bex DK

As well as for canning, paraffin is also used to make dipping chocolate. I remember that from way-back-when before dipping chocolate caps were readily available. So places that supply candy people might have it. But most likely you need a larger grocery store or one oriented to a more old-fashioned clientele.

What size stuff do you plan to make? Large or small projects? How fine details? My tool seletion is pretty limited yet. What I use absolutely the most is a slightly textured beveler. I like the effect that has when beveling around the outside of things. Then I have a smooth one for the insides. I still have barely figured out how to use my camaflouging tools and the veiners. I am less experienced than a lot on here, but I would recommend a smooth and textured beveler in a small-to-medium size. Then the figure carving tool that looks like a tiny pear shader. It tends to work well for beveling the tiny bits. A pear shader for putting depth in things, and a backgrounder or matting tool that you like. Add a modeling spoon. You can do a lot with that selection. Of course a swivel knife for cutting it out. Looking at your examples of what you want to do, I think that will ocver a lot of it. Maybe a seeder or two? Now I am adding more figure carving tools to my supplies. A figure carving beveler for inside horses and such (see the recent horse carving thread for numbers), a textured triangular beveler for getting into corners... Write to Tandy to request a copy of their catalog. Then you can see what size the tool impressions are with more confidence than the pics online. That will make it easier to work out which ones you want! Another tip for picking out what to use: check Tandy's free patterns. Are there any you like? They include tool lists. Try studying the ones you like to work out where the different tools are used to figure out if it is an effect you want or if you might be happy substituting something else. Good luck! I am in Denmark and lucky to have a local shop with some of the basics.

I've only made one (the one in my avatar) and did not wet form it. But I also used upholstery leather for the main covering with the decorated piece of tooling leather sewn onto that. I like the color contrast. The heavy leather cut-to-shape pieces on top and bottom made sure the covering was in the right shape too. I did it all with lacing. I generally prefer lacing to stitching, so haven't gotten into stitching yet. It was also one of my earliest projects. One of these days, I will probably pick up some more flasks and make some to sell. On the rare occasions that my husband carries his flask, he gets a lot of admiring comments.

Tandy in the UK (online) will sell to private individuals as well as companies. What I can't remember is if the Ukraine is in the EU. If so, purchasing from another EU company is pretty easy. You can get the same stuff from them that you can from the US Tandy shops. As a private individual, you will have to pay VAT, but if you are within the EU, you won't get hit by import taxes, which are the real beast of importing from the US. If you can afford it, you can buy one of their complete kits. but otherwise you can get pretty far with a small selection of bevelers, a modeling spoon or two, and some backgrounding/matting tools to give texture. I recommend the book "Leather Tools" by Stohlman. It has care and use directions for a lot of the tools (and no, you don't need everything it mentions, although I find myself very tempted by some of it). But it also has some info on making your OWN tools. With some good files, you can probably expand your tool workshop pretty effectively.

I'm not THAT experienced yet, but I am definitely finding that now that I am letting my leather dry out a LOT more than I thought it needed to there are a LOT less tool marks! I recommend trying the leave-it-under-glass-overnight method of casing. It has made a big difference for me. You want to overlap about 2/3s on the beveler. Even when it is drier, I get nicer results with my larger beveler. My tiny undercut one still leaves marks, but they are easily smoothed with the modeling spoon. If I am getting small marks, usually putting the tool centered over the mark then a light tap from the hammer will even it out. But tha tisn't as often when I let it dry more and I'm starting to get the burnishing effect I'd been longing for. My husband even commented on the improvements in my current project.

Nice! I REALLY like it and I'm generally not a big fan of the colored stuff.

Just got ours from Brenda at Laser gifts. Her shipping to Denmark was under $14 for TWO. We got a larger one with logo, name, and DENMARK on it and a small one with only logo. Really nice work. So even with the dollar going up, the rates are quite reasonable. Of course we had to pay Danish tax and a customs fee for importing, but even with that it seems quite fairly priced. We had asked at the local leather shop... she said the US was the only option for getting something...

Cutting patterns or tooling patterns?

