A New Blog. Check it out.

Orthodox Candles is all about candles and candle making. Well worth checking out if you have an interest in making your own candles.
http://www.orthodoxcandles.com/

Re sealing My Leather Costrel.

I did read the article by the Reverend http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/05/whats-cooking.html about repairing leather costrels etc, & I already knew about not cooking leather. Many winters have I sat before a camp fire slowly drying out my moccasins without damaging them. I thought that to be on the safe side, as our wood burning oven is not very heat adjustable other than turning the fire down or opening the oven door, that I would close the fire down & open the oven door & wait for the oven to cool. This I did before placing my prized costrel in the oven, lower shelf with a tray above to even further protect it. IT DIDN'T WORK!
Not 5 minutes later my costrel was well & truely cooked. However, one has to be philisophical about these things. I had learnt the hard way. My wife said "oh well, order a new one". But I could not give up that easily. So I set about trying to clean it out & reseal it with beeswax. This I have done, & only time will tell if it has worked.

The damaged costrel

The tin I used to melt the beeswax.

I only had to melt the wax once, & I was able to apply 3 coats of wax inside, swilling it about with the plug in place & pouring the wax back into the tin each time. Fingers crossed!

Making Dipped Candles.

Here is a link to my own video on making dipped candles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnBPVzhnjns