I've got a quandry

Yup...................always something. In my case it's cleaning up after our most recent ice-storm. Cattle-panel fencing was taken out in 6 places by fallen limbs and trees. Still wearing out chains on my chainsaw taking care of it all. So far I've got a pile of firewood to split that's almost 5 cords worth.................and at least 3 times that much left! (anyone need any firewood?) :)

Okay, so "cup of coffee hot". That works. I think my other sheath was too wet/hot because I ended up wiping out some of my stamping work when I used my thumb to press fit the sheath to the knife. Sure don't want to do that on this one.
 
Well, I may have ruined my sheath. :( Heated up some water to 166 degrees (the temp of my hot coffee, Dave) Soaked it until it quit bubbling. Form fit the knife. Put in in the oven at 200 degrees...........planned on leaving it for 4 hours but went to look at about an hour and a half. Looked like an overcooked pizza! Darkened it quite a bit, durnit! Hard as a brick. I tried to get on the site off and on all day to see if I could find what I'd been told, but it was down for many hours today. Thought I remembered "200 degrees for 4 hours".....................but obviously I was wrong. Well, I got some more hot water and re-form fit the knife. Put in in the oven at about 100 degrees for 30 minutes..............while I stood there watching and checking to make sure all was well. Pulled it out and will just let it air dry. I'm going to be sick if I've ruined it. It was really gonna be purdy before I pulled this stupid stunt. :(
 
I do 178 for three hours and I flip every hour, the sheath is on four layers of card stock. Make sure that the oven is up to temp before ya put something in. Coming up to temp, many ovens have a very wild temp swing. Folks that temper their own knives in the oven have been bit by this a bunch. The oven needs to be already up to temp before putting sheaths in there or bad things can happen.

Keeping it in the water till it stops bubbling sounds like too much water time to me. That is the recipe for casing leather. Sink in water till the bubbles stop, wrap your leather in a wool blanket and then work the leather the next day. The idea there is the water to uniformly penetrate the leather and then uniformly evaporate so that your leather is "plastic" the next day and ready to cut, stamp, shape and work.

Wet molding uses a wholly different moisture content for me. I put a sheath or holster in my water bucket till it starts to sink, not till the bubbles stop. I then take it out and put it on a towel. While in this state I trim any excess leather off the bottom side, I sand the edges smooth, punch slots if it's a pancake, edge the edges and the slots and power rub the edges. All this is done before wet molding. My sheaths might be out of the water for 30 minutes to an hour before I wet mold them as more often than not I'm doing the same processes to multiple items. What you are looking for is leather that is just about ready for its color to come back. If you wait too long and the color is changing back, its too dry, I will lightly add a little more moisture with a sponge. It will mold well if the color is changing back but you will make darker burnished marks where you are rubbing with your molding tool. Thats why I will add a little moisture to prevent these darker areas. So after rubbing the edges and all my sheaths and holsters on the towel, I go in and preheat the oven. I come back out and sit down and mold all the sheaths and holsters etc to their respective items. This might take 15-30 minutes to wet mold everything, sometimes depending on quantity, longer. We have a double oven stove and I sometimes use all the racks in both ovens. I get everything on cardstock and then into the oven and I start a timer.

It's too bad ya couldn't get on line to check yesterday. This time frame and water saturation is discussed in the pancake tutorial. If ya got twisting and pretzeling going on you are too wet or too hot or both, I would think. Wish ya could long trot on over for an afternoon in the shop. We could get ya lined out.

Speaking of that, Chris here has asked, (and I do appreciate him asking), if he could email me any specific questions and I want to extend that yes answer to anyone reading here. It might take a little bit to get back to you as I usually do my correspondence in the early morning and then again not till the next morning, but I will get back to you and I'll be glad to help if I can. My email is in my signature line here.
 
Alright, if anyone is interested in my journey, here goes.

I honestly thought I'd totally ruined the sheath and thoroughly expected to have to start over. But last night I re-wet the sheath and formed it to the knife. Let it dry on the bench overnight. This afternoon I went out to the shop and the sheath looks great..............a little "funky" on the backside, but I don't think it will bother the customer. (does me, but I'm far too picky) I lightly oiled it today. I'll wait a couple of days and then put some Bag-Kote on it. Trying to decide if I want to put a light coat of Antiquing on it or not. I may Bag-Kote it and use some of my Buffalo Wax to antique.............because I can rub it off if need be. The Bag-Kote won't let it adhere too quickly. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Well, I'm probably the slowest leather worker on the site, but I finally finished the sheath.

p4114608871-4.jpg
 
Horsewright Horsewright , I think ya need a
union journeyman pipefitter/plumber to come out and fix that disaster you have on hand for the low cost of a day or two bugging ya in the shop...!!! Me me me me!!!
 
NickBoyle said:
Horsewright Horsewright , I think ya need a
union journeyman pipefitter/plumber to come out and fix that disaster you have on hand for the low cost of a day or two bugging ya in the shop...!!! Me me me me!!!
Click to expand...

Could be a long hike!

Imagine all the fun I'd be missing when a float breaks though. Splash, splash!

TfoJvLI.jpg
 
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