Thanks! Now I just need to convince the husband of the value of the investment in all these tools. ;-)

Thank you very much! I already have F902, F899, and A104. I didn't think A104 matched that beveler very well. The problem for me with ordering the Peter Main modeling tool is that I owuld have to pay customs and fees as well as the purchase price and shipping. That can easily end up far more than the tool costs. So I think I will make do with the Tandy ones for now. I have one, but it annoys me sometimes. I feel like it scratches the leather. It probably needs to be stropped but I won't have rouge until I make this order anyway. Both of you recommend F895, so I will go with that one as a good middle tool but probably the spoon, although it isn't the best tool, for the remaining modeling. I already use the spoon to smooth and round, so I am pretty comfortable using it. I think my F902 is a newer one, but it seems pretty well pointed on the one end. Otherwise it mostly resembles a tiny pear shader. But it seems to work pretty well in the corners when I tip it a little. I played with it working on a floral pattern on spur straps yesterday. I think the modeling tool I have (stylus and spoon) is an older style.. the spoon is pretty big. That makes me wonder whether I might do better adding 8039-01 for the smaller ends instead of 8039-02, but it is so hard to know when I can't play with them. :-( Do you use mainly a regular swivel knife blade or an angled one? I only have a reg one but I am wondering if I might find the angled one easier to manage for the smaller details. Thanks for the advice!!

Thanks for those patterns!

Thanks for the complements! We had tried cleaning the spots with lexol but it made no difference.

Kathy, would you mind giving some advice on what you consider the most essential figure carving tools for doing horses? My budget is limited so I have to select carefully. I got the Figure Carving Finesse book for xmas and that left me feeling like my tool box is pitiful and wanting everything, but I have to prioritize. I figure the hair blade or tool is a definite must, but what else is most essential? I am sure I need some figure carving bevelers, but I don't know what sizes are most essential. I will probably mostly be working with heads and whole or partial horses on wallets and notebooks--so a pretty moderate size. I worry about going too small as well, because it seems like a smaller tool is harder to hide tool marks on a larger area. But maybe you or someone else can advise on a few that would work well together? From looking at the catalog, I was guessing that I might do okay with F891 and F896 for starters, but it is so ahrd to know! I have been experimenting with using F902 as a pointed beveler. It seems to work for the smooth stuff. Any idea of a pointed beveler that can match the texture of B702? I've fiddled with using F902 but I can't get the texture into the small areas and it does seem noticeable. That is better than nothing however. The local shop only has a few tools on hand and it will be cheaper for me to order directly from Tandy in the UK when they need to be ordered anyway. So I can't just go down to a local shop and look at them. :-( Advice would be greatly appreciated. And no, I won't blame anyone else if the suggestions end up not working for me. I know some preference is very personal, but I have to start somewhere and an experienced person is probably a better bet than guessing from the catalog.

Yeah, long belts are a pain. The one I did for my father was 48" at the middle hole, but I didn't do a solid patterna nd it wasn't so wide. Some oak leaves, his initials repeated a few times, and some lacing effects. The worst is trying to get the moisture level right for the whole length! I kept part of it rolled in a plastic bag but it was still a pain.

If this weren't an xmas present for my mother, I'd have had to throw it out and start over. It was all finished and we got it wet to shape it. Large ugly black spots developed on the front under the flap. Because of my health problems, there was no way I could redo it any time in the near future. It actually looks better for real than in pictures. So I'm not as proud of the final result as I'd like to have been, but it is all a learning process. My mother loves it and carries it proudly, so I shouldn't feel too bad. She's gotten a lot of praise from people who don't know her daughter made it for her, too. Anyway, the entire design, both structure and tooling, is our own. The floral pattern is far from classic. Trillium is a favorite, so I used that. I am posting despite the flaws so people here have some idea what I'm messing around with when I post things. Flaws I know about: 1) Not enough burnishing in the tooling--it was too wet probably. I am finally, a few projects later, getting a grasp of how dry it needs to be. 2) Under the flap--in desperation, we textured the spotted leather with sandpaper. Looks awful in pics, okay for real. 3) My lacing twists. Not sure how to prevent it, but need to practice more. Thanks for letting me participate in this forum! bex

Basic is good! I like basic. Finding your drawings very inspirational and encouraging for doing more work of my own.

My first thought was daffodil. But that may be way off. Reason for that is the cup-like thing in the middle. Something I don't think dogwoods resemble at all. I am sure there are other flowers built similarly.

I really like the design! Good work for your first personal design! looks much more classic than the one floral I have designed completely from scratch. Perhaps you could just eliminate the central flower and either leave the fold area untooled or tie the two sides together with some vines?

