More on Finishing and Dyeing Leather

In the last post, I discussed a few of the ways that leather can be finished. By no means did that post scratch the surface, it is barely a beginning to the topic. There are many products that can be used to dye, tint, or stain leather and it is not even necessary to use any of the “normal” ones that are available.

I mentioned in the previous post that I like things more simple these days. I have aged over forty years and my visual acuity, the steadiness in my hands, and my patience have all lessened to a degree over time. I still love the fact that I can start with a plain piece of leather and have it come out with a design similar to the one that I stamped for the leather stamping series of posts.

One of the ways I like to finish a leather project is to use Neatsfoot Oil on the finished tooled project. Using Neatsfoot Oil allows me to complete the project without applying a lacquer coat. Neatsfoot oil will replace some of the oils lost from the leather when the hide was tanned and for the most part, it will only darken the leather a little. (I would stay away from using Neatsfoot Oil on thinner leathers because it will soak through the leather, especially the carved lines of the patterns.)

At first, the leather will be darker because most of the oil will be mainly in the grain of the leather. The background will stand out much more than when it was first stamped because of a slightly higher level of saturation. It seems that the matting down of the leather along with the many tiny holes cause the leather to soak up the leather a little more.

A little Neatsfoot oil will go a long ways when you are putting it on a stamped project. When applying the oil to a stamped piece of leather I like to use a small piece of sheepskin about two inches square. I usually try to get by a saddle shop and buy some scraps if I can. That way I can save a little money and have a chance to visit with a saddle maker.

By the way, the name Neatsfoot comes from the fact that cattle used to be called “neat,” in some places. I will not attempt to tell you why that moniker was applied to them but I will tell you why the whole name is Neatsfoot. Neatsfoot Oil is made from the shinbones and feet, minus the hooves, of cattle. This oil product has been used since at least the 18^th century to soften and protect leather. You will find it available in pure Neatsfoot, prime, and compound. Pure Neatsfoot is made as discussed previously; prime and compound are a combination of it and other non-animal oils.

Dyeing Leather Revisited

I would be remiss if I did not give you a few hints about using the leather dyes mentioned in the previous post. I would only use the dilution of the Fiebing dye if you were planning to spray your project with an airbrush. If you plan to use a brush, I think that it would be a better trick to not dilute it. I have tried to dye the background with diluted dye and it does not seem to have as rich of a color as if the straight stuff was used. I do not like to go back with a brush and try to darken it up. The reason that you can get by with diluting the dye for use with an airbrush is that you can easily go back and add a second coat without too much trouble and you do not have to worry about “bleeding.”

Bleeding is what happens when you touch a brush saturated with dye too close to the edge of a carved portion of the pattern. I have seen dye soak into the edge of leaves and flowers when I touched a brush to the background at least an eighth of an inch away. It is good to brush the excess dye off your brush by touching the edge of you brush against the edge of the dye bottle. If I am dyeing the background of a belt or another item, I like to pour the dye into a much smaller container. I have used a plastic cup similar to that used in restaurants for ketchup or other sauces. I like the small container to have a wide mouth so that I can see where I am dipping my brush.

Another trick that I have used on occasion is to make a cellophane tape loop to stick on the bottom of the smaller container to anchor it down to my work surface to keep it from tipping. Keep in mind that getting this kind of dye on clothing or furniture will be a reminder of the project that got away. It would be a good idea to put a piece of cardboard or tag board under your project and dye container while working on it. (I watched a saddle maker dip his brush in a small container of dye and lightly brush it on a piece of cardboard to get rid of the excess dye. This seemed to take a lot of extra time but it did prevent the bleeding to a point.)

When dyeing the background I like to start in the middle and work to the edges from there. That way I have less chance of having the leather bleed into those areas. If you look back at the pattern that I stamped, you will notice that most, if not all, of the background areas have rather sharp pointed “V” shaped areas. The best way of making sure that the dye gets into these areas is to use a small or fine tipped brush. You might be able to get by with using the medium brush I described but it is your choice if you want to take a chance on having a rather prominent spot sticking out on your design.

