Makes me sick...

Henry Cambron

www.worldclassknives.com
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
218
All finished, except for the finish, then this happens...

I was trying the hot wax and neatsfoot oil dip for the first time. I think I left it in too long. It was in only about 7 seconds. And I had skived down the belt loop area so that the belt would go through easier. Do you think I made it too thin in this area?

sick.jpg


sick1.jpg
 
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Henry, I believe that the leather you have used is either (1) Old and dried up, (2) belly leather. The tear would be more indicative of the first as the belly leather would probably stretch prior to tearing. Less stress would be placed on the belt loop if you would form the loop around a piece of scrap leather similiar in size to the actual belt. Hope to see you at either the Hammerin at Trackrock or one of the club meetings---Sandy
 
Sandy,

It came off a double shoulder I got from Tandy about 6 months ago. I thought maybe I burned it because it was too thin.

I'll be at Scott's for the next Guild meeting.

See ya,

Henry
 
Henry, I have to agree with Sandy. I know you said it came off a double shoulder, but based on the photo that is the most "belly looking" piece of double should I've ever seen. The flesh side of that loop is very loose. I would bet your double shoulder came from an import hide and the tannage was probably not USA. The dried out factor is a definite possibility too as Sandy said, but that would not have a great deal of affect on the quality of the leather to begin with. Finally, I don't think your skiving the loop had that much to do with the tear. This is more of a leather quality issue.

Paul
 
Thanks guys. I was hoping I could get this hot wax and neatsfoot oil finish to work. Maybe it's not something I did. I'll try some more (scrap pieces).
 
I personally don't like doing the hot wax dip. I prefer to let the beeswax and neatsfoot oil cool down a bit and whip it into a butter-like paste. Then you can simply warm the sheath up with a hair drier and rub the paste wax over the leather till it melts and soaks in nicely.
 
R.C.,

Thanks, I'll try that. I just like the light brown color that you get with this process and I can't seam to get that with any of my dyes.
 
You know I got a similar result on a smaller scale with some stuff I just made. I used, for the first time, Fiebing's Dark Brown dye. Wow did that stuff harden the leather (shoulders)!!! I have a Sam Browne retention strap and it craked around the hole...never had that happen before and I've done that many times. The only variable was that dye. After the dye dried, the whole project was stiff and dry, almost crispy.
 
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