Just ordered and received two double shoulders from a well known leather supply company, advertised as being good for sheath and holster work. When I received it, there were large section of the hide exhibiting pronounced pebble finish and feel like a semi stiff hand sanding sponge. I finished one sheath and ended up tossing it as it was just not up to my standards. Is there anything that can be done to compact or case the leather?
I have attempted soaking and pounding with a smaller, kinda worked.
Can you post pics of the leather and in particular the bad areas? Also where is it from?
It sounds like slicking or glassing might help. This is getting the leather damp and then, as the color is coming back into it, rubbing firmly with aa hard object. Many commercial slickers are tempered glass mounted in a wooden handle hence the term glassing. I made my own using a block of ligume vitae wood and rounding the polishing the corners. These used to be made commercially so some folks call it slicking cause that is what you are doing to the leather. You are slicking and compressing the fibers making it more uniform throughout. I do this to all standard veg tan projects and absolutely if an item is to be tooled at all.
This piece of scrap has some fat wrinkles in it. This is my ligume vitae block with it. The color is just starting to come back into the leather.
You can see how uneven the leather is in density after the first part of slicking. Just keep doing it and changing directions and ya'll get it more uniform.
Much better.
Slicking really does help take some leather that is so so and make it ok. It will take ok leather and make er pretty darn good.
As far as baking I do this to any leather project that I do that is wet molded. I bake for 3 hours and 45 minutes at 178 degrees. I put the project on four layers of card stock and then put it into the oven on the oven rack. I set an alarm and flip the project at 1 hour and 15 minutes. Reset the alarm and flip it again and reset the alarm and flip it again. I heat up my oil for the last fifteen minutes and everything is oiled once it is out of the oven.
During the molding process:
Laid out on the card stock:
Process of flipping. The bottom rack has been flipped and the top still needs to be.
After oiling they come back into the house and sit on the kitchen counter overnight to let the oil set and the sheath to fully dry.
Next morning the sheaths have their edges rubbed and they are finished with BagKote. Roughout will take longer for the oil to set:
Many years ago I didn't set a timer and I baked a batch overnight because I forgot about them. 30 odd sheaths in that batch. Yeah I had to start over. Set an alarm, I made sheath jerky without it.