In closing, if you are like me you do not want to buy more than one brush and you hate to think of cleaning two brushes instead of one. Then when you get to one of those sharp-pointed areas one part of your brain is telling you, “Go ahead, you can do it without changing brushes.” You might get away with it until you get to that one little half-inch square of leather that seems to be like a river delta in a flood. I have dyed a lot of background over the years and invariably, I will find that one little spot of leather that is like a paper towel soaking up spilled fruit juice. Let me tell you, leather can be fickle and it will sneak up and bite you when you least expect it. I would not have it any other way.

Have fun!

Some General Information on Finishing Leather

It has been a few days since my last post and I do apologize. I have been trying to get things up and running with my new computer and have had some challenges in doing so. Anyway, I thought that since we finished up on how a pattern is tooled that I should talk about some of the methods for finishing the tooled pattern.

Over the years, I have used many products to put the finishing touches on a hand-tooled project. I guess that the older I get the simpler I like things. When I first started making belts, it seemed that color was the choice for most of the belts that I made. I dyed the background with a water-based acrylic dye. I had people wanting belts with white background, blue background, black, and so on. Something that you will learn is that it takes a lot longer to complete a project if you dye the background.

Leather dye comes in many forms and can be applied by just about anyone. With some of the dyes that are available, you want to make sure that you are in a well-ventilated work area because of the odors that they give off. The dyes that I have used over the years have changed some in their chemical makeup to make them more environmentally and user safe. Please notice that I did not say user friendly.

The acrylic leather dyes work just about like paint. When applied to the leather they are heavier in consistency and they are thicker. When planning to apply any kind of leather dye it is a very good idea to check out the company’s instructions on how to use it. You will find that some dyes require that the leather be cleaned before any finish is applied. If you are going to mainly dye the background on you project then you should have no problem with acrylic dye adhering or a leather stain penetrating the appropriate areas.

Acrylic dyes can be applied to the background area with a brush. You will want at least two brushes for dying your projects, one medium sized, and the other small enough to get into the smaller areas. Acrylic dyes are a little more forgiving than the dyes that actually stain the leather. It is a good idea to have both a larger and a smaller brush no matter what type of dye you use.

I very seldom use acrylic dyes these days. I prefer to have things simple and I try to eliminate the tedious work of brushing the dye into the little background areas. That does not mean that I do not like the looks of some colors on leather. If I needed a bright red, a blue, or green I would use an acrylic dye because it would give a more true color than the staining dye. The acrylic dyes do not penetrate the leather as the stains do and are a lot like the paint in your living room. There will be a certain amount of penetration with the acrylic, but not the same as with the stain. With that being said, there some products that I have never used that are water based that will penetrate the leather and I cannot speak to the quality of them.

 Some of the acrylic dyes that I have used said on the instructions “Do not shake.” I shook the bottles before I read the instructions because I am the type of guy who likes to charge ahead and get things done. I do not like to read the instructions on how to use new software either. I learn by experience, just like with Window 8. I had never used Windows 8 until I got my new laptop. I was more than a little frustrated for the first couple of days trying to navigate around the new look of the operating system. Thankfully, I can utilize my limited knowledge of the other operating systems to get things figured out.

I use two brands of leather dyes that actually penetrate and stain the leather and are made by the Lincoln and Fiebing companies. I prefer the dye made by the Fiebing dye if I am going to dye a complete project, such as a holster, with one color. With this dye, I am able to shake it up, yes, I do shake it up, and I pour half of it into another bottle or some kind of container and mix it with rubbing alcohol. Diluting the dye in half is a trick I learned from a saddle maker I worked with for a while. The diluted dye works especially well if you are going to use an airbrush to apply the dye.

