I made 3 more flasks. The leather, once cured in beeswax, is quite hard. Like a hard, slightly flexible plastic. If you rap a knuckle on them it makes a very solid thock. Between laser time, materials and labor I would have to sell these for at least $60 to justify making them. I will probably add these to Etsy for a bit less since they didn’t come out how I wanted.

The next photo is out of the other half of the failed map from before. This one has “Mordor” if you look closely. I made the sewing holes a 1.5mm on this one and used black thread and a saddle stitch as opposed to the lockstitch I used before. I’m not at all sure the stitch style matters but the smaller holes worked well.

The next flask was with a new map. I used an 1848 map of the “Oregon Country” from the public domain. I made the opening for the cork slightly narrower. When the cork is dry, it fits a little more snugly now. Sadly I didn’t get the map lined up with the pattern as well as I wanted and it’s off center and doesn’t cover the back all the way. I’m not sure it’s a bad look, but it’s not what I planned. I did etch the map more deeply and the details are a lot more visible. I also dipped them in slightly cooler wax which seems to have not darkened the leather quite as much. The map details really came out. The more subtle look of the first two flasks is nice too. I am not sure what a prefer.

The final one, pictured below, came out how I wanted it.

Finally I created a cork retainer for the first flask. It worked out OK, but I have some ideas for improvement. I am considering drilling a hole through the corks to pass a leather cord. If only I could find my bag of leather laces I know I have around somewhere.

I have been experimenting with laser cutting and etching leather. I came across this Instuctable and wanted to try something similar. I had laser etched a map I wasn’t 100% happy with on some leather. So I built a pattern in Inkscape and cut the leather.

Using the “pattern on path” plugin I was able to get the holes where I wanted them pretty easily. This time around I think the holes are too big. I am not sure if I will be able to waterproof the flask or not with just beeswax. The flask still needs to dry before I apply the wax. I do like where this is going.

Update:

I let the flask dry completely and removed all the beans I used to form the flask. I melted 1b of beeswax in a double boiler and submersed the flask until it stopped bubbling. I removed the flask and poured out all the wax. After it cooled completely I poured molten wax inside and sloshed it around. I think I used too much as it softened up the seems and starting running out. I poured the wax out again and let it cool completely one more time. Afterwards I poured in about 3 tbs of molten wax and made sure it got to the seems and then poured out the excess. Once it had cooled completely again I filled it with water. So far so good. Going to do a 48 hour test now.

Finished flask with wax

I’ve got some scraps of suede and a 40 watt laser. What could possibly go wrong? 3mm suede is possible to cut in the laser. There are two problems though. 1. It smell like barbequed dog hair. 2. It curls, scorches, shrinks and catches on fire as you cut.

When I was a kid in the Cub Scouts we did some leather work. I remembered that we wet the leather to soften it for some of the things we dig. So I tried soaking it in water for about a minute before cutting on it. And behold, it worked like a charm.

Still smells like barbequed dog hair. Just not as bad as before.

Now that I have 2 square inches of it, I am wondering what one does with leather lace.