ClayB

I just heard today that Dave is cancelling quite a few classes already. Anybody know what's up???

I know what you mean. I'm glad you kept at it though, it turned out great! I really like what you did on the back too. That's just neat.

I think Doc is right, your leather is probably too wet or too dry. I'd guess too wet. After you wet your leather, let it dry until the leather is almost back to original color and then cut your design with your swivel knife. Then start beveling. If your moisture content is just right, your beveling will be easier to do (smoother) and your leather will get a nice burnish (slight brown color). Turn your leather over and look at the back side. If the moisture content is right, you should also be able to see your beveled line on the back side as a pretty noticeable brown mark. If your leather is too wet, your cuts can close back up, your beveling might be choppy or mushy (leather moves around instead of mashing down. Learning proper moisture content for carving take some practice, but when you get it just right, you'll know it.

Luis, A couple things about using a veiner. Usually you will need to tilt the tool to one side. I don't know that there is ever a time when you would stamp the whole tool impression when doing floral work. If you are doing the vein in the center of a leaf, you would set the tool so one edge is on the center line and then tip the tool up so the other edge doesn't come in contact with the leather. Then you need to space the tool impressions evenly. Usually you are veining along a slight curve, or a spiral. In either case, the tip of the tool making the impression will be spaced pretty close together, and the other end (that's not touching the leather) will have more of a gap in the impressions to make them look even as they go around the curve. I also find that a veiner that makes a fairly thin impression usually looks better than a tool that makes a thicker impression. Find some pictures from some of the people that do a lot of floral carving and study how it looks. There's lots of them here on the forum that do really nice work. Hope this helps a little.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. Having this place to hang out and so many of you as my friend is about the best present I could ask for!

I'll be interested in hearing what Kathy recommends too. If I could only have a handful of figure carving tools here's what I'd pick. Figure bevelers F890, 891 and 895. I think you're going to use the smaller ones more often than the really large one. Pointed beveler F902. If it's not got a really sharp point, file it down with a file. A figure matting tool F898 or 899. And a good modeling tool. The modeling tools Tandy is carrying now aren't too bad. If you could only afford to get one, I'd get the 8039-02. At some point in time you're going to want to get Peter Main's modeling tool. For most people that have them, it's the one they use the most. The pointed beveler F976 has a checkered pattern that should be similar to the B702. There are lots of other "specialty" tools to make different textures, tree effects and things like that. I was like you when you got a new book and thought I NEEDED them all, but there are some I've never used. When you get to the point where you want to do things like grass and trees and other background scene stuff, you'll probably want to add a few more tools.

You might want to check out some of the patterns Will Ghormley has available on his website. He's got quite a few holster patterns in his Old West Collection and they come with carving patterns.

The best ones I have I got from Jeff Mosby at Grey Ghost Graphics. He's got pictures of them on his brochure. Norm Lynds also makes them. You could email him for more info on his. Norm makes some pretty nice tools too.

Any time Chris.

I've got a maker stamp from Richard at Green Parrot and its a good stamp, but lots of people have found him not very good to deal with, including me. I'd recommend Jeff Mosby at Grey Ghost Graphics. Jeff's great to work with and has always been very reliable. His website is under construction, but he has a brochure online here with all his contact info and samples.

Hi Bex, The thing about tool lists is that they are usually just suggestions and most times there are other tools that can be substituted that will do just as good a job. Most teachers will encourage you to experiment with the tools you have if you don't have all the ones they used. I think you could achieve pretty good results with many different background tools for the center of the sunflower. Maybe even a combination of different ones for a special texture effect. Jim does an amazing job on sunflowers. He's got a couple more sunflower patterns available for free download on his website There's also a place to contact him from his website. Might not hurt to just ask him how he did it. Nobody could answer that better than he can.

Good for you Chris on trying to get this going. I know Jan wanted to go that direction a few years ago when you held the IFOLG show out there. I really hope you can line up enough people to make the class a reality. Jan is a great teacher and I think anyone that attends a class with him will learn a lot. I'm excited to be headed to Billings to spend a couple weeks with him the first part of March to learn how he did his grizzly bear that sticks out 6 inches.

Hi Jannicke, That's a neat pattern and you did a nice job on it. If you get a chance before you color it, use a modeling tool to smooth some of the beveling marks. On the picture you can see what I mean if you look at his leg, it looks like a small ridge. Cleaning that up and rounding over most of the beveled edges will give your carving just a little more finished look. I can't wait to see how you color it and how it looks finished.

Thanks for the response Kate. I guess that makes sense as far as organization goes. When I started my own blog a while ago, I felt it was a place for less formal, more personal type articles that would be read more by family and close friends, not a place to do more serious type teaching articles. I always figured the individual sections of the forum were a more appropriate place for those. Guess I'll have to re-think that.

Lots of good ideas for blog articles here Kate. I'm looking forward to when this section catches on and more people start using it. Can I ask why the blog section would be where you would prefer step by step tutorials? I think that if I wanted to find out how to do something I'd first look in the section of the forum that dealt with that particular subject, or in the "how do I do that" section. Seems like it would be a lot easier to find a tutorial in a place like that than having to search through dozens (or hundreds) of blogs.

Hi Tina, It's so good to hear that you got some of your tools out again and even better to hear that you are teaching!! It looks like you are as good at teaching as you are at carving. Jannicke, Welcome to the world of leather carving and to Leatherworker.net!! It looks like leather carving talent runs in your family. Your carving is VERY good. I hope we get to see lots more from you (and your mom).

That turned out great Kate!

Kathy, You need to stop hanging out with Freak. He want's to pick his friend's noses, you want to pick your horse's nose. It's a little disturbing having all these nose picking friends!!!! I'm really glad to see you doing demos on here. Your horses are always great and so are you tutorials!!!