Hardened Leather

hi guys,
has anyone out there got any experience working hardened leather? I am looking at experimenting with this and am wondering if anyone else has given it a go. I understand that the way to go is to shape before / as you harden, which makes sense.

Any thoughts on the benefits of (traditional) water hardening vs (more modern) wax hardening?

3…2…1… Derek!

Derek’s awesome at this kind of stuff.

somehow I suspected his name would come up :smiley:

I’ve done heaps of hardening with the type of leather I just sent you. I harden it in wax, not water. Any kind of wax is fine and pretty much any kind of heat will work. I use a roasting dish on my BBQ with about 2000mls of wax but one of my friends uses a heat gun and a couple of candles.

The best way I find for forming the leather is:

  • drop the cut out DRY leather into boiling wax for about 10-30 seconds
  • pull it out with a pair of tongs or plyers
  • bend the leather to shape
  • cool leather in a bucket of water for 60-90 seconds

That works very well for making vambraces etc where you’re just rolling a piece of flat leather into a tube.

Holes for rivets etc can be punched before hardening or drilled afterwards (my preference is drilling afterwards).

For limited 3D shaping (i.e. making a bowl shape) you can use one of two methods:

  • Drop the DRY leather into a big container of boiling wax for 15-45 seconds. The wax will froth up so don’t fill your container more than about 20% full. Take the HOT leather out and put it inside an appropriately shaped bowl (spun bowl helmets are ideal) push into the former wearing gloves.
  • Shape the leather after hardening it using a dishing hammer in the same way you would dish a helmet in steel. It tends to mark the leather up a bit but heat (like a flame) will remove some of the marking up. I use normal hammer that I have rounded the flat face to about a 150mm radius and polished. For a dishing bowl/former I use a piece of tree (firewood) with a small indentation hammered into it. I cover the hole with a scrap of leather to reduce marking.

I’ll try to get some photos up some time.

Hot wax is probably dangerous. Do not splash water into the wax because it will turn to steam and expand spraying wax all over the place.

[color=red]Make sure you have a lid you can cover the container with in case the wax catches fire.
DO NOT try to put out a wax fire using water, you will cause an explosion.[/color]

The leather I sent down for Quest Waikato probably won’t water harden very well. I’ve had mixed results and much better results in wax. If you want to try water, 80 degrees (not boiling) is best. Some parts of the leather will distort LOTS doing this.

Leather was hardened with wax in medieval times, but I’m not sure if this was used for armour against sharp weapons. Wax hardening was certainly used for water bottles and leather mugs (which were also treated with pitch) - this is where the term “blackjack” comes from.

Some of what I have read suggests that for 3d shaping water is best, which once completly dry can be followed by wax hardening.

I am surprised that you suggest hammering the leather, I wouls have thought this would do nasty things to the fibres. I guess I’ll have to see if my Dad will lend me some of his panelbeating tools.

I seem to remember reading a water-hardening article that said it works best on vegetable-tanned leather. Most modern leather is chemical-tanned, and it doesn’t work well with it.

The best wasy to do 3D shaping is during the tanning process. That’s how they turn a 3D cow into a nice flat piece of leather. Water will work on veg tanned leather (also called tooling leather) but not usually on the more modern tanning processes. Some of the newer processes are specifically done to stop leather absorbing water. For some reason people like waterproof boots.

3D shaping is actually pretty difficult. It’s actually easier to sew in a dart or a gusset to get the shaping than most 3D shaping. I’ve been playing around with trying to make formed Greek style greaves and I’m not having much luck.

Most modern leather has been through rollers and presses to get it into the state it is. Dishing the leather with a hammer works if:

  • the hammer is the same as (or close to) the radius of the curve you want
  • it has no sharp edges (ideally a mirror polish)
  • you are shaping into something that isn’t too solid (like a leather lined wooden former)

Thanks for the tips Derek, I’ll let you know how it goes. The helm design I have in mind consists of only slightly shaped sections, so I should be able to adapt even if I can’t get good shaping.

One of the advantages of fantasy LRPing is that I can just make my own design up as I go and not worry about ‘authenticity’.

My time is pretty tight at the moment, and I hve some stuff I have to make for Quest before I can get onto my own stuff (I have some light tan coloured leather - the stuff you sent will all go into the Quest costume cupboard), but I do hope to have my helm completed before the big weekend in May.

thanks again.

I’ve made a couple of hardened leather helms:

The rightmost one here (Roman sytle):

This one (Greek style)

They’re actually really nice to wear as they’re a bit springy and hold only the head really well!