Leather hardening tip / trick.

[sajuma]

I spoke with a guy who makes leatherworks and sheaths for knives here in Switzerland and he tipped me off with a trick how to make leather hard.
He uses the stuff for stomach burns, I think it's called Alcaseltzer in US, in Finland it's Samarin...
Well anyway he soaks the leather in mix of this (bicarbonate) powder with water and makes the sheath and then let's it dry slowly.
He warned me that too much "Alcaseltzer" will turn the leather black and I do not remember the ratio for the mix, so be carefull if you try this.

Juha

 

[sajuma]

Hey guys, come on!
This is not a troll or hoax.
I'm trying to give little back to you.

Juha

 

[Kumdo]

Sounds interesting. I guess I'll need to experiment with the ratio, as I wouldn't want to screw up a sheath. Thanks for the info...

 

[george tichbourne]

Vegetable tanned leather hardens up very nicely if it is soaked in very hot water and formed while wet.

 

[sajuma]

Is that called "cuir bouilant" or something...? (boilled leather)
Only minus is that it shrinks too.

Juha

 

[george tichbourne]

Shrinkage is not significant but then the purpose of waterforming the sheath is to get it to conform tightly to the knife in the first place.

The original use was to make armour from rawhide, the hide was boiled then draped over the soldier it was to fit and trimmed to size, when it cooled it was as tough as fibreglass.