I like the Lincoln dye because it gives me a true color on the leather that looks very nice, but I do not like the odor that it gives off and seems to stay with the leather for a while. This is one leather dye that I make sure that I use in a well-ventilated work area because the odor does bother me a great deal. I do not think that it is necessarily going to make me sick or something, but I just want to be safe as I should be with the other brand as well.

I mentioned that I use an airbrush to apply the dye to some of my projects. The same saddle maker who told me about cutting the Fiebing dye with rubbing alcohol got me started with doing this. It is not necessary to go out and buy an airbrush to dye a belt or a holster. I just wanted to let you know about it. Besides, you would need an air compressor and an airbrush. The compressor would be the bigger expense in getting set up to dye projects in this manner. An airbrush that would allow you to dye a belt or other project may as little as $14.00 USD. To save money you could just use the dauber that comes in the box with the dye.

I will post more on this topic as soon as I can and I will include some example photos as well.

Have fun!

Mule Foot, Decorative Cuts, and Project Complete

Now that we have used the pear shader, the veiner and the camouflage it is time to proceed on with the last stamp, the mule foot. The mule foot is one of my favorite accent stamps because it can add a lot of character to a pattern if used just enough. Although it is shaped like the letter “V,” it is called a mule foot. None of the mules that I have ever seen have hooves shaped like that. I have also heard this stamp called a deer foot.  There are a lot of different sizes and shapes of this stamp and it really does not matter what you call it.

This stamp can be used in many areas of your design to accent it. In the photo below you can see how I used it to add accents and a pattern to a portion of the design. Numbers 1 & 2 show how the mule foot can be use to accent the points where leaves split off from the stem or where leaves split off from each other. To get this effect, I start right next to the end of the carved and beveled line where the stem or leaves join. I tap the stamp a harder here so that I get a larger and slightly deeper stamp first. I then begin to lean the stamp away from me at the top and tap each succeeding one a little lighter until it is almost invisible.

Mule foot stamp use - 1, 2, & 3

Be sure not to hit this stamp too hard because it can go clear through the leather. Trust me, I have done it before and stamps making holes through the leather are not good. I also lean the stamp away from myself each time I tap it when I have a number of them in a row. It may just be the way my stamp is made, but what will happen is that it will close up the previous stamp or change the way it looks. Again, look at numbers 1 and 2 to see how I did it.

In example number “3” I used pretty much the whole stamp to get this effect on this part of the stem. I started at the round-pointed tip of the stem to place my first stamp. I then lined up the point of the stamp with the back tips of the stamp. (Do you know how hard it is to describe this process?) I then stamped two more that I lined up with the back tips of the previous stamp impression. After each set of stamps, depending on the width of the stem or leaf, I continued in the same manner to complete this stem.

One of the most artistic features of stamping leather is the “decorative cuts.” Decorative cuts are made with the swivel knife on the pattern after all the stamping is completed. Make sure that you have stamped everything that you want before you start making decorative cuts on any pattern. Otherwise, it can get pretty ugly if you try to stamp something over the decorative cuts. It will not work if you say, “I meant to do it that way.” Just double and triple check your design to make sure that you have stamped everything that you need to. You may be able to get away with using a small stamp near a decorative cut, but because leather will pull a little with each stamp you probably want to let it go.

In the photo below you can see the decorative cuts or “cuts” have been added to the design. There is really no set rule for doing the cuts. If you have a way you would like to do them, go for it. If you look at the leaf that comes our just on the left center you can see that I made the cut closer to the edge of the leaf and then came in closer to the center of the leaf. Look at the leaf on the bottom right, you can see this even better on it. (You might want to look at the decorative cuts in a little more detail towards the end of this post.) The leaf on the far right towards the bottom shows how making the cut short can be as attractive as following the edge around a leaf.

Decorative cuts added to design

If you look at the leaf that we put the veiner and camouflage stamps on you can see a few short decorative cuts have been added to the outer edges of these stamp impressions. It is not necessary to do these cuts in the same manners as these. Some leather craftsmen might use a cut similar to the one on the leaf that is on the bottom right. You can use combinations as well when you do the decorative cuts.

