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Posted
35 minutes ago, Chris Ghent said:

If you don’t give us the rest of the story this is just a tease…

I want to use the chamois to make the gaskets between the bellows and reed pans.

i would like to remove the fish oil so that the glue works well.

Posted

Same here,  I’ve used off the shelf chamois for gaskets without any problems gluing it.

Oil is an important in the final parts of the tanning process.  It helps the leather to stay soft and resilient.  Removing the oil is likely to make the chamois less soft and resilient.  Those are the properties that make it a good gasket material.

  • Like 1
Posted

Yay! saves me work washing it

It’s not particularly oily.

Thanks for your helpful advice.

Posted
On 2/1/2025 at 5:11 PM, Chris Ghent said:

If you don’t give us the rest of the story this is just a tease…

This really did sound like you'd accidentally opened a can of sardines over your chamois

  • Haha 1
Posted

OK, I get it, I never knew it was fish oil. I have always loved the smell of chamois, in fact I think I give it a sniff everytime I work with it. I thought it was mineral oil of some sort.
 

Very hard to get good quality chamois, the leather itself can be OK but the thickness varies wildly across the skin. There is a clothing quality which is terrific but hard to find.  It has no smell.  

Posted

The chamois on Amazon that is labeled Alberta sheepskin is very thin and has no irregular lumps. I’m experimenting with gluing it using different types of glue. 

Posted
3 hours ago, Lappy said:

The chamois on Amazon that is labeled Alberta sheepskin is very thin and has no irregular lumps. I’m experimenting with gluing it using different types of glue. 

 

Thicker chamois is preferable, but it can be difficult to find and consistency is more important. I once bought a skin that seemed unusually thick at first feel, but it delaminated into two very thin layers when I cut it.

 

I use fish glue to attach it to the wood.

Posted

I bought a couple of skins from a good retailer in Sydney a few years ago and it was perfect, about 1.8 mm with minimum variation. Strangely it had no smell (disappointing!). When it was gone I went back thinking I would buy a bundle. I showed them a scrap and they said “ we have never sold anything like that…”

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