Thread: Joseph Allen leather scale care?

I've never seen leather scales before, but I wondered if it was possible. (I may have a new project to try.) I have done a lot with leatherworking.

If vegetable tanned leather is boiled to the point where it is cooked, it will change into a hard wood like consistency when it dries. I changes the fibers within the leather, and can't fully be changed back. If it is pressed into a form while wet, and allowed to dry that way it will take the shape permanently. Armor was made this way in the middle ages for those that couldn't afford metal armor. I've never seen leather scales before, but I would do a couple of light coats of pure neetsfoot (neet is an Old English word for beef, and neetsfoot oil is made by rendering the hooves and other parts of cattle down) oil would help with the drying out.

Bee's wax would help with the waterproofing. On armor, I have seen small pieces dipped in liquid wax, but I think that would be difficult to heat up. I would rub the outside of the scale with bee's wax and then buff or burnish it with a piece of canvas or denim to get wax back on the scales.

I have seen wax used in the making of a leather holster. I believe the leather was wetted and heated to open the pores, then melted bees wax was brushed on to stiffen the leather. I've got some ideas bouncing around to try my hand at some leather scales too.