How to Use a Beveller on Your Project

Here I am with a new post, finally. Again, I apologize for not getting it put out here for you to take a look at and learn a little more about my craziness. I have been pretty busy with other facets of my life, mostly doing as little as possible, mainly procrastinating. Anyway, here comes another verbose post with a few more photos to help you decide whether you want to be a leather craftsman or not.

In the last post, I discussed using a few different methods of finishing your project after the carving and stamping was finished. In doing this series of posts on finishing leather, I discovered some new ideas that I liked pretty well and at least one I will not recommend or use myself. That being said, I do not have a problem if someone does want to finish his or her project in any way different from mine. It probably will not look as good as mine will… Actually, it will probably look much better than mine will and I hope it does.

The photo below shows the same piece of leather that I had stamped and finished using the cream saddle soap. If you look back on the photo of this little project, you will notice that the leather had more of a darker cast to it. That is because the saddle soap had not dried completely. I had not looked at it since I ome other things. You will notice that it seems a little duller than the first photograph did.

Project finished with cream saddle soap, shown previously, after one month.

I do use the cream saddle soap for other purposes and it works very well. I believe that it is an excellent product but I would not put it on something prior to using a different finishing type of product. I have used it on saddles to restore the leather and I have found it invaluable for softening and lubricating the lacing that I used to lace up the leather coverings on stirrups and on cowboy cuffs. Maybe I can show the lace that I am talking about and how I use the cream saddle soap.

Now with that rant out of the way, I want to talk about using some of the leather stamps over the next few posts. The first one that I will cover is the beveller because it can make or break the looks of your project. The beveller is used create a distinction between the layers of your pattern, such as the petals on a flower over the top of some leaves or the stem. It can pretty much add beauty to your project or it can add a touch of “elegance” that you wished it had not. It will take some practice to figure out your beveller and its individual characteristics.

I believe that you will find that many mass produced leather stamps will each have their own unique characteristics. It is not that they are not of good quality, but each one will have a slightly different angle running from the front or toe of the stamp to the back or the heel. This angle might not vary a lot but it might be enough that you would notice a difference. If you were to use three of the same numbered stamps though, you might find that each would produce a slightly different impression on the leather.

The Tandy Leather Company made the first stamps that I purchased. I was very excited to get them and I was really very cool, I was a leather craftsman! After the new wore off I noticed that my competition, at least that what I thought of them as, were using different bevellers than me. Theirs had a crosshatched pattern on them that was enough to knock my socks off and I had to have one. I fell in love with the texture that this beveller added to my projects. Did I say it was really cool?

When I worked in the saddle shop, one of the saddle makers offered to let me try his custom made bevellers. I had already used my beveller for over twenty years and as perfect as his stamps seemed to be, I could not fall in love with them. I went back to my Tandy beveller because I knew what to expect from it and I still do.

The photos shown below show a comparison between different bevellers. The first photo shows that the basic difference is pretty much in the width of the stamps. If you look closely at the front edges of the stamps, you will notice that the bevellers are not straight across the bottom or the point at which they contact the leather. This is by design to help the user not to have what might be called “trailing edges” showing along the beveled line. This happens because the stamp is angled across the front from one side to the other or because the user had the stamp tilted while using it.

Front or toe view of three different bevellers

The bevellers shown above accomplish the same purpose, but the two larger ones are used in stamping larger projects. I have seen them recommended mostly for use in completing figure-carving patterns where some of the lines can be very long. For example, someone might use one of wider bevellers to bevel the sky behind some mountains, or the mountains behind something in the foreground. The photo below shows the bevellers from the heel side of the stamps.

Back or heel view of the three bevellers.

You will notice that the wider bevellers have more of an overall curve on the stamping surface. If you look closely, you will notice the unique characteristic of the beveller on the right side of the photo. Look at the left edge of the stamp and you will see that it is lower than the one on the right. I realize that the stamp angled slightly in the photo, but the edges are not even. This could have a drastic effect for someone who bevels from left to right or vice versa. Being right handed I prefer to bevel my lines from right to left, although I can do it either direction.

How each of the three bevellers looks after stamped

Looking at the photo above, you can see how each beveller looks after one whack with the mallet. I chose these examples to demonstrate the challenges that you might run into using a beveller. Looking closely at the two larger bevellers, you will notice that there is a slight difference in shape of the stamps. The smooth-faced beveller on the left produces a trapezoid like impression in the leather. The large crosshatched beveller in the center is almost semicircle from the front to back of the impression. The beveller on the right gave more of a square like impression.

Each of these bevellers provide the user its own unique challenge other than just the shape of the front of the stamp being a little less than perfect. The shape of the stamp from the front to the back offers its own challenge. The photo below shows the three individual stamps on the left and to the right of the crosshatched beveller you will notice a series of impressions created with the smooth-faced beveller. Look closely at those impressions. If you were to move the beveller to the right one full width of the stamp, the carved line would look as if it were not completely beveled. Ridges will be left between the stamp impressions. The same holds true for the other two bevellers as well.

Smooth-Faced beveller used to the right of the crosshatched sample

The other issue that you will notice is that the back of the two wider bevellers do not give the full width impression of the stamp on the heel. This means that when using them it will be necessary to move the beveller no more than half of the width of the stamp to the left or the right, depending which way you are moving it. The photo below demonstrates this challenge well when using the large crosshatched beveller. The ridges between the stamp strikes are very noticeable and will detract from what might be a job well done otherwise.

Crosshatched beveller samples

Looking at the far right end of the beveled line you can see some lines between the stamp strikes. These lines represent the “trailing edge” effect that I mentioned earlier. This can occur if the stamp is moved too far before striking it with the mallet or if the stamp is not held straight up and down. Notice how much smoother the line is after the first three of four impressions.

I am not sure how to describe the technique that I use for beveling a pattern other than what it might sound like. Rather than tap and move the stamp exactly half the width of the stamp I simply do a tap-tap-tap and move the stamp only a little between strikes. It will take time to get this technique down, but you will find the results more rewarding and possibly much quicker. By doing this you will not have to go back and try to cover your tracks.

Not only will you need to observe the shape of the stamp, but you will also probably find that you will not want to use the whole surface of it when beveling. Some of the bevellers have a flatter angle from the toe to the heel, which means that the heel edge of the stamp at the will show. Look back at the photo showing the three bevellers and you can see the whole stamp on the leather, including the edge of the heel. When I made up this sample, I did not have to smack the stamp very hard to have the whole stamp show on the leather.

What I got in the habit of doing with bevellers is to angle the top of the stamp towards the front or toe of the stamp. This will increase the angle at which it strikes the leather and will help to keep the edge of the heel from creating an unwanted line on your project. I can promise you that this type of thing will show up on your leather and it will stick out like a sore thumb.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Have fun!