Harag

Thanks, I've looked at the BK tools, and being from the U.K. the shipping is expensive. The cheapest maul was $50 and the shipping to UK is $33. Unless there is something similar in the UK, I can't justify 55-60 pounds sterling on a hammer just yet. Though I must say he does seem to be popular over in the US. BK - Move to the UK, or get a shop outlet over here please

Thanks for the input Cyber, appreciated as always. When casing I do it overnight as instructed in the casing pinned topic, but I was under the impression that wetting it for that long is great for wet forming an item, so i've just been running the leather through the bowl to get even water on it. I'll try leaving it for a longer though as you say about 2 hrs to see what difference it makes to my poor tooling, I'm still learning the stamps so the tooling dosn't look much better at the moment.

I tried the 16oz, and can't hold it for more than 5 minutes when tooling, might be the angle I'm holding but it's very heavy. I'm looking at the Thor Mallets and was wondering which one to go with as the wooden mallet I use I don't know it's weight (will weigh it when I get home) so not sure which thor mallet to go for, the #2 at 190 grams sounds good: http://www.amazon.co...=rawhide mallet at the moment, I've put a couple bits of suede leather on the wooden mallet - it seems to have deaden the noise down a bit so I was thinking, maybe a rubber or rawhide mallet would be better. As well as the above rawhide mallet I've found this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cutting-board-Rubber-mallet-Mat-Hammer-Sewing-Leather-craft-Light-weight-/321111993437?pt=UK_Crafts_Leathercraft_LE&hash=item4ac3c42c5d Can anyone advice which makes the less noise - rubber mallet or raw hide? Thanks

After reading this thread I have a couple of questions if I may. 1. Listerine - This is the mouth wash stuff right? as it's a brand name, would normal supermarket mouthwash be just as good or does it "have" to be listerine - does this have something in it the shop washes don't? 2. Benlilly1 - You say you soak your leather in warm water until it stops bubbling - isn't this too long for tooling - from my understanding this amount of time is for when you do wet forming and not carving. I've been doing something similar, but rather than wait for it to stop bubbling I quickly run it through the water bowl - takes about 2-3 seconds. I then let mine dry out for about 30 minutes before putting it in a bag overnight. I then tool the following day. Thanks

Why the moderator approval needed?

What sort of lessons and what sort of carving are you doing / wanting to learn? I'm new to carving as well so would also be interested in this, but I think the best lesson is to keep practicing, learning to walk the bevels, watch loads of youtube videos etc. I bought a basic stamp kit (8 stamps, knife and a mini screw driver) from LePrevo. I'm wanting to do more celtic type stuff rather than the cowboy/flower ones so some of the stamps in this pack I've never used. I've bought about 6 more stamps since then - few more bevels as I needed thinner ones to get into the little areas. http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/carving-set-10.html I've found this site VERY useful, post your attempts in the "Critique my Work!" forum and you will get some great feed back. Keep it up!

Thanks for clearing that up Dwight, much appreciated. I've only just got my first order of Oil Dyes this week so not done any yet, mainly just been tooling.

Curved - I'm guessing he means he does something to the belt to make it body shape rather than straight. As to what he does if this is the case, I would be very interested in as I plan on doing some 22" dog collars for my sisters 2 large dogs and want to know how to "curve" these into a rounded shape. - that's just my guess on Curved so would love to know what he means as well

#4 - You want to read the "Casing Leather" topic pinned in the How Too forum (link below). it's explained better there, but basically it's so the casing solution (I use water and pure glycerin soap) can get into the fibers of the leather. I've tried both way, and found that my tooling was better with a cased leather than the one where I just wet. When I'm just messing and practicing (most of the time) I just wet the leather, but when I'm working on an Item I hope to possibly sell, then I case it. Even the messing around I try and case it the night before, but it all depends on time, as I'm never sure if I will be tooling the following day. #16 - I'm not sure on this one, (Sleepyhouse, where did you see to do this???) - I've just done a couple of arm bracers / wrist bands so will try this, but my initial plan was to simply but some TanKote on the back to flatten down the fibers and make it smooth, then put my finish on it (Resolene 50/50) to seal it. I think the Tan Kote method is very similar. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19121

Very nice, how large is the fish?

Nope, tried Chrome, FF and even IE - all having trouble getting to the domain: http://1of1designs.net/

Thanks, but having problems with the links: Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to 1of1designs.net

Oil dye and spirit dye are two different things right? I'm getting oil die - can I still reduce these down - and if so what do I use?