On the left-hand side of the photo above you can see how a combination of cuts can add a special look to your design. The leaf that appears to be curled around with one edge over the top of the other has a combination of cuts to dress it up. You will notice that the cut that follows the top edge of this leaf does not go all the way around. This serves two purposes for me. First, I like the effect of the additional cuts following the edge of the leaf. I used to make them follow almost the whole edge of the leaf. Second, by keeping these cuts shorter keeps me from getting “target fixation.” By that I mean that I get to concentrating so much in making the cut right that I might go over the edge of the leaf.

The photo below shows three stages of how a decorative cut is made. First, for a cut similar to the ones on the leaves shown above, I turn my swivel knife so that the blade would be almost parallel with my body to start the cut. In the case of the photo below, the cut starts almost parallel with the edge of the piece of leather. I put one end of the blade on the leather, press down firmly and begin to rotate the barrel of the swivel knife. As you rotate the barrel of the swivel knife release the pressure a little bit as you make the cut until done.

Basic steps in making a decorative cut

In this photo you will see a triangle looking cut. That is to show how it will look when you start the process. The cut just below this one shows how it will look if you proceed on with it, rotating the barrel as you slowly pull the swivel knife toward you. The third line shows the cut completed. Always make your decorative cuts in one motion. It is easier to make the complete cut, even if you have to rotate the piece a little to finish it. It is very difficult to keep a decorative cut looking good if you pick up the swivel knife from the cut and then put it back to finish a cut. If necessary, just add another shorter line just a little ways from the end of the previous line. Another tip, when carving leather or making decorative cuts always make them towards you body. You will have much more control of the swivel knife if you pull rather than try to push.

The photo below shows the stamping project in its completed state. If you look at the flower petals you will notice that there is a little different way that I did those decorative cuts. I like to make the larger cuts a little farther apart and add the smaller ones between them. The leaf on the lower left side of the pattern shows how the petal would look without the smaller cuts added in between the larger ones.

Stamping project completed using all stamps and swivel knife

The photo of the stamping project finished is completely dry. Notice how dark the areas of the flower and leaves are even after the leather has dried. If I had stamped it too wet it would not look nearly as good because there would be no bruising where the stamps were used. Also, look at the center of the flower. Do you see how I used the mule foot stamp to accent that area of the flower? If you look back at the previous posts you will be able to see how plain this flower looked before I added the mule foot to it.

I will be back with another post as soon as I can and I hope to have some photos of another project. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions. Either I will answer them by email or I will show the answer by example with photographs here on the blog.

Let me hear from you, and have fun!

Pear Shader, Camouflage, and Veiner Stamps

With the background completed it is time to begin using the other stamps to finish the design. In completing this project I used all of the recommended stamps to give an example of how the stamps are used in the various areas of the design.

The first stamp that I used is the pear shader to give some texture or definition to the flower petals and the leaves. Some may think that the pear shader is not really pear shaped but more oval. It does not matter how you look at it, the name was there a long time before I started doing leather work.

Looking at the photo below you can see the areas that there are various dark spots on the flower petals and various places on the leaves. If you look closely at the petals on the flowers you will see that I used the stamp in the areas that are curved outward. I leaned the stamp back so that I would not get the whole stamp on the flower. Leaning the stamp when striking it with you mallet will give it more of a blended look. If you hold the stamp straight up and down the whole stamp will show and it will be necessary to do try to blend it in.

Camouflage stamp used on the carved pattern

You will notice that there is a number “1” on the lower right-hand petal. This is an example of, for the lack of a better word, the blended effect of the pear shader. You can see that the impressions in the leather extend more toward the center of the flower. To do this, I first tilted the stamp a little back to get a deeper impression in the leather. I then straightened it up some and then moved it a little and tapped it with the mallet. I repeated the process of moving the stamp and tapping it a little lighter each time until I got the desired effect.

