Clock Face Leather Thickness Help

[retiredff]

I am in the design stage of a clock I want to make. It will be in a shadow box and the leather will fill the inside completely and will be carved/stamped. To date I have mainly practiced carving, experimenting with the different stamp designs, basketweave etc. I have not yet tooled on a good piece of leather, I usually buy scrap, cheap belt strips or anything 'on sale' at SLC. So my question is; what weight of veg tan would be a good choice for the clock face/ interior of the box? It will be tooled/stamped and probably have multiple colors of dye/acrylic paint. My guess would be 6/7.

I have noticed while practicing some of the 3/4 and 5/6 will curl when tooled, will a heavier weight not do this?

Thanks

Tony

[Bob Blea]

Hi Tony,

A 6/7 ounce leather is probably going to have the same problem as the lighter leather. Because leather gets stretchy and formable when cased, your tooling and stamping will cause some distortions to make the leather curl, and the process of drying can also make leather curl into strange shapes. It's just less of a problem with the thicker leathers.

If I were making a clock I would glue the leather to a wooden backing inside the box. It would allow me to use the thinner leather and not have to worry about it distorting over time. If you absolutely didn't want to or couldn't glue the leather to a backing, you could clamp the edges of the project flat while it dries. The leather should hold the form or shape you clamp it in while drying.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[retiredff]

Thanks Bob for the reply. So you are saying to glue it to a board, then case and stamp/tool the leather?

My design so far is to glue it to the clock back anyway after tooling/stamping.

[Bob Blea]

I wouldn't glue it to the board first, I would do that after a do all the tooling and finishing. When I tool or stamp or carve leather I put either packing tape or plastic shelf lining paper on the back of my project to prevent stretch while working the leather. I then let it dry when I'm done, often clamping it into the desired shape or pinning down the edges so it doesn't curl while drying. Once dry I remove the tape or shelf liner. Then I would glue it to the board in the clock.

Hope this makes sense,

Bob

[retiredff]

It makes perfect sense Bob.I remembered doing this as a test awhile ago on a small piece of leather and found the roll of shelf paper I used. Thanks for the help.

Tony

[retiredff]

Bob - after applying the tape on a large piece (it could be 12"x14" or so) do you case with a sponge or spray? I wouldn't think dipping it the tape or shelf liner will hold.

Tony

[Bob Blea]

Tony, I case my leather first. I dip it in water and put it aside to dry some. It usually goes into a bag to sit overnight in the refrigerator. When I'm ready to work on it I bring it back out and let it dry until it's about ready to carve. That's when I attach either my tape or shelf liner to the back. I then use a slicker to compress the grain side and press it down onto the liner. If the leather has the right moisture content for tooling the liner will stick to it.

[retiredff]

Thanks Bob. I thought that is how I did it last time but it was on a small wallet sized piece. This will be 12"x14" or larger.

Tony

[Bob Blea]

That's a pretty big carving and it will distort and want to curl as it dries. In a class I was in once Robert Beard recommended that if you needed something to dry flat you needed to put something on top of it to hold it flat as it dries. I didn't ask for details and I'm not sure exactly how you would do that. He was talking about putting the project under a book (at least that's what I thought he was saying) but it seems like it would take forever to dry without the ability for air to circulate.

One alternative I just thought of would be to cut your leather oversize, make your carving and then tack it down to a board when complete. You would put the tacks in the margin outside of the part you plan on using on the clock. It should dry flat, then you cut off the excess with the marks from your tacks. Just be careful because most metal tacks are iron based and will react with the wet leather leaving dark discoloration around the holes they make. It will spread a bit from the tack so don't put them so close to your project edge that they ruin it.

[retiredff]

As I was reading I thought of making the leather larger than needed then use staples to hold it flat until it dries. I'm drawing up some clock faces and other info I may put on it (the entire piece won't be carved/stamped), I then have to buy a piece of cheap leather to practice a few of these before using some good leather. After I do a few of these I should have an idea how the leather will act after tooling and I can adjust as needed.

Thanks Bob -

Tony

Edited January 6, 2016 by retiredff

[Northmount]

I have placed the tooled leather on a flat clean surface, face down. Then covered it with a towel, or paper towel and placed a weight on top. The surface you place it on must be smooth, else it will transfer the irregularities to the leather. People have laid it on paper towel and then wondered where the funny pattern came from.

You'll have to remove your backing material first as it needs to dry from the back.

Tom

[retiredff]

how much weight? And if it's as large as the leather will that slow the drying?

Thanks for another option -

Tony

[Northmount]

Needs to be the same size as the leather or larger. 3/4" plywood likely has enough weight by itself. You don't want to squash your tooling.

Yes it takes longer to dry, you can change the towel or paper towel every couple hours to help hurry it up, and inspect how it is drying.

Tom

[retiredff]

Thanks Tom.