn't ever notice it, but it drives me nuts knowing something happened and not knowing the reason. Prior to the wax treatment, the welt was fine.

In conjunction to it shrinking a bit in spots, it caused my contact cement to leach out a bit in those shrunk areas. I'm thinking the heat of the toaster oven helped reliquify the cement....I'm using Barge in the blue tubes from Hobby Lobby. This isn't major, but I have to find a way of getting rid of it without marring my edges so I can finish burnishing without smearing it. (think old tape adhesive that just smears when you try to rub it off).

When you folks glue up your welt, do you take the glue ALL the way to the edge or do you stay back a bit? I've been going all the way to the edge.

Just looking for ideas as to why this is happening.

a tip that works for me, and has since polishing my boots in The Navy.

after applying your room temp wax, spit on it, or breath heavily on it while buffing the wax. it warms up the wax, since your spit and breath are nearly 100 degrees, and helps it get into the pores of the leather while,at the same time, gives it a nice sheen without a lot of work.

sometimes, i'll pass a lighter quickly over the waxed surface. does the same thing.

Randy
 
Thanks so far.

I had been using a hot hair dryer to heat up the sheath, then rub on my wax, then heat some more so it will draw into the leather. Then I read about guys using a toaster oven on "bake" on the lowest temp setting (usually 130-150). You put it in the oven for just long enough that the sheath is fairly warm but not too hot to touch. Their take on it was, if it's too hot for your skin, it's too hot for leather. Lots of people have had outstanding results. I may have got the sheath just a bit too hot, I'll try just the hair dryer next time.

I was able to take a piece of 320 on a sanding stick and fix the issues last night, reburnished those areas then applied a final coat of Johnson's paste wax and buffed by hand.

Concerning the application of cement/glue. How thick is thick enough? Usually when I apply a layer, part of it will soak in and leave the leather darkened but no visable glue on top. Then I go back with more glue to make sure I have a layer that stays shiny when it dries. The Barge in the blue tubes is actually kind of thin and will drip off my brush if I'm not careful. And do you guys go all the way to the very edge knowing you still have to sand it down even and flush?

Thanks again!
 
I use thinned Barge all the way to the edge and use two coats of the barge letting the first one to penetrate and then top that with a second coat. The first sanding to square of the edges will generally remove any excess barge. It sounds like your barge in the blue tube may be thin enough, but you do want it thin enough to really penetrate the fibers well on the first coat. That way when you reactivate the first coat with the second coat you are gluing up fiber to fiber rather than surface to surface.

Paul
 
Is there a special thinner needed for Barge (or the DAP Weldwood...been thinking of trying it out)? Or is there a readily available chemical that will thin appropriately?
 
Big disclaimer here!!! I am not a chemist, nor do I represent any of the contact cement companies in any way. I use Barge thinner because I use Barge cement, Big disclaimer...............Toluene or a shelf brand product "Toulene" is like one of the major ingredients in the older formulas of barge, and I think it might do the trick....DISCLAIMER, but I don't know for sure.

I do know that regular hardware store or paint store Lacquer thinner will thin Tandy NeatLac or any of the new name (same thing) products like WyoSheen or ClearLac. I have tried that successfully.

Paul
 
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