One of the interesting things about using leather stamps is that you do not necessarily need to hold them flat or straight up and down to use them. A pear shader can be tilted to the left or right, backwards or forwards, or however you want to do it. In most of the tooling/stamping that I do with a pear shader I use the back of the stamp the most. I like the effect that the heel of the stamp provides when I use it. Sometimes a curve on a leaf or petal is too small for the heel of the stamp, so I use the point of the stamp in the same manner as I would the heel.

If you go online and look at the leather stamps that are available, you will find that there are a lot of different pear shaders that are available. There are shaders that are longer or wider and some that have different patterns on them. The nice thing about the different stamps is that they will allow the user to add more textures or effects to the design. Also, just because the photo-carve pattern shows a different stamp than you have does not mean that you need to buy that stamp. You are the artist and you can establish your own style.

The next stamp that I used on this project was the camouflage. (This photo also shows the veiner. I do not have a photo of just the camouflage stamp.) It can be used in many different areas of a pattern to give different effects and textures to the design. Looking at the photo below you can see in the area of number “1” that I used the camouflage stamp on the right side of the center of the leaf. Number “2” shows how I used the camouflage to texture the petal from the center to about two-thirds of the way out. I tried to tap the stamp a little more lightly with each move so that it would more or less fade out. (I really do not like this effect.) At number “3” you can see that I tapped the stamp only once, which is what I did on the other three petals.

Camouflage and Veiner stamps used - check the descriptions for each number

In the photo above you can see that I used the veiner, shown in number “4” which is on the left-hand side of the leaf. As with the camouflage stamp I leaned it a little to get only a partial impression of the stamp. In most cases, you will find that using the whole surface of a stamp, such as the veiner; will cause it to overlap other areas of the pattern. The idea behind using the veiner and camouflage stamps in the center of the leaf is to give it texture as well as some vertical dimension. In other words, these stamps can help make a leaf or another part of your pattern look as if it has more depth.

As well as using the veiner to give more texture to the center of leaves, it can be used in other areas to give a bit of a finishing touch to a carved line. Number “5” in the photo above shows where I used a veiner at the end of the line to finish it or “stop” it. To do this, turn the leather so that you can see the line. Place the stamp so that the inside of the curve is even with the carved and beveled line. Lean the stamp towards the end of the line. In the case of number “5” I used the right end of the stamp and leaned it in that direction. If you look closely at the pattern that I tooled, you can see other places that I used the veiner as a stop.

Something that I like to do with the veiner that I did not show in this photo is to use the veiner on the petals of a flower. In a similar manner to the example of the camouflage stamp radiating out from the center of the flower, the veiner may be a more effective stamp to use to achieve this effect. I will try to get a photo of a carved flower using the veiner radiating out from the center in a later post.

One last thing, I decided after I had taken the photo of the camouflage stamp that I had missed a spot that I should have probably have used the stamp. Number “6” marks the area that I went back and used the pear shader later in the process. That is one of the cool things with doing leather work, you can go back and add some more texture if you choose.

Have fun!

Using the Background Stamp

In the previous post I put a note below the carving pattern photo. If you look closely at the right-hand side of the photo you will notice a number “1” just above one of the leaves. I put it there to point out an error that I made when I was transferring the pattern to the leather. Looking at the leaf next to the number you will notice that there is a line going down the center of it. That was not supposed to be there. I let the pattern slip while I was transferring it to the leather. This line is in a pretty obvious place, even if you are not looking for it. See if I was fortunate enough to hide it with the tooling used on the pattern.

Carving pattern on the leather - look at number "1"

The previous example shows that even a seasoned pro can make mistakes if he or she gets into too much of a hurry. You will find that most mistakes, and the most costly ones, are those that you make because you either took a shortcut or tried to go too fast. If you look at the cause of a lot of accidents in almost any industry you will find that people were in too much of a hurry or took a shortcut to get the job done. In this case, I weighted down the left side of the pattern so that I could get a good photo to show. I usually do not do it this way. I find that for me, the best way to keep the pattern aligned is to put the weight on the longer side of the pattern, which would have been at the top.

