Floral Carving Large Areas...practice Or Technique?

[AdamTill]

Hi folks,

Over this last year I've been working on my floral carving skills in order to move towards being able to do saddle work. So far, so good, and I have a good selection of belts and nice pair of chinks that I'm pretty happy with. I also have a great cordura saddle built on a good rawhided tree that I'd like to rebuild in all-leather slowly, and so I'm starting to think about doing a fender or set of taps as my next project. The only thing I'm a little concerned about is having enough time to get the work done.

When you go to do a large area of tooling (like a fender or eagle bill tap), do you work in sections or do all of one step at once? (like bevelling or thumbprinting, for example) I think I've read here that some people will use glass sheets to keep moisture in or to case, and is it a question of doing all the carving from swivel knife work through to finish cuts in one section then moving on, or do you do ALL of the swivel knife work before moving to bevelling etc?

I seem to have a working time of about 4 hours before I'm starting to lose appropriate moisture levels. I'd rather not have to rewet areas to avoid water marks and wrecking work that's already done, but I also don't think I could tool an entire 22" tap in four hours. Am I biting off more then I can chew right now and just need to learn to run the tools quicker, or is there a technique for doing larger areas here that I'm not aware of?

Thanks for your help,

Adam

Edited September 2, 2011 by AdamTill

[electrathon]

I re-wet all the time and have never had a water mark on anything I have carved. The water here is pretty soft and I always have Pro-Carve in it, not sure if that is why or not. I commonly start a project, let it dry and then start again in a few days.

Aaron

[kseidel]

Adam,

I hope you do not think we saddlemakers always tool an entire saddle part in one sitting without ever re-wetting! Thanks for the compliment, but NO. You must periodically re-wet the surface as it dries, maintaining the moisture in the core of the leather. When you must stop, simply wrap the part in a plastic bag, and it will retain its moisture until you are able to resume. If you must leave it for several days, it will be best to either refrigerate, or let dry and re-wet later. If you let it completely dry, you may loose some of your depth when re-casing. I prefer a sprayer to re-wet, and add moisture slowly over an hour or so until sufficiently wet.

Keith

[Anonnymouse]

When I wet, myself, I just take a sponge to it and I have a glass of water nearby, and I spread it out evenly. I usually start stamping a couple minutes after wetting, but it seems to make darker spots for some reason. Not sure if this is a good method or not.

[AdamTill]

Adam,

I hope you do not think we saddlemakers always tool an entire saddle part in one sitting without ever re-wetting! Thanks for the compliment, but NO. You must periodically re-wet the surface as it dries, maintaining the moisture in the core of the leather. When you must stop, simply wrap the part in a plastic bag, and it will retain its moisture until you are able to resume. If you must leave it for several days, it will be best to either refrigerate, or let dry and re-wet later. If you let it completely dry, you may loose some of your depth when re-casing. I prefer a sprayer to re-wet, and add moisture slowly over an hour or so until sufficiently wet.

Keith

Ah...there seems to have been a fundamental flaw in my education somewhere! I think I read the part about losing tooling depth when you rewet, and generalized it to be "never rewet". This will make life considerably easier.

I must confess, having seen some of the TCAA work, I was trying to picture doing those pieces in a single sitting with great admiration. The admiration is still there, but there's a sense of relief now on my end!

I've had Jeremiah Watt's carving DVDs on order from my local leather supply place for about 6 months now...maybe I'll bug them again to see if those are finally in...

Thanks all, much appreciated.

Adam