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How do ya stiffen up leather?


Turkey Flats Jack

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I bought a pair of boots a while back and the yahoos folded them over at the ankle and shipped them in a padded envelope. now there's a fold that digs into my ankle and makes them darn near unbearable to wear for an entire match. I've tried leaving a form in them when i'm not wearing them but soon as I pull it out the crease is still there and still diggin in to me. With new boots i've soaked them down and wore them til they dried out and never looked back but these are kind of low quality reenactors boots. Any suggestions on how to 'reform' them? 

 

Thanks

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I would soak them in COLD water in the bathtub until they were thoroughly completely wet, then stuff them with newspaper packed in there tightly from toe to top.  (Hot water can shrink leather; I ruined a good holster that way).  Then allow them to dry SLOWLY at room temperature for a few days.  It won’t hurt them and maybe it will reshape them sufficiently.

 

 I would also wear thick socks with them!

 

Good luck!

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10 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

I would soak them in COLD water in the bathtub until they were thoroughly completely wet, then stuff them with newspaper packed in there tightly from toe to top.  (Hot water can shrink leather; I ruined a good holster that way).  Then allow them to dry SLOWLY at room temperature for a few days.  It won’t hurt them and maybe it will reshape them sufficiently.

 

 I would also wear thick socks with them!

 

Good luck!

what he said. 
you can use warm water but that should only be done if you intend on pulling and shaping the leather.

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Once you get the crease out you can keep it from reforming by using foam pool noodles. I bought a large diameter one and shaped it with a bread knife so that it fits the shaft of the boot well and keeps them standing upright.

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I'm not a leather worker, but I'll give you a couple of discussions on leather stiffening and hardening that use pretty traditional methods to get leather to hold it's shape.   Two techniques stand out in these - stearic acid (an animal fat) melted into leather, and beeswax melted into leather.   Several others such as rubbing alcohol, acetone, ammonia, PVA glue solution (Elmer's), boiling water, etc are also discussed and shown not to be very effective, or even destructive to the leather.    

 

OK, the references.   The second one is heavy with historical leather goods that were hardened as far back as the 1500s (including powder flasks), and interesting for almost anyone just to see what can be done with leather!

 

Tests of many techniques:   https://medium.com/@jasontimmermans/a-comparative-study-of-leather-hardening-techniques-16-methods-tested-and-novel-approaches-8574e571f619

 

Historical leather hardening with hot water or stearic acid:  http://makersgallery.com/rexlingwood/waterer.pdf

 

Now how you are going to apply any hardening process to the lower shaft of a boot is quite a puzzle.  Maybe some of the leatherworkers in the crowd can suggest that!

 

Good luck, GJ

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Had a similar problem of a boot pinching my ankle. I found a couple plastic jars that fit tightly in my cathedral boots near the ankle area. Removed the lid and drilled ventilation holes in the jars bottoms. I insert the jars & hang my boots upside-down with brackets made from coat hangers that fit over the edge of the soles. 

PS The jars were from Folgers instant coffee that I use for storing brass, held 100 45 cases. Yep, used to drink instant coffee.

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I would not submerge the entire boot in water unless I was going to wear them until they are DRY. That take a full, warm day. If you do, the boots will form to your foot.  I would however thoroughly wet the area of the crease and then stuff in rags or paper to hold it up and in place, and allow to dry slowly. JMHO

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I've used boiling water with sugar.......Dip boot upside down keeping foot and sole out of the boiling water. Put something in boot to hold shape and hang upside down to dry.

 

 

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Wet them with water or rubbing alcohol (for quicker drying) and mold them to the gun.  Make sure that they are the shape you want.  I let them dry with the gun wrapped in a plastic bag.  The holsters will harden up on drying but won’t retain the hardness permanently.

 

If you want permanent hardness further treat them with Minwax Wood Hardener, available at hardware stores and places like Home Depot or Lowes.  I wrap the guns in plastic bags and put them in the holsters again  for the drying process.

 

This will even work with el-cheapo leather.  And it’s permanent.

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