RE: Leather and tool steel

D

David Conley

Well-known member
Friends,

I am thinking about making a protective leather casing for an edge tool.  That got me thinking about tool steel and its interaction with leather.  The same question would also apply to a tool roll?  Or that leather casing I got for my LN handsaw.  

What is the best material to use for the casing?  And/or what treatments should I do to the steel to prevent it from rusting.

I know chrome dyed leather is suppose to absorb moisture and thus rust your tool.  Vegetable dyed leather is supposed to be more tool friendly.  What about un-dyed leather?  Or should I use Kevlar,  or heavy canvas, or a synthetic fabric?      

Currently, I plan to use some un-dyed leather for the casing and wax the tool steel with Slip-It.  

As you can see, I have lots of questions and no good answers.  

Thanks in advance,
David
 
David,
I hesitate to answer as I am pretty ignorant about leather in general but I believe You are confusing dyed with tanned, as vegetable tanned leather or chromium tanned.
Here is a link to some information on the subject http://www.leathernet.com/tanning.htm.
The author goes in to old methods as well as new.
Another forum says that Lie-Nielsen uses vegetable tanned leather. I use canvas as it is easy to work and I have a bunch of it. I believe leather draws moisture to it but you can also impregnate the leather with oil so?? You might poke around in a leather working forum.
Have fun!
Mike
 
Hi David-

I made several leather cases for my Windsor Chair making tools. I went to my local Tandy Leather store for advice to develop the patterns and buy the supplies. I have had no problem with the tools rusting. If you have an open edge contacting leather, the suggestion was made to contact glue strips of leather to provide the edge of these stripe to contact the sharp edge of the tool. worked fine and these have been in use for several years now. Contact me if you want any futher info.
 
Mike,

I am glad that you did respond.  

Nice reference to the old tanning process.   YUCK!  Like hotdogs, ignorant is bliss.

As you suggested, I started looking at the leather forums as well as guns and medieval armory.  

For the metal parts, they talked about waxing them or using WD-40 as a rust preventer.  

For the leather parts they were definitely against the tanning process that uses a chromium salt because it is never rinsed out of the leather (test: burn a small piece and the chromium salts will leave a green ash).  The salts plus moisture will rust the blades/guns.  

As far as us end user, they talked about treating the leather to prevent the leather from absorbing moisture.  The treatments included such agents as: lanolin, bear grease, heavy boot dressing, mink oil, neatsfoot oil, plus a whole host of private label "snake oil" products guaranteed to "reduce" rust.

Leather on steel may look cool, but it sounds like it is just a matter of time before the steel rusts.  Bob, I think the leather cases are a great way to protect your tools when transporting them (like to our Chapter meeting).  But for long term storage in my shop, I would take them out of the cases so they cannot collect moisture.   An ounce of prevention ...    

A fabric type casing is starting to sound like a really good idea.  Now, two questions.  First, what type of fabric: Kevlar, or heavy canvas (is that sail cloth?), or a synthetic fabric?  And second, where do you get it from.  Being an industrial type cloth, I assume it is not available in small quantities from your local fabric store.  

Thanks,
David  
 
David,
I would think a good fabric or upholstery supply would have canvas. Art supply store sell canvas of varying weights for painters. Paint supply stores sell tarps of varying weights. I made a decent tool roll from a shop apron, denim works well.
You can order fabric online as well. Reenactors use heavy white canvas for their tents and rain flys.
Good luck!
Mike
 
Mike,

I checked out my local paint store and I can get a 4' x15' 10-11oz canvas drop cloth for $18 (but on sale this week for $10).  I can make a lot of tool rolls and tool covers out of that.

Thanks,
David
 
David,

I made tools rolls out of some heavy canvas duck.  It's a tighter weave than a painter's tarp.  You may find some at a fabric store or from an online supplier (google "rev war sutler") like Burnley and Trowbridge in Williamsburg. 

The next trick is sewing it.  A normal sewing machine isn't usually strong enough for this material.  You need an industrial model or an upholstery machines.  Ditto, it would be nice to serge the edges.  Kevlar or dacron would be good cut resistant choices.  I've never tried to sew kevlar.  I wouldn't think that would be fun.  And I think the synthetics would look stupid in my period tool chest. But if that isn't an issue for you I'd bet materials like Cordura would make awesome tool rolls. 

