JohnSmith48

Foxen - if you are working with a plastic mannequin, you can add detail with plaster or Bondo and sculpt the accents. vacuum forming the leather to the model is recommended but that is separate tutorial in itself. have you ever worked with Plaster of Paris ?? if you wanted to use a real life human form, you can make a plaster cast, similar to a broken arm cast, out of plaster and cloth for reinforcement, that will be your negative cast. once hard on the body, you remove it and let it air dry for a couple of weeks. use that as a mold to make make the "positive" cast for the wet molding of your leather. plaster can be hand-sculpted and accentuated - limited only to your imagination. there are certain procedures that must be followed in this technique but worth the trouble if that is what you really want to do. the dried plaster must be sealed with shellac, a mold release applied before casting the positive. and the positive mold needs to be sealed before letting the leather touch it for molding. a lot of research needs to go into a project like this before you start - but that is what I would do, if I wanted a finished duplicate of real life body parts like you describe. practicing on the mannequin first is an excellent idea.

thanks for the reviews !! yes, there is a hammer (or mallet) for every job. for the "lesser robust" stamping tools, I use the rawhide hammer. and for the "more robust" stamping tools made of stainless steel, I use the brass hammers. the silver mallets shown in the photos have either aluminum or stainless steel heads. a mallet or hammer responds directly to the skill of the craftsman doing the work. these are made mainly for the folks that do wood carving. so you have a metal head impacting a wood handle. I like the brass head hammer just because - I like it. I guess I am a tool junkie - always experimenting. thanks again for the kind words and Happy New Year to everyone !! as for the original poster, and the original question; the tools are inexpensive. I suggest you purchase a rawhide mallet, a wood mallet, a plastic mallet and see which works the best for you and the type of work you normally do. this is my 40 year old rawhide mallet - not the prettiest girl at the dance - but gets the job done. this mallet lived most of its life on my paint table back when I had a sign shop. looks aren't as important as long as it is the proper weight and size for the work you are using it for.

as an avid woodworker and woodcarver, artist and sign maker, I am always interested in all the art forms. I had a class of leatherworking in high school back in the '60s and never really messed with it since. after a pretty bad table saw accident a couple of years ago, I need to find a hobby that does not involve fast turning sharp metal things that can hurt me (again, LOL). I have a couple of handguns that I want to make holsters for instead buying them from a store. I finished up my first "prototype" this morning. it is a ammo cuff for my new .410 pump shotgun. now that I am getting a feel for design, stamping, stitching, etc, I will make another one with better tools. (and MUCH better results). I did find one thing out right from the start. that little cheap 20 piece stamp set from China is strictly for the entry level novice to practice with. I have ordered several good quality tools online and they will be arriving next week sometime. so in the meantime, I will be reading a lot of the very helpful forums and learning how to navigate the system here. I belong to a couple of woodworking & carving forums so the forum setting itself is not new to me. I find that leatherworking may be a lot safer than the power tools that I am trying to avoid at the moment and I can still have my artistic outlet. again, greetings & good tidings to all, John in Central Florida . .

I am the new guy here, haven't made my introduction yet. but I saw this topic and felt the urge to chime in. I am an avid woodworker and woodcarver. due to a pretty bad table saw accident a couple of years ago, I am no longer allowed to use it. I have a wood lathe and started turning mallets of all kinds. I saw a "metal head" mallet on a boating forum and fell in love with it. I got the metal lathe chuck so I turn the brass heads and it just took off. I did some leather work in high school shop class and I like it. . . . but never did it again. now, at 72, I have rekindled the interest and started "dabbling" in the hobby again. I use the brass metal head hammer and the rawhide mallet. I love the small brass hammer as it takes less energy to set the stamp. I finished a leather ammo cuff for a .410 pump shotgun today and I see myself doing more and more projects. (I will get my intro done soon). but here are some of the metal head hammers and mallets that I have made. [you can find similar ones on E-Bay, etc. for decent prices].