Hi all As you may or may not know, I'm fairly new here and slowly learning the art, done several tooling bits but generally they have all been dyed with antique brown stain. I've placed an order this week for my first batch of OIL Dyes (about 7 colours I think) I've seen some amazing work done by loads of different people, but one thing I'm interested in is how do you do different colours on a tooled piece, e.g one piece I've done is a celtic dragon with some celtic knots around him, I would like to do the main background piece dk brown, the knots maybe red, and the dragon say, green. I would like to know where do I start with dying? how long to wait between each colour? I've got daubers and brushes, but was thinking if I use a dauber on the background then I would run into the knots/dragon tooled sections, and brushing might take too long. Any help / advice would be appreciated.

I like the wallet, especially the colors you have. Would you mind describing how you do this? I'm new to tooling and at the moment everything gets the same antique brown color. I've ordered some oil dyes this week to practice but don't have a clue on where to start Thanks

I would love to have this pattern, can you please send me it?

Sleepy house, the list looks much better now with Cyber comments in it. When you have a complete list, please display it, I would also like to use it, it's better than mine already.

I'm currently ordering from Leprevo - is the leather you bought order code: 064 ??

I'm also new and interested in the list you have. From my findings here a my tips, though I'm no expert and still learning... #7 - I case my leather the way you mention, by leaving it in a bag overnight. I've then tooled the following day for 3 hours not rewetting once, placed back in bag, and then tooled another 2 hours the following day again not rewetting once. I've also tested it with out doing the overnight casing and just using a sponge (like I've seen on so many videos) and I've found if I do the sponge wetting I'm rewetting it every hour or so, so I prefer the casing method, the sponge method is useful for quick small pieces though. #14 - mix your resolene with water - 50/50, apply 2-3 coats, an hour or two apart then let it dry overnight. I think it might be best to do all your tooling before the edging #23 - Sell to customer? At first like you, I thought it was all going to be quick and over in a couple of hours, looking into it more and more, it seems that it's best to leave things overnight, even if you've heard "a few hours to dry". Don't rush, you will have a better item at the end, unless it's really urgent of course, but nothing is "urgent". Do it once, do it right. Another tip would be - Have more than one project on the go at once, I tooled some Bracers at the weekend - took 5 hours tooling (3 on one, 2hrs on the 2nd - same design as well), while the leather was drying, I dyed another project. Hope this helps.

Thanks all, I'll try my 16oz rubber mallet I got and see how I go from there. The only reason I have it on my knee is that the work top I have is a chest of draws, old and solid - but a little too high to tool on, I need a higher chair. I'll give it a go next time.

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I'm new to tooling and have a counter granite top on my nee - about 1" thick, but the downstairs people are complaining about me hammering. When I was buy my starting stuff I wasn't sure what to buy so I bought a cheap hammer: http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/mallet.html I think the noise I'm getting is actually the hammer hitting the stamps, but this hammer is only about 10 oz I think as I do have a 16oz rubber hammer I bought for hammering punches for holes, but this feels just too heavy for tooling (though not actually tried it). I've read other people using 16oz hammers above, don't you find these too heavy? I currently have the granite on my knees so was going try putting a cushion under it on the next weekend session. Does anyone have any suggestions which hammer I should get in the UK? Should I try 16oz and see how I get on with it?

Thanks for that, I was thinking about tooling the flag, but not sure, I can bevel the rectangle outline, but not sure about the inside. Any tips on this, I was just thinking of a plain bevel on each of the lines for the inside. I wasn't sure about the pencil and thought it might mark so thought I would ask before doing a test piece.

Hi all As I'm new to leatherworking I'm after a little advice. A customer has asked me to have a flag on their item I'm making. I'm dying the item in Tan, and then when it's dry I'll use acrylic paints to paint the flag. I'm using Natural Veg tan leather as some tooling is also required. My question is - How do I "draw" the flag on the leather - do you use pencil to draw the outlines, then paint it? The flag I'm painting will be the Union Jack flag (UK) Red, White & Blue so I'm worried that the pencil marks will show through. Any help / advice on this would be appreciated.

You welcome. You might want to take note of the below two excellent pinned topics in this forum, I think the soap can be used for the edges. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19121 http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101

Yes, I know Acrylic is paint and sits on top, and oil is a dye that soaks into the leather ( sorry just reread my post and I did say acrylic dye, I also know about "spirit" dye, which is about 1/2 the price of oil dye and everyone I've spoken with raves about the oil ones. As this is something new to me, and all i've done is tooled some bookmarks and stained them with antique stain, the oils is the next step, so I'm planning on dying the collar orange, and then the car number which is black and white border, i'm hoping to dye the name in black on the orange and then do a white border with acrylic paint as you can see in the below picture: http://en.dodge-club.net/gallery_detail.php?id=972 thanks again.