You may find it's just as well to buy a white canvas roll from Woodcraft.  Joel makes a nice tools roll as well.  But frankly, I'm with you.  I like making my own.  I have certain features, pocket sizes etc that I want in a tool roll. Probably a good idea to double up the base of the pockets where the blades go.  I've cut thru mine in places. 

Just a thought, if you go to a lot of trouble sourcing materials and working out manufacture, consider making extras for sale.  I often can't find exactly what I want.  My carving tool roll is full!

Adam
 
For the type of canvas used in period tent re-enactments, you will need an industrial sewing maching to sew this canvas.  My wife tried to patch a tear in our period Marquee tent and her sewing maching would not even sew thru one layer.  This canvas is extremely dense.  If you want a heavy canvas use a 10 or 12 oz. painters drop cloth from your home store.  Your wife's sewing machine will sew it.

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Ltd.
 
David,

I would stay away from Kevlar. I have worked with it as a reinforcement for FRP boatbuilding, and its cut resistance means that it takes very specialized and expensive tools to cut it.  As I recall, the special scissors were about $100 a pair some years ago.

Karl
 
Adam and Dennis,  I do not have a good fabric store around me.  So, I am very limited on what I can find locally.  I would have preferred a heavier Duck and/or Sail type canvas, but I could not find anything and I wanted to see the material before I bought it.  However, I did not know the heavier fabric required an industrial type sewing machine.  (Whew!  I dodged that bullet.)   

Karl, I thought Kevlar would have been the ultimate material.  I guess it still is, but I definitely do not have the tools to work it.  Thanks for the tip.  I was thinking about lining the blade area with Kevlar fabric.

Thanks!!
David
 
I wonder about going to the trouble of using Kevlar. Wouldn't it have the tendency to dull your edge tools? Good old-fashioned canvas has been used for centuries, and seems like it would be more than sufficient.
 
When I started my apprenticeship in 1976 I bought a set of 6 Buck Bros. chisels from a retired patternmaker.  For a guard he wrapped poster paper around the blade several times and spread white glue on the poster paper as he wrapped it.  He clamped the front of the wrapping so the chisel did not slide thru.  I use these chisels almost every day and have  replaced only one of the six paper guards.

Sometimes the simple solution is the best and easiest.

Dennis Bork
 
Back in the 70's I bought my parents a triple set of wine bottles in a case. After disposing of the bottles and making a few trays laying one chisel one way and then the other next to it the other way it keeps some of our chisels ready to carve at a moments notice. Once you are past the layout it only takes a dozen or so of your chisels to complete most steps of your carving process at a time this is when they seem to be their most vulnerable. We do have hard wood floors.
To nip this in the bud other than the case the wine had nothing to do with this posting.   
 
I've had my carving tools in a couple of the canvas rolls sold by Woodcraft for a couple of years and have been disappointed in the amount of moisture and resulting rust they seem to attract, even with some of the silica packets added in.  The rolls also are inconvenient to spread on a bench to work with.  Some years ago FW has a plan in the reader comments section for an elegant standing rack.  Norm Landry made a couple and showed them to me.  They seemed like a great solution to use in your shop.  My carving tools don't need to travel much.    Making a rack is #107 on my to do list.
 
Bob,

Norman also showed me his carving tool rack (modeled after Gene Landon's in FWW).  That is also on my bucket list.  However, I don't think I will have time to get to it for quite a while.  In the meantime, I may try Jeff Headley's suggestion.  

This topic is more about steel and protective materials.  Specifically, I have gotten wrapped up in my son's Cub Scouts.  I bought a "Carpenter's Hatchet" (a nailing hammer head on one side and a hatched on the other side).  I thought an exposed hatchet would be a little dangerous around Cub Scouts, hence the need for a protective covering for the hatchet.

However, I thought this was a great topic with useful information for everyone.  The same principals apply in protecting this steel hatchet, as our carving tools (only more so).  I will also use this information in the future when I make some tool rolls.  

Bob, the DC area is very humid.  Have you thought about waxing your carving chisel with the same stuff that you protect the iron surfaces on your tablesaw, bandsaw, and jointer.  Also after working on this topic, I would try and ensure my carving chisels had plenty of air flow around them (ie, not stored in any tool roll regardless of material).  I use peg board and rare earth magnets.  My dad uses peg board and the peg board tool racks.    

Cheers,
David

 
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