Maybe some of the free spur patterns at tandy could work as inspiration? You could probably copy elements out of those to convert into a belt. Or else look at the billfold patterns there or on Jim Linell's site. Some of those could probably be scaled effectively or, again, used as a design base for tracing into a new pattern that repeats nicely. I am not much use for ideas, becaus eI can't effectively picture a man with a floral belt. I know it happens and I am sure a lot of the men I know would like one just fine if I made it, but personally I'd be more likely to put more focus on leaves than flowers in one I tooled. Oak leaves and some of the vine patterns are quite nice. I did oak leaves scaled off the spur strap pattern for a belt for my father, but it was a narrower belt than you are talking about.

Thanks! That explains the veiner that I was still wondering about. It'll probably be a bit yet before I get to making it. My health prevents me from doing much at a time and I want to finish my spur straps before I get to the purse. I thought I had them closer to finished, but I messed up the one.. I mirrored the ENTIRE design, including the logo that doesn't work mirrored. I didn't notice it until long after it was finished. That was my punishment for trying to work on designs while down with a concussion from a riding accident. But I like to be prepared for my next project and the tools were worrying me, hence my post here. Not sure if I will get the one for the center or do like it looks like Jim did on some of his OTHER sunflower patterns--he used the seeder on the inside section as well, but seemed to have flattened it first, so it was still recessed and the design less prominent. I don't have lined pear shaders so will just make do with the smooth... I am sure I can make something that looks okay anyway. But my biggest challenge is casing. I did finally get some decent burnishing on this last piece for my spur straps... I have to let the leather dry a lot more than I feel like I ought to. I need a few more tools for the horse part of the planned design for that wallet and probably a bit of practice too. I got the figure carving finesse book for xmas and it made me want to invest far more than i can afford in tools. The hard part is deciding which ones to prioritize!

I had googled pics but I couldn't imagine a way to tool what I saw effectively--probably because I am not yet experienced enough and my tool selection is pretty limited. But Jim Linell did answer me on twitter. elktracks @bexDK The center of the sunflower is done with the seed tool for most of it but the center area is stamped down with F924. So now I know what was intended and can decide from there.

Thanks everyone for the responses and encouragement! We have a local leather store with supplies, especially dyes and hides, but not the level of tooling experience. I checked out the pointed to Jim Linnell site. Thank you! The free patterns there include one that used to be on Tandy's site that I used once and failed to keep an extra copy of. I've been kicking myself for it since Tandy dropped some from the site. So I am a very happy person for that one! Additionally, the other sunflower designs are tooled differently than the one on the Tandy site! In several of those, he used the plain seeder on the inner flattened section as well as the outer ring. So that is probably a good way for me to do it. I did write to him on twitter to ask, but who knows if he will have time to respond. So now I just need to practice a few centers on some scrap leather. I'm not so worried about the petals.. that is pretty typical of the work I've been doing otherwise. Thanks again! Rebecca

I am trying to make a wallet for a friend (a woman's wallet) and one thing I wanted on it was sunflowers. So I found the free Tandy pattern, which turns out to work quite well for my needs. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/home/freepatterns/FP0022.aspx?feature=Product_10 The problem is that I can't figure out how they tooled the centers. The outside part with the seeder, I get, but what is the middle done with? I work with limited tools--slowly building up my collection and often make do with what I have unless I really need something. But I went through the tool list to see if I could make more sense out of it that way. My best guess for the centers from the list was maybe F924, but mostly because I can't figure out where else it could have been used. It isn't one I have. Another question left is what the heck did V407 get used for in that design? I happen to have that one, but I can't figure out where it has been used. It left me wondering if the lists were "expanded" to encourage tool purchase by newbies... Even if you don't know how it has been done there, suggestions for doing it would be appreciated. I'm going to have to do a couple test centers to get the feel of it before I hit the wallet, but I am wondering if I might be able to get away with A104. Unfortunately this is the wrong time of year for studying real sunflowers and trying get my own ideas for tooling them. Looking at pictures left me wondering if A100 might be a good choice, but it isn't a tool I have, so I can't experiment. Not sure if it makes sense to buy it right now just to play with it and figure it out, although I am likely to find other uses for it anyway. Suggestions will be appreciated. Yes, I know I sound like an idiot with this question. I sure feel like one anyway.

I use ink jet transparencies for things I plan to make a lot, but the pen can "scratch" the ink off.

We've got two on the way now from that seller. Service was amazingly fast and great help with the design. Also very reasonable for international shipping, which often is NOT the case. It's a site I've seen recommended here a lot.