The next project to TRY is water hardening a piece of leather, nominated by Sigridh Gudmundsdotther, from Nordmark. This can be useful for making armour, bracers for archers and many other items. For a first try, you can simply cut out a leather shape, such as a leaf, to make a token.
Lady Sigridh used the technique to make site tokens for an event and has since made arm protection for archery and spacers for her arrows.
You will need veg tan leather for this to work properly. If you don’t have any to hand, there are lots of bags of small scraps cheaply available for sale online – ensuring the off cuts from larger leather projects don’t go to waste.
Here are some simple instructions:Perfect Armour Improved. Note that the temperature is given in Fahrenheit, so you’re aiming for 82°C (ie. too hot for handwashing, not boiling).
Here is a another set of instructions, with pictures: Wikihow: Stiffen Leather
Once you have made your hardened leather item, please show it off in the hashtag #DrachenwaldTry5, on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or share in comments within the Facebook group “DW A&S”. Because it may take a few days to source leather, the deadline to be included in the next nomination draw is May 13th.
Don’t forget, you can still catch up with the previous challenges and post your results.