I decided that it was not necessary to photograph this project after I had gotten the carving complete. You can tell from the following photos that I actually did carve the pattern into the leather. You can look over the carving if you would like but I would like you to look closely at the background that is stamped around the top edges of the flower petal too. Although it is difficult to see, the background on the left is not stamped with the depth or distinction that I like to see. The background on the right is stamped the manner with which I like to see it done.

 I purposely tried to stamp the one on the left light so that you would notice the difference between good background stamping and mediocre stamping. It is pretty difficult to distinguish the difference between the two because of the quality of the photos, but if you had the project in hand you would definitely see the difference. (This particular background stamp is good for the beginner to start with because it is fairly forgiving in that you can go back over lightly stamped areas to fix them up.)

Also, notice that in the background area on the right side of the flower petal that I stamped the perimeter first. I like to do this so that I can be sure that I do not stamp over the top of the pattern itself. I do this by turning the project, keeping the lines right in front of me, which allows me to see exactly where I need to place the stamp.

Background stamping begun - compare the areas

Before beginning to stamp the background make sure that you are stamping the right area. If you stamp even a small area with the background stamp and it was not supposed to be done that way, it is almost impossible to hide or incorporate it into the design. The background stamp is designed to mash down the grain of the leather so that it appears to be below the upper surface of the pattern itself. I have done this more than once and it can be a costly thing if it is as obvious as the nose on your face.

Remember, the background is the area of the pattern that looks as if it should be behind the rest of flower parts. If you purchase a kit to make belt or wallet, there will probably be what some call a “photo-carve” pattern included. Simply put, this is a photograph of a completely stamped/tooled project that will help you to know where to place the different tools that you will be using.

Having done leather work for as long as I have I find that I do not need or want to look at a photo-carve pattern to complete a design. I do use a photo-carve if I notice a certain feature that I would like to incorporate into the design. Otherwise, I like to pretty much do my own thing when I stamp a pattern on the leather. If I am making something that has two separate areas of pattern that is tooled on them I like to look back at how I did the first one so that I can be sure that I am doing them the same.

The photo below shows the background stamping completed. If you look to the upper left side of the flower petal you may be able notice that I went back and re-stamped the background to make it more uniform with the rest. I like the way that stamping the background first sort of makes the pattern jump out at you from the start.

Background stamping completed - look closely at 1 & 2.

This pattern does not have a lot of background, which is nice. The most used stamp that I have is the background. It is one of the smallest in the arsenal of stamps and it can be very tiring to use. The background stamp is also one stamp that will more or less make or break the quality of the tooling on the pattern. If the background is not done well the rest of the pattern will not look good either.

Looking back up at the previous photo of the background you will notice that I superimposed two numbers on the photo of areas I wanted you to notice. The number “1” shows the line that went awry when I was transferring the pattern onto the leather. Number “2” shows the error even farther down into the pattern. Anyway you look at it; I made a mistake on this part of the pattern. Come back again to view the following posts to see if I successfully managed to hide this error or only make it less obvious.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Have fun!

Transferring the Pattern to the Leather

As you can see from the previous posts, I have an order in which I like to get my “stuff” done. I am not superstitious and I do not think that I will disturb the time continuum if I do not keep the order the same every time. Actually, I probably change the process each time I work on a project just to keep the tedium at a minimum and to give myself a little more of a challenge. By the way, did I mention that my initials are “BS?” That may be the case with my initials, but I will be open and honest about the things that I try to accomplish on this blog. As I have told many people before, “There are not any secrets to what I do.”

