Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[tlclark]

Just to add to the discussion, I found this on the web

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-ca ... l.html#cb3

I was especially interesting in this technque...

A Variation on Boiling Water Soaking

If you take cold formed leather and while it is still on the form and pour REALLY hot water over it, letting it drain off (say fresh from a coffee maker), it will scald the surface of the leather and harden the outer layer without altering the inner layers at all. By the time the water's soaked the rest of the leather, it has been cooled (by having to heat the leather) sufficiently that the temperature's dropped back down to the 120-140F range.

You can also presoak the leather in water, then pour the boiling water on top. This either heats up the water inside the leather, so you don't have to wait for it to soak in, or the cooler water slows the soaking process, letting the outside of the leather harden more fully. I've tried it both ways and I couldn't tell you which worked better.

This is fascinating... a sort of "case hardening" for leather, giving it a hardened exterior but a more flexible material.

This site lists dozens of variations on the method, all producing different results and varying degrees of hardness vs. rigidity.

Travis