On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 03:24:04 GMT, "carlDOTwest"
wrote:

I just finished a scabbard for a very nice pattern welded sword made by
Dr. Jim Hrisoulas aka "Atar". It appears that there was just a tech of
moisture in the leather when I put the sword in it last night.

I'd ask Hrisoulas himself. Although there are plenty of ways to deal
with the rust, that's a pattern welded blade and you also need to
preserve the etch and patination used to highlight the pattern
welding. He uses various etches (acid or alkaline) and may also
hot-blue with sodium hydroxide. You may find that you need to refiish
the whole blade to do a really good job ! A few more details are in
his book "The Pattern Welded Blade", which you ought to have anyway,
but you'd want to ask him directly and find out which processes had
been used.

(and needless to say, you don;t want to be learning the processes on a
customer's blade)

What sort of leather was it ? To suffer rusting this rapidly, I might
suspect it was chrome tanned? A blade of this quality deserves a
non-corrosive veg tanned leather.

--
Smert' spamionam