Somewhere in the order of things I like to strop my swivel knife before I begin carving. I find that if it is not done before I start carving that I get a little upset at having to do it almost immediately after starting. It is just a lot easier to be ready the first time that I start a carving project. The photo below shows a block of white jeweler’s rouge, a piece of leather that is 1½ inches wide and close to 15 inches long, and the swivel knife that I use for 99 percent of my carving. Strop your swivel knife blade when you feel it starting to drag. Stropping your blade fairly often will help with reducing the pain and muscle fatigue you might feel when beginning to do this type of work.

Swivel knife, white jeweler's rouge, leather strap

I tried to explain the stropping system in an earlier post, but if you will bear with me I will try to explain it a little better. If you look at a swivel knife blade you will see that it has two distinct edges. Looking at one end of the blade you will see that it is “V” shaped. To properly strop the blade make sure that the blade is held flat on the leather with the jeweler’s rouge rubbed on it. Slowly drag it across about six inches of the leather and do this around four times per side. It will take time for the blade to become well polished, but you will find that it will pay dividends as you proceed on with other carving projects.

It really does not matter if you strop your swivel knife before or after the next step. Once you have placed the masking tape on the back of your light-weight leather, you will need to spray it to get it moist so that you can work with it. Again, if you are using light-weight leather I would advise that you use a spray bottle to moisten the leather while using a mist type of spray. Try to moisten the leather evenly and then cover it with a plastic bag or something that will keep the moisture from evaporating. You should be able to begin transferring the pattern to the leather within 15-20 minutes after spraying it. It can show a little dampness but it should not look as if it is wet!

When the leather is ready to work, line up the tracing/carving pattern on the leather and weight it down or tape it to your working surface on either the two upper or two lower corners. The idea is to minimize the movement of the tracing pattern as you use the ballpoint stylus to trace over the pattern to transfer it to the leather. In the photo below you can see part of the weight bag holding the pattern on the leather, at least to a certain degree.

Tracing pattern on leather with weight bag on the left

If you notice a little shine on the surface of the tracing/carving pattern that is the packaging tape that I applied to it. You can also see that the tracing paper is a little translucent and that the leather is somewhat visible under it. The moisture in the leather might add to the translucency of the paper but that does not matter, the main thing is that it works! I used to use lined notebook paper or just about any paper that I had lying around to trace my patterns. After the first use of tracing paper I was sold. Be sure that you use enough pressure to transfer the lines to the leather. Do not “scare” the leather, “assault” it.

After you have transferred the pattern to the leather you will want to make sure that all of the carving lines are on the leather before you begin carving. Without moving the leather or the pattern, carefully lift the tracing pattern from the side that is not weighted or taped down. Lift it only enough to make sure that all of the lines are there. I find that I will more often than not I have missed transferring a line or two. After double checking for missed lines remove the tracing pattern from the leather to begin carving the pattern.

Pattern to be carved on leather - #1 to be discussed in next post.

When ready to begin, I would look at the flower as the point to start carving. When possible make your cuts going away from the other lines so that you do not get overlapping cuts on your design. It may not be possible to always carve away from other lines, but do be careful to stop at least a little short of those lines. Make sure that you do not have anything in the way while working on your project. I like to turn my carving projects while cutting the lines on the leather. You will find that carving things like flowers is a lot easier if you turn the project while carving. That way you will not have to stand on your head to carve the lines that are not so easy to finish in one position.

Another thing, do not carve lines so that you have two starting points that meet somewhere in the middle. It will be fairly obvious to you if you do it because the points at which the lines join may not match well. One reason for the mismatching lines is that you will invariably hold the swivel knife at a slight angle when you carve. I do this and I can see the effect when I try to cheat. If you cannot completely carve a line on your pattern in one move, carefully lift your swivel knife off the leather and rotate the project to a more comfortable position. After rotating the leather, place the blade back in the cut where you stopped and finish carving the line.

For more information about carving leather and how to hold the swivel knife look back at the “More about Carving Leather” post. If you have questions about the process be sure to let me know. If I can I will be glad to answer them.

Have fun!